For the first time under Chief Clive Weighill's tenure, crime in Saskatoon is going up. This city has the highest murder rate in the country and thefts and break-ins are spiking. The StarPhoenix sat down with the city's police chief to talk crime and what's next for 2017.

The year 2016 saw local First Nations bands raising several issues and continuing to fight for their rights on numerous fronts. It's a fight that shows no sign of ending but this year in the Central Okanagan there were several events that raised the public profile.

OTTAWA - Much more needs to be done to confront the crime of sexual abuse of children in indigenous communities, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who anticipates the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls will reveal "huge issues" that must be addressed.

It's been another stellar year for Indigenous literature. ​CBC's Duncan McCue published The Shoe Boy, his memoir of a season spent hunting on a northern Quebec trapline as a teenager. While Rosanna Deerchild, host of CBC's Unreserved, released Calling Down the Sky - a collection of poetry that delves into her mother's story at a residential school.

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OTTAWA - Much more needs to be done to confront the crime of sexual abuse of children in indigenous communities, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who anticipates the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls will reveal "huge issues" that must be addressed.

Amanda Rheaume is a quiet crusader. The Canadian singer-songwriter, who appears in the Traverse Theatre's latest Monday music programme, has a history of speaking out for good causes in songs that use gentle persuasion and catchy melodies rather than a loud hailer to get her message across, and her method has produced results.

A St. Catharines man is spending 30 days living in a park to guard a sacred fire burning in honour of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Fred Bowering has already spent 12 days camping in front of the sacred fire. The Mohawk man is guarding the fire for his cousin Ashley Simpson who was last seen in B.C.

For almost 40 years, Fay Blaney has worked tirelessly to bring to light the disproportionate level of violence faced by indigenous women in Canada. In the year since the federal government launched an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, she has been busy working to focus the commissioners' agenda on the root of the cause.

Quebec is launching a wide-reaching public inquiry into "systemic" discrimination facing indigenous peoples in the fallout from accusations of police mistreatment of native women in the northern community of Val-d'Or. The made-in-Quebec probe marks an about-face by Premier Philippe Couillard, who had insisted he didn't want to duplicate the work of the federal government's national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

"When was the last time you spoke with your daughter?" I asked. It was about 3 p.m. on a Thursday in late June and I was in a busy alley in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver with a CBC camera operator.

The national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls has a new website, more than three months after its official launch date. The website's first iteration has a section where those interested can sign up to receive information bulletins about the inquiry via email.

Families of missing and murdered Indigenous women should sign up for MMIW inquiry emails while they wait to register to participate, inquiry commission officials say. The emails will provide updates ahead of the inquiry, which is expected to begin in spring. "We want to create a families first process," said Michael Hutchinson, the commission's director of communications.

EDMONTON- Edmonton police have charged a man with killing a woman whose body was found in a storage shed two years ago. Freda Goodrunning, who was 35 and from the Sunchild First Nation in west central Alberta, was discovered dead in Edmonton's west end on June 4, 2014.

"Close your eyes." Councillors and staff complied with the three-word instruction at Monday night's meeting. Tammy Meise told her audience she wanted to take them back to the fall day she and others brought the Red Dress Project to Prince George - a visual reminder of the many missing and murdered aboriginal women through the form of many red dresses.

When Jennifer Catcheway went missing in 2008, her mom, Bernice, was told by the RCMP officer to whom she'd reported it that she should give it a week-her daughter was probably just out on a bender.

A Regina fashion show is putting the subject of missing and murdered indigenous women in the spotlight. Fashion Speaks Saskatchewan is not only highlighting indigenous designers but also the subject of aboriginal women who have been killed or who have disappeared.

When Tanya Pellett walks down the street, she makes sure to walk tall and make eye contact with the people she passes. But the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc band member didn't always do that. "I would always look down," she said. "I felt like I was always vunerable."

Peterborough This Week PETERBOROUGH-- John Fox wants justice for his daughter. He is seeking accountability from the Toronto Police and co-owners of the condo where she died, Bahram Sheibani and Linda Gheshe Shamoon, in the way of a $14-million lawsuit.

Peterborough This Week PETERBOROUGH - For John Fox, the new federal inquiry looking into missing and murdered women gives him a second chance at finding justice for his daughter. He is already suing - for $14 million - Toronto police and a man he believes threw Cheyenne off a balcony after hiring her as a sex worker in Toronto in April 2013.