BC CEDAW
Special Supplement on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in
British Columbia
Group Submission to the Human Rights Committee on the occasion
of the consideration of the Sixth Periodic Report of Canada
Submitted June 5th, 2015
1
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in British Columbia
Violence against Aboriginal women and girls in Canada is a problem of massive
proportions, and its manifestation in British Columbia is particularly pronounced.
Between 2005 and 2010, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC)
documented over 600 cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls
throughout Canada over the past 30 years.1 The province of British Columbia accounted
for 160 of the cases documented by NWAC, 27 percent of the total, and the highest
percentage of suspicious deaths.2
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported in May 2014 that data they gathered show
that British Columbia and Alberta have the largest numbers of missing and murdered
Aboriginal women. British Columbia also has the largest number of unsolved murders
and unresolved disappearances of Aboriginal women in Canada.3
Social and Economic Disadvantage
Aboriginal women and girls are amongst the most socially and economically
disadvantaged groups in Canada, with many of these disadvantages rooted in historical
and modern day effects of colonization. Aboriginal women face severe economic and
social hardship, including high rates of poverty and unemployment, lower educational
attainment, poor health, lack of access to clean water, and overcrowded, substandard
housing. Aboriginal women and girls face discrimination on multiple fronts: as women
in their home communities due to the patriarchal legacy of colonization, as women in
mainstream society, and as Aboriginal persons in mainstream society.4 Additionally, a
Native Women’s Association of Canada, What Their Stories Tell Us: Research findings from the
Sisters In Spirit initiative (What Their Stories Tell Us), at 19, available at
http://www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/reports/2010_NWAC_SIS_Report_EN.pdf. Since this
report was published in 2010, more disappearances and murders of Aboriginal women and girls
have been documented by the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and the number is now
over 600. As described in detail below, Canada does not maintain reliable and consistent data
on homicides of Aboriginal women, and no information regarding disappearances. NWAC is the
only organization or entity in Canada that does so.
1
2
NWAC, Native Women’s Association of Canada, Fact Sheet: Missing and murdered Aboriginal
women and girls in British Columbia, available at
http://www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/imce/FACT%20SHEET_BC.pdf.
3
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: An Operational
Overview, May 2014, at 9 and 15, available at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/mmaw-faapdeng.pdf.
4
The B.C. CEDAW Group, Inaction and Non-compliance: British Columbia’s Approach to
Women’s Inequality (September 2008) at 10, available at
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/CEDAWCanadaBC2008.pdf.
2
disproportionate number of the most vulnerable street prostituted women are
Aboriginal women, who struggle with addiction, homelessness, and chronic, often lifethreatening, health problems.5 Engagement in prostitution is a reflection of the overall
economic and social marginalization faced by Aboriginal women and girls, and it further
increases levels of vulnerability to coercion, abuse and violence.
Clusters of Killings
a. The “Highway of Tears”
Since the 1970s, an alarming number of Aboriginal women and girls have disappeared or
been murdered in the vicinity of Highway 16, the Yellowhead Highway, which runs from
Manitoba to the Pacific Ocean through Northern British Columbia. This remote highway
is known as the “Highway of Tears” because of the killings and disappearances of
Aboriginal girls and women along the route. Victims’ families and women’s rights
advocates estimate the number of disappeared or murdered at 30, while official police
records indicate that 18 women and girls, half of them Aboriginal, have gone missing or
been murdered along the Highway of Tears. 6A 2009 investigation by a senior journalist
with the Vancouver Sun newspaper revealed another 13 women and girls should be
added to the official list of 18 missing or murdered women and girls, as their
disappearances and murders occurred in the same area and in similar circumstances.7
Most of the Highway of Tears disappearances and murders remain unsolved.8
5
Id. at 29.
6
Justice for Girls, Human Rights Violations against Indigenous Teen Girls in British Columbia
(October 2011).
7
Lori Culbert and Neal Hall, Hunt to determine if a serial killer is preying on females along B.C.
highways: The official list of missing or murdered young women on B.C. and Alberta highways
contains 18 names. But many more victims may have left anguished families behind, Vancouver
Sun (Dec. 12, 2009), available at
