Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women invites you and yours to attend, spread the word about, and participate in this year’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women on Tuesday February 14th, 5:30pm at Cabot Square (St.Catherine and Atwater), Montreal.

Please contact us for more information and promotional material.

–français ci-dessous–

Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women invites you and yours to attend, spread the word about, and participate in this year’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women on Tuesday February 14th, 5:30pm at Cabot Square (St.Catherine and Atwater).

Please contact us for more information and promotional material.

Guests & Speakers will include:

Michèle Audette, President of Québec Native Women (QNW)

Anna-Aude Caouette, STELLA

Karine Myrgianie Jean-François, Girls Action Foundation

South Asian Women’s Community Centre

Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal

Bridget Tolley, Sisters in Spirit

Tiohtiake Drum

Moe Clark

MORE INFORMATION IS COMING SHORTLY

Thank you,
Missing Justice
justiceformissing@gmail.com
514-937-2110

Tue, 13 Dec 2011

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has decided to conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls across Canada. The Committee, composed of 23 independent experts from around the world, is the UN’s main authority on women’s human rights. The Committee’s decision was announced today by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), and Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA).

The inquiry procedure is used to investigate what the Committee believes to be very serious violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In January and in September 2011, faced with the continuing failures of Canadian governments to take effective action in connection with the murders and disappearances, FAFIA and NWAC requested the Committee to launch an inquiry. Canada has signed on to the treaty, known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which authorizes the Committee to investigate allegations of “grave or systematic” violations of the Convention by means of an inquiry. Now that the Committee has formally initiated the inquiry, Canada will be expected to cooperate with the Committee’s investigation.

“FAFIA and NWAC requested this Inquiry because violence against Aboriginal women and girls is a national tragedy that demands immediate and concerted action,” said Jeannette Corbiere Lavell. “Aboriginal women in Canada experience rates of violence 3.5 times higher than non- Aboriginal women, and young Aboriginal women are five times more likely to die of violence. NWAC has documented the disappearances and murders of over 600 Aboriginal women and girls in Canada over about twenty years, and we believe that there may be many more. The response of law enforcement and other government officials has been slow, often dismissive of reports made by family members of missing women, uncoordinated and generally inadequate.”

“These murders and disappearances have their roots in systemic discrimination and in the denial of basic economic and social rights” said Sharon McIvor of FAFIA. “We believe that the CEDAW Committee can play a vital role not only in securing justice for the women and girls who have died or disappeared, but also in preventing future violations, by identifying the action that Canadian governments must take to address the root causes. Canada has not lived up to its obligations under international human rights law to prevent, investigate and remedy violence against Aboriginal women and girls.”

“The Committee carried out an inquiry into similar violations in Mexico five years ago and we expect the process will follow the same lines here in Canada,” said McIvor. “Mexico invited the Committee’s representatives to make an on-site visit and during the visit the representatives interviewed victim’s families, government officials at all levels, and NGOs. The Committee’s report on the inquiry spelled out the steps that Mexico should take regarding the individual cases and the systemic discrimination underlying the violations. Mexican women’s groups say that the Committee’s intervention helped to spur Government action and we hope to see the same result here in Canada, said McIvor.”

For further information, please contact:
Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President Native Women’s Association of Canada, Tel.: 613-899-2343
Sharon McIvor Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Tel.: 250-378-7479
For assistance, please contact:
Claudette Dumont-Smith, Executive Director Native Women’s Association of Canada, Tel.: 613-656-3004
Shelagh Day, Chair, Human Rights Committee Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Tel.: 604-872-0750

Bus from Montreal to Parliament Hill in Ottawa leaves Monday, September 19th at 7:30am. Meet at 2110 Mackay (Métro Guy-Concordia). We will be back in Montreal by 5pm the same day.

Missing Justice (Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous women) and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy invite you to join us for a half-day trip to Ottawa for the 4th Annual Walk4Justice.

Join a a truly amazing group of First Nations women and men who have walked all the way from Vancouver to Ottawa (a 3-month walk!) to raise awareness about missing and murdered Native women in Canada and the realities that they and their families and loved ones face in their efforts to gain justice and resolution.

Some Background:

The Walk4Justice is a Vancouver-based nonprofit volunteer-run organization that was created in January 2008. Gladys Radek and Bernie Williams co-founded this group to raise awareness about the epidemic rates of missing and murdered women across Canada. Their supporters consist of First Nations women and men, family members who have lost their loved ones, and grassroots people of all walks of life who have joined them in their efforts to demand justice, closure, equality and accountability.

