This collection of documents brings together reports, press statements, and various other documents that shed light on the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. This collection was developed by the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action and has been subsequently expanded on by the Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Various students and volunteers have generously contributed their time to developing this collection, including Anastasia Toma, Lara Koerner Yeo, and Liam Thompson .
While this collection is extensive, it is not comprehensive. It is a living collection of documents that will be updated in response to on-going reporting and community input. Please contact Susan Barker with comments and suggestions on documents to add to this collection. The collection is up to date as of April 2019..
The collection is set out in five parts:
I. Civil Society Reports
II. Government Reports
III. Secondary Resources
IV. United Nations Documents
V. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Documents
NOTE: this collection does not currently include specific documents from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. For access to National Inquiry documents, please go to their website.
Index
Civil Society Reports
Government Reports
Secondary Resources
United Nations Documents
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Documents
United Nations Special Mechanisms
Documents
Civil Society Reports
- Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF)
- Assembly of First Nations
- Annual Reports
- Special Reports and Position Papers
- Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
- Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)
- The National Inquiry on Murders and Disappearances of Indigenous Women and Girls: Recommendations from the Symposium on Planning for Change – Towards a National Inquiry and an Effective National Action Plan (2016)
- Joint Statement: Canada Held to Account for its Disappointing Women's Rights Record by the UN CEDAW (Aboriginal Legal Services, Amnesty International, Barbara Schlifer Clinic, BC CEDAW Group, Canada Without Poverty, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Chair in Indigenous Governance, Dr. Pam Palmater, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry, MiningWatch Canada, Native Women's Association of Canada, OXFAM West Coast LEAF) (2016)
- Statement on Draft Terms of Reference for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada (Amnesty International , Chair in Indigenous Governance, FAFIA) (2016)
- Open Letter: Re: Preliminary comments concerning the pre-inquiry consultation phase of a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (From Amnesty International, Feminist Alliance for International Action, KAIROS, LEAF, Native Women's Association Canada) (2016)
- Statement on the Launch of the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (August 2016)
- Ending Violence Association B.C
- Highway of Tears Symposium
- Joint Reports & Collaborations
- Blueprint for an Inquiry: Learning from the Failures of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (The Law Foundation BC, PIVOT, West Coast LEAF, BC Civil Liberties Association, Government of BC) (2012)
- Final Report: Strengthening the Circle to End Violence Against Aboriginal Women: Summit III to End Violence Against Aboriginal Women (Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, Ontario Native Women's Association, Métis Nation of Ontario, Independent First Nations Health Office & Ministry of Community and Social Services Developmental Services Branch) (2009)
- Knowledge Exchange Workshop- Successful Approaches for the Prevention of Aboriginal Family Violence (Madeleine Dion Stout , President of Dion Stout Reflections Inc. for the Public Health Agency of Canada's Family Violence Prevention Unit): (2009)
- The Start of Something Powerful: Strategizing for Safer Communities for BC Aboriginal Women (Pacific Association of First Nations Women, BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre BC Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counselling Programs) ( 2003)
- The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada – We Can do Better: A Position Paper by the SisterWatch Project of the Vancouver Police Department and the Women's Memorial March Committee (2011)
- Open Letter: Preliminary Comments Concerning the Pre-Inquiry Consultation Phase of a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (NWAC, Amnesty International, LEAF, FAFIA and Kairos) (2016)
- Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women (LSC)
- National Aboriginal Women's Summit/National Indigenous Women's Summit
- Native Women's Association of Canada
- Ontario Native Women's Association
- Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
- Canadian Women's Foundation
- Native Court Worker and Counselling Association of British Columbia
- National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence
Federal and Provincial Government Reports
- Federal-Provincial-Territorial
- Aboriginal Affairs Working Group (Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Aboriginal Affairs and National Indigenous Groups)
- Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety
- Federal
- Public Safety Canada: Aboriginal Corrections Policy Unit
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- Royal Commission on Aboriginal People
- Statistics Canada
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada/National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
- National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls
- Missing Women Commission of Inquiry
- Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (Oppal Report)
- Oppal Report Updates
- Policy and Research Reports
- Ministry of Community Services and Minister Responsible for Seniors' and Women's Issues
- Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation (BC MARR) and the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC): Collaboration to End Violence: National Aboriginal Women's Forum
- Minister's Advisory Council on Aboriginal Women (MACAW)
- Vancouver Police Department
- Manitoba
- Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland & Labrador
- Nova Scotia
- Saskatchewan
- Provincial Partnership Committee on Missing Persons
Secondary Resources (with links to open-access resources – where available)
- Constitutional & Treaty Law
- Borrows, John. "Aboriginal and Treaty Rights and Violence against Women" (2013) 50:3 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 699.