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Hunt+determine+serial+killer+preying+females+along+hi
ghways/2332207/story.html#ixzz1p90Lqq00; Neal Hall, Vanishing Point: Women Missing or
Murdered, Vancouver Sun, Five Part Series, December 12–17, 2009, available at
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/vanished/index3.html; Neal Hall, Police reveal details of
E-Pana investigation into 18 female unsolved cases in northern B.C., Vancouver Sun (Dec. 12,
2009), available at
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Police+reveal+details+Pana+investigation+into+female+u
nsolved+cases+northern/2331959/story.html#ixzz1p8Ar5Qly; see also Submission of the B.C.
CEDAW Group to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women: A Report on Progress in Implementing Priority
Recommendations made by the Committee in its 2008 Concluding Observations on Canada,
Nothing to Report, (January 2010), available at http://povertyandhumanrights.org/wpcontent/uploads/2010/04/nothing-to-report.pdf.
8
One Aboriginal woman murdered in 1974 is thought to have been murdered by now-deceased
Oregon convict Bobby Jack Fowler, The Toronto Star, “Highway of Tears: Arrest of Bobby Jack
3
There is a string of Aboriginal communities along the Highway of Tears, and no public
transportation. Many Aboriginal women and girls travel from these communities, which
tend to be a far distance outside of town areas, to town centers via Highway 16.9
Regular bus service for Highway 16 has been recommended repeatedly since 2006 and
by a community forum and by both the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but nothing has changed.10 The situation
along the Highway of Tears remains especially precarious for Aboriginal women and
girls.
b. Vancouver’s Missing and Murdered Women
According to an official report by the Vancouver Police Department, beginning in the
early 1990s, more than 60 women went missing from the Downtown East Side of
Vancouver, which is Canada’s poorest neighbourhood.11 Most of the missing women
were poor, some were engaged in prostitution, some were drug-addicted, and many
were Aboriginal.12 When friends and family members began to report to police that a
daughter or sister was missing, they were met with dismissal, refusal to take reports
seriously, and, even as the numbers mounted, disbelief that there could be a serial killer
involved. The police considered that the women were living high-risk lifestyles, and
Fowler prompts emotional plea from family of murdered woman”, September 27, 2012,
available at
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/09/27/highway_of_tears_arrest_of_bobby_jack_f
owler_prompts_emotional_plea_from_family_of_murdered_woman html. Also Cody
Legebokoff was found guilty of murdering four women in the Highway of Tears area in
September 2014. See CBC News, “Cody Legebokoff Guilty of 4 Counts of 1st Degree Murder”,
September 11, 2014, available at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/codylegebokoff-guilty-of-4-counts-of-1st-degree-murder-1.2762370
9
Justice for Girls, Human Rights Violations against Indigenous Teen Girls in British Columbia
(October 2011).
10
Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, Carrier Sekani Family Services, Carrier Sekani Tribal Council,
Prince George Native Friendship Center, Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment &
Training Association, The Highway of Tears Symposium Recommendations Report (June 16,
2006.), available at http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/files/PDF/highwayoftearsfinal.pdf. See also
Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, The Honourable Wally T.
Oppal QC, Commissioner, November 19, 2012, Executive Summary, at 160, available at
http://www.missingwomeninquiry.ca/obtain-report/; see also Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in British Columbia, 21
December 2014, at para 306, available at
http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/indigenous-women-bc-canada-en.pdf
11
Doug LePard, Deputy Chief Constable, Vancouver Police Department, Missing Women
Investigation Review (August 2010) at 18-33, available at
http://vancouver.ca/police/media/2010/MWInvestigationReview_final2.pdf.
12
Id.
4
were likely to move around. Police and city officials long denied that there was any
pattern to the disappearances or that women in the area were in any particular danger.
Police investigation into the disappearances finally began in the late 1990s, and
eventually resulted in the arrest of Robert William Pickton. Pickton was charged in 2002
and 2003 with first-degree murder in the deaths of 26 women in British Columbia.13 In
2007, he was convicted of second-degree murder on six counts, while proceedings on
the other counts were stayed.14
A disproportionate number of Pickton’s victims were Aboriginal. Pickton picked up his
victims in the Downtown East Side, offering them drugs or money or both, and took
them to his pig farm in Coquitlam, where he sexually assaulted and murdered them.
