Violence against women report released

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A report by an Edmonton-based group says the root causes of a serious social problem must be addressed if lives are to be saved.

"You can create as many programs as you want for Aboriginal women, but it's men who are murdering them," states the report released by the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women (IAAW).

That sentiment is especially poignant at a time when the headlines in the daily newspapers in Edmonton repeatedly recount gruesome details from the trials of those accused of murdering an Aboriginal woman and a teenage Aboriginal girl.

The cases involve the murders of Rachel Quinney, 19, whose body was found in a wooded area near Sherwood Park in June 2004. Charged with her murder is Thomas Svekla, 38, who was already in jail, charged last May with second-degree murder in the death of 36-year-old Theresa Innes.

Nina Courtepatte, 13, was found murdered on a golf course near Spruce Grove in April, 2005. Two of the accused adults in the case are Joseph Wesley Laboucan, 21, and Michael Erin Briscoe, 35. Another of the accused, who has pleaded guilty, is a young offender and cannot be identified.

More than a dozen other women have been murdered in and around Edmonton over the last 20 years. Only recently did Project Kare, the special RCMP task force formed to look into the murders, acknowledge that a serial killer may be preying on vulnerable street women in Edmonton.

JoAnne Daniels, who helped research, write and finalize the IAAW's Crimes Against Aboriginal Women: Final Report, released last fall, says the document focuses on first person testimonies from Aboriginal women.

"We didn't want another academic report quoting statistics, but rather a 'voice of Aboriginal women' who face violence and who may have answers to stop it," Daniels said.

Not surprisingly, Daniels found all Aboriginal women she spoke to had experienced violence "and they wanted to be heard in this report." The women in focus groups, talking circles and round table discussions painted an overwhelming picture of the intensity of violence in their lives, usually arising out of domestic situations.

"But they also re-defined what violence is. To them, the emotional impact of being mentally violated, being impoverished and disen-franchised, was often more intense than physical violence."

Some women quoted in the report said the only place they found safety was during time spent in jail, while others said their lack of trust in their communities led them to live in complete isolation, behind locked doors with their children, at home.

"Another thing we found was that many women are moving to large cities and a majority are single mothers with children," Daniels said. "Their rights don't travel with them from their reserves or settlements, so they find little advocacy or support in their adopted urban settings."

The inability to find stable employment was identified as a barrier to many Aboriginal women who find themselves primary breadwinners for, as well as caretakers of, their families.

"And when they do find employment, it's often with a non-profit organization, or a government-funded program that may be here one day, and gone the next."

Poverty, said Daniels, presented itself as the number one violence against Aboriginal women, and it keeps them "at-risk" in the society sectors they must live in.

Many women said they felt marginalized as outsiders denied the pride of claiming their Aboriginal heritage.

"They spoke of never having the ease and comfort that non-Native people do in contributing their thoughts and feelings in public settings. There were so few times in their lives when they could say 'I'm a proud Aboriginal woman.'"

Women interviewed for the report are fully aware they have been labelled in society as homeless, jobless sex-trade workers and they expressed fear that things would not change for their "daughters" ? both their own biological offspring and young Aboriginal women and girls in general. For exaple, they understand that their own inability to break the cycle of bad relationships may result in their daughters making poor choices in partners, as well.

In the IAAW report, the Canadian government's residential school system was mentioned repeatedly as a primary contributor to the amount of violence Aboriginal women face. In residential schools, the family unit was broken, and entire generations of men and women were raised without role models demonstrating appropriate relationship skills.

Among the numerous recommendations to police services, academic institutions, businesses, health services and governments listed in the report, is an appeal to the society of men. The report recommends that a standard of manhood be established that would include rites of passage for boys to learn to become good men. These rites must include all boys regardless of economic status.