'We're not disposable': B.C. leaders say government still failing to act on MMIWG

An Indigenous leader in B.C. says "it's a slap in the face" that Canada is still failing to meaningfully address the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

It has been decades since advocates began raising the alarm about the crisis, eight years since the RCMP released its internal review of cases, six years since the federal government launched a national inquiry, and three years since that inquiry released its final report.

On June 3, 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released “Reclaiming Power and Place.” That report called the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada a genocide and outlined 231 Calls for Justice.

One of those calls was for a National Action Plan. It took an additional two years for the federal government to develop and announce one.

Cheryl Casimer is a citizen of the Ktunaxa Nation and is from the community of ?aq̓am, which is located near Cranbrook. A member of the First Nations Summit Political Executive, she joined other Indigenous leaders in B.C. who marked the third anniversary of the report's release by calling on all levels of government to step up.

"We just need to make sure that we do whatever is possible to stop the narrative. Indigenous women and girls -- we're not disposable," she says.

"The level of commitment that both the provincial and federal governments are placing on this national tragedy is not enough. They need to do better and they need to do more. We can't stand by and allow more women to be murdered, or to go missing."

INDIGENOUS WOMEN STILL DISPROPORTIONATELY VICTIMS OF HOMICIDE

According to the Native Women's Association of Canada, between 2015 and 2020, Indigenous women accounted for 24 per cent of all female homicide victims in Canada, even though they make up just 5 per cent of the country’s female population.

"There is nothing to suggest that those crimes are on the decline," says a statement issued by the organization Friday.

The group also published an update on their tracking of the government's implementation of the National Action Plan, saying while some progress has been made over the past 12 months on some fronts, little or none has been made on others.

'NO REASON WHY IT SHOULD BE TAKING SO LONG'

Casimer says those who shared their stories, grief, anger and pain with the commission of inquiry are particularly disappointed and frustrated with the apparent lack of progress as well as a lack of meaningful engagement of those most directly impacted.

"They just want the governments to commit to implementing and fulfilling these recommendations. There's no reason why it should be taking so long," she says.

"Particularly here in B.C. when you think about the tragedies that we've already embarked upon with the Highway of Tears and the Pickton farm murders. It's too much to bear. To just totally disregard their voices in the implementation of these recommendations is totally unacceptable."

But advocates stress that murders and disappearances are only the most extreme and tragic examples of systemic discrimination and violence.

Statistics Canada data released earlier this year showed that Indigenous women continue to experience disproportionately high rates of non-lethal violence. Sixty-three per cent of Indigenous women reported having been physically or sexually assaulted since the age of 15. For non-Indigenous women, the rate was 45 per cent.

For Indigenous women, the likelihood of being victimized increased if they were in government care, if they had a disability, if they had experiencedhomelessness and if they lived in rural and remote areas. Further, Indigenous women were more likely than non-Indigenous women to report being attacked by acquaintances or strangers.

For Casimer and other members of the First Nations Leadership Council, the urgency of the crisis has not been met by the government's "glacial" response.

"We have not seen substantive changes since the National Inquiry to address these growing rates of gender-based violence or meaningful redress to dismantle their colonial underpinnings," the council's statement on the anniversary said.

"Each day where the status quo prevails is one where Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people are at risk, and experience unacceptable violence."

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Mary Cranston