The Pickton investigation was plagued by a lack of resources, training, and leadership,
poor continuity of staffing, and multi-jurisdictional challenges, because both the
Vancouver Police Department and the Coquitlam Detachment of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police—the federal police force—were involved, with each agency blaming the
other for failures.15 Police failed to pursue compelling information in 1998 and 1999
suggesting Pickton was the likely killer.16 Additionally, in two instances—in 1992 and
1997—Pickton was arrested for assault and attempted murder, but prosecutors did not
proceed with these cases.17 Many believe that a full prosecution in 1997 could have
prevented subsequent murders.18
Reports in British Columbia
British Columbia is the province in Canada where there has been the most investigative
response to violence against Aboriginal women and girls, including murders and
disappearances - both on the part of non-governmental organizations and on the part
of the Government of British Columbia.
a) Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (MWCI)
On September 27, 2010, the Government of British Columbia established the Missing
Women Commission of Inquiry, naming the former Attorney General of British
Columbia, Wally Oppal, Q.C., as Commissioner. The Commission had a mandate to
13
Id.
14
Doug LePard, Deputy Chief Constable, Vancouver Police Department, Missing Women
Investigation Review,(August 2010) at 16-18, available at
http://vancouver.ca/police/media/2010/MWInvestigationReview_final2.pdf.
15
Id.
16
Id.
17
Id.
18
Wally Oppal, Statement by Missing Women Commissioner of Inquiry Commissioner, (August
29, 2011), available at http://www.missingwomeninquiry.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-Statement-of-the-MWI-Commissioner.pdf.
5
inquire into the investigations into the disappearances of women from the Downtown
Eastside of Vancouver and murders of women between January 1997 and February
2002 by William Robert Picton.19
The final report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was issued to the public
on December 17, 2012.20
Both the mandate and the work of the Commission have been criticized as flawed in
several respects: 1) its terms of reference were limited to a particular time period,
namely January 23, 1997 to February 5, 2002, and only to the disappearances and of
women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and the murders of women Robert
William Pickton; 2) it included no specific focus on missing and murdered Aboriginal
women, despite their disproportionate representation amongst the women murdered in
British Columbia; 3) NWAC and other key Aboriginal organizations, as well as other
non-governmental organizations with relevant expertise, were effectively shut out of
the inquiry. While the Commissioner granted them standing on the grounds that they
had significant related expertise to offer, the Government of British refused to provide
funding to them for legal counsel, even though it provided public funding to support
twenty-five lawyers who represented the police. No Aboriginal groups participated in
the process and hence, there was a lack of expertise regarding systemic race and sex
discrimination available to the Commission; 4) the Commission’s focus was on police
and prosecutorial failures, not on broader governmental failures.
On this last point, the MWCI report notes that “Eradicating the problem of violence
against women involves addressing the root causes of marginalization, notably sexism,
racism and the ongoing pervasive effects of the colonization of Aboriginal peoples — all
of which contribute to the poverty and insecurity in which many women live.” But the
report also notes that these issues are “beyond the scope of the Inquiry.”21
19
See terms of reference and complete information on the Missing Women Commission of
Inquiry, available at http://www.missingwomenInquiry.ca/. Although the disappearances and
murders of women along the Highway of Tears was not originally included within the mandate
of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, the Government of British Columbia agreed to
permit the Commissioner to study the disappearances and murders of women along the
“Highway of Tears.” However, there is no fact-finding with respect to the Highway of Tears
disappearances and murders, only “study.” Consequently, no responsibility can be assigned for
any police or official failures. Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, August 25, 2011 – Dates
and Venues Announced for Missing Women Commission of Inquiry Community Forums in
Northern B.C., available at http://www.missingwomeninquiry.ca/2011/08/august-25-2011dates-and-venues-announced-for-missing-women-commission-of-inquiry-community-forums-innorthern-b-c/
20
Forsaken, supra note 10.
21
Ibid., Volume I, at 5.
6
With respect to the police investigations into the disappearances and murders of
women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Commissioner Oppal found that
“the police investigations…were blatant failures.” He identified seven critical police
failures:

