- by GH
- The Guardian
- Issue #2189
Indigenous women and girls are twelve times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other demographic in Canada. Over the past four decades, thousands of cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) have suffered systemic under-investigation by local police. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) identified over 1,000 cases of murder or disappearance between 1980 and 2012. The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) argue the true number is closer to 4,000.
Despite making up less than 5 per cent of the female population of Canada’s population, Indigenous women account for a disproportionate share of homicide victims and are targeted due to systemic factors including race-based and gender-based colonial genocide, poverty, and marginalisation. A 2019 report concluded that the violence is worsened by the state failing to protect Indigenous women. Indigenous women accounted for 21 per cent of gender-related homicides of women and girls between 2011-2021. The homicide rate in 2024 was eight times higher for Indigenous than the non-Indigenous.
A 2023 study found that 209 of 219 testimonies from families highlighted negative interactions with police, who dismissed their daughters as ‘runaways.’ In many cases families reported that police quickly gave up searching for bodies or culprits, and waited months before filing a report. Amnesty International and other advocacy groups have long argued that Indigenous women are under-protected as victims of crime. The report produced the reporting tool ‘231 Calls for Justice,’ an organisation of Indigenous people in Canada calling for 231 specific measures to bring justice for Canadian Indigenous women, but, as with the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody in Australia, implementation has been slow, and the outcomes have not significantly changed.
Research reports published last year stressed the continued crisis of these disappearances and the links between trafficking and missing Indigenous women in some urban areas. Dozens of women have gone missing or been murdered along a 700-kilometre stretch of Highway 16 in British Columbia. The Winnipeg (Manitoba) serial killing of four Indigenous women by a convicted killer is an example of the pattern of violence experienced. The Canadian federal government has invested millions to support families of missing and murdered Indigenous people in Nova Scotia, and there are ongoing efforts to improve outreach, information liaison services, and coordinated action.
Families and communities continue to seek justice and the proper handling of remains and investigations. Late last year, protests called for justice after the early release of a convicted killer shocked Indigenous communities. National awareness efforts such as marches, memorials and Red Dress Day on 5 May and Sisters in Spirit vigils draw attention to the scale of the crisis and the need for action, justice, and the impact on families and communities.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada has produced an ‘advocacy toolkit’ to support families, survivors and community members who work to address the crisis. The front page of that toolkit says “this is not a toolkit about awareness. Families have been telling the truth for decades.”
