Family violence is the number one factor in missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
That is the conclusion of an analysis of the numbers and a progress report one year after the RCMP released its report into missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
Over a 22-year period, there were nearly 1,200 victims — most of them murdered. A year ago, 225 cases remained unsolved. Since then, RCMP have closed the files on 21 of them. Of the cases still open, 98 are missing Aboriginal women — the other 106 are murder victims.
Today, the RCMP released a progress report. Superintendent Tyler Bates says it is obvious where the attention needs to be focused.
“Aboriginal women are most often killed by men in their own homes, in their own communities and reconfirms the need to target prevention efforts towards family violence,” he says. “Female homicides across all ethnicities is inextricably linked to family violence.”
In Saskatchewan, 153 Aboriginal women were murdered between 1980 and 2012. There are 29 unsolved cases in the province, including 13 murdered and 16 missing Aboriginal women. As part of the RCMP’s ongoing strategy to deal with family violence, it has targeted 10 jurisdictions across Canada where women are at high risk of violence. Six of them are in Saskatchewan. RCMP are working with local First Nations and social agencies in an effort to make the communities safer.
It is not naming the First Nations for fear of stigmatizing the communities.