Poor report taking and follow up on reports of missing women
The investigations of the missing women and suspected multiple homicides were
negatively affected by poor report taking and follow up of the individual women’s
disappearances. When women were reported missing, the investigations were not
treated as urgent, proper investigation procedures were not followed and there were
unexplained gaps in investigations. The police treated family members and other
reportees in a degrading manner, and failed to communicate sufficiently with them. 22

Faulty risk analysis and risk assessments
Police operated under the erroneous assumptions that if there was no body there had
been no crime and that the women were transient because of their lifestyles. These
assumptions resulted in poor decision making and resource allocation. Despite
mounting evidence to the contrary, the police refused to accept that the women were
likely murdered, refused to accept that a serial killer might be preying on prostituted
women and failed to take steps to prevent women from being killed in the future.23

Inadequate proactive strategy to prevent further harm to women in the DTES
Despite the availability of evidence that women in the Downtown Eastside experienced
extraordinarily high rates of violence, there was a “near complete failure of the police”
to take steps to protect these women from violence.24

Failure to consider and properly pursue all investigative strategies
The police failed to use an Aboriginal-specific investigation strategy, unreasonably
restricted the involvement of family members, the community and media in the
investigations, failed to follow up on tips, mismanaged informants and information
sources, delayed pursuit of a suspect-based strategy and failed to confirm or rule out
suspects, and made inadequate use of other investigative avenues, such as surveillance,
undercover operations, search warrants and forensic evidence.25

Failure to follow Major Case Management practices and policies
The missing women investigations clearly fell outside the normal parameters of day-today policing: it was a multi-victim, multi-jurisdiction and potentially multi-offender case.
22
Forsaken, supra note 10, Executive Summary at 54, available at
http://www.missingwomeninquiry.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Forsaken-ES-web-RGB.pdf
23
Ibid at 60.
24
Ibid at 66, 67, 69.
25
Ibid at 71.
7
It involved many police officers over a long period of time. Despite the fact that Major
Case Management techniques were broadly understood and were being applied, the
police failed to develop and follow basic management principles and practices,
implement effective team structures, an efficient system for planning and file
administration, and ensure that personnel had the requisite managerial skills.26

Failure to address cross-jurisdictional issues and ineffective coordination
between police forces and agencies
The “inability to fully address cross-jurisdictional issues was a critical police failure,
substantially limiting the effectiveness of the investigations and…these failures
continued throughout the entire five-year period” under consideration. The multiple
police forces all had different opinions on who was responsible for what and there was
ineffective coordination between the multiple RCMP detachments and municipal police
forces involved.27

