February 9, 2010 Features

The status of which women?

Violence against women should be a health priority

by Terrine Friday

Canada needs to take care of its own before going abroad. GRAPHIC VIVIEN LEUNG

On Feb. 14, activist organization Missing Justice will hold their first memorial march in Montreal for missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Complimenting the movement initiated by their Sisters in Spirit Vigil last October, Montrealers will gather in the streets, continuing to call on the federal government to answer for missing and murdered Aboriginal women, as well as end the inequalities in social services, healthcare and instances of violence against women.

“How many Aboriginal women in Canada have been murdered or gone missing in the last 20 years?” asked Craig Benjamin, spokesperson for Amnesty International.

“The Native Women’s Association of Canada has compiled 520 from limited sources, but [they] were not provided by police records. That list is necessarily only part of the picture, but why don’t we know the full picture? Why don’t we know it? Because the government of Canada is not counting. The lives of Aboriginal women mean so little that when they are murdered or disappear [that] their lives are not being counted.”

Amnesty International has recommended that the federal government create and implement a coordinated national plan of action and work closely with Aboriginal communities to pursue data collection and analysis, as well as address the staggering rates of violence against Aboriginal women.

“We begin to get a picture of the scale of this problem with the very fact that the true number [of missing women] is unknown,” Benjamin said. “We get a sense of the scale of the failure of Canada as a society [and the failure] of the federal government in their responsibility to ensure the lives of women are valued and are protected.”

Violence as a national health priority... or not.

On Jan. 27, Prime Minister Stephen Harper set out Canada’s year-long agenda as 2010 president of the G8 and announced his target issues for the year: healthcare for women and children in the developing world. Since then, Harper has come under fire from critics—including federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff—for not addressing the health concerns of Canadian women before tackling women’s health abroad.

Status of Women Canada’s website states the federal organization “promotes the full participation of women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada.”

Besides acknowledging the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, there is no mention of violence against women on their website (let alone First Nations women), nor are there any concrete plans to tackle these issues. Although violence against women is reportedly rising, there is no proposed legislation, solutions-oriented planning nor a call to arms to promote peace and equality.

Although SWC has proposed government-sponsored gender-based analyses, this 15-year-old plan is mostly preamble.

As of press time, SWC was unavailable for comment.

Intersecting issues

In Canada, the health of women in marginalized communities is in crisis, chief among them Inuit and First Nations. Inuit women are more than twice as likely as other demographics to experience life-threatening complications during childbirth and, according to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, First Nations women report violence at a rate of almost four times that of non-First Nations women.

Health Canada’s 2003 report on First Nations and Inuit health focuses on smoking, alcohol consumption, frequency of sexual activity, number of sex partners, use of birth control and body mass index in its statistical profile. It also compares the occurrence of Pap tests and mammograms among the First Nations community to “the general Canadian population.” First Nations receive more Pap tests than other groups, but less mammograms, which are a key breast cancer prevention tool.

Health Canada’s report states that “First Nations are in a unique position in terms of health care in Canada,” but fails to mention any violence against women. Instead, it commends itself for the increased services it offers First Nations communities that are not available to non-First Nations: prescription drug coverage, dental and vision care and coverage for emergency transport that is a necessity for isolated areas.

Gwen Healey, executive director of the Arctic Health Research Network, noted that the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Pauktuutit Inuit Women’s Association identified several indicators (such as family planning, abuse and assault, prevalence of traditional values, mental health and depression) critical to health in their communities.

In contrast, a 2004 report by the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs identified housing, early childhood programs, family violence, women in urban areas and fetal alcohol disorders as important health issues affecting First Nations women. The AHRC also states that “ethics and meaningful engagement in activities related to their health and well-being are inherently linked to the settlement of specific land claims.”

This rift in understanding of health concerns is evident in the lack of quantitative and qualitative reports on the status of Aboriginal women’s health. Research either lacks depth, is non-inclusive or, sadly, non-existent. Without a clear picture, we’re unable to fully address the many complex problems that plague women in Aboriginal communities.

Missing Justice will host a roundtable discussion on violence against Aboriginal women on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. (255 Ontario St., room 3.84). The annual Missing Justice memorial march will be Feb. 14, starting at Parc Émilie-Gamelin (Berri-UQAM metro) and ending at Parc des Amériques (corner Rachel Street and St-Laurent Boulevard). For more info, visit missingjustice.ca.

—with files from Laura Beeston