Throughout the years, a plethora of aboriginal Canadian women have been murdered or never heard of again. The number of native women who went missing or were murdered between the years 1990 and 2012 was about 1,200. Indigenous women make up four percent of the Canadian female population. In the year of 2012, indigenous women made up twenty-three percent of female homicide victims. Murder victims between the years 1997 and 2000 were most likely to have been indigenous women.
There was a petition in 2014 that called for a national inquiry. In that petition, there were twenty-three thousand signatures that were collected, but no one wanted to hear the people. The Canadian government ignored the First Nations people completely. They thought the crisis was not serious enough to pay attention to. The issue has been hidden. Most people in other countries do not know what is going on in Canada.
A survey was sent out in the year 2004 which told the result that indigenous women reported rates of violence 3.5 times higher than non-indigenous women. It also stated the inequality experienced by the women in five main areas: the racism increasing the violence against the women; the inequality of indigenous women's economic, social, political, and cultural rights; the continued disruption of life by the historic mass removal of children from indigenous families and communities; the high number of women in prisons that were mistakenly placed there since they were the victims; and the unhelpful police responses that were portrayed by missing persons cases.
There is an undeclared war against the aboriginal women in Canada. It has gotten a lot worse. In the last thirty years, there has been 6,500 murders of aboriginal women. In the year 2015, from January to April, there has been 174 more missing women cases. The assaults are now not only toward the aboriginal, but toward the non-indigenous women also.
According to police reports, the rates of missing aboriginal women has dropped. Usually, there would be close to two-hundred aboriginal missing women cases. Instead, there has been an odd increase of missing non-indigenous reports.
The Canadian government refuses to notice the rates of the two kinds of women. Before the increase of non-indigenous women, it was all about the war on aboriginal people. But now, the missing cases of women are all about gender. The war has been branched out to women that are not native to the land. Pretty soon, the population of women is going to decrease dramatically. It already sounds like it is.
There is still not that much media on the crisis. It is taking too long for the news to report what is going on. Thousands of women are being murdered or disappearing unexpectedly. The families of both indigenous and non-indigenous women need to be heard and helped. Letting the world know will help end the disappearances. The people all over need to be aware of what is happening to the women of Canada.
If the women’s tribe do not do anything about the rapid homicides against them, then their tribe will begin to diminish. It is terribly saddening how their own people will not help protect them. It is intimidating to be a Native American but being a lady as well adds even more pressure. Throughout cultures, women are either the powerful ones or they are silenced. I personally believe women are very strong. We have to balance so much in life. I would not be surprised if the groups trying to stop the killing of indigenous women in Canada were all operated by ladies.
ReplyDeleteThese horrible events only teach us women how important it is to get educated so we will not have to rely on a man. It is also teaching how we need to be aware and careful in this crazy world. Nowadays women cannot be naïve or trusting. Being a nice person could also result to your own death, which is frightening. The world gets crazier and crazier as days go by. The people who protect you should be your family. Which means their own tribe should be finding solutions to stop the murdering of these ladies.
Some of these ladies are also put into human trafficking and are raped. A problem like this is happening in our own country. The Lakota ladies are also being forced into human trafficking and are killed. Many are still missing and most of those are found dead.
I feel bad for the families of the victims. It is even harder that no one will defend their sister, daughter, and friend.
They say you learn something new everyday and this is definitely something I didn't know was going on. It honestly sickens me how the media decides what to cover and what not cover. I feel so terrible for the families who have lost mothers, sisters, daughters, cousins, etc. because everyone has their own story and their own path in life. The fact you took the time, researched, and decided to blog about this is awesome. Especially when there probably wasn't much to work with because of the lack of media coverage.
ReplyDeleteThis is an issue that I am sure a great number of people are unaware of, and I think that it is incredible that you have the courage to speak out on such a tough topic to breach. Before today I was also unaware of the happenings in Canada, and it is deeply saddening to know that not all lives matter in the eyes of some people, even more so when those people belong to your own government. It is very shocking that both the government and the media would choose to cover up such a serious issue, people deserve to know about what is happening to those around them. The families and friends of the victims also deserve to to get their stories out into the world, so that they might be able to save the lives of future victims. Thank you very much for this post, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victems.
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