Governments change, priorities change… and genocide goes on

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau said in June 2019 that his government accepted the findings of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The inquiry concluded that the violence against Indigenous women, girls and LGBTTQ+ peoples amounted to an ongoing “genocide.”

For anyone who has not read the 1,200-page report, entitled Reclaiming Power and Place, the inquiry concluded that much of the violence committed against Indigenous women and girls is “caused by state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies.”

Essentially, the report said, the centuries-old, systemic genocide of MMIWG and LGBTTQ+ peoples continued to course through Canadian life.

To deal with the problem, the commissioners recommended 231 “calls for justice” to be taken up by all levels of institutions in the country (governments, police, health and child and family services, specifically) alongside the creation of economic and social safe spaces.

At the same time, Indigenous women, girls and LGBTTQ+ peoples must be respected and restored into a place of honour in Indigenous communities.

Even as a prime minister recognized a genocide was occurring, though, very little changed other than the level of funding flowing of some organizations and short-term initiatives.

After public reaction to the news that murdered Indigenous women had been disposed of in local landfills in 2023, however, the House of Commons unanimously supported a motion to declare the ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTTQ+ people a “Canada-wide emergency.”

Spearheaded by Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan, the motion also called on the federal government to provide increased, immediate and substantial funding for programs and initiatives – including a “Red Dress Alert” system to notify the public when an Indigenous person goes missing.

Like other initiatives, however, the Red Dress Alert system received only enough funding for a regional study on its feasibility.

The study report was released in December, but nothing has happened since. And the national emergency — a genocide, no less — gets worse.

Data from Statistic Canada shows the homicide rate for Indigenous women and girls is more than six times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous women.

Nearly one-fifth (17 per cent) of Indigenous women have experienced at least one form of intimate partner violence. For Indigenous women who identify as LGBTTQ+, the number is a shocking 86 per cent.

More than four in 10 (43 per cent) of Indigenous women have been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15.

Last Wednesday, representatives from the National Family and Survivors Circle joined the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak, Giganawenimaanaanig and Gazan on Parliament Hill to call for continued government support for their programs.

In the wake of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government order to slash 15 per cent of federal department budgets, eliminate 16,000 public service jobs by 2029 and find savings in the neighbourhood of $200 billion dollars, many organizations and initiatives addressing violence against Indigenous women, girls and LGBTTQ+ people are seeing their funding commitments ending.

At the same time, more money is flowing toward areas identified by the inquiry as having contributed to the violence that has plagued people in Indigenous communities.

Policing, for example, is being funded at historically high levels across the country.

The Carney government is about to invest billions into resource-extraction projects in “the national interest” that will introduce money and work camps to First Nations communities — and will, no doubt, bring challenges and harm.

And Carney’s departmental savings are going to Canada’s $63-billion investment in national defence.

Some might argue that the reallocation of money towards defence is a critical need, as the world watches U.S. President Donald Trump lurch from one erratic militaristic threat to the next. But that raises the question of whether borrowing from attempts to solve one emergency to deal with another solves anything or simply makes everything worse.

“When we’re looking at the safety and human security of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit and gender-diverse people, it’s really critical that organizations who are doing this important work — and even through the lens of prevention and economic participation — that they receive long-term, sustainable and equitable funding,” said Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, president of the National Family and Survivors Circle.

“They’re severely underfunded. There’s a real power imbalance.”

And then there is the issue of trust.

Does Canada under Trudeau’s successor continue to acknowledge the existence of the genocide of Indigenous women and girls and LGBTTQ+ people?

Does a former prime minister’s recognition and a unanimously agreed-upon parliamentary motion mean anything?

Is the current federal government committed to the same things the previous federal government was?

Is seven years of piecemeal funding that barely scratched the surface of the problem adequate?

The answer, across the board, would appear to be no.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca