Topic: Missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada Thesis Statement: Given the struggles aboriginals have had to face in Canada, the Canadian government should take action to solve the hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women, as it will strengthen the relations between aboriginals and Canadians. Introduction • Opening Hook Line: Aboriginal women deserve basic human rights and attention from the government. • Narrowing towards thesis: “Aboriginal women between 25 and 44 are five times more likely to die a violent death than other women.”( The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada). • Thesis: Given the struggles aboriginals have had to face in Canada, the Canadian government should take action to …show more content…
solve the hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women, as it will strengthen the relations between aboriginals and Canadians. Section 1 Heading: Background on Aboriginal Women Part 1: Cultural Factors • Supporting point: Aboriginals have faced years of institutionalized racism and are usually portrayed negatively in the media, resulting in distrust of the authorities. • Quote: “A longstanding concern is that the criminal justice system fails to recognize the customs, values and traditions of Aboriginal people.” ( The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada). Part 2: Social and Economic Factors • Supporting point: Aboriginal women have the highest poverty rates in Canada.
There are also a high number of Aboriginal women working in the sex trade. • Quote: “Aboriginal women being highly overrepresented as sex trade workers; racism compounds the threat to safety and security faced by all such workers.”(Mann par. 8). Section 2 Heading: The Role of the Authorities Part 1: Canadian Police (RCMP) • Supporting point: The Canadian Police views the Aboriginal community as a community that does not deserve protection because of high crime rates, instead they view it as the rest of the country needing protection from the Aboriginal community. The Canadian Police tends to do very little when an Aboriginal woman is reported missing, they often suggest the family to wait for the missing woman instead of taking immediate action. In addition, few police forces have special protocols they follow when an Aboriginal woman goes missing. • Quote: “[ . . . ] most police officers need a fair and open attitude towards those working in the sex trade and must learn to treat street people as human beings—with dignity and respect.” (Harper par. …show more content…
16). Part 2: The Media • Supporting point: Aboriginal women receive less media coverage than white women do. Missing white women are more likely to be front-page news than missing Aboriginal women. The reason for this is because people tend to blame the victims. Aboriginal women are considered ‘impure’ compared to white women because they are linked to being drug or alcohol abusers and sex trade workers. The reason behind the abundance of missing and murdered Aboriginal women is justified. It is because the women but themselves in danger by participating in high risk activities that they deserve to get killed, whereas white women, who are not linked to racial stereotypes get the sympathy of the entire country. • Quote: “Aboriginal women received twenty-seven times less national print- news attention than the missing/murdered White women. Findings also suggest that dispassionate and less-detailed, headlines, articles, and images further render Aboriginal victims invisible others.” (Invisible Victims: Disparity in Print-News Media Coverage of Missing/Murdered Aboriginal and White Women). Part 3: The Prime Minister of Canada- Stephen Harper and the National Inquiry • Supporting point: As a result of the plethora of missing and murdered Aboriginal women, Aboriginal leaders and organizations are pushing for a National Public Inquiry into the issue. As of Stephen Harper’s reign as prime minister of Canada, a National Public Inquiry has not gone into effect. • Quote: “I think that we should not view this as sociological phenomenon. We should view it as a crime.” Said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Section 3 Heading: Time for Change Part 1: Receiving Proper Support from the Authorities • Supporting point: Aboriginal women who are not Metis or do not have First Nations status are excluded from programs and benefits provided by the government. All Aboriginal women deserve to join programs that help them avoid the cycle of violence and strengthen their confidence. The benefits provided from having a First Nations status can help Aboriginal women who are single mothers or the main income earners of the household. Doing so will lessen the amount of women going into the sex trade to support themselves and it will also help Aboriginal women who suffer from substance and alcohol abuse because of poverty. • Quote: “In 1985, the Canadian government passed Bill C-31, amending the Indian status and band membership provisions of the Indian Act.
The amendments were intended to rid the Act of sex discrimination; nonetheless, the provisions still discriminate against women and their children and are damaging for First Nations communities.” (Mann par.11). Part 2: A Deeper Issue than Domestic Violence • Supporting point: The RCMP states that Aboriginal women who were victims of homicide knew their killers in 100 percent of the solved cases. It is a fact that violence in the family is a huge factor in the abundance of missing and murdered Aboriginal women, however, it is not only exclusive to Aboriginal families. Family violence plays a role in the amount of missing and murdered Aboriginal women but a high number of strangers are involved in the crime as well. • Quote: “Between 1980 and 2012, 62 per cent of aboriginal women murders involved a spouse, family member, or "other intimates."But that number increases to 74 per cent in the case of non-aboriginal female homicides.” (Kurjata par.17).
Conclusion Violence against Aboriginal women is often misunderstood and is shoved into the category of regular homicide cases when it is a much deeper issue with underlying tones of racism presented in the media and practiced by the authorities. Women of aboriginal descent have to face racial stereotypes and objectification every day of their lives. Aboriginal women deserve basic human rights and attention from the government, as it will strengthen the relations between the aboriginal community and Canadians. As Canadians, we must take action and support Aboriginal women to break the cycle of violence and analyze the media and authorities critically if they abuse their power, doing so will take us a step closer to protecting Aboriginal women and strengthening our Canadian values.
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
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Do you know that despite Canada being called multicultural and accepting, Canada’s history reveals many secrets that contradicts this statement? Such an example are Canadian aboriginals, who have faced many struggles by Canadian society; losing their rights, freedoms and almost, their culture. However, Native people still made many contributions to Canadian society. Despite the efforts being made to recognize aboriginals in the present day; the attitudes of European Canadians, acts of discrimination from the government, and the effects caused by the past still seen today have proven that Canadians should not be proud of Canada’s history with respect to human rights since 1914. First, is because of the attitudes of European Canadians towards aboriginals, which were mostly cruel and inhumane.
