Call to Action on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls – 2020

BACKGROUND: In June 2019, the Government of Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released their final report, which reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning (2SLGBTQQIA) people. The two-volume report based on the testimony of more than 2,380 survivors of violence, family members of victims and survivors, and experts calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country. The Business and Professional Women of Canada are aware of the injustices against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA in Canada and support the truths within the report and the 231 individual calls for justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries, and all Canadians. In 2019 the Business and Professional Women of Canada passed a resolution declaring its support of the findings and recommendations of the Final Report. As documented in the Final Report, testimony from thousands of survivors of violence and family members of victims and survivors demonstrated the surrounding context of multigenerational and intergenerational trauma as well as marginalization in the form of poverty; insecure housing or homelessness; and barriers to education, employment, healthcare and cultural support. Experts and Knowledge Keepe+J601rs referenced specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in comm+J601unities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence.
The federal government failed to honor their commitment to produce a National Action Plan to address the 231 Calls to Justice of the National Inquiry by June 2020 and furthermore, will not commit to a revised date for a National Action Plan. On June 3, 2020, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) issued a failing grade to the federal government due to its “lack of action plan”.