WATCH ABOVE: NDP leader Tom Mulcair said an underlying attitude of racism is why hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women have been overlooked and he’s vowing to spend million to support abused women and curbing violence against women. Vassy Kapelos reports.
SASKATOON – NDP leader Tom Mulcair has announced measures aimed at ending violence against women.
He committed today to restore the shelter enhancement program scrapped by the Conservative government, saying it would have sufficient funding to ensure no woman in need is turned away from a shelter.
He also vowed to invest money in affordable housing and homelessness programs to help women fleeing violence to find a new place to live.
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And he announced his intention to work with women’s groups, indigenous peoples, communities and organizations to create a national action plan to end violence against women and girls, with dedicated funding and benchmarks for progress.
That’s on top of Mulcair’s previous commitment to call an inquiry into the nearly 12-hundred aboriginal women who’ve been murdered or vanished since 1980.
WATCH: Tom Mulcair announces plan aimed at boosting shelter services and ending violence against women.
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He’d promised to launch the inquiry within his first 100 days in office.
A report in January from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, says aboriginal women in Canada are murdered or disappear at a rate four times higher than their representation in the population.
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Mulcair announced the measures during a campaign stop in Saskatchewan, a province with one of the highest rates of violence against women.
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