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Statistics Canada’s analysis of the 2014 GSS data found that Indigenous identity wasn’t a risk factor for the overall Indigenous population. “Rather, the higher rates of victimization … appeared to be related to the increased presence of other risk factors among this group — such as experiencing childhood maltreatment, perceiving social disorder in one’s neighbourhood, having been homeless, using drugs, or having fair or poor mental health.”

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Those factors didn’t entirely explain the high rates of female victimization: “Of note, (they) were proportionately more likely to report experiencing both physical and sexual maltreatment as a child than their male counterparts.” So there was scope to inquire as to why that was the case — just not in isolation. Any population suffering from poor indicators on housing, income, education and health will also suffer disproportionately from violence. Lord knows governments, police and child services agencies can do a much better job dealing with the fallout, and there are dozens of recommendations along those lines in the report — most of which have been heard many times before. But there is no way to get at the meat of the problem, to really tackle the violence, that doesn’t involve those indicators continuing to improve.

The report recognizes this, occasionally. “The socio-economic marginalization of Indigenous Peoples further compromises their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, particularly by creating conditions that facilitate violence and exacerbate trauma,” it trenchantly observes, focusing briefly on the overall Indigenous population. One of the recommendations — or “legal imperatives,” in the report’s parlance — is that governments create “employment opportunities” in “all Indigenous communities,” which is a tad impractical, but jobs would certainly help. More realistic (though perhaps not as a political proposition) is the call for a guaranteed annual income for all Canadians.