Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls

Feb. 1, 2017 LISTEN to The Current's special MMIW public forum in Vancouver: Full episode On January 24, The Current hosted a public forum on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women at the CBC studio in Vancouver. This forum hosted by Anna Maria Tremonti focused on how journalists and artists have told this story.

Commissioners at the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) are discussing ways to include Indigenous men and boys in the inquiry, but Indigenous women's groups and victims' family members say they don't want the scope of the inquiry to expand.

It's important to acknowledge what media has broken when it comes to covering the missing and murdered Indigenous women issues, Angela Sterritt , a reporter with CBC Vancouver and CBC Indigenous tells The Current' s Anna Maria Tremonti.

The national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls has quietly agreed to include men and boys. After more than two years of lobbying by aboriginals, professors, social workers and others, including me, the inquiry released a statement that boys and men will be welcomed to share their stories as part of the process.

Kathy Meyer thinks about her daughter Angela every day. She wonders where she is and what has happened to her. Angela Meyer disappeared from Yellowknife on Nov. 27, 2010. The 22-year-old Inuk woman was having trouble with mental health issues. That afternoon, she stepped outside for a smoke.

Canada's National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has started to hold local meetings in preparation to gather testimony from impacted families this spring. Michael Hutchinson, a spokesperson for the inquiry, said the meetings are intended to help the inquiry's five commissioners approach the work of collecting testimony in the most sensitive way possible.

Students from a B.C. First Nation created a heartbreaking music video about missing and murdered indigenous women. The song called "The Highway" was penned by students at the 'Na Aksa Gyilak'yoo School in Kitsumkalum First Nation, just outside of Terrace in northern B.C. Students hold hands in a still from "The Highway."

Describing northern B.C.'s infamous Highway 16 - nicknamed the "Highway of Tears" because many women have gone missing there - is complicated. "You have beautiful scenery when you're driving or if you're walking, you see the mountains; you see how dense the forests are," said Matilda Wilson, whose 16-year-old daughter Ramona was murdered along the route in 1994.

That's the reality for many Indigenous people in remote areas of Labrador. During pre-MMIW inquiry talks in 2016, family members and survivors from Rigolet, Labrador told Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett that local RCMP calls in the north are often redirected to the St. John's RCMP detachment.

January 5, 2017 (Ottawa, ON) - The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has released their official Report Card on the activities of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Inquiry). Drafted to reflect the success of the Inquiry in meeting its directives and mandates as it progresses, NWAC is employing this tool to provide the public with a comprehensive update and in an effort to participate in and actively impact the operations of the inquiry going forward.

January 5, 2017 (Ottawa, ON) - The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has released their official Report Card on the activities of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Inquiry). Drafted to reflect the success of the Inquiry in meeting its directives and mandates as it progresses, NWAC is employing ...

The RCMP have made changes to how they investigate missing persons cases, months before a long-awaited inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls gets underway. As part of the updated policy, RCMP members must develop an investigative strategy for a missing persons case, which includes the completion of a missing person intake and risk assessment form that requires a supervisor's review and approval.

With 1,800 moccasin tops, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls are being honoured at the Mount Saint Vincent University art gallery.

How did inequality within indigenous communities - the most serious, current consequence being the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women - creep from out of mind to front of news coverage? It involved much determination, passion, and love. Journalist Angela Sterritt brings to life six stories from a movement finally resonating in Canada.

Special coverage and stories of Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women, and the effect of these tragedies on families left behind.

The recent announcement of a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women provides an opportunity to do something that goes beyond apologies and shame about the past. It's an opportunity to restore dignity by seeing justice done. We have seen public apologies, shame and sorrow in abundance.

Two years ago this month the body of a petite and pretty 15-year-old girl, Tina Fontaine, was found wrapped in plastic and dumped in Winnipeg's Red River. Her shocking murder might have been ignored in the rest of the country, just one in the RCMP's tally of more than 1,181 killings and disappearances of aboriginal girls and women since 1980.

Lita Blacksmith cracks open the door of her highrise apartment in Winnipeg's West End. She's ruffling her black, short-cropped hair as if she were drying it, though it doesn't appear wet. It's midday, mid-week. Cigarette smoke wafts into the hallway. A brief introduction. Then: "How did you find me?"

The inquiry itself would get underway next year. "A first step on the path to reconciliation will be addressing the heartbreaking reality that girls born in our indigenous communities are three times more likely to experience violent crime," Wilson-Raybould said as she launched the inquiry.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C.-Helen Knott remembers only that she was in an overcrowded apartment, not far from home, with another young woman and about eight men, all transient workers from outside the community.