Canada likes to paint an image of peace, justice and equality for all, when, in reality, the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in our country has been anything but. Laden with incomprehensible assimilation and destruction, the history of Canada is a shameful story of dismantlement of Indian rights, of blatant lies and mistrust, and of complete lack of interest in the well-being of First Nations peoples. Though some breakthroughs were made over the years, the overall arching story fits into Cardinal’s description exactly. “Clearly something must be done,” states Murray Sinclair (p. 184, 1994). And that ‘something’ he refers to is drastic change. It is evident, therefore, that Harold Cardinal’s statement is an accurate summarization of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous relationship in
During the late sixteen century, when the first fleet arrived to Australia and discovered the free settlers or known as Australian Indigenous inheritors (The Aborigines), the community of aboriginal inhabitants since then have experienced vast levels of discrimination and racism against their gender, race, colour and ethnicity. The term over representations refers to the presents of minority or disproportionate ethnic aboriginal groups represented in the criminal justice system (CJS). This essay will further explain the relationship between aboriginal communities and policing discussed in Blagg (2008) and Cunneen (2007, the three major sources of concern in association to aboriginal over representation in CJS which include; systematic bias,
Generations of native people in Canada have faced suffering and cultural loss as a result of European colonization of their land. Government legislation has impacted the lives of five generations of First Nations people and as a result the fifth generation (from 1980 to present) is working to recover from their crippled cultural identity (Deiter-McArthur 379-380). This current generation is living with the fallout of previous government policies and societal prejudices that linger from four generations previous. Unrepentant, Canada’s ‘Genocide’, and Saskatchewan’s Indian People – Five Generations highlight issues that negatively influence First Nations people. The fifth generation of native people struggle against tremendous adversity in regard to assimilation, integration, separation, and recovering their cultural identity with inadequate assistance from our great nation.
Living in Canada, there is a long past with the Indigenous people. The relationship between the white and First Nations community is one that is damaged because of our shameful actions in the 1800’s. Unnecessary measures were taken when the Canadian government planned to assimilate the Aboriginal people. Through the Indian Act and Residential schools the government attempted to take away their culture and “kill the Indian in the child.” The Indian Act allowed the government to take control over the people, the residential schools took away their culture and tore apart their families, and now we are left with not only a broken relationship between the First Nations people but they are trying to put back together their lives while still living with a harsh reality of their past.
It is the belief of first nations that the healing process and renewal of relationships are the essential ingredients for the building of healthy First Nations communities. First nations realize that the current justice process does not address the real issues at hand nor does it fit into their traditional forms of achieving justice. In fact, the current justice process systematically removes the offenders from their people and communities effectively severing all ties and ...
The Indian act, since being passed by Parliament in 1876, has been quite the validity test for Aboriginal affairs occurring in Canada. Only a minority of documents in Canadian history have bred as much dismay, anger and debate compared to the Indian Act—but the legislation continues as a central element in the management of Aboriginal affairs in Canada. Aboriginal hatred against current and historic terms of the Indian Act is powerful, but Indigenous governments and politicians stand on different sides of the fence pertaining to value and/or purpose of the legislation. This is not shocking, considering the political cultures and structures of Aboriginal communities have been distorted and created by the imposition of the Indian Act.
Despite the decreasing inequalities between men and women in both private and public spheres, aboriginal women continue to be oppressed and discriminated against in both. Aboriginal people in Canada are the indigenous group of people that were residing in Canada prior to the European colonization. The term First Nations, Indian and indigenous are used interchangeably when referring to aboriginal people. Prior to the colonization, aboriginal communities used to be matrilineal and the power between men and women were equally balanced. When the European came in contact with the aboriginal, there came a shift in gender role and power control leading towards discrimination against the women. As a consequence of the colonization, the aboriginal women are a dominant group that are constantly subordinated and ignored by the government system of Canada. Thus today, aboriginal women experiences double jeopardy as they belong to more than one disadvantaged group i.e. being women and belonging to aboriginal group. In contemporary world, there are not much of a difference between Aboriginal people and the other minority groups as they face the similar challenges such as gender discrimination, victimization, and experiences injustice towards them. Although aboriginal people are not considered as visible minorities, this population continues to struggle for their existence like any other visible minorities group. Although both aboriginal men and women are being discriminated in our society, the women tends to experience more discrimination in public and private sphere and are constantly the targeted for violence, abuse and are victimized. In addition, many of the problems and violence faced by aborigin...
“In about half of the Dominion, the aboriginal rights of Indians have arguably been extinguished by treaty” (Sanders, 13). The traditions and culture of Aboriginals are vanishing at a quick pace, and along it is their wealth. If the Canadian Government restore Native rights over resource development once again, Aboriginals would be able to gain back wealth and help with the poverty in their societies. “An influential lobby group with close ties to the federal Conservatives is recommending that Ottawa ditch the Indian Act and give First Nations more control over their land in order to end aboriginal poverty once and for all” (End First). This recommendation would increase the income within Native communities, helping them jump out of
Comack, E. (2012). Racialized policing: Aboriginal people's encounters with the police. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing.
The documentary Finding Dawn by Christine Welsh portrayed the violence and discrimination experienced by Aboriginal women and girls in Canada as a national tragedy. The national tragedy is illustrated as the overlooked murders and disappearances of an estimated 500 Aboriginal women in Canada over the past 30 years (Finding Dawn, 2006). It was apparent while viewing this documentary that embedded historical, social and economic factors have negatively contributed to this national tragedy receiving meager attention in Canada. Thus, the issues presented in Finding Dawn is in fact a representation of wider social problems correlating to issues of oppression, ethnocentrism, racism and assimilation in our society.