B.C. First Nations call on Canada to take action after release of ‘appalling’ MMIWG report

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) said Ottawa must act now to end violence against Indigenous women and girls.

The union and several other B.C. advocates for Indigenous and women’s rights released a joint statement after the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) was released Monday in Gatineau, Que.

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The report made more than 200 recommendations that call on the federal government to develop an effective response to human trafficking cases, implement changes to the child welfare system and create a national action plan to ensure equitable access to employment, housing and education.

Those actions should have been undertaken long before the release of the report, those supporters said.

“The fact that the report says ‘Canada is finally listening’ is appalling,” Summer Rain Bentham, manager of the Indigenous women’s program for Battered Women’s Support Services, said at an event in Vancouver following the report’s release.

“Indigenous communities, leaders and women have been raising their voices and taking to the lands for hundreds of years.”

Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, the UBCIC’s secretary-treasurer, said in a statement that those communities have been calling for the same actions recommended in the report “for too long.”

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“We need to address the ‘Canadian Genocide’ — it’s the worst form of discrimination that has continued over hundreds of years and into today with the blatant sexism and racism that is rampant in this country,” Wilson said.

“We need this change today, we cannot wait any longer.”

The 1,200-page report, which was launched in 2016 after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office, also uses the word “genocide” to describe the murder of Indigenous women, which it says happens at a far greater rate than non-Indigenous women.

It blames the violence on long-standing discrimination against Indigenous people and Canada’s failure to protect them.

Sophie Merasty, a member of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre whose sister Rose was murdered in the DTES in 1991, said Indigenous women can no longer handle the violence they face every day.

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“The violence we face happens in all aspects of our lives — at every level, in every institution, in every interaction,” she said in a statement.

“Canada must immediately respond to all the calls for justice in the National Inquiry report and stop the genocide against Indigenous and girls.”

Those actions must be made before the October federal election, UBCIC Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said.

“With the release of this report, we know that we must see a dedicated budget and action plan for the implementation of these recommendations before the Federal election this fall,” Phillip said in the joint release.

He also argued the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which Ottawa is expected to approve this month, will put more women and girls in danger.

“The Federal Liberals are ramming through a controversial pipeline expansion whose industrial man-camps will further put Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people at risk, and yet they say they are a feminist government?” Phillip questioned.

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In his own statement, Premier John Horgan spoke directly to the survivors and families of victims whose testimony and experiences informed the report.

“There is no statement I can make that will do justice to your lived experiences, or the pain you have endured,” Horgan said.

“In honour of the women, girls and two-spirit peoples who have been stolen and those who have survived, we are committed to learning from your stories, to taking action and to enacting change.”

The premier said his government is committed to continuing on its path towards reconciliation that will ultimately dismantle the “underlying and systemic issues that result in Indigenous women experiencing violence.”

He also said community engagement will take place through the summer and fall that will help inform changes at the provincial level to end that violence.

—With files from Global’s Neetu Garcha and Katie Dangerfield and the Canadian Press