ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST ABORIGINAL WOMEN AND GIRLS: EMPOWERMENT – A NEW BEGINNING Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women Irene Mathyssen, M. P. Chair DECEMBER 2011 41st PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and [...] For this final report, the Committee has chosen to shift its focus from the aftermath of the violence to empowering young Aboriginal girls and women, supporting their desire to strive for a better life of independence, confidence, influence and power, with the goal of reducing the victimization, poverty, prostitution and abuse experienced by Aboriginal women and girls. [...] We need to raise healthy children so we can have strong, educated women and we can be providers to our families, and so we're not stuck in the cycle of poverty again.1 This focus in this report echoes a shift in the terms of reference in 2006 of the Women’s Program, when Status of Women Canada funded the Women’s Community Fund and the Women’s Partnership Fund. [...] In March 2010, as part of this initiative, NWAC had documented 582 cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.46 NWAC received project funding of $5 million from Status of Women Canada (SWC) between 2005 and 2010 for Sisters in Spirit, with the goal of identifying root causes, trends and circumstances of violence that have led to disappearance and death of Aboriginal women and girls. [...] The group’s condensed report provides 52 recommendations and urges adoption of these recommendations because “while the number of serial predators in Canada may not be large, the number of their victims is significant and the impact of these cases is widespread.”75 There was also testimony for the establishment of an independent national inquiry or task force into the missing and murdered Aborigin
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