{"id":7520,"date":"2015-06-29T10:41:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T14:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/?p=7520"},"modified":"2020-10-25T23:28:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:28:40","slug":"legal-strategy-coalition-on-violence-against-indigenous-women-releases-key-concerns-with-rcmp-missing-and-murdered-aboriginal-women-2015-update","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/legal-strategy-coalition-on-violence-against-indigenous-women-releases-key-concerns-with-rcmp-missing-and-murdered-aboriginal-women-2015-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women releases key concerns with RCMP \u201cMissing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: 2015 Update\u00a0\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Press release<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 29 2015 \u2013 The Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women (LSC<\/a>), a national coalition of advocacy groups, has multiple concerns with the RCMP \u201cMissing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: 2015 Update<\/a> to the RCMP\u2019s 2014 Operational Overview<\/a>.
Key LSC criticisms of the 2015 RCMP Update include: (1) the suggestion that the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is solely one of familial violence; (2) the failure of the RCMP to take responsibility for their own role in the issue; and (3) the RCMP\u2019s use of a limited data set in preparing the 2015 Update. The LSC\u2019s detailed review of the Update is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is not just an issue of familial violence <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Update picks its data selectively, relying solely on RCMP statistics from 2013 and 2014, and noting that the RCMP polices only approximately 20% of the Canadian population. The Update abandons the ground-breaking use of statistics from 300 police jurisdictions across Canada which had been adopted for the 2014 Overview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Update defines the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women narrowly within the framework of familial violence, making it an \u2018Aboriginal problem\u2019 instead of recognizing that it is a Canadian problem rooted in racism and sexism. The Update thus ignores the finding in the 2014 Overview that Indigenous women are more likely to be killed by a stranger than non-Indigenous women,\u201d notes LEAF Legal Director Kim Stanton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig Benjamin of Amnesty International states: \u00ab\u00a0Domestic violence is a critical issue for all women, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. But it’s crucial that we not ignore the distinct patterns of violence facing Indigenous women, or the pervasiveness of this violence, whether in the home or on the streets of Canadian cities.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab\u00a0The RCMP’s decision to arbitrarily frame the issues exclusively in terms of domestic violence obscures the context of colonial violence that Indigenous people must endure, as recently documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission<\/a> on residential schools,\u00a0\u00bb asserts Julie Kaye, Assistant Professor of Sociology at King\u2019s University and Research Advisor for Aboriginal Commission on Human Rights & Justice in Alberta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The RCMP needs to take responsibility for its own role<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without providing reasons, the 2015 Update concludes that RCMP investigations into cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women are proceeding appropriately, with adequate resources.  This self-congratulation completely overlooks key reports released since the 2014 Overview that identify failures of the RCMP and the Canadian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is alarming that the findings of RCMP failures, by the Oppal Report in 2012 and also by recent reports of international human rights bodies, were not even mentioned, let alone addressed in any detail,\u201d observes Vancouver-based international human rights expert and Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) representative Shelagh Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2015 Update omits any consideration of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n