Three years since the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was published, the crisis of violence continues.
Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit peoples are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered and are five times more likely to experience violence than any other population in Canada. In fact, 56 per cent of Indigenous women have experienced physical assault, which is more than half of all Indigenous women, and 46 per cent have experienced sexual assault.
Violence and mistreatment do not just affect Indigenous women. It even impacts a disproportionate number of young Indigenous girls. 42 per cent of Indigenous women report having experienced physical and sexual abuse during their childhood. This kind of exposure to violence and trauma has lasting impacts and consequences, yet the federal government’s Budget 2022 contained zero new funding to deal with this crisis.
This is not an oversight; this is a choice.
While inaction persists, women, girls and two-spirit individuals go missing or are murdered, or have to endure out-of-control levels of violence. In my own city of Winnipeg, five Indigenous women lost their lives in April alone due to violence and failing systems.
We are objectified, stigmatized and minimized. Yet despite the Prime Minister’s own acknowledgement that the situation constitutes a genocide, his government’s latest budget allocates nothing in additional resources to stop the violence. Moreover, the Liberal government has not spent one cent from the $724.1 million Violence Prevention Strategy they announced in fall 2020. It is a statement about how we have been devalued since the time of colonization.
I am not the only one with this view. Marion Buller, the former chief commissioner, said, “I just find it appalling that the federal government, through the Prime Minister, had admitted to the situation at least amounting to genocide and yet they’re allowing it to continue without any sort of responsibility.”
She also stated, “If there is an implementation plan, I don’t know about it and they’re keeping it quiet. But, they have quite literally fallen flat on their face in terms of their responses.”
The Native Women’s Association of Canada gave the federal government a failing grade for not delivering on the promises made in the National Action Plan and the accompanying Federal Pathway.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada also criticized Budget 2022, stating: “The national Inquiry Report was handed down with 231 Calls for Justice and we’re very concerned that on the surface of this reading of budget announcements, we don’t see where the investment is going to be and we have a very serious concern about that.”
By refusing to act, the government is telling Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people that we have zero value. This is something my mom learned as an orphan living in a Catholic convent at five years old.
My mother was one of the most kind, gentle and loving people I have ever known. Her gentleness was truly remarkable, considering the violence that she had to endure throughout her younger years of life, including being passed through 15 different child-welfare placements.
It was 15 times before she aged out of care without a place to go at the age of 18. It was a common existence for young people to age out of care and end up on the streets, which are a breeding ground for murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people.
There were not too many spirits that she met along her journey who showed her any level of kindness, aside from a woman named Maude who noted my mother’s gift for music and taught her how to play the piano, and a local librarian who shared my mother’s love of reading and learning and spent hours with my mother mentoring her and showing her care.
My mom once shared a memory about her time in the Catholic convent where they housed orphans. The convent where she stayed had chokecherries all around its grounds and the children were often tasked with picking the berries from the chokecherry bushes, with very strict instructions not to eat any of their pickings. The chokecherries were not for them, but in true five-year-old style, my mother would pick the berries and snack on a few and then wipe off her stained teeth with her white bib on her uniform. After a day of picking and indulging, her delightful innocence was put quickly to a halt after an interrogation by one of the nuns: “Marjorie, you were eating chokecherries.” My mother tried to lie about her indulgence, something that gave her great joy, until she looked down at her bib, covered in purple chokecherry juice, and knew she was caught red-handed.
It was something that the nuns ended up abusing her for. At five years old, she learned that abuse, violence and mistreatment were part of her existence as an Indigenous girl. This made her feel like a zero: worthless. She even described trying to scrub off her brown skin with Comet as a young girl.
My mother was not a zero. Neither are we: We are heroes, thriving despite all the obstacles in front of us. I wept when I saw that the government decided we were worth zero in the last budget. I am tired of listening to the million excuses that seem to justify inaction, as if our safety is of no relevance. Where is the sense of urgency to implement all 231 Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry’s report?
Like my beautiful mom who endured so much, we are valuable, precious, loved and resilient. We are still here and we have a right to joy. The Prime Minister acknowledged this as a genocide. Now is the time to stop making excuses and give us the justice we deserve. It is time to end this crisis of violence and genocide now.
This op-ed is an abridged and updated version of a speech Leah Gazan delivered in May to mark the National Day of Awareness and Action for MMIWG.
June 14, 2022: Editor’s note: The original text stated the Violence Prevention Program announced in fall 2020 was $742.1. This was incorrect. The correct number is $724.1 million and the piece has since been updated with this correct figure.
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