Essay Sample on Missing Indigenous Women in Canada: A National Crisis

Introduction

The missing or murdered indigenous women in Canada are one of the significant issues facing aboriginal individuals in Canada. The problem is described as the Canadian genocide or the Canadian national crisis. Canada, as a country, is solely responsible for the widespread disappearances and killings of the indigenous girls and women in the country. About 1200, indigenous women have gone missing or gotten murdered over the last three decades (Dawson, 2018). In response to repeated calls of activists, non-governmental organizations, as well as other indigenous individuals, the Canadian government under Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, created a National Inquiry into the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in September 2016.

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To date, the absence of hard data means that there is no specific individual who knows the exact number of girls and women who have gone missing or got murdered over the last decades. However, a compilation of some statics indicates that about 10 % of all the women who have been reported missing are the aboriginal Canadians and account for about 21% of the homicide victims with indigenous Canadians representing about 4% of the general population (Dawson, 2018). Nearly half of the female homicides were carried out by family members; however, the indigenous women's had about 1.4 times the chances of getting killed by someone they were not close to.

According to reports from The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, the aboriginal Canadian girls and women were at an increased homicide risk between the year 2001 and 2015 (Dawson, 2018). The homicide rates for both the girls and women were about six times high compared to those of the non-indigenous women. The group argues that other researchers indicate that these aboriginal women and girls have 16 times higher chances of been murdered as compared to the other Caucasian counterparts who went missing or were killed. Tina Fontaine can be considered as another statistic. In 2014 August, the victim's body (Fontaine) body was found at Winnipeg's Red River (Dangerfield, 2018). Twenty four hours prior to the disappearance of the 15-year-old girl, police officers, healthcare professionals, and the provincial child welfare workers saw her. In 2014, about 1, 200 cases were identified by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Dangerfield, 2018). The girl's violent death and following acquittal of the alleged white murderer led to an increased outrage all over Canada due to the large numbers of murdered or missing indigenous girls and women.

Another incidence of the disappearance and the death of an indigenous woman was that of Helen Betty Osborne, who was abducted and killed about fifty years ago near The pas. The death of Osborne was an indication of the cases which were to come; she was an aboriginal teenager who was forced to leave the remote community she belonged to, and about four men targeted her due to her race. About 15 years ago, Amnesty International referred to this assault and the killing of the shy young teenager as an unheeded warning. Reports by MMIWG argue that Canada failed to seek and also provide justice to all the victims as well as their families (Dangerfield, 2018).The report, therefore, called for an extensive systematic change in all the governmental processes and policies.

Protests ultimately led to the government actions; therefore, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister decides to allocate 53m dollars to establish the MMIWG inquiry aimed at investigating and reporting the systemic causes of any form of violence against the girls and women (Dangerfield, 2018). This group included the transgender women, bisexuals, the two-spirit individuals, lesbians, and any other person who was not cisgender man. Approximately, about 1, 500 families of the survivors and the victims gave some very moving testimonies, with most of them citing the failure of the social services from protecting them. Some of the demands from the final report are 18 calls for justice, with 231 recommendations given (Dangerfield, 2018). This includes the establishment of a national ombudsman for the aboriginals and human rights and also the creation of the indigenous civil police in the oversight agencies.

In article 1, 2 and 3, the UN Convention on the elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) provides that equal social, economic, civil and cultural rights, as well as political opportunities, should be given to women regardless of whether married or not and they should not be discriminated in any manner (United Nations, 1948). According to the findings by the MMIWG report, the Canadian government failed to seek and also provide justice to all the victims involved with the missing or murder of the aboriginal women and girls. Canada has therefore violated this law since violence faced by the aboriginal Canadian women and girls has been in the spotlight as a national inquiry into all the murdered as well as the missing women (Dangerfield, 2018). The aboriginal women are at significant risk of sexual and physical assaults even after taking all the other risks into account, most of these women experience violence from their most intimate partners.

Article 1 of the charter demands that one of the UN primary duties is to ensure respect for the human rights as well as the protection of their freedom without been discriminated based on their religion, sex, gender, or race (United Nations, 1948). Adding to this, the UN declaration on the rights of aboriginal people describes and defines both individual and collective rights of the aboriginal individuals, including ceremonial expression, health, identity, and cultural expression. Canada has therefore committed a grave violation of the rights of the indigenous women since it failed to thoroughly and promptly investigate the increased levels of violence they were suffering, including the murders and the disappearances. The Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women (CEDAW) argues that the Canadian justice system and the police have failed to offer an adequate protection of the Aboriginal women or hold the alleged offenders to account for or even provide redress to the victims (United Nations, 1948).

Canada, as a country, is solely responsible for the widespread disappearances and killings of the indigenous girls and women in the country. It is, therefore, necessary for the country to establish and support the independent national inquiry, which will help in cases of the murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls and develop a national plan helpful in addressing any violence against aboriginal women.

References

Dangerfield, K. (2018). How the Tragic Death of Tina Fontaine Helped Spark the MMIWG Inquiry. CBC News.

Dawson, M. (2018). The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. In Contesting Femicide (pp. 84-94). Routledge.Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351068048/chapters/10.4324/9781351068048-7

United Nations (1948). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf