This year’s march to remember missing and murdered women is taking on an Idle No More aspect, with morning rush-hour rallies at busy intersections downtown on Thursday. In addition, there will be an  evening march, with marchers gathering at Young United Church, 100-222 Furby Street at 5:30 p.m.

In Winnipeg, organizers said through Facebook postings that supporters are being called to downtown intersections from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to rally for the event. The event is marked with the signature logo of the Idle No More movement that rose to national prominence late last year in the wake of controversy over federal omnibus budget bills.

This year, the focus is on action, with community groups and aboriginal leaders expected to repeat calls for a national inquiry on some 600 missing and murdered women in Canada. There are similar events in cities across the country.

Amid cold-case investigations in deaths and disappearances going back decades in prairie provinces like Manitoba, the emphasis this year is on widening the scope of responsibility for, and the perpetuation of violence against, aboriginal women.

The latest report on the issue, by the Human Rights Watch, finds serious fault with the Mounties, for failing to protect aboriginal women from violence.

The 89-page report, Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada, documents both ongoing police failures to protect indigenous women and girls in the north from violence and violent behavior by police officers against women and girls.

Police failures and abuses add to longstanding tensions between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and indigenous communities in the region, Human Rights Watch said on its website.