Gladys Radek is originally from northern BC. She is a Small Frog or Lax il’u following her mother’s materlinial line under the Wet su wit ‘en clan system. She is a mother of five, 1 son and 4 daughters and has 5 grandchildren, 2 boys and 3 girls. Radek resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Bernie Williams (Skundaal) of the Haida Gwai Nation is a long time advocate and voice for women who have been forced to live on the streets of Canada’s poorest postal code, the Downtown Eastside (DTES). She has been a frontline worker in the DTES for 25 years. Her mother and two sisters were all victims of violence who were murdered in the DTES.

We encourage you to RSVP to ensure your spot on the bus by writing to campaigns@centre2110.org or calling 514-937-2110.

Coffee will be provided! Please spread the word and invite your friends! We know it is early but the support that a bus-full of Montreal supporters would bring to the rally is invaluable.

More info: centre2110.org // missingjustice.ca

http://www.avisderecherche.tv/index.php?var=415

La famille de Tiffany Morrison offre une récompense.
Tiffany Morrison avait 25 ans lorsqu’elle a été vue pour la dernière fois en juin 2006. Son corps a été retrouvé l’an dernier à quelques kilomètres de l’endroit où elle avait été vue pour la dernière fois. Sa famille offre désormais une récompense pour retrouver le meurtrier de Tiffany. Tous les détails dans cette chronique de Monic Néron.

Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (Missing Justice) & the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy present:

–Andrea Smith on Systemic Violence against Native Women and First Nations Land Struggles: Making the Links–

Art by Angela Sterritt

Missing Justice and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy invite you to come out and show your support in Montreal this October 4th at the sixth Annual Sisters in Spirit Memorial March and Vigil.

When? Tuesday, October 4th, 6pm

Where? Cabot Square (Parc Atwater), corner of Atwater and St. Catherine. Metro Atwater.

Bridget Tolley founded the March and Vigil in 2005, which happens every year on the anniversary of her mother’s Gladys Tolley’s death. Since then, the march has been organized all across the country on that day. In 2010, 86 marches were held in communities across Canada, the largest number yet, with one march being held as far away as Nicaragua, showing us that the problem of Indigenous women being disproportionately affected by violence is one of colonized Nations worldwide.

–Invited guests include Bridget Tolley, Sue Martin, Ellen Gabriel, Melissa Dupuis, Irkar Beljaars, Anik Sioui, Harvey Michel, Cheryl Diabo, Karine Gentelet, Tiohtiake Drum, and Moe Clark.–

The purpose of this event is to honour the memories of missing and murdered women and girls, raise awareness, and demand that the government support the actions of families and communities and restore research funding to Sisters in Spirit (SIS), an initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada which was responsible for conducting groundbreaking research between 2004 and 2010 on the now known-of cases. Although their work is far from finished, the government insists that action must take the place of research, and instead of funding the research, community work, and actions of SIS, are instead diverting resources to a generic RCMP-led missing persons database, as well as vastly facilitating police power to obtain warrants and to install wiretaps. Many believe that both of these police privileges will be used to further allow the government of Canada’s criminalization of Native communities rather than increasing the safety of Native women.

583 Native women have gone missing or have been murdered since roughly 1980 according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Other organizations and activists suspect that the actual number is as high as 3000. The reality is that Native women in Canada are at least five times more likely to die of violence than non-Native women. Racist and sexist government policies, stereotypes of Indigenous women, a lack of media attention, and police negligence all contribute to, and indeed perpetuate this violence as well as the general lack of data–also a form of violence in itself.

While some media and public attention has been given to cases in Western Canada, Native women in Quebec have also been targeted. For instance, Gladys Tolley, in 2001, an Algonquin woman from Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg was hit and killed by a Sûreté du Québec car. No one was ever held accountable, and all requests for independent investigations have been denied.

In June 2010 the remains of Tiffany Morrison, a young Mohawk woman from Kahnawake, were found very close to home, under the Mercier bridge. She had been missing for 4 years.

In September 2008 teenage friends Maisy Odjick from Kitigan Zibi and Shannon Alexander from Maniwaki went missing. Their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. The family has received very little information from police, and has had to organize their own search parties.

We will be gathering at 6 pm at Cabot square (St Catherine Street and Atwater Avenue, Atwater metro).

We hope you will join us on October 4th.

For more information go to www.missingjustice.ca or www.centre2110.org.

Contact organizers by sending an email to justiceformissing@gmail.com or campaigns@centre2110.org.

Also feel free to drop us a line at the Centre for Gender Advocacy: 514-937-2110.

If you would like promotional materials for this event to give out to friends or co-workers, or would like to help promote this event in other ways, please write to promotions@centre2110.org, or call the number above.