NAN WELCOMES UNITED NATIONS INQUIRY INTO MURDERED AND MISSING ABORIGINAL WOMEN IN CANADA
THUNDER BAY, ON: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin together with the NAN Women’s Council say it’s about time that an inquiry take place for Aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing in Canada.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) made the decision to conduct an inquiry earlier this week following the call by the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action – both groups claiming that Canadian governments have failed to take effective action in connection with the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women.
“It is too often that our mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers face death in such a tragic way. First Nation women are the centre of our families and they must not be treated as second class citizens,” said NAN Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin. “The way which all levels of government, including the policing and the justice system, have treated our sisters is horrendous. If these crimes occurred in a middle class suburban neighbourhood, you can be rest assured that an inquest would have been completed years ago. It shows the true perspective that Canada has on its original inhabitants.”
In Canada alone, there are more than 600 Aboriginal women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing in the past two decades. The CEDAW is now urging the State party to examine the reasons for the failure to investigate the cases and to take the necessary steps to remedy the deficiencies in the current system. The CEDAW is calling on the State party to urgently carry out thorough investigations of the cases and to carry out an analysis of those cases to determine whether there is a pattern to the disappearances.
Jackie Fletcher, spokesperson for the NAN Women’s Council adds “It’s time we take the government to task on how they treat Aboriginal people and women in particular, especially when Canada has been called to task by the CEDAW. Canada is a signatory to the CEDAW convention, therefore they need to put into action what the convention states and not do what the government of the day proposes.”
Nishnawbe Aski Nation is a political territorial organization representing 49 First Nation communities in James Bay Treaty No. 9 and Ontario portions of Treaty No. 5 – an area covering two thirds of the province of Ontario. www.nan.on.ca | 
