By: Mia Rabson
2/11/2009 8:07 AM
OTTAWA — A national plan to combat exploitation of aboriginal women is in the works, but Ottawa has to take the lead, says Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson.
Federal and provincial aboriginal affairs ministers and leaders of the country’s five national aboriginal organizations met in Toronto last week for the first time in four years. Robinson said there was unanimous agreement to figure out a national strategy to finally deal with why hundreds of aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada in the last several years.
Robinson said federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl was “very receptive” to the idea.
Ottawa has been criticized recently for not yet agreeing to further fund the Sisters in Spirit Initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. The organization, which is documenting cases of missing and murdered women, has asked for an extension of its funding that runs out next year.
The federal government has said it is working with the group, but hasn’t yet agreed to further funding.
Sisters in Spirit has a database of more than 520 aboriginal women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered in the last four decades. About 75 are from Manitoba.
Manitoba has launched its own joint police task force to investigate more than two dozen unsolved cases of missing and murdered women.
In September, the province announced funding for a group of aboriginal and community agencies to guide the province in helping stop the exploitation of women.
Robinson said it may work to take those projects to a national level.
He said whatever the final plan is, it should not just be bureaucrats or community groups asked to do the work.
“We, as elected officials, ought not to be afraid of getting our fingers dirty,” he said.
“We can’t just slough it off to working groups.”
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Plan-to-target-abuse-of-aboriginal-women-68541867.html