Newfoundland Premier joins Nova Scotia in call for inquiry

NEWFOUNDLAND – Newfoundland and Labrador joined the Nova Scotia Provincial government in demanding Prime Minister Steven Harper call a national inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women, Friday.

Newfoundland’s two opposition parties jointly made their demands known to the PM’s office.

The pressure is building especially after the recent murder of 26-year-old St. Mary’s University student, Loretta Saunders, a Inuit from Labrador who was doing her thesis on missing and murdered Aboriginal women at the time of her disappearance. He body was found and a couple has been arrested in connection with her death.

Although this case is about to be resolved, hundreds of others remain as cold cases stored in RCMP files.

“Violence against aboriginal women and children is a serious problem, both in our province and across Canada,” Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tom Marshall said Friday. “We are calling on the federal government to launch an inquiry into the tragedy of missing and murdered aboriginal women in this country, and we are prepared to work with the Government of Canada on such an inquiry.”

“The recent tragic death of Loretta Saunders has made the circumstances surrounding the high numbers of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls even more troublesome,” said Liberal leader Dwight Ball, after the House of Assembly’s passage of a unanimous resolution. “It is clear that this is a crisis that must be addressed immediately.”

Rallies and protests, including last week’s at Tyendinaga where three people were arrested, have called for an inquiry, although the Tories have shown no sign of budging on the issue.

Even the United Nations has slapped Harper’s wrist for Canada’s poor record with this issue and other important Aboriginal issues.

“I don’t think it would be feasible to do the 700 or 800 individual cases. You could look at it from a broader social perspective: that is to ask why so many of them are aboriginal,” said lawyer Bruce Wildsmith.

It is widely believed, especially within Native communities, that not enough is being done by police to investigate and resolve these cases, especially when Aboriginal women are the victims.

A study done by The Native Women’s Association of Canada on 582 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, shows: 67% are murder cases (death as the result of homicide or negligence); 20% are cases of missing women or girls; 4% are cases of suspicious death – deaths regarded as natural or accidental by police, but considered suspicious by family or community members; and 9% are cases where the nature of the case is unknown – it is unclear whether the woman was murdered, is missing or died in suspicious circumstances.

Most of these cases were reported between 2000 and 2010. Although only 3% of all the women in Canada are Aboriginal, 10% of all missing persons cases in Canada involves Aboriginal women.
Harper told CBC News last May, “I remain very skeptical of commissions of inquiry generally.”