Today, I received an email from the NDP Critic for Aboriginal Affairs, Niki Ashton, reminding us that:''There have been more than 1,200 documented cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada over the last 30 years.'' ... an average of 40 missing and murdered Indigenous women per year, for 30 years.
The NDP's proposed solution: ''This International Women’s Day, we’re demanding Stephen Harper take immediate action to end violence against women. '' Niki is asking us to sign for this call. And the NDP electoral campaign to address the issue as follow:
A
national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women is a
critical part of the NDP’s plan to end violence against women. We must
also reverse the damage Stephen Harper has done by cutting programs
women rely on and refusing to fund groups that advocate for women.
My comments:
1) A serious inquiry is certainly a good start if it hasn't been done so far in 30 years! However, there is a silence about the nature of the inquiry. The killing of 1200 aboriginal women isn't a case of individual crime to be given to the police or RCMP, who are actually suspected to be part of the problem (see, for example, the killing and violence against aboriginals by security forces during Mike Harris premiership in Ontario; I am sure many other examples can be cited. It obviously is a societal and political issue. What kind of researches our social science, political science, and sociology departments, within so many Canadian universities, are engaged in, if they have disregarded for 30 years such crucial social and political phenomenon of the killing and disappearance of 40 aboriginal women per year in average? My comments:
Yes, a serious inquiry is necessary and should be done. But I also hope everyone would agree it should be done not by police and security forces but by an academy, and by scholars well-known for their expertise and knowledge, their neutrality, and their independence of mind.
Then the result of such inquiry should be followed by action to cure this ill.
2) Contrary to what NDP Critic, Niki Ashton, is saying and implying, I am not sure how much Harper's 'cutting programs women rely on' (not necessarily aboriginal women) is the cause for violence, and how much 'funding groups that advocate for women' (not necessarily aboriginal women) will be the solution, for 30 years of killing Aboriginal women.But of course, Ashton is engaged in an electoral campaign.
To help ending violence against Aboriginal Women, against women in general, against men and women in general, to help ending violence in general, we need to put an ending to our violent society. We need an ideological upheaval, a radical change in the way we live in the agonizing modern society, not to go backward, back to the ideology of Abraham who would kill in the name of 'God', Jehovah or Allah, but to move forward to a new post-modern society of peace building, love and welfare, thanks to all the technological progress we made in the past centuries. We need to change our social, political, and economic model to be in line with our industrial and technological progresses. The level of our social conscience and awareness should adapt to the level of our science and knowledge. We need to change our moral principles not only in abstract and philosophy but by applying them in the social practice. We need to stop everything that promotes, allows, and encourages violence. Violence against nature, and particularly violence against animals. All kind of violence. Including violence in our old religious books, called sacred, including violence we are teaching our kids, including violence promoted by our political leaders, including violence by some men considered to be heroes, who, in front of millions of people watching them, including youngsters of all ages, beat and hit each other in the face with closed fists, without being arrested.
And this isn't just a plan for one particular Day. Every day must be Women's Day!
