Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada

Excerpt from Introduction, Page 2-3:

This report examines the following factors which, too long neglected, have contributed to a heightened - and unacceptable - risk of violence against Indigenous women in Canadian cities:

• The social and economic marginalisation of Indigenous women, along with a history of government policies that have torn apart Indigenous families and communities, have pushed a disproportionate number of Indigenous women into dangerous situations that include extreme poverty, homelessness and prostitution.

• Despite assurances to the contrary, police in Canada have often failed to provide Indigenous women with an adequate standard of protection. 

• The resulting vulnerability of Indigenous women has been exploited by Indigenous and non-Indigenous men to carry out acts of extreme brutality against them.

• These acts of violence may be motivated by racism, or may be carried out in the expectation that societal indifference to the welfare and safety of Indigenous women will allow the perpetrators to escape justice.

These are not new concerns. Indigenous women’s organizations, government commissions such as the inquiry into the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and United Nations human rights bodies have all called on Canadian officials to address the marginalisation of Indigenous women in Canadian society and to ensure that the rights and safety of Indigenous people are respected and upheld by police and courts.[3] Sadly, fundamental measures that could help reduce the risk of violence to Indigenous women remain unimplemented. This is only one example of the way Canadian authorities have failed in their responsibility to protect the rights of Indigenous women in Canada. 

This report examines the role of discrimination in acts of violence carried out against Indigenous women in Canadian towns and cities. This discrimination takes the form both of overt cultural prejudice and of implicit or systemic biases in the policies and actions of government officials and agencies, or of society as a whole. This discrimination has played out in policies and practices that have helped put Indigenous women in harm’s way and in the failure to provide Indigenous women the protection from violence that is every woman’s human right." (2-3).