As Canadians become increasingly aware of the disproportionate amount of violence that Aboriginal women and girls across the country face, support for a federal inquiry into the issue has gained momentum. However, the federal government’s inaction serves as a reminder that Aboriginal women continue to face various race-related hurdles when it comes to receiving both the respect and services they are entitled to.
While Aboriginal women make up just 4.3 per cent of the female population, they account for roughly 16 per cent of all female homicide victims. Over 1,000 Aboriginal women were confirmed missing or murdered between 1980 and 2012. As of 2006, 36 per cent of Aboriginal women were living in poverty, with many in isolated communities or communities with few relevant resources. They were also less likely than non-Aboriginal women to have completed high school or post-secondary education, making it more difficult to break the cycle.
Combine these factors with a political system and society that continues to discriminate against them, and their disproportionate victimization no longer seems like such a mystery.
Unfortunately, the federal government continues to pretend that the institutionalized factors contributing to this over-representation are not relevant. Stephen Harper made this very clear by stating, “We should not view this as a sociological phenomenon. We should view this as crime.”
This plays into the rosy Canadian belief that we are a harmonious, peaceful nation that was horribly racist — but only in the past! The attitude that people should just ‘get over’ traumatizing practices that persisted well into the 20th century (such as the residential schools), is unrealistic, unhealthy and incredibly insensitive.
Aboriginal women account for roughly 16 per cent of all female homicide victims.
Harper has apparently failed to realize that crime and sociological phenomena are not mutually exclusive. To approach these tragedies as isolated events may lead to justice for individual families, but will do nothing to prevent these tragedies from recurring.
To make matters worse, there are hundreds of authoritative examples that do not take suffering Native communities seriously. These range from mishandling domestic abuse cases to ignoring signs of a serial killer preying on the vulnerable.
Even when reported, missing Aboriginal women receive 27 times less media coverage than white women, a phenomenon called ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome.’ Along the now infamous Highway of Tears, Aboriginal women had been disappearing for almost 30 years before the disappearance of a young white woman brought serious media and law enforcement attention to the area.
While there are arguably more effective alternatives to a national inquiry, there is no excuse for doing nothing. Considering the range of factors that contribute to these tragedies, the question should be where to start, not whether anything should be done at all.
In his statement, Harper tried to justify this inaction saying, “We brought in laws across this country that I think are having more effect in terms of crimes of violence against not just Aboriginal women, but women and persons more generally.” This is inaccurate; while the number of female non-Aboriginal homicide victims has dropped, the percentage of female Aboriginal victims increased from nine per cent in 1980 to 23 per cent in 2012.
The federal government continues to send the message that Canada does not value young Aboriginal people and that they are not worthy of resources. Tina Fontaine, and all those who suffered before her, deserved more than to be filed away under ‘helpless Aboriginal victim,’ and the government must take appropriate action so that this ongoing tragedy comes to an end.
