If no inquiry, then what? Aboriginal women talk about how to stem the violence
Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected calls for a federal inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of aboriginal women, after 15-year-old Tina Fontaine's body was pulled from a river earlier this month.Today, Canada's Premiers are expected to ask Stephen Harper to reconsider.
I so miss you Tina. I wish you were here right now. You were only 15 years old. You are in a good place with your dad, so I am glad. I just wish it didn't have to happen this way...I love you my girl." - Valentina Duck, Tina Fontaine's mother
It's difficult to hear Valentina Duck's pain as she mourns her daughter, Tina Fontaine. The 15 year old's body was pulled from the Red River earlier this month. Television network APTN aired Ms. Duck's heartbreaking goodbye when she took part in a march through Winnipeg. Organizers say the march was both to honour Tina Fontaine's memory and pressure Ottawa into calling an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Saskatchewan's premier Brad Wall believes governments can no longer ignore what's going on and thinks there will be a call for an inquiry at the Premiers meeting which begins today. The Prime Minister however says Fontaine's death is a crime to be solved, not a sociological phenomenon, so an inquiry is unnecessary.
Some aboriginal people are reconciled to the idea that there won't be an inquiry any time soon -- but still believe action is needed.
- Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth.
First Nations communities often feel their voices are left out of the discussions, and that to create real change, solutions will need to come from within the communities themselves.
To talk about what that change might look like, we were joined by:
- Sarah Hunt, a researcher and educator who has focused on issues of violence and justice with First Nations communities in B.C. for more than 15 years.
- Erin Konsmo, the Media Arts Justice and Projects Coordinator at the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, and the Youth Coordinator and Media Contact for Walking With Our Sisters
What do you think can be done to stop the violence against aboriginal women and girls? Does change need to come from the provincial and federal governments? Or should it come from the grassroots?
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This segment was produced by The Current's Liz Hoath and Laura Anderson.
Visit cbc.ca/aboriginal for extensive coverage of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.