- Christie, Gordon. "Aboriginal Citizenship: Sections 35, 25 and 15 of Canada's Constitution Act, 1982" (2003) 7:4 Citizenship Studies 481. :
- Duhaime, Bernard & Josée-Anne Riverin. "Double Discrimination and Equality Rights 0f Indigenous Women In Quebec" (2011) 65:3 University of Miami Law Review 903. lr
- Gunn, Brenda L. "Self-Determination and Indigenous Women: Increasing Legitimacy through Inclusion" (2014) 26 Can J Women & L 241
- McIvor, Sharon, Pamela Palmater, & Shelagh Day, “Equality Delayed is Equality Denied for Indigenous Women”, (2019) 33:1- 2 Canadian Women Studies/les cahiers de la femme 171.
- Crime & Incarceration
- Buhler, Sarah. "Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody by Sherene H. Razack (review)" (2016) 28:2 Can J of Women & Law 457.
- Chartrand, Larry & McKay, Celeste, A Review of Research on Criminal Victimization and First Nations, Metis and Inuit Peoples 1900-2001
- McGill, Jena. "An Institutional Suicide Machine: Discrimination Against Federally Sentenced Aboriginal Women in Canada" (2008) 2:1 Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts 89.
- Monchalin, Lisa. "Canadian Aboriginal peoples victimization, offending and its prevention: Gathering the evidence" (2010) 12:2 Crime Prev Community Saf 119.
- Savarese, Josephine L. "Re-Imagining an Agentic Ashley: A Review of Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich, Looking for Ashley: Re-Reading What the Smith Case Reveals about the Governance of Girls, Mothers and Families in Canada Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference: Book Reviews" (2016) 28:2 Can J Women & L 452.
- Gender & Violence
- Bailey, Jane & Sara Shayan. "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis: Technological Dimensions Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 321.
- Bourgeois, Robyn. "Colonial Exploitation: The Canadian State and the Trafficking of Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada" (2015) 62 UCLA L Rev 1426.
- Conroy, Amy & Teresa Scassa. "Balancing Transparency and Accountability with Privacy in Improving the Police Handling of Sexual Assaults Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 342.
- Dylan, Arielle, Cheryl Regehr & Ramona Alaggia. "And Justice for All?: Aboriginal Victims of Sexual Violence" (2008) 14:6 Violence Against Women 678.
- Harper, Anita Olsen. "Is Canada Peaceful and Safe for Aboriginal Women?" 25:1, 2 Canadian Woman Studies 6.
- Pedersen, Jeanette Somlak, Lorraine Halinka Malcoe & Jane Pulkingham. "Explaining Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal Inequalities in Postseparation Violence Against Canadian Women: Application of a Structural Violence Approach" (2013) 19:8 Violence Against Women 1034.
- Razack, Sherene H. "Gendered Racial Violence and Spatialized Justice: The Murder of Pamela George Law, Race and Space/Droit, Espaces et Racialisation" (2000) 15 Can JL & Soc 91.
- Razack, Sherene H. "Gendering Disposability Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 285.
- Snyder, Emily, Val Napoleon & John Borrows. "Gender and Violence: Drawing on Indigenous Legal Resources" (2015) 48 UBC L Rev 593.
