[LINK] "Loretta Saunders homicide sparks call by native group for public inquiry"

[rfmcdonald]

The horrifying story of the murder of Inuk student Loretta Saunders, here reported by CBC, has been widely carried on the Facebook pages of my Atlantic Canadian friends. The effect of horror is doubled for me: not only is it a brutal murder of a young woman in Atlantic Canada, but it does highlight a worrisome trend that the Robert Pickton affair in British Columbia highlighted.

What is going on? What are the factors that exacerbate risk so terribly for First Nations women in Canada? An inquiry might not be the best sort of forum to raise this issue, but it is a forum, at least.

The slaying of Loretta Saunders should trigger a national inquiry into the hundreds of murdered and missing aboriginal women in Canada, the president of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association says.

Cheryl Maloney spoke hours after police found the body of Saunders off a New Brunswick highway. Police are treating her death as a homicide.

"I'm never going to let Stephen Harper or Canadians forget about Loretta and all the other missing or murdered aboriginal people," Maloney said.

"There’s something wrong in Canada if aboriginal people have to live this fate."

Saunders, an Inuk woman from Newfoundland and Labrador, was doing her master’s thesis at Halifax's Saint Mary’s University on missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Maloney said aboriginal Canadian women are five times more likely to be violently attacked than non-aboriginal women.

Aboriginal men also face higher risks of violence than non-aboriginal men, she said.

A researcher has found 800 cases of missing or murdered Canadian aboriginal women.

Maloney said the “bright, smart” student didn’t fit stereotypes.

"She wasn't what society expected for a missing aboriginal girl. Canadian society, and especially our prime minister, has been able to ignore the reality of the statistics that are against aboriginal girls,” Maloney said.

"This is not what everyone expects, but she is at risk. Every aboriginal girl in this country is vulnerable. For Canada to be ignoring it for so long, it's disheartening. How many more families does this have to happen to before they take seriously the problem?”