The death of Tina Fontaine and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s remark that this tragic event is a crime and not a “sociological phenomenon” is a watershed event that cannot be ignored.
The 15-year-old’s body was found last week in the Red River in Winnipeg.
Opposition politicians, some provincial premiers and an array of pundits have called the prime minister’s statement outrageous and heartless, but for First Nations leaders it represents the last straw. It’s like the last conversation in a bad marriage, just before swear words are exchanged and the door is slammed.
There is a resignation in Indian Country that this is the end. This government and its leader can’t sink any lower. Harper has rejected our people to the level of a police investigation. Our underlying social condition is not important. The poverty, poor housing, lack of opportunity, racism and colonialism that harm us don’t matter.
The RCMP has concluded that so far more than 1,000 aboriginal women and girls have been murdered or disappeared since 1980, a situation that should be regarded as a national shame. According to Statistics Canada, aboriginal women are about five times more likely to be murdered than non-aboriginal women.
Harper just doesn’t get it.
His record of First Nations achievements is sparse to non-existent. He trashed the Kelowna Accord, cut back on funding for First Nations and Métis political organizations, tried to sneak in an unpopular education act, and continues to place a two per cent cap on increases to First Nations funding despite a growing population that exceeds that limit.
The communication between the government and aboriginal leaders is at an all-time low. Harper has failed to address outstanding First Nations land claims in British Columbia, instead preferring that corporations make agreements with aboriginal people on such things as pipeline rights of way.
The PM’s steadfast refusal to call an inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women is a disgrace, and his refusal even to propose an alternative other than a tough-on-crime agenda is heartless.
The same call for an inquiry was made a year ago. Had the federal government reacted positively, we would be well down the road to some solutions by now.
Everyone will agree that an inquiry is only a means to an end. The end is to reduce violence against aboriginal women. An inquiry can either be ignored, as it was with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, or used as a way to kick the problem down the road. Once the bureaucracy gets involved, it can become a slow-moving institution that takes years to get results.
The fact is that we need to see action immediately.
If Harper doesn’t want an inquiry, then why doesn’t he review the underlying causes that led to this sorry state of affairs? We have a vulnerable population living in fear and poverty. Many aboriginal women live what is described by social workers as a high-risk lifestyle.
As a libertarian, Harper doesn’t believe in underlying causes: Either you obey the law or you pay the price. That’s why he prefers to turn this issue over to the police.
In the real world, however, all crime is a product of underlying causes. Poverty, lack of education and the lack of employment can lead some people into a world of violence and drug addiction.
Obviously, there has been no opposition to the police doing their job. The police are there to deal with events after they occur. Dealing with the perpetrators is important, but preventing murder is more important.
While the focus is on a national inquiry, we must not overlook the action that our chiefs and leaders must take to tackle the violence within our own communities. Too many of our leaders like to point in the opposite direction to take the heat off themselves.
The call for an inquiry and the government’s refusal to call one is only a question of process. The reality remains that many aboriginal women live in fear, and are victims of violence and murder. That’s the issue that must be addressed, and the tools we use to reach that end will require the co-operation of the federal, provincial and First Nations governments.
Doug Cuthand is a columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