- Sweet, Victoria. "Rising Waters, Rising Threats: The Human Trafficking of Indigenous Women in the Circumpolar Region of the United States and Canada" (2014) 6 Y B Polar L 162.
- Health & Healthcare
- Ambtman, Ruby et al. "Promoting System-Wide Cultural Competence for Serving Aboriginal Families and Children in a Midsized Canadian City" (2010) J Ethnic Cultural Diversity in Social Work 235.
- Boyer, Yvonne. "First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Women's Health: A Rights-Based Approach" (2017) 54:3 Alta L Rev. <https://www.albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/view/764>.
- Denison, Jacqueline, Colleen Varcoe & Annette J Browne. "Aboriginal women's experiences of accessing health care when state apprehension of children is being threatened" (2014) 70:5 J Adv Nurs 1105.
- Grace, Sherry L. "A Review of Aboriginal Women's Physical and Mental Health Status in Ontario" (2003) 94:3 Canadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique 173.
- Green, B L. "Applying interdisciplinary theory in the care of Aboriginal women's mental health" (2010) 17:9 J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 797.
- Herk, Kimberley Anne Van, Dawn Smith & Caroline Andrew. "Identity matters: Aboriginal mothers' experiences of accessing health care" (2010) 37:1 Contemp Nurse 57.
- Senese, Laura C & Kathi Wilson. "Aboriginal urbanization and rights in Canada: examining implications for health" (2013) 91 Soc Sci Med 219. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23474122
- Tang, Sannie Y & Annette J Browne. "'Race' matters: racialization and egalitarian discourses involving Aboriginal people in the Canadian health care context" (2008) 13:2 Ethnicity & Health 109.
- Inquiry Approaches & Truth Seeking
- Collard, Juliane. "Into the archive: Vancouver's Missing Women Commission of Inquiry" (2015) 33:5 Environ Plan D 779.
- Goudge, Stephen. "The Berger Inquiry in Retrospect: Its Legacy Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 393.
- Hargreaves, Allison. "Finding Dawn and Missing Women in Canada: Story-Based Methods in Antiviolence Research and Remembrance" (2015) 27:3 Studies in American Indian Literatures 82.
- Hoole, Grant R. "The Forms and Limits of Judicial Inquiry: Judges as Inquiry Commissioners in Canada and Australia" (2014) 37 Dalhousie LJ 431.
- McMillan, L Jane. "Still Seeking Justice: The Marshall Inquiry Narratives Special Issue: Law on the Edge" (2014) 47 UBC L Rev 927.
- Palmater, Pamela. "Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 253.
- Patrick, Kirsten. "Not just justice: inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women needs public health input from the start" (2016) CMAJ.
- Razack, Sherene H. "Sexualized Violence and Colonialism: Reflections on the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference: Editorial" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L i.
- Rosiers, Nathalie Des. "Public Inquiries and Law Reform Institutions: Truth Finding and Truth Producing Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 374.
- Savarese, Josephine L. "Challenging Colonial Norms and Attending to Presencing in Stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women" (2017) 29 Can J Women & L 157.
- Smiley, Cherry. "A Long Road behind Us, a Long Road Ahead: Towards an Indigenous Feminist National Inquiry Special Issue: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference" (2016) 28 Can J Women & L 308.
- Woroniak, Monique. "'The Danger of a Single Story': Readers' Advisory Work and Indigenous Peoples" (2014) 54:1 Reference & User Services Quarterly; Chicago 20. 1
- McIvor Case (all documents in the McIvor case are accessible on the Poverty and Human Rights Centre website by year: 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018)
- Miscellaneous
- Craig, Elaine. "Person(s) of Interest and Missing Women: Legal Abandonment in the Downtown Eastside" (2014) 60 McGill L J 1.
- Dean, Amber. "The CMHR and the Ongoing Crisis of Murdered or Missing Indigenous Women: Do Museums Have a Responsibility to Care?" (2015) 37:2–3 Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 147.
