Web poll results: Readers cite violence as biggest issue facing Indigenous women
- EFN Staff | March 23, 2017
Last week, we asked the question in our web reader poll what people seen as the biggest issue facing Indigenous women? 57.14% voted violence while 42.86% voted colonialism.
According to Statistics Canada The Daily released on February 16, 2017, “Overall, 40% of Aboriginal people were the victims of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse… 49% of Aboriginal women aged 30 and older were more likely to have been victims of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse.”
It’s estimated there are over 1,100 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. A national inquiry is set for this year with expectations that the inquiry's final report with findings and recommendations to be completed by November 1, 2018. The inquiry is one of the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Calls to Action Recommendations.
The case of Marlene Bird from Prince Albert faced an act of violence which gained national attention to her extensive injuries. Back in 2014, Bird was found in Prince Albert’s parking lot severely beaten and was set on fire with burns that left doctors with no choice but to amputate both of her legs. According to media reports, Bird’s attacker Leslie Ivan Roderick Black was found guilty of attempted murder and read an apology statement in the city’s court today in the dangerous offender hearing, which started on March 13th. Black will be sentenced on April 21st.
Another recent example of violence against Indigenous women is the Nadine Machiskinic inquest which will be on March 27-31, 2017 in Regina. Machiskinic was a 29-year-old Indigenous woman who died after she fell 10-stories from the city’s Delta hotel laundry chute January 2015. The inquest will determine how she died a tragic death.