VANCOUVER, B.C. (CU)_For the 30th year, the people of Vancouver, Canada, commemorated Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing across the country. Over 100 people marched through the city, banging drums and singing on Sunday afternoon (Feb 14), and the event was livestreamed on Facebook.
According to the organisers, the first march was held in 1992, in memory of the woman who was murdered on Powell Street in Vancouver.
“Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown East side, Unceded Coast Salish Territories,” they said in a statement ahead of the event.
One such organiser, Myrna Cranmer, told a local news outlet that the impetus behind the march is for the victim’s family and the community to grieve.
Over the past few decades, Indigenous people across Canada have expressed their disappointment over the inaction of the local authorities with regard to the disproportionately high rates of violence encountered by women and girls in their communities.
According to a report issued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 2014, nearly 1,200 Indigenous women had been murdered or gone missing between 1980 and 2012. However, community members and advocates say that the correct figure is likely far higher.
Following growing calls to stem the violence, the Canadian government launched the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2016, and in its final report in 2019, the inquiry found that the violence amounts to “a race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples”.
It noted that “ending this genocide and rebuilding Canada into a decolonized nation requires a new relationship and an equal partnership between all Canadians and Indigenous Peoples”, and made several recommendations, which included the establishment of a National Indigenous and Human Rights Ombudsperson and a Tribunal.
Implementing a National Action Plan to ensure equitable access to employment, housing, education, safety, and health care, as well as the provision of funding for awareness programs and campaigns related to violence prevention, were also among the recommendations made by the inquiry.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Canada’s Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett said the federal government is developing an action plan and is working to put in place “concrete actions to stop this national tragedy”.
Moreover, provincial government officials in British Columbia, including Premier John Horgan, also promised to address the issue of systemic racism against Indigenous peoples in the province.
However, community groups and Indigenous advocates have criticised the government for delays and the lack of sufficient action to stem the violence.
