Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety

PROGRESS REPORT – ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AGAINST ABORIGINAL WOMEN AND GIRLS

Addressing Violence  Against Aboriginal Women and Girls – a Progress Report
October 17, 2014

Background:

Research shows that Aboriginal women are  more likely than non-Aboriginal women to experience violence by all categories  of perpetrators - strangers or acquaintances and within spousal relationships –  and that the kinds of violence faced tends to result in more serious harm.1  In addition, Aboriginal women and  girls tend to have a higher vulnerability to violence than many non-Aboriginal  women and girls, because of some of the underlying social conditions in which  they live.  The RCMP report on “Missing  and Murdered Aboriginal Women:  A  National Operational Overview” released in May 2014, and prepared with the  cooperation of more than 300 police forces across Canada, provided a summary of  1,181 police-reported cases of homicide and unresolved missing reports  concerning Aboriginal women and girls in Canada.  This report is only one of around 40 reports  since the 1996 Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal Peoples that documents  concerns about violence against Aboriginal women and girls.

Federal, Provincial and Territorial  Governments take this situation seriously and have taken action on many fronts  to address the violence.  Ministers  responsible for Justice and Public Safety have publicly stated that violence  against Aboriginal women and girls is unacceptable, and that any attitudes or  actions that result in violence must be condemned.  Recent tragic deaths have brought renewed  focus to growing concerns in Canada and beyond, urging that further and  immediate action is needed to prevent more lives being lost.

Activities  Underway to Prevent and Address Violence Towards Aboriginal women and Girls:

Reports and  studies agree that higher levels of violence against Aboriginal women and girls  is deeply rooted in the historical treatment and current social and economic  conditions of Aboriginal peoples.2 ,3  Aboriginal organizations and communities  are leading efforts to address many of these issues, but all levels of  government and other key partners must be involved in order to create lasting  change.  Law enforcement and the justice  system are continuing to take action to prevent and respond to violence against  Aboriginal women and girls, but other sectors, such as health, education,  social services, children and family services, communities, and the private  sector are also involved.

Within the area  of law enforcement and the justice system, governments have taken a range of  actions to address violence against Aboriginal women and girls.

In working to  prevent future violence, communities and governments have been working in  collaboration to develop culturally-responsive approaches on and off reserve as  a primary means of prevention, including:

       
  • Community  Safety Plans to develop coordinated community responses to reduce violence and  increase community safety;
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  • programs  that intervene with youth and other community members to help them make healthy  choices about relationships and additions, such as the Canadian Red Cross Walking the Prevention Circle program, the In Search of Your Warrior program, and many others;
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  • programs  to engage men and boys in developing solutions within the community, such as the  Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres’ I Am a Kind Man and the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship  Centres’ Moosehide campaign; and
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  • awareness  activities that seek to break intergenerational cycles of violence and abuse in  some communities, such as the Pauktuutit I’m  Happy Because I’m Safe campaign, and other awareness raising to change  attitudes about violence such as the Yukon Am  I the Solution campaign.

Where violence  has happened, governments have been working with communities to develop  culturally-responsive supports and improve services for victims, including:

       
  • legislating  rights for victims of crime, such as the recently tabled federal Victims Bill  of Rights Act and existing provincial and territorial legislation;
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  • supporting  specialized victim services for families of missing or murdered Aboriginal  women, such as the Saskatchewan family-police liaison positions;
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  • developing  and delivering  culturally-responsive victim services in Aboriginal  communities, including the expansion of services to under-served communities as  well as the provision of Indigenous Cultural Competency training, such as the  training provided in British Columbia for existing victim service workers; and
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  • developing  approaches that take into account the realities of Aboriginal people, such as  Quebec's Aboriginal component of the 2012-2017 Action Plan on Domestic  Violence.

Governments  have also been working to strengthen investigations and develop better  integrated responses to coordinate across departments and agencies, including:

       
  • the  RCMP national operational overview noted above, which involved cooperation and  collaboration with over 300 police forces;
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  • the  report on the implementation of the FPT Missing Women Working Group report, issued  by Justice and Public Safety Ministers last November;
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  • creating  a National Centre on Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains to support police  forces across Canada in their missing persons investigations, and the creation  of a National DNA registry of Missing Persons; and
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  • dedicated  initiatives, such as Alberta’s Project KARE, Manitoba’s Project Devote, the  Saskatchewan Provincial Partnership Committee on Missing Persons, the Nova  Scotia Tri-partite Committee, and the Government of Canada Action Plan to Address Family Violence and Violent Crimes Against  Aboriginal Women and Girls (http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/med/news-nouvelles/2014/0915-eng.html).

Dialogue On The Draft Justice Framework: Preliminary Feedback

In November  2013, FPT Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety publicly released  a Draft Justice Framework to Address Violence Against Aboriginal Women and  Girls - http://www.scics.gc.ca/english/conferences.asp?a=viewdocument&id=2119 - for discussion with Aboriginal people  and other partners.  The Draft  Justice Framework will be used to guide the development of future collaborative  actions to prevent and respond to the violence.  Some of these discussions with Aboriginal  people and other partners have  occurred on a national level, as well as within provinces and territories, and  more dialogue is expected to be completed over the next year.  Feedback from the discussions will be used to  revise the Draft Justice Framework, which Justice Ministers will review at  their fall 2015 meeting.  

At the time of  writing this report, the discussions on the Draft Justice Framework have not  been completed; therefore, it is not possible to draw conclusions.  The feedback received to date, however, seems  to indicate that there is general agreement with many of the suggested justice  system priorities. There are also a number of suggestions for changes to the  Draft. The following are examples of some of the feedback received at the time  of writing this report:

       
  • Public education and addressing attitudes and       stereotypes related to the violence is vitally important
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  • Justice responses that respect Aboriginal culture,       rights, and leadership should be supported
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  • The Framework needs to explicitly address colonialism,       racism and patriarchy
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  • Men and boys need to be involved in addressing       violence
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  • Victims need to be more central to justice processes
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  • Root causes of the violence, such as poverty, lack of       education, addiction and other challenges need to be addressed
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  • Action  is needed; not more reports with recommendations.

Next Steps for FPT Justice and Public Safety Ministers

Justice and  Public Safety Ministers recognize the need for further targeted action to  address violence even while discussions about the Draft Justice Framework are  underway. Based on what we have heard so far, FPT Ministers Responsible for  Justice and Public Safety agree, in the next year, to:

       
  • Take  action to change attitudes that lead to violence against women, including  Aboriginal women.
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  • Monitor  and support continuing police efforts to investigate the 225 unresolved cases  of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls.
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  • Encourage  and support community-led, culturally-responsive approaches to prevent and  respond to violence, such as community safety planning.  
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  • Improve  responses to violence, through greater integration and coordination of programs  and services within government and in the community.
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  • Reach  out to other sectors to work on addressing the root causes of violence.
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  • Task  justice officials with continuing to collaborate with each other and share  information about promising practices to address violence against Aboriginal  women and girls.

Ministers  agree to report back in the fall of 2015 on progress made in these key areas.


1 Statistics Canada Presentation to Parliamentary  Committee (May 2013) An Overview of Findings on Victimization of Aboriginal  Women in Canada.

2 Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women. (March  2014) Invisible Women: A Call To Action A Report on Missing and Murdered  Indigenous Women in Canada. 41st Parliament, second session, House  of Commons Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=6469851

3 Anaya,  James. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,  (July 2014) The Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada Retrieved from: http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/country-reports/the-situation-of-indigenous-peoples-in-canada