National roundtable to focus on violence prevention campaign

ITK president Terry Audla speaks at a press conference following the Feb. 27 national roundtable on violence against Indigenous women in Ottawa. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ITK)

Governments and Indigenous groups from across the country say they’re committed to joining efforts to end violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, following the first ever national roundtable on the issue.

Indigenous families and leaders, premiers, provincial and territorial ministers and federal representatives met in Ottawa Feb. 27, pledging to develop a violence prevention and awareness campaign ahead of a second national roundtable in 2016.

The province of Manitoba has said it will host a meeting of police organizations and justice officials to look at issues of violence faced by Indigenous women.

Inuit representatives at the event, from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, both acknowledged there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing violence, given the circumstances unique to Canada’s North.

“We know that Inuit women and children are at the greatest risk of violence in their homes and our members feel prevention is the most important and urgent issue to be addressed after this roundtable,” said Pauktuutit president Rebecca Kudloo in a Feb. 27 release.

“They have told us that unresolved trauma and abuse is the most significant underlying cause to be addressed, and we look forward to a whole-of-government response in working together to address this major physical and mental health issue.”

ITK president Terry Audla noted that while violence has a human cost, and it also has an economic cost.

“Inuit live in some of the most remote communities in Canada, and the delivery of and access to programs and services in our homeland will always cost more than it does to provide those same programs and services in Southern Canada,” he said in the same release.

The roundtable is the first coordinated national response to calls for a national inquiry into the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

A May 2014 report prepared by the RCMP found that 1,181 Aboriginal women have gone missing or have been murdered between 1980 and 2012.

That makes Indigenous women and girls about three times more likely to be victims of violence than non-Indigenous women in Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has declined calls to hold a national inquiry, calling the issue a criminal matter, and not a sociological issue.

In a Feb. 27 release, federal Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development minister Bernard Valcourt said the government “recognizes that addressing violence against Aboriginal woman is a shared responsibility that requires commitment to action from all partners, including at the community level.”

“By meeting today and continuing to work together, we are sending a strong message that these abhorrent acts of violence will not be tolerated,” Valcourt said.