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Action group to protect native women

Province looks for ways to grapple with crisis, minister says

By: Gabrielle Giroday

Posted: 09/4/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Cherisse Houle, 17, was found dead on the outskirts of Winnipeg this summer. Her death is considered suspicious.

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Hillary Angel Wilson wrote a tribute on a Facebook memorial to her friend Cherisse Houle about six weeks before she was found dead on Winnipeg's outskirts. Her death is considered to be a homicide. (CNS)

Five years after an international report shamed Canadian authorities for the high number of missing and murdered aboriginal women, the Manitoba government has struck an action group dedicated to protecting them.

Acting aboriginal affairs Minister Eric Robinson announced Thursday the province is bringing together aboriginal organizations and community agencies to help guide the Manitoba government in stopping abuse and exploitation of vulnerable women and girls.

He said he was deeply pained by the homicide of Hillary Angel Wilson, 18, and the suspicious death of Cherisse Houle, 17. Both were found on the outskirts of Winnipeg this summer.

Work was underway on the action group before those deaths, he said.

"I wish we had announced this before any other deaths occurred..., but apparently sometimes government -- and I take responsibility -- sometimes government works slow," Robinson said.

"It's long overdue, unfortunately."

In 2004, Amnesty International's Stolen Sisters report said Canadian officials needed to publicly acknowledge high rates of violence against indigenous women, as well as fund research and provide services like shelters and counselling for vulnerable women.

The action group includes representatives of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Métis Women of Manitoba, Mother of Red Nations Women's Council and the Native Women's Transition Centre.

The province has hired a special advisor to communicate with members of the action group and provide direction to the Manitoba government on grappling with the crisis, Robinson said.

Part of the group's mandate is to review if recommendations from inquests and reports on vulnerable and exploited women and girls have been implemented.

The group will use existing provincial funds to operate, the minister said.

"This is a problem of all society. It's not only an aboriginal problem," Robinson said. "The government is, for the first time in this country, becoming engaged in problems that it's not really become involved (in) before."

The group will support the Manitoba Integrated Task Force for Missing and Murdered Women launched last week -- a combined RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service effort dedicated to examining unsolved cases.

Mounties also launched a review last month into all unsolved homicides or deaths where foul play is suspected. They have not released the number of cases under review.

Merle Green, Mother of Red Nations executive director, said she has sat down with two families of murdered and missing women since she assumed her role in June.

Three other victims' families in Northern Manitoba have also contacted her about cases that remain unsolved.

Many victims' families need information on victim services, financial assistance or coping with media coverage.

"(The action group) is to bring the voices of all the missing and murdered aboriginal women to the table, and the experience of the families," she said.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 4, 2009 A5

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