Sisters in Spirit

On Sunday evening, I attended the Sisters in Spirit vigil in Ottawa on behalf of the Christian Reformed Church. Sisters in Spirit vigils were held across the country to remember the more than 500 missing and murdered Aboriginal girls and women.

I was astonished when I first heard that number – 520 women as victims of extreme violence sounds like a pandemic to me. The reality is the number is possibly much higher. 520 is the number of known cases, there is some speculation that the number of unknown cases would double that number.

These women have been victims of various forms of violence, including human trafficking, the murder of sex trade workers, and domestic violence. But what they share in common is the susceptibility to systemic racism and sexism because of their identity as Aboriginal women.

Many of their families have also been frustrated by the inadequate response from Canada’s police forces and justice system. The fate of many of the women and girls remains unknown for years, while their families struggle to find the truth. Other families must fight long, hard battles to see the perpetrators brought to justice.

The Sisters in Spirit vigil is a moving declaration of solidarity with the families, and a call for action to end the violence. It has grown from 11 vigils held in 2006, to 72 vigils held across the country this year.

Earlier in the week, Amnesty International released a report called “No More Stolen Sisters.” It highlighted the shocking failure of the federal government to deal with this epidemic of violence, and called for sustained government action to improve the human rights of Aboriginal women.

The Amnesty report calls for a strategy to deal with the violence against women, including a standardized police protocol for dealing with missing Aboriginal women, improved coordination of police investigations, and adequate funding for culturally relevant services for Aboriginal women who are vulnerable to violence.

However, the report also notes the need to address wider, contextual issues, including the poverty which many First Nations’ communities experience, the high numbers of Aboriginal children taken into state care, and inequities in funding for First Nations’ child and family welfare.

International bodies have also taken note of Canada’s epidemic of violence against Aboriginal women. Both the review of Canada’s compliance with the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Canada’s Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council highlighted violence against Aboriginal women as serious concerns, and requested specific reporting on Canada’s response to their recommendations on this issue.

Canada has no excuse for allowing this shameful pattern of violence against Aboriginal women to continue. 1 is too many. 520 is 520 times too many.