Padaviya

Tue, 13 Dec 2011

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has decided to conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls across Canada. The Committee, composed of 23 independent experts from around the world, is the UN’s main authority on women’s human rights. The Committee’s decision was announced today by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), and Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA).

The inquiry procedure is used to investigate what the Committee believes to be very serious violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In January and in September 2011, faced with the continuing failures of Canadian governments to take effective action in connection with the murders and disappearances, FAFIA and NWAC requested the Committee to launch an inquiry. Canada has signed on to the treaty, known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which authorizes the Committee to investigate allegations of “grave or systematic” violations of the Convention by means of an inquiry. Now that the Committee has formally initiated the inquiry, Canada will be expected to cooperate with the Committee’s investigation.

“FAFIA and NWAC requested this Inquiry because violence against Aboriginal women and girls is a national tragedy that demands immediate and concerted action,” said Jeannette Corbiere Lavell. “Aboriginal women in Canada experience rates of violence 3.5 times higher than non- Aboriginal women, and young Aboriginal women are five times more likely to die of violence. NWAC has documented the disappearances and murders of over 600 Aboriginal women and girls in Canada over about twenty years, and we believe that there may be many more. The response of law enforcement and other government officials has been slow, often dismissive of reports made by family members of missing women, uncoordinated and generally inadequate.”

“These murders and disappearances have their roots in systemic discrimination and in the denial of basic economic and social rights” said Sharon McIvor of FAFIA. “We believe that the CEDAW Committee can play a vital role not only in securing justice for the women and girls who have died or disappeared, but also in preventing future violations, by identifying the action that Canadian governments must take to address the root causes. Canada has not lived up to its obligations under international human rights law to prevent, investigate and remedy violence against Aboriginal women and girls.”

“The Committee carried out an inquiry into similar violations in Mexico five years ago and we expect the process will follow the same lines here in Canada,” said McIvor. “Mexico invited the Committee’s representatives to make an on-site visit and during the visit the representatives interviewed victim’s families, government officials at all levels, and NGOs. The Committee’s report on the inquiry spelled out the steps that Mexico should take regarding the individual cases and the systemic discrimination underlying the violations. Mexican women’s groups say that the Committee’s intervention helped to spur Government action and we hope to see the same result here in Canada, said McIvor.”

For further information, please contact:
Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President Native Women’s Association of Canada, Tel.: 613-899-2343
Sharon McIvor Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Tel.: 250-378-7479
For assistance, please contact:
Claudette Dumont-Smith, Executive Director Native Women’s Association of Canada, Tel.: 613-656-3004
Shelagh Day, Chair, Human Rights Committee Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Tel.: 604-872-0750

Here is the gist about Robert Pickton: he murdered a lot of women.  We’re still not really sure how many, because he destroyed their bodies, and because women go missing all the time, and no one official seems to care enough to keep track.  He had a pig farm in British Columbia, and over many years, he killed 20, 50, we don’t know how many women. 

He was arrested and convicted for the murders of six of those woman.  SIX of those women.  He’s been in the news again because of attempts at a retrial, which were overturned, which is good and bad, because it means he won’t be tried for any of the other murders, but at least the prior convictions stand (the defense tried to get him off on a technicality). 

Because the legalities are officially complete, the publication ban has been lifted, and we’re now learning some pretty horrible things.  We know now that not only did he get away with killing dozens of women, but in 1997, when he attempted to murder one woman, she attacked him in self-defense and got away.  She went to the police, and they did nothing.

I just want to repeat that: they did nothing.  They even had the clothes he’d worn during the attack because he had to be hospitalized, and those clothes later turned out to have DNA evidence on them from two women he’d already murdered, women who had been reported missing. 

We’ve learned that many people in the community knew what he was doing, and helped to cover it up.  Some people even helped him clean out crime scenes.

We’ve learned that the woman who got away was not allowed to give evidence for his trial, because she was a sex worker and therefore “unreliable”.

We’ve learned that the jury wasn’t told about her, lest she “cloud their judgment”.

And the Canadian news media reports it like it’s yesterday’s news.  Why should they care?  It’s just a bunch of dead women. Sex workers and Indigenous women, and they disappear all the time (the mainstream news media doesn’t even bother to report that). 

And he’s eligible for parole in 25 years.  Why is he eligible for parole at all?