Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has joined the We Care campaign calling for a national inquiry on murdered and missing Indigenous women.
CBC has reported, “A social media campaign to keep the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women in the spotlight is taking off. Leah Gazan started the We Care campaign about three weeks ago after speaking with a woman named Rain Hamilton, a local Manitoba artist who was really shaken by the story of Tina Fontaine — the 15-year-old girl whose body was pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River in August. Gazan and Hamilton are asking people to take a photo while holding up a sign with the hashtags #WeCare and #MMIW.”
The Winnipeg chapter of the Council of Canadians has also been encouraging people to participate in this campaign.
The Council of Canadians has repeatedly called for a national inquiry to take place. The three opposition parties agree that an inquiry is needed to understand the root causes of this and to develop a national action plan, but the Harper government has refused to convene one.
Indigenous women make up 4.3 per cent of the Canadian population but account for 16 per cent of murdered women and 11.3 per cent of missing women in Canada. APTN reported in May that over the past 30 years, 1,026 Indigenous women have been murdered and 160 are missing. Sadly those numbers only continue to increase.
To take part in the We Care campaign, please see their Facebook page here.
Further reading
Barlow stands in solidarity with blockade of CN Rail demanding national inquiry (March 2014 blog)
Council visits Sacred Fire in support of an inquiry on murdered and missing Indigenous women (October 2014 blog)
Council of Canadians calls for national action on murdered and missing Indigenous women (August 2014 blog)
Harper at odds with calls for inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women (August 2014 blog)
