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Vol. 78/No. 39      November 3, 2014

 
Canada rallies protest cops’
disregard for Native women
 
BY ANNETTE KOURI  
MONTREAL — Undeterred by the pouring rain, hundreds of people took to the streets here Oct. 4 to demand a national government inquiry into the disproportionate number of aboriginal women who are murdered or go missing as a result of the refusal of authorities to protect their lives. The protest in Montreal, part of a National Day of Action, was one of more than 200 across Canada and one of 15 in Quebec.

Although Native women form only 4.3 percent of the Canadian population, they account for 16 percent of female homicides and 11.3 percent of disappearances. Amnesty International, one of the organizers of the protests, said that indigenous women in Canada are “five times more likely than other women to die as the result of violence.”

“We want to send a message to the Canadian government — we no longer accept the government of Canada’s tyranny of indigenous people and their institutionalized racism,” Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel said to the gathering. “Yes, we want a national inquiry, but we know what the root causes of the problem are. It started with the Indian Act and continues to this day.” The first Indian Act was passed in 1876, aimed at suppressing Native traditions and rights. The sun dance and potlatch were officially barred.

Native organizations have been demanding government attention and a public inquiry into police disregard for the lives of Native women for more than a decade. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police lists the number of missing and murdered Native women at 1,181 since 1980. Native activists and organizations put the number at nearly 3,000.

Quebec Native Women and Missing Justice, a group from Concordia University, organized the action in Montreal, with support from Amnesty International and the Federation of Quebec Women. The latter helped initiate the actions across Quebec.

“We had allies with us today. The Quebec Labor Federation and the Confederation of National Trade Unions were here,” said Viviane Michel, president of Quebec Native Women.

Death of Fontaine spurs protests

The death in August of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine in Winnipeg, Manitoba, focused public attention on authorities’ discriminatory disregard for the lives of Native women. Police and social workers had seen and spoken to the runaway teen hours before her death. “They ran her name through the system,” Thelma Favel, Fontaine’s great-aunt from Sagkeeng First Nation, told the press, “but they just let her go.”

“Nobody seems to care when it comes to aboriginal children,” she said.

Ruling Conservative government Justice Minister Peter MacKay said he still rejects convening a national inquiry, saying the government is addressing the issue through use of a national DNA missing persons index.

A march in Calgary, Alberta, Sept. 27 protested police brutality and refusal to do anything after Colton Crowshow, 18, a Native youth, disappeared July 4, two days after he was beaten by cops there. He was found dead in a pond July 24. “We want more equality,” Hayley Starlight, who went to school with Crowshow, told the Militant. “Stop discriminating against Native people.”

Joe Young and Philippe Tessier contributed to this article.  
 
 
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