Policy Sectors
(Ottawa, ON) - The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is pleased to learn that Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) have agreed to work together to enable police to report race-based information about victims and accused persons.
For too many years, the scarcity of this information has created gaping holes in our collective knowledge about the crimes being perpetrated against members of racial and ethnic groups, especially Indigenous women.
As a result, we at NWAC have often had to rely on old or incomplete numbers to make our case to governments for the enhanced measures that are necessary to support the Indigenous women we represent.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Gender-Diverse People found the crimes committed against our women was genocide. One of the Inquiry’s 231 Calls For Justice was for the federal government to amend its data collection and intake screening process to gather “distinctions-based” data.
We believe that race-based information will also help to highlight the inequities in our justice system, and the overrepresentation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people – and especially Indigenous women – in Canada’s prisons.
We at NWAC look forward to meeting with Statistics Canada and the CACP to discuss ways to improve the collection of race-based data about crime victims and perpetrators, and especially about Indigenous women who become involved with the justice system.
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For information, or to arrange an interview, contact:
Roselie LeBlanc at roselie@sparkadvocacy.ca or 604-928-3233.
Pour obtenir plus d’information ou prendre des dispositions pour une interview, contacter:
Roselie LeBlanc, par courriel : roselie@sparkadvocacy.ca ou par téléphone: 604-928-3233
About The Native Women’s Association of Canada
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is a National Indigenous Organization representing the political voice of Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people in Canada, inclusive of First Nations on and off reserve, status and non-status, disenfranchised, Métis and Inuit. An aggregate of Indigenous women’s organizations from across the country, NWAC was founded on the collective goal to enhance, promote and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of Indigenous women within their respective communities and Canada societies.
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