- Eberts, Mary, Sharon McIvor & Teressa Nahanee. "Native Women's Association of Canada v. Canada Special Issue/Numero Special - Rewriting Equality/Recrire l'Egalite: Judgments/Jugements" (2006) 18 Can J Women & L 67.
- Eberts, Mary. "Knowing and Unknowing: Settler Reflections on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Sallows Lecture" (2014) 77 Sask L Rev 69.
- Harell, Allison & Dimitrios Panagos. "Locating the Aboriginal Gender Gap: The Political Attitudes and Participation of Aboriginal Women in Canada" (2013) 9:4 Politics & Gender 414.
- Jiwani, Yasmin & Mary Lynn Young. "Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse" (2006) 31:4 Canadian Journal of Communication.
- McIvor, Sharon Donna. "Aboriginal Women Unmasked: Using Equality Litigation to Advance Women's Rights" (2004) 16 Can J Women & L 106.
- Moll, Sorouja. "The Writing Names Project: UnSilencing the Number of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls" (2016) 168:168 Canadian Theatre Review 94.
- Pearce, Maryanne. "An Awkward Silence: Missing and Murdered Vulnerable Women and the Canadian Justice System" Doctoral Thesis, Doctorate of Laws, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law Common Law Section (2013)
- Strong-Boag, Veronica. "Rejecting Evidence for Justice: The Anti-Women Politics of Canadian Conservation Special Issue on Gender" (2016) 12 JL & Equal 39.
- Property Rights
- Reconciliation
- Kaye, Julie. "Reconciliation in the Context of Settler-Colonial Gender Violence: 'How Do We Reconcile with an Abuser?'" 53:4 Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie 461.
- Muldoon, Paul. "Thinking Responsibility Differently: Reconciliation and the Tragedy of Colonisation" (2005) 26:3 Journal of Intercultural Studies 237.
United Nations Documents
- Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- UN Reports on Canada
- 17th-18th Periodic Reports (2007)
- 19th-20th Periodic Reports (2012)
- 23rd Periodic Reports (2017)
- Civil Society Submissions
- 17th-18th Periodic Reports (2007)
- 19th-20th Periodic Reports (2012)
- Amnesty International
Canada: Briefing to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (February 2012)
- Canadian Human Rights Commission
Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (January 2012) http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCERD%2fNGO%2fCAN%2f80%2f8284&Lang=en - Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)
Disappearances and Murders of Aboriginal Women and Girls in Canada Submission to the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (January 2012) - Indigenous Bar Association
NGO Report on Canada's Nineteenth and Twentieth Periodic Report to CERD (January 2012) - Lawyers Watch BC & BC CEDAW Group
Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women and Girls in British Columbia and Canada: Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the occasion of its review of Canada's 19th and 20th reports (January 2012) - First Nations Child & Family Caring Society, KAIROS, AFN, NWAC
Response to Canada's 19th and 20th Periodic Reports: Alternative Report on how Canada fails First Nations children in child welfare (Joint Submission by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, the Assembly of First Nations, Native Women's Association of Canada, Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers), the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Chiefs of Ontario, Treaty Four First Nations, Indigenous World Association) (February – March 2012)
- 21st- 23rd Periodic Reports (2017)
- Aboriginal Legal Services
- Amnesty International
- Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform
Issues Prior to Reporting: Canada's Compliance with the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (July – August 2017) - Canadian Human Rights Commission
Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the Occasion of its Consideration of Canada's 21st – 23rd Periodic Reports (July 2017) - Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Canada: Implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (July – August 2017) - Joint Submission: Canada: Violence against Indigenous women and girls: UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 93rd Session
(Amnesty International Canada, Assembly of First Nations, Assembly of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers), First Nations Summit, KAIROS, Oxfam Canada, Union of BC Indian Chiefs) (July – August 2017) - National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence & Quebec Native Women Inc
Alternative Report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (July 2017) - Joint Submission: Inequitable Access to Essential Services for First Nations Children/Ongoing Failure to Comply with a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordering and End to Such Discrimination (July 2017)
