RCMP say a disproportionate number of women killed in Canada are aboriginal

Above: Mark Kennedy says the findings in the RCMP’s report on missing and murdered aboriginal women could affect Canada internationally.

OTTAWA – An RCMP report has revealed a shockingly disproportionate number of female homicide victims in Canada are aboriginal.

READ MORE: Disproportionate number of women killed in Canada are aboriginal: RCMP

Aboriginal women represent only 4.3 per cent of the total female population, yet 16 per cent of all female homicide victims over the past 30 years are aboriginal.

READ MORE: By the numbers: Missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada

NDP MP Charlie Angus said the Conservative government is failing to take meaningful action to help aboriginal communities in an interview with The West Block with Tom Clark.

“Peter MacKay is a man who’s made his reputation as standing up for victims. Wherever there’s a victim he’s going to be standing beside them,” said Angus. “We have the mothers of the murdered and missing women standing outside Parliament, and he’s sneaking out the back door all the time.”

WATCH: NDP MP Charlie Angus says the Conservative government is failing to take meaningful action to help aboriginal communities.

While female aboriginals are over-represented as victims, the rate at which police solve the homicides of aboriginal and non-aboriginal women is almost the same.

The West Block also spoke to Mark Kennedy, parliamentary bureau chief for the Ottawa Citizen. He said the implications of the report could hurt Canada’s image internationally.

Kennedy pointed to a UN report published this month on the state of aboriginal peoples in Canada, and the report will be discussed by the UN this fall.

READ MORE: UN rapporteur pushes Ottawa on First Nations

“If the impression internationally of Canada and its treatment of missing and murdered aboriginal people becomes one of indifference, it’s a problem,” said Kennedy. “It can stain our reputation.”

-With files from Lauren McNabb