Failure of internal review and external accountability mechanisms
The Commissioner noted that the missing women investigations were “hugely
challenging” and therefore it would be expected that when the police performed
internal reviews there would be some findings of error. However, both internal review
mechanisms and external accountability mechanisms were highly flawed and failed to
make any critical or constructive finding. The failure of these mechanisms to catch
police error perpetuated the failures of the missing women investigations.28
Forsaken includes 43 recommendations, intended to improve some policing standards,
processes, and structures in British Columbia. Some recommendations are directed to
ensuring that police meet their obligation to provide equal protection of the law,
without discrimination on the basis of sex or race, which, the MWCI found, women in
British Columbia did not have the benefit of during the period in question.29
b) Human Rights Watch Report
On February 13, 2013, Human Rights Watch released a report, Those Who Take Us
Away, based on its field research in northern British Columbia, along the Highway of
Tears.30 This report documents “not only how indigenous women and girls are under—
26
Ibid at 82.
27
Ibid at 85-86.
28
Ibid at 91-92.
29
Forsaken, Executive Summary at 118.
30
Human Rights Watch, Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of
Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada, February 2013, available at
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/canada0213webwcover.pdf
8
protected by the police but also how some have been the objects of outright police
abuse.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 50 women and girls and 37 other witnesses, including
family members and community service providers. The report documented the
women’s accounts of physical assaults, including on girls under 18, questionable use of
force, including tasering, strip searches of women by male officers, detention without
food, washing facilities and medical attention, aggressive treatment during arrest, and
physical and sexual abuse. One woman reported that in July, four police officers took
her to a remote location, raped her, and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
Human Rights Watch was also told of indigenous women and girls being sexually abused
in holding cells after passing out due to intoxication, and waking without any clothing on
the bottom half of their bodies. One girl reported having her arm broken by an RCMP
Officer who was attending a domestic violence call. A twelve year old girl said she was
bitten on the leg by a police dog while she was hiding in a box. A seventeen year old girl
was reportedly punched repeatedly by an RCMP Officer while she was handcuffed in the
backseat of a police car.
In addition to this abuse, Human Rights Watch was told that police failed to protect
Aboriginal women and girls. Families and service providers have encountered lack of
interest, or dismissal when they report a missing woman or girl. Calls to the police by
indigenous women and girls seeking help with violence are “frequently met with
skepticism and victim—blaming questions and comments” and victim of abuse are often
arrested for actions they have taken to defend themselves.31
Overall, Human Rights Watch was struck by “the level of fear on the part of women” and
their profound fear of retaliation if they complain or report. Victims of police violence
and neglect “lack…faith…in the safety and effectiveness of current complaint
processes…[This]leaves victims of egregious abuse without a place to turn.”32
Regrettably, the official response has been to demand that Aboriginal women and girls
tell their stories to the police, despite the fact that the police are the perpetrators of the
violence, and guarantees of confidentiality were necessary in order for Aboriginal
women and girls to feel safe enough to talk to Human Rights Watch researchers.
In Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, responded to Opposition Members
calling for an independent public national inquiry by stating:
31
Those Who Take Us Away at 68.
32
Those Who Take us Away at 60.
9
If Human Rights Watch, the Liberal party, or anyone else is aware of serious
allegations involving criminal activity, they should give that information to the
appropriate police so they can investigate it. Just get on and do it. 33
This response ignored precisely the facts that Human Rights Watch reported - the fear
of police retaliation that prevents indigenous women and girls from reporting
mistreatment, as well as the lack of meaningful accountability for police misconduct.
c) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
On January 12, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released
its report, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada. 34 The
IACHR investigation was initiated at the request of the Native Women’s Association of
Canada (NWAC) and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA).
The IACHR found that under the Charter of the OAS and the Declaration on the Rights
and Duties of Man, interpreted in light of other international instruments that Canada
has ratified, Canada has a two-pronged legal obligation: 1) to prevent the risk factors
that cause and perpetuate the violence and 2) to strengthen the institutions that can
respond effectively in cases of violence against women.
The IACHR found that the root causes of the endemic violence against indigenous
women and girls lie in Canada’s history of colonization, including the dispossession of
lands, the long-standing and continuing sex discrimination in the Indian Act, the legacy
of the residential school system, and the social and economic marginalization of
indigenous women.
Given the strong connection between the greater risks for violence that indigenous
women confront and the social and economic inequalities they face, the IACHR found
that federal and provincial governments must design and implement a co-ordinated
national action plan to address the social and economic factors that prevent indigenous
women from fully enjoying their rights, which includes measures to combat poverty,
improve education and employment opportunities, guarantee adequate housing and
deal with the over-criminalization and over-incarceration of indigenous women.
33
House of Commons Debates, Volume 146, No. 210, 1st session, 41st Parliament, February 13,
2013 at 7 – 8, available at
http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/House/411/Debates/210/HAN210-E.PDF. The response of
the RCMP was similar. The RCMP said that the allegations were serious, but “….none of these
allegations have been brought forward for investigation. It is impossible to deal with such public
and serious complaints when we have no method to determine who the victims or the accused
are.” See: RCMP Responds to Human Right Watch Report, February 13, 2013, available at
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/news-nouvelles/speeches-stat-discours-decl/2013/20130213eng.htm
34
IACHR Report, supra note 10.
10
The IACHR report is focused on British Columbia, but the IACHR finds that there are legal
obligations for both levels of government, and its findings regarding governmental
obligations also apply to every province and territory.
The IACHR also recommended that British Columbia and Canada:

establish strengthened accountability mechanisms – preferably through
independent bodies – for officials handling investigations and prosecutions of
murders and disappearances of indigenous women;

