Stolen Sisters: We're living through a tragedy of national proportions

I signed this petition, and so should you. This is from Amnesty International.

October 4, 2011 - Vigils and action for Stolen Sisters

“Aboriginal families like ours are living through a tragedy of national proportions. We need action now."
- Pamela Fillier, the mother of 16-year-old Hilary Bonnell who disappeared in Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church), New Brunswick in September 2009 and was found murdered two months later

Dear Human Rights supporter,

This summer Canada championed a United Nations resolution calling on all states to establish, fund, and monitor national action plans to eliminate violence against women. It’s an important resolution – so important in fact that Canada should act to implement it at home.

Indigenous women in Canada face much higher rates of violence than all other women. According to government statistics, Indigenous women and girls are three to five times more likely than all other women to die as a result of violence. This violence is so pervasive that the Native Women’s Association of Canada has been able to document more than 600 cases of Indigenous women who have been murdered in the last 20 years or who have been missing so long that they are feared dead.

The shocking scale and severity of the violence faced by Indigenous women in Canada cries out for the kind of coordinated, well-resourced and carefully monitored national plan of action that Canada has urged other countries to adopt.

To date, however, the government response has been limited and piecemeal. After decades of neglect, the federal government announced last year that it would commit $10 million to address violence against Indigenous women. As it turned out, most of that money will be used to establish a general missing persons database. Very little of the money will be spent to address the specific needs of First Nations, Inuit and Metis women.

This July, just days after the Canadian resolution was adopted at the United Nations, the Minister for the Status of Women, Rona Ambrose was quoted in the press as saying that there was no need for a national plan of action to eliminate violence against Indigenous women because the need “truly has been answered by the federal and provincial orders of government."

A wide range of organizations, including the Native Women’s Association, the Assembly of First Nations and many others, have repeatedly urged the government to adopt a comprehensive plan of action that would ensure proper police response and address the deep-rooted impoverishment and racism that put Indigenous women in harm’s way.

Please add your voice and encourage others to speak out as well.

There should be no double standard when it comes to the safety of Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Lindsay craig


Lindsay Mossman & Craig Benjamin
Campaigners
Amnesty International Canada