Murdered, missing Indigenous men, boys need to be addressed

February 17, 2016

Families and loved ones of murdered and missing Indigenous men and boys hope this upcoming national inquiry focused on women and girls will have an impact on their plight as well.

And so does Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett.

“We believe by doing an excellent piece of work, if we design a commission properly and can get to those root causes, that we will discover a lot about root causes for both missing and murdered women and girls and missing and murdered men and boys,” said Bennett.

Photo: In the last few years April Eve Wiberg (with the megaphone) has helped lead events in Edmonton that focus on murdered and missing Indigenous men and boys.
(Photo: Shari Narine)

Bennett was in Alberta last week, at the Enoch Cree Nation and joined by Status of Women Minister Patricia Hajdu in Calgary, to meet with families of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls in one of the last pre-inquiry meetings that will be used to set the scope for the upcoming national inquiry.

“There’s no question that even when we deal with the issues of child welfare, of the link with residential schools, and colonization, if we deal with the issues around a more equitable application of justice, that this also, I think, is going to deal with the issue of men and boys,” said Bennett.

April Eve Wiberg, founder of Stolen Sisters, agrees with the minister.

“The factors that impact (both) are not exactly the same, but we do believe they stem from the same issues: poverty, the effect of the residential school system, colonialism, those types of things. There’s definitely a connection there,” she said.

In the last few years, Wiberg has been active in organizing events in Edmonton that focus on murdered and missing Indigenous men and boys. She believes that awareness of the issue is growing and people are speaking “out in the open more than ever before.”

Aboriginal males account for approximately 71 per cent of Aboriginal homicide victims in Canada, according to Statistics Canada data compiled for work undertaken by Adam Jones, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia.

Jones’ research and observations are sobering. He says that “one would expect the ratio of murdered-men-to-women to carry over, roughly, to the ranks of the missing” and notes that the homeless and street populations in North American inner cities are heavily male and heavily Indigenous. He also says that exact numbers for impacted Indigenous men and boys, who are murdered or missing, are hard to come by.

“That is shameful, and it requires urgent attention and redress,” Jones writes in a commentary that appeared in the National Post in April 2015.

Wiberg agrees proper figures are needed and families must be given an opportunity to speak about their loss in a safe environment.

Jones pushes for an inquiry into both genders. “What we urgently need is a well-resourced inquiry into the roots of violence in and against Aboriginal communities. What could be titled the First Nations Anti-Violence Initiative ….”

Wiberg says she doesn’t believe another national inquiry is necessary to address the circumstances surrounding murdered and missing Indigenous men and boys.

“I think there’s enough resources that are being pulled together to conduct this inquiry that if they were to include our men and boys, it would be effective,” she said.

Bennett does not downplay the tragic circumstances facing men.

“I think all of Canada recognizes the disproportionate number of Indigenous men and boys that are missing and murdered in the same way that we know the disproportionate number incarcerated,” she said.

However, she holds that her mandate is to focus on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, which is what “people have been fighting for for at least a decade.”