develop data collection systems that collect accurate statistics on missing and
murdered indigenous women;

ensure that investigation of unsolved cases of missing indigenous women
continue;

ensure police officers and justice system personnel at all levels receive
mandatory and ongoing training on the causes and consequences of genderbased violence;

immediately provide a safe public transport option along Highway 16;

provide access to legal aid and support services for families of missing or
murdered indigenous women, with families able to freely choose their own
representatives;

improve consultation mechanisms with the different parties involved, including
indigenous women, indigenous women’s groups, civil society organizations and
families and relatives of missing and murdered indigenous women;

ensure active participation of indigenous women in the design and
implementation of initiatives, programs and policies at all levels of government;

create a national level action plan or nation-wide inquiry because “there is much
more to understand and to acknowledge…”
Finally, the IACHR recommended the full implementation of the recommendations of
the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. However the IACHR made it clear that even
full implementation of the MWCI recommendations will not provide an adequate
response to the violence against indigenous women and girls in British Columbia. The
IACHR Report says: “The findings in the Oppal report regarding the irregularities in the
handling of the investigations can serve as a starting point for reforms to the
investigative function. [It] could help prevent irregularities in investigations of future
disappearances or murders of indigenous women.”35 In short, the Oppal report
addresses only one aspect of the obligations – namely, to ensure that institutions
35
IACHR Report, at para 12.
11
respond adequately after the violence has occurred - and, at that, is a starting point only
since it deals principally with investigation.
d) The CEDAW Inquiry Report
On March 6, 2015, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women issued its report on its inquiry under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol
into murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls in Canada.36 This report
applies to British Columbia, as to all other jurisdictions.
The CEDAW Committee ruled that Canada’s failures to act effectively and in a
co-ordinated way to prevent the violence and protect, investigate, prosecute and
remedy are of sufficient magnitude, and have such severe consequences for Aboriginal
women and girls, that they constitute a grave violation of central human rights
protected by the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Specifically, the CEDAW Committee found that Canada has violated Articles 2 (c), (d), (e)
and (f); Article 3; and Article 5 (a); read in conjunction with Articles 14(1) and 15(1).
These are the guarantees which require States parties to establish legal protections that
provide effective protection from discrimination, to refrain from discriminatory acts,
and to take all measures to eliminate discrimination and advance the equality of
women.
Government Response
Despite alarming evidence of disproportionate and systemic violence against Aboriginal
women and girls, the Governments of British Columbia and Canada have failed in their
obligation to exercise due diligence to adequately prevent this violence, investigate
reports of disappearances and murders, and bring perpetrators to justice. British
Columbia authorities, as well as the federal government, have failed to develop and
implement a comprehensive national plan to stop this violence, including measures such
as nation-wide standards for non-discriminatory police conduct, improved police
oversight, systems for disaggregated data collection, coordination across jurisdictions,
and strategic measures to address social and economic marginalization. Both the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommended that British Columbia and
Canada develop a comprehensive national plan.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the CEDAW Committee have
both found that Canada has failed to exercise due diligence in two ways: 1) through
failures of the police and justice system to protect, investigate, prosecute and remedy
violence against Aboriginal women and girls effectively and promptly when it occurs;
and 2) through failures to prevent the violence by taking measures to address the root
causes of the violence, which lie in Canada’s history of colonization and in the profound
36
CEDAW Report, supra note 10.
12
social and economic disadvantage of Aboriginal women and girls, which makes them
vulnerable to violence and unable to escape from it.37
As both expert bodies have articulated in their reports, the State failures are integrally
linked to each other.38 The social and economic marginalization of Aboriginal women
and girls not only makes Aboriginal women and girls easy prey for violent perpetrators,
but is also used by officials as a justification for failing to protect them. Discriminatory
attitudes by police, such as the belief that Aboriginal women are “transient,” live a “risky
lifestyle,” or “will show up when they want to,” are often used to justify failure to
respond to reports of missing women.39 The vulnerability of Aboriginal women to
sexualized and racialized violence is created in part by the lack of response to it from the
police and the courts.40
British Columbia Government Response
