Dear Editor:

Following the first-ever national round table on missing and murdered indigenous women, it is with a heavy heart that I am writing about this ongoing tragedy – a national epidemic of violence that persists in devastating ever more families each year, prompting a growing number of Aboriginal women to ask:  “Am I next?”

According to the RCMP, the tragedy has made about 1,200 victims, on- and off-reserves, between 1980 and 2012.  A stark reality of poverty, unemployment and violence can be summarized in one disturbing fact:  Aboriginal women are 5 times more likely to be murdered than non-Aboriginal ones!

Action must be taken on several fronts:  Justice – Support – Protection – Prevention. It must be championed at the community, municipal, provincial and federal levels.
While the renewed calls by Premiers for a public inquiry are strong indicators of their commitment, the federal government has been sending half-hearted signals. It speaks about action, but its so-called plan is nothing more than a laundry list of existing piecemeal initiatives – many of them a mere continuation of inadequate efforts not even specific to Aboriginal women.

More troubling is the Prime Minister’s and his ministers’ view of this tragedy. They are not only dismissing calls for a public enquiry, but deny that this is a social phenomenon.  For them, it is rather a series of isolated, family-based crimes ...