Missing women deserve better
Justice Minister Peter MacKay didn’t think he needed to wait for the report by a Commons committee on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada to claim that he was on the right track to turn the page on more than a century of failed government strategy.
A day before the scheduled release of the long-awaited report, MacKay tossed like seed cast on barren ground a fistful of papers that detailed the Conservatives’ “get tough on crime” record as the solution.
Yet the Conservatives have passed laws that, for example, make it harder to get a pardon for a criminal record and find work, punish those who would abuse drugs, put out of reach for many — primarily aboriginal offenders — such measures as house arrest or better job training. They have curtailed judicial discretion that takes into account individual circumstances, and required surcharges that justices across Canada find difficult to accept.
These, the minister insists, will achieve in Canada what they’ve failed do anywhere else. MacKay was commenting in advance of the committee report, which detailed the devastating impact on society and particularly families of having aboriginal women so disproportionately affected by violence, murder and disappearances.
The list of contributing factors the committee heard range from the impact of residential schools and more than a century of attempted cultural and social destruction, to a lack of government support services, a badly damaged education system, to physical isolation on reserves and social isolation in large cities, to discrimination and neglect by police services, to a deep sense that Canada doesn’t care.
However, were it not for the seriousness of the topic, the report’s recommendations would seem a deliberate non sequitur. Replete with words such as “maintain,” “continue” and “encourage,” paternalistic preaching about the evils of drugs and addictions, calling for more data, and listing best practices, they suggest there is little to be learned from the many witnesses who sought an inquiry and/or action such as poverty reduction and social enhancements.
It’s worth noting that the report was informed by Saskatoon’s history. It begins with a description of the murders of Eva Taysup, Shelley Napope and Calinda Waterhen by John Crofford in the mid-1990s, and the observation by former StarPhoenix reporter Warren Goulding that the public doesn’t seem to care much about missing or murdered aboriginal women.
Saskatoon became internationally notorious for its treatment of aboriginals that culminated in the Neil Stonechild inquiry. Despite reluctance by some in the police service and community, that inquiry resulted in foundational changes in the city.
A plaque to missing women is central to the new police station; whenever someone is missing, regardless of colour or history, police policy is to make it a high priority; and Chief Clive Weighill is a regular participant in the annual walk for the missing. There is still much to do. But it took the soul-searching inquiry to create the mental framework for the task ahead. It is a framework, by the way, that doesn’t fit with MacKay’s tough agenda.
The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper’s editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.