A new report says police are failing to properly address the problem of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
The report, called Those Who Take Us Away, is published by Human Rights Watch and looks specifically at what it says are police failures to properly protect Indigenous women in northern B.C.
However, Jaskiran Dhillon of Justice for Girls, who was on hand in Saskatoon to discuss the report yesterday, says these policing problems are Canada-wide.
“I think as my colleagues stated numerous times here, the story of B.C. is not an independent story of B.C., it’s a similar story across the nation and needs similar attention across the country and so that’s why we chose to launch in here,” she says.
Amongst its recommendations, the report calls for a national commission of inquiry to investigate the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women.
Meghan Rhoad, an official with Human Rights Watch, adds because these problems are countrywide and expand beyond the police, a national inquiry is necessary.
“The reason why we recommend a national commission of inquiry is because we need to get everyone who is affected by these issues around the table and have a full examination of not just the policing, not just the prevention side of things, but talk about the larger social, political and economic context in which the violence occurs,” she says.
It is estimated 600 Indigenous women have either gone missing or been murdered in Canada.
Officials from Human Rights Watch, Justice for Girls and the Elizabeth Fry Society were on hand in Saskatoon yesterday to discuss the report.