In 2005, the Liberal Party of Canada created the Sisters in Spirit initiative through the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC). The Liberal Party committed more than $5 million over five years to this project. This funding was used by the Native Women’s Association of Canada to gather data on missing and murdered women. Since then, NWAC has found that “more than 600 aboriginal women have gone missing or have been murdered since 1990, and it believes there may be many more.” Further, the 2010 Sisters in Spirit Research Findings also indicated that “… Aboriginal women and girls are as likely to be killed by an acquaintance or stranger [and] represented 17% of the homicide victims…” but yet make up only 3% of the total Canadian population. In October 2011, an inquiry was established to take a closer look at the number of missing and murdered women in British Columbia and the mishandling of the Robert Pickton case by police. The main question that the inquiry aimed to address was whether “society’s most vulnerable women are being treated the same as other citizens by the police and the law.” Surprisingly and not shortly after, on November 3, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the Sisters in Spirit initiatives would no longer receive funding. Additionally, much of the recommendations proposed by Amnesty International in 2004 and United Nations CEDAW in 2008 have yet to be implemented. To this date, the inquiry into missing women in British Columbia and why Robert Pickton was not stopped sooner cites “high-level policing failures.” Also, NWAC has recently announced that the UN will conduct its own inquiry into the missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. Aboriginal women, despite domestic efforts, are continuously overlooked.

Both in the past and the present, Aboriginal women are a group within Canadian society that has been and continues to be systemically and institutionally discriminated against. As stated earlier, Aboriginal women represent 3% of the total Canadian population, 17% of all homicide victims and regrettably, 32% of the federal institution population. Aboriginal women, according to the Elizabeth Fry Society, … “are more over-represented than Aboriginal men in the criminal justice system.” Even though section 218.2(e) of the Criminal Code of Canada and the Supreme Court Decisions in R. v. Gladue “… set out the parameters… regarding the sentencing of offenders, and in particular, Aboriginal offenders.” Aboriginal women are more likely to be placed on high-security classification and serve time in federal institutions at higher incidences in comparison to non-Aboriginal women and Aboriginal men. Through the residential school legacy, Aboriginal men and women experienced forced removal of their children on the sole basis that they were deemed “unfit parents.” The 2008 residential school apologies by various political parties proved to be a step forward in the right direction towards reconciliation between Aboriginal people and Canadian society. However, with the creation of Bill C-10 , PM Harper’s omnibus crime bill, demonstrates a major step backwards for Aboriginal people, specifically Aboriginal women. Tracey Booth, directory of Elizabeth Fry Society of Manitoba, highlights that this bill will greatly affect Aboriginal people and female prisoners. Even with all the apologies and the amendments to the Indian Act, Aboriginal women continue to face an uphill battle when it comes to equal treatment as persons within Canadian society.

The state of Aboriginal women in Canada is a perfect example of how its own government falls short on a national scale. This entire group of women are neither able to seek refuge from the legal system, nor from within the legal system. Further, while considering Conservative MP Rob Clarke’s recommendation to scrap the Indian Act without consulting First Nations, it will be difficult to see how that change, along with the Conservative government’s paternalistic approach to Aboriginal issues, will have any real impact in the lives of Aboriginal women.

On this, the twenty-first annual march to commemorate missing and murdered women, we must never forget that the fight for the rights of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people must always include the fight for the humane treatment of Aboriginal women within Canadian society.

For more information, please visit: Families of Sisters in Spirit on Facebook for up-to-date information on missing/murdered Aboriginal women and other initiatives/campaigns for justice for Aboriginal women.

For information on Sisters In Spirit and facts on Missing or Murdered Aboriginal women, visit the Native Women’s Association of Canada site here.

