For over 30 years, families, survivors and community members and allies of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Vancouver East have marched in the February 14th Women’s Memorial March, calling for justice. Since the 1970s, thousands of Indigenous women have gone missing or were murdered. To this day, hundreds of cases involving Indigenous women and girls remain unresolved. The National Inquiry into MMIWG’s final report called this atrocity a genocide.
To end the genocide of Indigenous women and girls, the government must fully implement all 231 calls for justice from the National Inquiry with an Indigenous women led national action plan that outline timelines, responsibilities, milestones, indicators, resources and indigenous leadership for each and every call for justice, as well as regional and sector-specific reports and recommendations.
In addition, the government must continue to listen and give full support to Indigenous women-led initiatives grassroots, including direct funding for families still in search of their loved ones.
The National Inquiry into MMIWG is a significant initiative the government has undertaken. I applaud this important move and have high hopes and dreams that this inquiry will bring justice so many have sought for so long. The inquiry must also move beyond studying systemic causes of violence—it must address them, too.
