Stolen Sisters: Profiles of violence and discrimination against Indigenous women in Canada
Vigil at Parliament Hill, Ottawa, 4 October 2007
No one knows exactly how many Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada over the past three decades. Because of gaps and inconsistencies in the way that the identities of victims of crime are recorded and made public in Canada, that question simply cannot be answered. However, we do know with certainty that the marginalization of Indigenous women in Canadian society has led to an extremely high risk of violence.
According to a 1996 Canadian government statistic, Indigenous women between the ages of 25 and 44 with status under the federal Indian Act are five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as the result of violence. [1] In the process of preparing the Stolen Sisters report, and in the three years that have followed its release, Amnesty International has spoken with countless Indigenous activists, frontline service provides, police officers, court workers and family and friends of missing and murdered women. All have confirmed that in their own experience Indigenous women in Canada face a greatly increased risk of violence in their daily lives.
Deep rooted patterns of racism and discrimination in Canadian society have contributed to this violence in a number of ways. These include pushing Indigenous women into situations of increased vulnerability to violence, denying many Indigenous women adequate protection of police and the justice system, and sending a message to Indigenous and non-Indigenous men alike that they can likely get away with acts of violence against Indigenous women.
Amnesty International’s research has focused on one often overlooked dimension of Indigenous women’s experience of violence: the violence that takes place in urban settings or the lives of women moving between reserves and urban settings. The following stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada illustrate some of the common themes that have emerged in the course of this research.
In some instances, the women were targeted by strangers. In other cases, they were the victims of intimate acquaintances. In some cases, police failed to do everything they should have to ensure an immediate and thorough investigation. In others, family members praised police for their efforts. But in every instance, society as a whole could have and should have done more to recognize and reduce the risk of violence and to ensure that justice was done.
Some of these stories are of Indigenous women who have gone missing or been killed while working in the sex trade. There can be no doubt that all women in the sex trade face a greatly increased risk of violence. In the Stolen Sisters report we detail some of the economic pressures that have led to a large number of Indigenous women deciding to take this risk in order to provide for themselves and their families.
It is also clear from these stories that all Indigenous women – whether or not they have ever had involvement with what police and politicians sometimes label “high risk lifestyles” – may be targeted for violence or denied protection from violence simply because they are Indigenous women. The 1991 Manitoba Justice Inquiry concluded that racism and sexism intersect in dangerous stereotypes of Indigenous women as sexually “available” to men. The Inquiry said of the murder of Helen Betty Osborne:
Her attackers seemed to be operating on the assumption that Aboriginal women were promiscuous and open to enticement through alcohol or violence. It is evident that the men who abducted Osborne believed that young Aboriginal women were objects with no human value beyond sexual gratification.[2]
Amnesty International believes the same objectification of Indigenous women has been a factor in the targeting of other women whose stories follow below, in the failure of police to respond adequately to their disappearance or in the silent complicity of members of the public who knew of the attacks but failed to come forward to police.
All of these dimensions of violence against Indigenous women give rise to serious human rights concerns. Governments in Canada have an obligation both to address the underlying factors of marginalization and impoverishment that place so many Indigenous women in harms way, as well as to take all reasonable measures to prevent and to prosecute attacks on women. The first story that follows, a murder that was carried out more than thirty years ago and which resulted in a provincial inquiry, is a stark reminder of the need for public pressure to hold governments accountable for meeting these obligations.
[1] Aboriginal Women: A Demographic, Social and Economic Profile, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Summer 1996. It is important to note that this figure compares women with status to all other women, including Inuit, Metis and non-status First Nations women. As a result, it may well underestimate the extent to which Indigenous women are at risk.
[2] Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba: The Deaths of Helen Betty Osborne and John Joseph Harper, Commissioners A.C. Hamilton and C.M. Sinclair, 1991.
Updated: 4 October 2007