Canada has several anti-discrimination laws that are meant to protect all Canadians, the definition of which is meant to include Indigenous women. Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, passed in 1982, gives all Canadian equal rights to life, liberty, and security of the person. And yet, the law fails to protect Indigenous women time and time again. According to the 2015 NWAC (Native Women’s Association of Canada)’s fact sheet on missing and murdered Indigenous women, approximately 10% of all female homicides in Canada are Indigenous women and girls. However, Indigenous women only make up 3% of the female population. Regardless of the anti-discrimination laws, violence affects Indigenous women disproportionately because
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Although these schools were a government initiative, they were under-funded and neglected. Many of the children who attended experienced inhumane living conditions. School staff approved of and regularly carried out harsh punishment against the students, including heavy beatings, starvation, and chaining them to their beds. Furthermore, because of society’s indifference towards residential school students, many staff members sexually and physically abused the students without any fear of consequences. Government officials who were responsible for the wellbeing of the students ignored even the most horrifying cases of abuse. In other words, sexual and physical abuse against Indigenous women and children was tolerated and allowed under Canadian law. This abuse led to some women being alienated after leaving the residential schools. Edna Brass, an Indigenous woman living in Vancouver, spent 13 years in residential school. During her time there, in addition to having her culture forcibly taken away from her she was continuously raped, abused, and beaten by members of the staff. These experiences led Edna to becoming addicted to drugs and living on the streets. Like many other Indigenous women, the government and its policies like residential schools forced Edna into the dangerous life of the “other”. In …show more content…
Sarah was of mixed black, Indigenous, and Mexican Indigenous heritage. When she was 11 months old, a white family living in the prosperous (and at the time, predominantly white) neighbourhood of West Vancouver adopted her. Although Sarah loved her family, her adoptive sister Maggie felt that Sarah had difficulty feeling like she belonged in her family and her neighbourhood because she was visibly different. Sarah ran away from home several times, and worked as a sex worker in Vancouver’s “othered” space, the Downtown East Side. She developed a drug habit, and lived on the streets. On April 14th 1998 she went missing. Though a friend tried to file a missing persons report with the police, they refused him because he was not a family member. When Sarah’s sister Maggie filed the report, the police allowed 10 days to pass between Sarah’s disappearance and interviewing Maggie. Maggie commented that the police did not mobilize a proper and well-coordinated investigation into Sarah’s disappearance. As a result, Sarah was never found. Like Dawn Crey, police found her DNA on the Pickton farm and Pickton was charged with her
Although these schools were a government initiative, they were under-funded and neglected. Many of the children who attended experienced inhumane living conditions. School staff approved of and regularly carried out harsh punishment against the students, including heavy beatings, starvation, and chaining them to their beds. Furthermore, because of society’s indifference towards residential school students, many staff members sexually and physically abused the students without any fear of consequences. Government officials who were responsible for the wellbeing of the students ignored even the most horrifying cases of abuse. In other words, sexual and physical abuse against Indigenous women and children was tolerated and allowed under Canadian law. This abuse led to some women being alienated after leaving the residential schools. Edna Brass, an Indigenous woman living in Vancouver, spent 13 years in residential school. During her time there, in addition to having her culture forcibly taken away from her she was continuously raped, abused, and beaten by members of the staff. These experiences led Edna to becoming addicted to drugs and living on the streets. Like many other Indigenous women, the government and its policies like residential schools forced Edna into the dangerous life of the “other”. In …show more content…
Sarah was of mixed black, Indigenous, and Mexican Indigenous heritage. When she was 11 months old, a white family living in the prosperous (and at the time, predominantly white) neighbourhood of West Vancouver adopted her. Although Sarah loved her family, her adoptive sister Maggie felt that Sarah had difficulty feeling like she belonged in her family and her neighbourhood because she was visibly different. Sarah ran away from home several times, and worked as a sex worker in Vancouver’s “othered” space, the Downtown East Side. She developed a drug habit, and lived on the streets. On April 14th 1998 she went missing. Though a friend tried to file a missing persons report with the police, they refused him because he was not a family member. When Sarah’s sister Maggie filed the report, the police allowed 10 days to pass between Sarah’s disappearance and interviewing Maggie. Maggie commented that the police did not mobilize a proper and well-coordinated investigation into Sarah’s disappearance. As a result, Sarah was never found. Like Dawn Crey, police found her DNA on the Pickton farm and Pickton was charged with her