In response to a report about the Liberals’ failure to implement all Calls for Justice by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, NDP Critic for Women and Gender Equality Leah Gazan issued the following statement:
“It’s completely unacceptable that four years after the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, this Liberal government has only completed two of the 231 Calls for Justice, and more than half haven’t even been started.
Families and survivors cannot wait any longer for action to end the violence. While this government fails to act, Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people continue to go missing or be murdered.
In May, all parties, including the Liberals, voted unanimously to recognize the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people crisis as a Canada-wide emergency. Recognizing the urgency of this crisis is not enough – the Liberals must back up their words with concrete and urgent action to save lives.
Our loved ones deserve justice now, and they deserve to be safe.”
Canadian activists detained by Israel last month while taking part in an aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza say Canada isn’t doing enough to call out treatment by Israeli officials that Ottawa has called appalling.
While Israel has rejected claims of abuse, flotilla participant Ehab Lotayef said Wednesday Israeli officials beat him on the chest and ribs, put him in uncomfortable positions for long periods and slashed his hand when he tried to help a fellow detainee.
“We felt that we were let down by Canada before anybody else, to be honest, because the Canadian government knew all that was happening,” Lotayef told a news conference on Parliament Hill.
“When we needed them was when we were being tortured — and the whole world knew that that was happening.”
Activist flotillas have tried repeatedly to reach the Gaza Strip to draw attention to tight restrictions on humanitarian supplies for Palestinians. Israel has intercepted these boats, often in international waters.
Lotayef was one of 12 Canadians among 420 flotilla activists detained by Israeli authorities last month. Their detention gained international notoriety when Israel’s Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting the detained activists.
