Canada investigates aboriginal women murder cases
Canada has launched an investigation into thousands of cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women and girls.
“The victims deserve justice, their families an opportunity to heal and to be heard,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while attending the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Special Chiefs Assembly in Gatineau, Quebec, on Tuesday.
While stressing the need for “a total renewal between Canada and First Nations people," Trudeau noted that the victims and their families “deserve justice.”
During the years between 1980 and 2013, almost 1,200 cases of murdered or missing aboriginal women were logged with the Canadian police.
According to reports by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, aboriginal women represent 4.3 percent of the total female population, but 16 percent of all female murder cases are from the country’s indigenous population.
“We recognize that a number of factors, like racism, marginalization, sexism, and poverty have contributed to the ongoing tragedy of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls,” said the Minister of the Status of Women, Patty Hajdu.
Trudeau is the first prime minister in recent memory to take part in such an event.
“You have made a great start in changing the relationship, prime minister,” said Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
The move marks a political U-turn from the policies of Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper.
Harper had refused to launch an investigation into the murder and missing people incidents, even after the UN had voiced its concerns over the disproportionate number of cases.
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