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This article was published 20/8/2016 (1493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Joan Jack is an Ojibwa activist from Berens River First Nations who does not want the missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry to restrict itself to an examination of the cases of missing women. She forcefully advocates a broad inquiry into the massive problem of violence against aboriginal women on reserves. In her words, "There’s just a level of violence in our communities that is a crisis, and no one seems to care."

Will the aboriginal leaders get behind her and make this happen?

The signs are not good. When I raised this issue last year in the Winnipeg Free Press (Aboriginal women bloodied every day, Aug. 25, 2015) the reaction of the male-dominated aboriginal leadership was as predictable as it was disheartening. The explanation provided was that male violence in aboriginal communities is not really the fault of the men. They did it because of discrimination, colonialism, foster homes, residential schools and other historical injustices.

The response consisted of the same excuses that are heard daily in courts and elsewhere — abusive men refusing to take responsibility for their own behaviour, and claiming victim status. And, for the most part, abusers are getting away with it, at a terrible cost to the quality of the lives of aboriginal women and children.

Let there be no mistake: the historical injustices are real, but to allow men to use them as excuses for brutalizing women is hypocrisy writ large. Worse, it gives abusers a virtual free pass to continue to act violently.

And, yes, discrimination is real. Many of today’s aboriginal leaders grew up with the humiliation of being told their culture was inferior. The treatment of aboriginal women was even worse. The dynamics of the S-word in relation to aboriginal women is very similar to that of the N-word south of the border. Aboriginal women felt the double-whammy of white contempt and the wrath of their own men.

Now, only a very small minority of people think in those racist terms. Today, many of our best and brightest writers, artists, senators — the list is long, and growing longer — are aboriginal men and women who refuse to be victims any longer. But the problem of violence stubbornly hangs on.

Just how big is the problem?

Police statistics say 90 per cent of slain and abused aboriginal women are victimized by their partners. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story, because the 90 per cent is based only on reported cases. In most cases, it is not reported, and the victim is silent. The figure is probably more like 99 per cent.

To put things into context, the inquiry will deal with an average of about 50 women per year from 1980 to the present who go missing. Hundreds of times that figure do not go missing, but are forced to try to live with the violence. In too many cases, they get no help from their communities.

The problem is simply enormous and it is crippling aboriginal communities.

What are the consequences? How many of the missing women were driven from their community because they could not find safety there? How many more women stay, but in a trap of abuse? How many of their children end up in Manitoba’s overloaded child-welfare system, then into jails and hopelessness — condemned to relive their violent fathers’ destructive lives?

The inquiry will not change this grim reality one bit if it takes the easy route and simply goes after the police and other institutions. Only if aboriginal women press the commissioners to thoroughly examine all aspects of violence against rural and urban aboriginal women is there a hope that this plague can be brought under control.

Aboriginal women have a decision to make. If they are content to have the inquiry use its mandate to focus exclusively on police conduct and the conduct of other institutions, the end result will be yet more ineffective government programs, and yet more paperwork for the police. The violence will still be there. If aboriginal women want something real to come from this inquiry, they will convince the commissioners to listen to Joan Jack — and take dead aim at the violence.

Brian Giesbrecht was a provincial court judge from 1976 until 2007. He is now retired.