Homicide is a complex issue to tackle

The statistics are sobering. But not surprising.

The RCMP recorded homicide rates for the first time in 2014 as they pertained to Aboriginal people. Nationally, 23 per cent of the 516 murder victims were Aboriginal, while one-third of those accused of murder were Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people account for only five per cent of the Canadian population.

“I’m saddened and it’s really unfortunate (the statistics) confirm trends we were already aware of. We know about the extremely high rates of violence,” said Dawn Lavell Harvard, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Lavell Harvard was in Edmonton recently to talk about violence against Aboriginal women.

Figures released by Statistics Canada indicate that Manitoba and Alberta have the highest homicide rates overall and the highest homicide rates for Aboriginal people. Manitoba had a rate of 13.29 per cent and Alberta was at 11.55 per cent for Aboriginal homicides.

Manitoba and Alberta also led the way for the provinces with the highest rate of Aboriginal people accused of murder at 16.96 per cent and 13.48 per cent, respectively. Both provinces are home to the centres with the highest urban Aboriginal populations.

Nationally, of the 431 persons accused of homicides, almost one-third were Aboriginal, with Aboriginal males accounting for 30 per cent of men accused of homicide and Aboriginal females accounting for 51 per cent of women accused. The rate of Aboriginal people accused of homicide in Canada was 10 times higher than the rate for non-Aboriginal people.

“You’ve got to go back to some of the historical context.… We’re talking about a whole colonized process leading to the residential schools and from there the issues we face now in terms of poverty and marginalization. It just goes on and on,” said Nelson Mayer, executive director with Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association out of Edmonton.

Lavell Harvard said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings that took place across the country over the last six years has made it clear that residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and children taken into government care have had a resounding impact on Indigenous people.

“We can’t … know all that we know about the abuse and generations of our people and then expect people are going to come away unscathed,” she said. “Yes, there is extremely high rates of violence.”

Other figures presented by Stats Canada indicate that nationally, one-third of Aboriginal homicide victims were victims of spousal homicide compared to 45 per cent of non-Aboriginal victims. Thirty-eight per cent of Aboriginal women who were killed were victims of another family member; eight per cent were killed by an acquaintance; and four per cent were killed by a stranger. Nine per cent of Aboriginal males killed were victims of spousal homicide.

Eighty-five per cent of Aboriginal homicides were solved.

Violence has become a part of Aboriginal life, although violence “is not part of any of our cultures,” said Mayer. “When you look at other nations across the world, whenever you have oppressed communities, the oppression goes downward and downward until there’s no other place to go. Then it goes sideways….

“Here in Canada, it’s our Indigenous people who are being oppressed and it’s down, down, down until that lateral violence sweeps sideways.”

From 1980 to 2014, police services across Canada reported 6,849 homicides involving female victims. For that same period, Aboriginal female victims accounted for 16 per cent (1,073) of all female victims of homicide.

Over the past 34 years, the number of Aboriginal female victims has remained steady while the number of non-Aboriginal female victims peaked in 1991, but has declined since. As a result, Aboriginal females account for an increasing proportion of total female victims.

Once again that is not a statistic that surprises Lavell Harvard. And it disturbs her on a number of levels.

“Obviously whatever steps, whatever programs, whatever things have been put in place, whatever supports to increase and improve the safety of women in general in Canada are obviously just not there for Aboriginal women. We’re not seeing the same benefits from the interventions that are happening for other women,” she said.

Contributing to the growing violence, says Mayer, are existing systems that have traditionally placed Aboriginal people at a disadvantage, including the correctional system, with its high number of incarcerated Aboriginal people; school with its high number of Aboriginal drop outs; and child and family services, with its high number of Aboriginal child in care.

“It’s a very complex issue when you start exploring it and getting to the roots of what’s going to address it,” said Mayer.

Photo caption: Native Women’s Association of Canada president Dawn Lavell Harvard was in Edmonton recently to talk about violence against Aboriginal women.