The Cautious Unspoken

"Aboriginal people look up to the government to have the courage to call for an inquiry. They don't see that happening. What they see is a prime minister who is almost normalizing the situation."
"This is total denial as far as I'm concerned."
"It's a slap in the face."
Ghislain Picard, acting national chief, Assembly of First Nations

"It continues to reaffirm that (aboriginal) people are treated as less than other Canadian women."
NDP aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder

"It really does show how out of touch he [Prime Minister Stephen Harper] is. And heartless."
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett

"I think we should not view this as a sociological phenomenon. I think we should view it as a crime. It is a crime against innocent people and it needs to be addressed as such."
"They're not all one phenomenon [violence against aboriginal women and girls]. [Government has made a] very fulsome study [of] these particular things. [Made] investments [to] prevent some of these situations."
"We brought in laws across this country that I think are having more effect in terms of crimes of violence against not just aboriginal women, but women and persons more generally."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Most certainly by any moral and legal yardstick the violence that aboriginal women face is criminal in nature. But it is also, in many respects, sociological in origin as well. The level of violence on reserves is abysmal and horrifying, and women and children suffer dreadfully because of it. And apologists for the prevalence of such violence direct attention to the experience of generations of Canadian aboriginals in the systematic removal of children from families and their placement in the now-discredited residential school system.

Set up by a society that felt exposing young aboriginal children to a European focus on values and lifestyles, children were deprived of familial emotional bonds and though many were instilled with useful tools to integrate them into the general mainstream of society, many other children recall dismal memories that resonate with abuse and emotional distance and a longing to be returned to their families and their own culture. While the system worked well for some, it failed many others.

But does that fully and reasonably explain and forgive a culture of neglect and violence, where on reserves as well as those living in urban settings, children are not imbued with the value of education, and where emotional support and direction to children are withheld, where substance abuse is common and where boredom through unemployment leads to brutal relationships? The long-demanded inquiry into the missing and murdered indigenous people which the government refuses to commit to, represents a study whose conclusions may simply reflect all of this.

But the solution? And pointing out yet again that social dysfunction is endemic on reserves leading to suicides, leading to violence, leading to neglect and premature deaths will only consolidate what is already known. And arouse the ire of the very people who blame the government for not conducting an inquiry. Reserve life is one of misery for most people living on them; they are separate and apart from mainstream society, without the opportunities available to others, with inferior quality of life that satisfies no one, with rare exceptions.

Another young aboriginal girl vanishes, after running away from foster care, and is then found dead, murdered, shocking her community and the conscience of the nation. It is a crime. And the larger crime is that it happens too frequently, not only throughout society in general, but disproportionately within the aboriginal community.For the issues that absorb the aboriginal community in particular in reflection of higher incidences of these dreadful statistics, what stops the Assembly of First Nations from themselves initiating their own enquiry?

For that matter, why are they not studying and committing to emulating those aboriginal reserves, and they do exist, which have ventured into committing the reserves to extremely successful and legitimate business ventures that have the effect of elevating the fortunes of all within the community, offering employment and opportunities and furthering the advance of their reserve members? In the process recognizing that not all locations for reserves work well to present quality of life for their inhabitants.





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