Assembly of First Nations National Chief Says RCMP Update on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women an “Urgent Call to Action on a National Crisis”

OTTAWA – Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde said today the over-representation of Indigenous women missing and murdered in Canada demands action. This follows today’s release of the RCMP’s 2015 Update to the National Operation Overview on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women which reports 32 Aboriginal female homicide cases within RCMP jurisdiction since May 2014 (more than two-thirds of all female homicides during that time ) and another 174 reports of missing Aboriginal women in all police jurisdictions.

“The numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women cannot remain a mere statistic,” said AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde. “It is time for action that shows the lives of Indigenous women and girls matter. Today’s report is yet another urgent call to action on a national crisis. We cannot ignore the evidence or the reality. There is a significant and tragic over-representation of Indigenous women among the missing and murdered in this country. This is not just a First Nations issue, this is a Canadian issue and we all have a role to play.”

In 2014 RCMP reported a total of 225 unsolved missing and murdered cases across all police jurisdictions in Canada. Current updated data shows 106 unsolved homicide cases and 98 unsolved missin ...