Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls

Justice Minister Suzanne Anton meets with Minister of State for Rural Economic Development Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett at her constituency office in Williams Lake Monday. As B.C.'s liaison to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Attorney General and Minister of Justice Suzanne Anton said there's no question that policing done by the RCMP now is very different than it was 20 years ago.

There are many reasons as to why wearing a race as a costume is not a respectful choice. But did you know it might also be perpetuating the sexualizing and dehumanization of indigenous women? The statistics and movement behind #MMIW might have you surprised.

Walking, camping and hitchhiking the entire width of British Columbia isn't exactly a typical activity for seniors care home residents, especially not ones experiencing dementia.

We arrived late. We were doctoral students who took up as our study the "public secret" (Taussig, 1999, pg. 2) behind the contemporary disappearance of Indigenous women from the midst of the Western Canadian cities in which they, and we, were living. Suzanne Vail was there before we were, having arrived in 1987. She is the protagonist of Katherine Govier's novel Between Men, a young historian obsessively studying the 1889 murder of a young Cree woman named Rosalie in Calgary, Alberta. Reading Between Men in 2010, we found ourselves anticipated in form and obsession. That Suzanne Vail is a fiction and we are nonfiction does nothing to quiet this shock; rather, it prompts us to engage (with) her as we think through crises of ontology and epistemology in relation to what haunts contemporary efforts to frame historical remembrance of "settling" the Canadian West as a time of conquest (over land and people) and nation-building, a time of progress and development. In this article, we argue that Suzanne's obsession with Rosalie in Between Men can help us understand just how we, as scholars, are implicated in these contests over history, and explore why this might matter as we struggle toward something that might resemble justice for murdered or missing Indigenous women in the present.

"An inquiry has to explore not only the role of policing, not only the role of poverty and addiction and mental health services ... it has to explore the role of government programs in supporting all those things."

The Urbane Indian I am a playwright, amongst a few other related professions. More specifically, a First Nation playwright, a contemporary storyteller, a teller of tales both dark and amusing. I, like many of my fellow literary artists, spend my career writing about the issues and problems faced by our present day Native population.

"Indigenous teen gives instructions to city police chief if she goes missing." This 14 year-old girl who dreams of being a surgeon, lawyer, or police officer lives every day with the awareness that she is four to five times more likely to go missing or be murdered than my non-Indigenous teenage niece living in the same city. When I think about what it must be like to carry around that burden, I find it hard to breathe.

It's become clear the idea to add men and boys to the scope of the MMIW inquiry has gained traction in 2016. But the burning question is why mess with it now? I have to admit I was a little offput initially.

SAN FRANCISCO-The made-on-Manitoulin music video for Crystal Shawanda's single 'Pray Sister Pray' has been nominated for 'Best Music Video' at the Friday, November 5 41st American Indian Film Institute Awards in San Francisco.

BIRCH ISLAND-After a few days spent together in ceremony and learning, families of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people gathered one final time, this time with members of the public by their side, at what was termed a 'pre-inquiry community circle,' held at the Whitefish River Community Centre last Thursday night.

Brenda Belak is the sex workers' rights campaign lawyer at Pivot Legal Society.

Helen Betty Osborne's story is timeless - and that's a fact I struggle with. I wish it wasn't. I wish she could be remembered only as the vibrant, driven and kind young woman she was. But for that to happen, change needs to happen.

An Ottawa police officer who publicly speculated that a celebrated Inuit artist may have "got drunk and fell in the river" while his colleagues were still investigating her unsolved death has been charged under the Police Services Act.

An upcoming multimedia project that includes a graphic novel aims to show how a young First Nations girl sees the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women. is a collaboration between author David Robertson, illustrator GMB Chomichuk and musician isKwé.

The Current has produced a virtual reality documentary about the notorious Highway of Tears where dozens of Indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered. Anna Maria Tremonti is in Prince George, B.C., hosting a public forum and shares more details.

Mary Akavak, a friend of Pootoogook, was one of the last people to see Pootoogook alive-just two days before her body was found. After a few other speakers had shared lengthy stories in Inuktitut, Akavak spoke earnestly in English, bridging the translation divide for non-Inuktitut speaking friends and reporters.

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - Oct. 14, 2016) - Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat Today, federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) ministers responsible for justice and public safety concluded two days of productive engagement, working on justice and public safety priorities for Canadians. An Elder welcomed ministers to traditional Mi'kmaw territory. Ministers discussed...

Almost two months since the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls began its work, the national Inuit women's group says it's had little communication with the commission. "We're frustrated," says Rebecca Kudloo, president of Pauktuutit. "We don't even have phone numbers to contact them. There's no connection."

Labels warning shoppers to "avoid contact" with a number of revealing Halloween costumes depicting indigenous women were on display at Regina's Spirit Halloween location. On Sunday, members of the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism (SCAR) entered Spirit Halloween and added two-sided labels to costumes named "Reservation Royalty" and "Wolf Dancer", among others.

On a warm Saturday night, 16-year-old Ramona Wilson said goodbye to her mother, left her home in Smithers, B.C., and headed out to meet her friends. It would be the last time Matilda Wilson would see her youngest child.