(Amnesty International Canada Broadbent Institute Canadian Friends Service Committee Children First Canada First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Justice for Indigenous Women KAIROS Oxfam Canada Oxfam-Québec Project of Heart Rideau Institute United Food and Commercial Workers Canada) - Native Women's Association of Canada
Alternative Report: Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 21st – 23rd Reports of Canada (July 2017) - Joint Submissions of FAFIA, Chair in Indigenous Governance, and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies: Discrimination against Indigenous and Racialized Women in Canada Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the Occasion of the Committee’s twenty-first to twenty-third Periodic Review of Canada (2017)
- Canada's Submissions
- 16th Periodic Report (2003)
- 18th Periodic Report (2005)
- 19th-20th Periodic Reports (2009)
- 21st-23rd Periodic Reports (2016)
- First Nation's Submissions
- 19th- 20th Periodic Report (2012)
- Assembly of First Nations
Submission of the Assembly of First Nations to the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination: Response to Canada's 19th and 20th Periodic Reports (February – March 2012) - First Nations Summit
- Shadow Report: Submission to CERD (January 2012)
- Joint Submission: Response to Canada's 19th and 20th Periodic Reports: Consolidated Indigenous Alternative Report (International Indian Treaty Council, Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, the First Nations Summit, Dene Nation and Assembly of First Nations Regional Office (Northwest Territories), Assembly of First Nations, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, Samson Cree Nation, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Native Women's Association of Canada, Indigenous World Association, Treaty 4 First Nations) (February – March 2012) (Word doc downloads automatically)
- Six Nations of Grand River
Shadow Report Responding to Canada's 19th and 20th Reports to the CERD (January 2012)
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- UN Reports on Canada
- 5th Periodic Report (2006)
- 6th Periodic Report (2015)
- Civil Society Submissions
- 6th Periodic Report (2015)
- Amnesty International
- Amnesty International (114th Session)
- Amnesty International
- BC CEDAW Group
- Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)
- Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) & Native Women's Association of Canada
- KAIROS
- Canadian Human Rights Commission
- Canada's Submissions
- 5th Periodic Report (2004)
- 6th Periodic Report (2010)
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- UN Reports on Canada
- 6th-7th Periodic Reports (2008)
- 8th-9th Periodic Reports (2016)
- Civil Society Reports
- 6th-7th Periodic Reports
- Amnesty International
- BC CEDAW Group
- Feminist Alliance For International Action (FAFIA)
- Justice for Girls
- 8th – 9th Periodic Reports (2016)
- Aboriginal Legal Services
- Amnesty International
- BC CEDAW Group
- Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
- Canadian Human Rights Commission
- EGALE
- Feminist Alliance for International Action
- Human Rights Watch
- Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry:
- Joint Submission of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, the Centre for Indigenous Governance and the Feminist Alliance for International Action
- Joint Submission of Feminist Alliance for International Action and the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres.
- Joint Submission of Feminist Alliance for International Action and the Native Women's Association of Canada
- Joint Submission of Human Rights Watch and University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, International Human Rights Program
- Joint Submission PIVOT & Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform:
- Canada's Submissions
- 6th – 7th Periodic Reports (2008)
- 8th and 9th Periodic Reports (2016)
- First Nations Submissions
- 6th-7th Periodic Reports (2008)
- Six Nations Traditional Women's Council Fire And Haudenosaunee (The People) FORWARD (For Women's Autonomy, Rights and Dignity)
- CEDAW Inquiry Documents
- International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights
- UN Reports on Canada
- 6th Periodic Report (2016
- Civil Society Reports
- 6th Periodic Report (2016
- Amnesty International
- BC CEDAW
- Canadian Human Rights Commission
- Feminist Alliance For International Action:
- Indigenous Bar Association Canada
- Canada's Submissions
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Documents
- 144th Session
- 147th Session
United Nations Special Mechanisms:
- Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences