Review policing during inquiry: advocates

OTTAWA— Aboriginal women tend to be “underprotected and overpoliced,” making it vital that the behaviour of police be examined in the upcoming inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women, advocates said Monday.

Indigenous women are grossly overrepresented in the prison system and commonly suffer from poverty and abuse, said Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.

Those who end up behind bars often share similar, vulnerable backgrounds with those who are mur- dered or go missing, she added.

“We know that the rates of violence . . . against indigenous women are particularly high, and they are also more likely to not have had support in addressing that violence.”

Pate said she hopes the inquiry will untangle the issues that make indigenous women vulnerable to becoming victims, as well as those that might make them more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. “If we end up with recommendations for better supports for women . . . we will end up seeing fewer people in all of those situations in my opinion.”

Dawn Lavell-Harvard, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, said many of the crimes linked to aboriginal women are related to desperation and circumstance. “We have seen, because of racism, that our women get less response (from police) and then when they’ve had to stand up for themselves . . . end up with harsher responses when . . . they’ve had to stand up against their abuser, against their attacker.”

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was not available for an interview Monday, but in a statement, her office said the government is hearing from survivors, family members and loved ones about what “they perceive to be an uneven application of justice.”