Ottawa musician Amanda Rheaume is raising awareness of missing and murdered indigenous women with her new single, Red Dress, which features vocals by Chantal Kreviazuk. The song is from Rheaume's new album Holding Patterns. The song examines how there are two sides to every story.

The national organization representing Inuit women, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, says it's concerned and "saddened" by the apparent lack of an Inuk commissioner within the upcoming federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Protestors camping in front of the Manitoba Legislature are satisfied with the launch of Canada's inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), and the province's role in it. Near the end of July, protesters said Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government was stalling the inquiry by questioning the necessity of including police conduct and child family services in the inquiry.

Pledging to do an "unflinching" examination of the root causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls, three federal ministers on Aug. 3 announced who will sit on their long-awaited Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Woman and Girls and how the inquiry will work.

APTN National News The commissioners in charge of leading the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women start their work in September. They're tasked with getting to the root of the disproportionate number of Indigenous women who are either murdered or go missing in Canada.

Ottawa, August 3, 2016 I am pleased to see that the governments of this country have been able to collaborate with Indigenous leaders and the families of Missing and Murdered Women and Girls in Canada to establish a National Inquiry, one of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Nigel Newlove APTN National News A prominent women's advocate is hoping the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women will help keep Indigenous women out of prison. The inquiry was called in early August. Five commissioners were named and tasked with looking at a number of problems that cause women to go missing or be murdered.

(Chief Commissioner Marion Buller at the launch of the #MMIWG National Inquiry. The national inquiry into missing and murder Indigenous women will travel the country and could arrive in various forms according to Chief Commissioner Marion Buller.

APTN National News The Minister of Indigenous Affairs is expected to announce the details of the long-awaited national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls Wednesday including the terms of reference and commissioners that will take the lead. The inquiry was first announced by Carolyn Bennett and Status of Women Minister Patty Hadju back in December 2015.

KUUJJUAQ-The federal government won't budge on the question of appointing an Inuk commissioner to the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs said in Kuujjuaq Sept. 14.

Best of luck, truly, to the new commission on missing and murdered Indigenous women, as it begins its two-year journey into darkness. Best of luck in prying information about racist police behaviour from behind the thick blue wall of Canada's police forces, and best of luck in persuading bureaucrats, who deeply believe information is power, to open up their files and collective minds, and best of luck in dealing with the rather touchy subject of domestic violence inside Native communities. But most of all, best of luck in persuading non-Native Canadians to pay attention.

How the death of Tina Fontaine has finally forced the city to face its festering race problem. by Nancy Macdonald

OCTOBER 2013: This article was first delivered as a paper presented at the Gender and Transitional Justice Conference at Western University, April, 2012. It has been updated to reflect the intervening publication of the Missing Women Inquiry Report in late 2012: British Columbia. Missing Women Commission of Inquiry/Wally T. Oppal, Commissioner. Forsaken: Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (November 19, 2012) [Forsaken]. The article draws upon the author's doctoral work on the relationship between public inquiries and truth commissions: Kim Stanton, "Truth Commissions and Public Inquiries: Addressing Historical Injustices in Established Democracies," (Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 2010); Transitional Justice Review, Vol.1, Iss.2, 2013, 59-96

DECEMBER 2012 This article privileges Indigenous voices, experiences and stories as one way to challenge the Canadian child welfare concept and worldview that is imbedded in "failure to protect" policies and practices". The "failure to protect" concept is one in which assaulted mothers are held accountable by child protective authorities because their children are unintended victims or witnesses to their mother's experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV).

This backgrounder highlights some of the main issues currently faced by Aboriginal women and their supporters, along with a brief synopsis of some remedial options under discussion.1 It should be noted at the outset that there is great diversity among Aboriginal women, including status and non-status First Nations, Inuit and Métis, reflected in the diversity of issues they face. Nor are any of the issues stand-alone; rather they are inextricably interconnected and indivisible from the systemic and pervasive nature of Aboriginal women's inequality in Canadian society.

SEPTEMBER 2005 Officials have been slow to investigate or have ignored the 500 women who have been gone missing in the last 20 years. "Men who murder native women are the least likely to get a life sentence without parole." Written by Lauren Carter in Herizons; Fall 2005; 19, 2; CBCA Reference

JUNE 2012 Published in The Arbutus Review Vol. 3, No. 2 (2012) by Jodi Beniuk. In this paper, I discuss the ways in which Indigenous women are Othered by the proceedings of the Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry (MWCI). First, I give a basic overview of Beauvoir's theory of women as Others, followed by Memmi's analysis of the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer. I use these two theories to describe the way Indigenous women are Othered both as Indigenous peoples and as women, focusing on the context of the twenty-six who were murdered in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES). The original murders were the result of the cultural reduction of Indigenous Women to their bodies. The negligent police investigations, as well as the misogynistic attitudes of the police, also demonstrate how Othering can operate within these institutions. I claim that the violence against women in the DTES was due to their status as Other. Notably, the MWCI, which is supposed to be a process that addresses the Othering-based negligence of the police, also includes instances of Othering in its structure and practice. From this, I conclude that we cannot rely on Othering institutions or legal processes to correct Othering as a practice. In the context of the MWCI, I suggest building alliances that support those who face this Othering as violence in their everyday lives.

JUNE 2015 Published in the Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies by Amber Dean. The CMHR and the Ongoing Crisis of Murdered or Missing Indigenous Women: Do Museums Have a Responsibility to Care? Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies: Vol. 37, Caring for Difficult Knowledge: Prospects for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, pp. 147-165. doi: 10.1080/10714413.2015.1028834

OCTOBER 2012 Published in An Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis Framework, p. 133 by Natalie Clark Thompson Rivers University, Faculty Simon Fraser University, PhD candidate nclark@tru.ca

FEBRUARY 2009 This paper by Wendee Kubik, Carrie Bourassa and Mary Hampton examines the multiple oppressions faced by Aboriginal women as a result of Canada's sexist and racist colonial past. We explore the destructive affects of colonization on gender relations and societal structures and argue that Aboriginal women suffer higher rates of poverty, ill-health, violence and sexual exploitation than non-Aboriginal women as a result.