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News > World

Canada Rallies Against Missing Aboriginal Women

  • Indigenous protesters march towards Canada's parliament building before the start of a meeting between chiefs and Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa January 11, 2013.

    Indigenous protesters march towards Canada's parliament building before the start of a meeting between chiefs and Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa January 11, 2013. | Photo: Reuters

Published 15 February 2015
Opinion

Hundreds of aboriginal women have been murdered or gone missing under suspicious circumstances in Canada.

Hundreds of people across Canada took to the streets on February 14 in an annual march to remember missing and murdered aboriginal women, a growing concern in the country. 

Over 400 people marched in Toronto, while hundreds gathered in Vancouver, Winnipeg and other communities across the country in what's known as the Strawberry Ceremony, named after the fruit which has become a symbol for aboriginal female victims of violence. Many attendees brought strawberries to mark the 10th annual march. 

Other attendees pounded traditional First Nations drums, clung to photos of missing loved ones, and laid flowers on public places where family or friends had been murdered. 

In Vancouver, the march also coincides with the 25th annual Downtown Eastside Women's Memorial March — referring to an area of the city that is known for its high rate of poverty, prostitution, and crime — where activists have been trying to raise awareness of the violence towards indigenous women for decades.   

Betsy Bruyere, an indigenous woman marching in Vancouver Saturday, has attended the marches for more than a decade. 

“I was kind of depressed,” she says. “It just doesn’t stop and it looks like it’s getting worse — the situation, the crisis, the invisible war against indigenous women. They’re trying to kill us, I’m pretty sure of it.” 

The demonstrations are public displays of the growing anger and frustration in the country around such issues, and the government's lack of action. Last May, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported that 1,017 Aboriginal women had been murdered in the country between 1980 and 2012, and another 108 are still missing under suspicious circumstances.

Rights groups have long been demanding that law enforcement agencies do more to prevent and solve crimes directed at the community. They have also started to put increasing pressure on the federal government to open an inquiry into the hundreds of cases of missing or murdered indigenous women.  

Protesters in Vancouver have started a campaign called “Am I next?” saying its an important question that many aboriginal women ask themselves. 

Demonstrators also called for a national day of action February 13 called Shut Down Canada, where activists attempted to temporarily close down various major roads, railway lines and other public infrastructure to raise awareness and put pressure on the government to take action on the violence directed towards indigenous women.

 

Tags

Canada indigenous aboriginal women First Nations

CBC-Rabble-The Globe and Mail
by teleSUR / kb-CS
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