The Government of British Columbia, in December 2014, before the Inter-American
Commission’s report was released, issued A Final Update Status Report in Response to
Forsaken – The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.41 In this final
report on its implementation of the MWCI recommendations, the Government indicates
that it has passed into law a new Missing Persons Act, which provides the police with
greater access to information when they are conducting investigation on
disappearances; established a fund for the children of the victims of William Pickton,
which permits each one who qualifies to access $50,000; provided funding for the WISH
Drop-In Centre in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver; made changes to the
prosecutorial policy on vulnerable witnesses; and provided short-term funding for some
community programs.
However, other recommendations have not yet been fully implemented according to
the Government’s report, and some recommendations will not be implemented,
including providing safe public transport on the Highway of Tears.
The core recommendations of the MWCI deal with needed changes to policing
structures, policies, standards, co-ordination and accountability mechanisms. About
37
IACHR Report, supra note 10 at paras 6, 12, 309 – 314; CEDAW Report, supra note 10 at paras
196 - 210.
38
See, for example, IACHR Report at para 165; CEDAW Report at para 203.
39
Native Women’s Association of Canada, Voices of Our Sisters In Spirit: A Report to Families and
Communities (2nd Edition March 2009) (Voices of Our Sisters In Spirit) at 96, available at
http://www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/download/admin/NWAC_VoicesofOurSistersInSpiritII_
March2009FINAL.pdf.
40
IACHR Report, supra note 10, at paras 179 – 185.
41
British Columbia, Ministry of Justice, A Final Update Status Report in Response to Forsaken –
The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, December 2014, available at
http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/public_inquiries/docs/MWCI_Report_2014.pdf
13
most of these recommendations, the Final Report says that “work is underway”.
Descriptions of this work are vague, and the organizations that are being consulted are,
in the main, police institutions.
In 2011, the Government of British Columbia appointed a Ministerial Advisory
Committee on Aboriginal Women (MACAW), with a mandate to advise the government
on how to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal women across the province.42 In
June 2014, a Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Stopping Violence against
Aboriginal Women was signed between the Government of British Columbia and the
First Nations Leadership Council, as well as the Metis Nation of British Columbia,
expressing their shared commitment to ending violence against Aboriginal women.43
Neither MACAW nor the MOU engage Aboriginal women and organizations directly in
overseeing and monitoring the effective implementation of the MWCI and IACHR
recommendations.
Following the IACHR report, a coalition of Aboriginal, women’s and human rights
organizations that have been working on this issue for many years – all of whom were
granted standing at the MWCI, but refused funding for counsel – sent a letter dated
March 19, 2015 to the Minister of Justice, Suzanne Anton, asking for a formal response
to the IACHR report. Further, the Coalition asked the Government of British Columbia to
engage with the Coalition to establish an implementation mechanism specifically
designed to guide and oversee the implementation of the Oppal and the IACHR
recommendations - implementation mechanism that has independence, a broad and
clear mandate, is structured to foster and support participation of Aboriginal women,
Aboriginal organizations, and civil society groups with relevant expertise, and a process
that is transparent and accountable to the public.
Minister Anton replied to this request on May 4, 2015 to say that “British Columbia
contributed to Canada’s formal response on the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights Report.…no further response is contemplated at this time.”
The Government of British Columbia’s message appears to be that, except for the work
that is “underway” - but invisible to the public - the book is closed. The Government of
British Columbia has provided a final report on its implementation of the MWCI
recommendations, and it has nothing to say about the IACHR recommendations.
Recommendation:
42
Information on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Aboriginal Women is available at
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=6E3FBA83092947B4BC42BC71A0A19B48
43
Memorandum of Understanding, available at
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/DownloadAsset?assetId=DAEC2DC3EF2F47C9994178B264FEAB3A&
filename=mou_stopping_violence_against_aboriginal_women_girls.pdf
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The Human Rights Committee should request the Government of British Columbia to
fully implement the MWCI, IACHR and CEDAW recommendations in the Province of
British Columbia, and establish an implementation mechanism that is independent,
participatory and accountable to the public in order to carry out the implementation
in a way that is effective for Aboriginal women and communities. The Human Rights
Committee should also ask Canada to report back in one year on its implementation of
any recommendations regarding murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women
and girls.
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