The National Chief of Canada's Indigenous organisation, the Assembly of First Nations, Perry Bellegarde, has called for a meeting with the head of Canada's national police force the RCMP on the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women.
Photo Credit: Adrian Wyld/CP

Indigenous leader requests meeting with police regarding Indigenous women deaths

The National Chief of Canada’s Indigenous organisation the Assembly of First Nations, Perry Bellegarde, is requesting a meeting with Bob Paulson, the head of Canada’s national police force, the RCMP,  to discuss still undisclosed information held by the police on murdered and missing Indigenous women.

In a letter dated April 11, Chief Bellegarde voices surprise and concern that last week in a closed door meeting with some western chiefs the RCMP suggested Indigenous perpetrators are responsible for 70 per cent of the solved murders of Indigenous women.

For years, the Indigenous community and others have called for an inquiry into the hundreds of Indigenous women who have been killed or disappeared in the last decades.

“It is unacceptable that the RCMP and the federal government did not inform First Nations leadership of this information,” said Bellegarde, in the letter. “There is a long history of mistrust of police by First Nations and citizens. Withholding information only serves to damage relationships and foster suspicion, especially when that information is shared with government agencies or representatives who seem willing to use that information against First Nations to deny or diminish the action required.”

More information:
APTN News – AFN’s Bellegarde wants meeting with top Mountie over unreleased Indigenous women data – here
CBC News – RCMP says 7 of 10 female aboriginal homicides committed by aboriginal offenders – here

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