Anonymiss Express

“There can be no piecemeal solution to a tragedy of this scale.” – 2011 joint statement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations calling for action to stop violence against First Nations, Inuit and Metis women in Canada

According to Canadian government statistics, Indigenous women are five times to seven times more likely than other women to die as the result of violence. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has documented more than 580 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, most within the last three decades. Because of gaps in police and government reporting, the actual numbers may be much higher.

Canadian police and public officials have also long been aware of a pattern of racist, sexist violence against First Nations, Inuit and Metis women in their homes and on the streets. But government response has been shockingly out of step with the scale and severity this tragedy.

The pattern looks like this:

• Racist and sexist stereotypes deny the dignity and worth of Indigenous women, encouraging some men to feel they can get away with violent acts of hatred against them.
• Decades of government policy have impoverished and broken apart Indigenous families and communities, leaving many Indigenous women and girls extremely vulnerable to exploitation and attack.
• Many police forces have failed to institute necessary measures – such as training, appropriate investigative protocols and accountability mechanisms – to eliminate bias in how they respond to the needs of Indigenous women and their families.

A movement for truth and justice

Across Canada, families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women are being joined by supporters from all walks of life to honour the lives of all those sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers tragically taken from us – and to demand action.

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No More Stolen Sisters | Amnesty International Canada

By eliminating the funding for data collection, the government hopes to muffle criticism.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to believe that if we stop gathering the information, the problem will go away. The federal government announced on Wednesday, Nov. 3 that Sisters in Spirit – an advocacy group for Canada’s missing and murdered Aboriginal women – will no longer receive funding unless they comply with a series of particular measures. Under the new agreement, the organization must promise to quit working on their internationally acclaimed database, stop using government funds for research and policy, and change their name to Evidence and Action.

Ottawa has recently demonstrated a pattern of de-funding organizations and programs that collect valuable data for social justice work in Canada. Sisters in Spirit is only the latest group in what is quickly becoming a laundry list of information-collecting agencies that are losing government support. In 2010 alone, the Conservative government refused to release documents concerning allegations over the torture of Afghan detainees, scrapped the mandatory long-form census, and attempted to eliminate the long-gun registry. Each of these actions involves limiting and denying the public access to information on issues of significant social concern.

A variety of possible motives exist behind Harper’s repeated decisions to limit or eliminate data collection and information availability. For starters, it’s difficult to identify problems and substantiate critiques without information. Facts, statistics, patterns, and trends are all compiled from databases like the one operated by Sisters in Spirit. If agencies stop conducting surveys and gathering information, problems will become difficult to pinpoint – let alone to prove.

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Why Harper Silenced Sisters in Spirit | The Mark News