OTTAWA 

Introducing the new Executive members:

• Co-Chair (Female) – Cherish Clarke from Taku River Tlingit First Nation, BC
• Co-Chair (Male) – Chad Cowie from Hiawatha First Nation, ON
• Vice-President (Policy) – Glenn Wheeler from Qalipu MI’kmaq First Nation, NL
• Vice-President (Finance) – Cheryl Matthew from Simpcw First Nation, BC
• Vice-President (Organization & Membership) – Darren Harper from Red Sucker Lake First Nation, MB
• Vice-President (Communications) – Kevin Seesequasis from Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation, SK
• Vice-President (Women) – Naomi Sayers from Garden River First Nation, ON
• Vice-President (Youth) – Caroline Jacobson from Windsor, ON

“We’ve become the most open political party in history” explains Chad Cowie, Co-Chair of the APC. “We’ve already begun the important work of reaching out to our people and Aboriginal organizations, and engaging with them on their issues.”

The group admits it has lots of work to do but the huge amount of support for Aboriginal issues among delegates at the convention has left executive members feeling ‘euphoric and energized’ – “we hit the ground running, we’ll get things done!”

The Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission advises the party on policies affecting Aboriginal people, educates party members on indigenous issues, and encourages nomination of Aboriginal candidates. The Commission was founded in 1990 by the Liberal Party and became the first political party to formally recognize the unique place that Aboriginal peoples occupy in Canada.

Posted: 04/5/2011 6:24 AM 

The Conservative government’s decision to wind down the Aboriginal Healing Foundation — which addressed the legacy of physical and sexual abuse suffered by residential school survivors — could become an election issue.

“We are going to call on all the parties that are running and ask them what are their plans for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation,” Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper said Monday.

He said the mandate is far from finished.

“The suffering of our people is a stain on Canada,” Harper said, adding restoring dignity after centuries of injustice is a slow process and can’t be wrapped up on an arbitrary timetable.

“Communities still need the support of such an entity for the well-being of our people.”

Meanwhile, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will pick up some events the foundation will abandon when it wraps up this spring.

“The TRC has a small community-event fund to encourage communities to come together. We’ve said that any event that includes survivor support would have our support,” TRC chairman Justice Murray Sinclair said Monday.

But the commission’s help is limited, the TRC head warned.

“We’re just providing one-time funding,” for aboriginal communities the commission visits. The TRC is also working with Health Canada to provide more ongoing support.

The commission is taking testimony from residential school survivors on the impact of assimilation policies, and abuse, and commissioners are hearing about the impact of the foundation.

“When the funding was lost it left a vacuum in the lives in survivors that they haven’t bee able to fill,” Sinclair said.

The foundation was set up in 1998 with a one-time grant of $350 million, in response to the findings of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. In 2008, following the agreement for the $1.9-billion residential school settlement, the foundation was extended another two years with an additional $125 million grant.

Last year, Ottawa announced funding would not be renewed.

Former minister of Indian affairs Chuck Strahl said mental health and emotional support services would be provided through a $199-million Health Canada fund.

However, the new funding isn’t designed to replace the foundation’s work.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Sunday a Liberal government would bring running water to northern Manitoba reserves that now lack it.

Ignatieff was asked a question about improving the lives of aboriginal Canadians as he launched the Liberal election platform at a downtown Ottawa hotel Sunday morning.

Ignatieff said he met with chiefs from northern Manitoba while he was in Winnipeg March 30 and is appalled by the fact thousands of Canadians live in deplorable conditions without running water.

“We can’t go on like this,” he said. “It has to be a priority that gets fixed.”

The Winnipeg Free Press highlighted the issue in a series last fall, which showed there are more than 1,500 households in northern Manitoba reserves where people have less clean drinking water available each day than is provided to refugees in war-torn areas by international aid groups.

Most reserves have water-treatment plants that provide potable water for residents to use, but in several Manitoba reserves, particularly in the Island Lake area, residents have to fill buckets and pails at the plant and carry them home. Others have holding tanks beneath their houses that are filled by water trucks. Last fall, the tanks on one reserve were contaminated with bacteria because they are difficult to clean and few in the communities have the training and equipment necessary to do so.

The lack of running water causes numerous public health problems, mainly due to poor hygiene and sanitation. During the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, Island Lake reserves were among the hardest hit because residents with no running water find it difficult to regularly wash their hands.

Ignatieff said the chiefs have to bring him a plan and then find a way to fulfil it. “We gotta get a plan, we gotta get a competitive bid and we gotta get it done,” he said.

