Amnesty International Says Canada's 'Action Plan' Lacks Action

Photo from the #AmINext campaign, asking Canada to respond to violence against Indigenous women. (Photo Credit: Twitter)

Amnesty International released a statement Tuesday that Canada's response to violence against Indigenous women is “piecemeal and inadequate”.

The human rights group criticized the federal government's Action Plan to Address Family Violence and Violent Crimes Against Aboriginal Women and Girls that was released Monday, saying that while it had some helpful initiatives, it was mostly “a continuation of existing piecemal and inadequately supported programs and approaches.”

Two actions that the group did commend, however, was increased funds to support the families of missing and murdered women and the first attempt to coordinate the various Canadian programs for Indigenous women.

Specifically, Amnesty International noted that there was a need for an independent National Public Inquiry and that the economic marginalization of these women needs to be addressed with frontline services on and off reserve. Additionally, the group asked for more efforts towards unbiased police responses towards cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

(Photo Credit: Twitter)

While the government announced an annual $5 million for victim services, community education, and various other initiatives against this violence in 2010, many groups were critical of these limited resources compared to the large numbers of Indigenous women and girls that are missing or murdered in the past few decades. According to Amnesty International, the Tuesday announcement did no provide new funding, but just shifted how the funds would be spent.

It also focuses mainly on domestic violence, which Amnesty International says “largely ignores patterns of violence against Indigenous women in Canadian cities.”

According to official RCMP statistics released this year, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women have a higher homicide rate than any other woman in Canada. Between 1980 and 2012, 1,017 Indigenous women and girls were murdered, and 105 remain missing with suspicious or unexplained circumstances.

Despite the overall homicide rate declining over the last decade, for Indigenous girls and women it is almost six times higher than for non-Indigenous women and girls. Additionally, though most murders of women are committed by someone whom the victim knows, murder by an “acquaintance” (which includes neighbours, co-workers, or authority figures) is nearly seven times higher for Indigenous women than other Canadian women.

(Photo Credit: Twitter)

(Photo Credit: Twitter)