“In Canada, Indigenous women and girls are targeted for violence more than any other group. They are 12 times more likely to go missing or be killed.
“A national inquiry into Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) first named this crisis a genocide in 2019. In June 2019, Justin Trudeau stood solemnly in front of a few hundred survivors and families at the release of the final report of the inquiry. The prime minister promised to do whatever it took to dismantle the violence ravaging our women and girls.
“An action plan was due in June 2020. The government has postponed it, citing Covid-19. We’re still waiting.
“Outsiders often have a utopian view of Canada as a strong and free nation that upholds human rights. In reality, the federal government has continually stalled investment in resources to address the genocide of MMIWG and other oppression experienced by Indigenous Peoples. Yet Trudeau easily found billions of dollars to secure a pipeline(https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/cost-of-trans-mountain-expansion-jumps-from-7-4b-to-at-least-12-6b-1.4802172) expansion project.
“Ironically, industry projects like pipelines are part of the problem. They bring camps of outside workers, mainly non-Indigenous men, to Indigenous areas. These man camps contribute to the crisis of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
“There have been approximately 4,000 or more Indigenous murdered or missing women and girls in the last 30 years. That works out to about 133 a year, or three a week.
“If white women were being stolen at this rate there would be worldwide outrage.”
Red dresses hang on a fence near the TransMountain pipeline site in Blue River, British Columbia.
Red dresses symbolize murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. Photograph: Brandi Morin
To read the complete article by Brandi Morin in a September 2020 article from the Guardian entitled, “Indigenous women are preyed on at horrifying rates. I was one of them.”, go to:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/07/canada-indigenous-women-and-girls-missing
Jean Schafer