It is estimated it will cost between $30,000 and $50,000 per home to provide the necessary upgrades to bring indoor plumbing to the nearly 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba without it. These homes were built without bathrooms, kitchen sinks, or plumbing pipes. It is likely storage tanks rather than water piped in underground would be the solution.

Additional dollars are needed to expand water-treatment plants, many of which are not big enough to produce the amount of clean drinking water needed in fast-growing communities. The recent federal budget was silent on the issue of clean water for reserves.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

“The Attorney General admitted this week that the government remains opposed to the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – breaking their commitment from only a few months ago,” said Mr. Russell. “It is shameful and disappointing that the government would mislead Canada’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples on such an important matter.”

In the Speech from the Throne, the Harper government said it would “take steps to endorse this aspirational document in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws.” But as part of a motion this week to dismiss a full and public hearing into the issue of discrimination against the First Nations child welfare system at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, the Harper government explains that the UN Declaration should bear no weight whatsoever.  The government’s submission states, “Canada’s position on the Declaration has not changed.  Consequently, the Declaration should be given no weight as an interpretive source in domestic law.”

“It is even more shameful that the Attorney General is fighting efforts to build a brighter and more equitable future for First Nations children in care,” said Mr. Russell.  “First Nations youth are amongst the most vulnerable in our Canadian society, which is why they have a central place in the Liberal Party’s learning agenda.  The government should be working to help them succeed, not hold them back.”

First Nations children fall into foster care at a rate of 6-8 times more than other Canadian children.  The complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, filed by the Assembly of First Nations and First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, argues that First Nations children in federally funded child welfare agencies cannot access the same level of supports as other children in provincial agencies due to inequities in funding, a fact that has been confirmed by the Auditor General of Canada and Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

“As part of our learning agenda, the Liberal Party of Canada is committed to providing greater learning opportunities to our First Nations youth,” concluded Mr. Russell.  “Liberals also remain committed to endorsing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

The amendment passed at the Aboriginal Affairs Committee, despite Conservative members voting against it – showing once again the Harper government’s penchant for treating Canada’s First Nations women as second-class citizens, Liberal MPs said today.

”The Harper government has denied all attempts to eradicate this gender discrimination – just as they have spent four years ignoring pleas for a full investigation into the hundreds of murdered or missing Aboriginal women and girls,” said Liberal Aboriginal Affairs Critic Todd Russell. “Clearly, they don’t view First Nations women as worthy of their attention.

“Our amendment guarantees gender equity in the Indian Act by ensuring that no descendent of a status woman is relegated to lesser status, or no status whatsoever. We are calling on the government to support this when it comes to a full vote in the House.”

The Liberal amendment to Bill C-3 addresses the long-standing injustice that has denied some direct descendants of First Nations women the entitlement to full status under the Indian Act. Direct descendants of status men born before April 17, 1985, have always had full entitlement to status, but the descendents of status women who married non-status men, and those that were born out of wedlock, are discriminated against simply because they descend from a woman.

Bill C-3 responds to a court ruling in the 25-year fight by Sharon McIvor against the government of Canada, but does the bare minimum required. The grandchildren of status women who married non-status men, born between September 4, 1951 and April 17, 1985, would gain status under the legislation, but other gender discrimination would remain.

“The Harper government has refused to eliminate all residual discrimination, first by appealing the initial Court ruling in the McIvor case, then by shutting down debate in the House on a motion that would have expanded the scope of Bill C-3, and finally by voting against our proposed amendment in committee,” said Liberal Status of Women Critic Anita Neville.

“They have gone to great lengths to write this bill in the narrowest possible terms. The way it is now, some descendants of status women would become more equal than others. If they do not support our amendment, it means continued gender discrimination for First Nations women.”

The Liberal amendment to Bill C-3 responds to unanimous testimony at the Committee, which called on Parliament to amend the bill to remove all residual gender discrimination.

“The Conservative government must respect the voices of witnesses, including Sharon McIvor and national and regional Aboriginal organizations like the Assembly of First Nations and Native Women’s Association of Canada, and stop its denial of gender equality,” said Mr. Russell.