MMIWG: The Indigenous Women’s Safety Council

The overall goal and purpose of the Safety Council is to ensure that the invaluable knowledge and expertise of grassroots Indigenous women’s organizations are at the centre of NWAC’s efforts to track MMIWG2S+ cases and enable Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people to report areas and experiences where they feel unsafe. We also want to equip them with the knowledge of where to find safety resources in their region.

The Council meets four times between January 2022 and March 2023 for 2-2.5-hour meetings and will attend two virtual meetings and two in-person meetings at NWAC’s head office in Gatineau, Quebec. In addition, Council representatives will have the opportunity to voluntarily provide written feedback on content and resources related to Safe Passage between meetings.

Radio Canada Interview

On Monday, January 16, Chanel Blouin, a policy advisor in the MMIWG department was interviewed by Radio Canada about the disproportionate and distressing number of Indigenous WG2STGD people that are victims of human-trafficking. The interview also focused on the past and ongoing structural and institutional factors contributing to this issue, including the child welfare system, overincarceration, and lack of culturally relevant resources. Importantly, in the interview Chanel highlighted NWAC’s response to this issue through our Safe Passage website and our continuing efforts to advocate for a national MMIWG alert system.