“The problem is so pervasive that the Canadian government does not know how many Indigenous women are missing or have been murdered.” -Kate Martin, University of Toronto Mississauga
According to Kate Martin, senior staff reporter in the University of Toronto Mississauga Office of Communications, Canadian indigenous women are “400% more likely than other Canadians to go missing.” Martin affirms that, between 1956 and 2016, roughly 4,000 female Indigenous Canadians have gone missing or been murdered. Indigenous Canadian males; roughly 600 (phys.org). In reality, nobody really knows just how many Indigenous Canadians have disappeared.
Across the board, Indigenous Canadians are more likely than any other Canadian population to suffer a variety of crimes. According to The Assembly of First Nations, indigenous women are “four times more likely than non-Indigenous women” to suffer acts of violence, stating 56% of indigenous women have experienced assault; 46%, sexual assault. As to why, Amnesty International cites racist and sexist beliefs allowing perpetrators to believe “they can get away with committing acts of violence.” Moreover, Amnesty International suggests poverty, poor education services, disempowerment, and police inaction as contributors to a proviolence ecosystem for indigenous individuals, particularly indigenous women.
A key contributing factor to the boundless disappearance rates of indigenous Canadians is British Columbia’s Yellowhead Highway 16, commonly known as the Highway of Tears. Connecting the Northwest Coast and the Central Interior, the Highway of Tears trails through many indigenous communities that, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia, lacked accessible public transportation until 2017. So, for decades many indigenous people resorted to hitchhiking for travel, enabling perpetrators to successfully kidnap victims.
In terms of policing, the Highway of Tears and “all provinces except Ontario and Quebec,” fall under the jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or the RCMP (Britannica). In Canada, there are three levels of police jurisdiction: municipal, provincial, and federal. On paper, the RCMP serves as the federal police force, but the organization often contracts itself out to provinces and municipalities lacking adequate police. Though most native tribes are allowed to form their own police forces, many lack the necessary resources and are policed by the RCMP.
Ironically, the RCMP’s original purpose was the colonization and securing of Western Canada through the pacification of indigenous tribes and hostile American traders. Moreover, through the Indian Act of 1933, the RCMP were appointed as “truant officers” allowing officers to send indigenous children to residential schools, a system Indigenous Foundations claims was designed to indoctrinate indigenous children into “Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living and assimilating them into mainstream white Canadian society.” Indigenous Foundations affirms that reports of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse were rampant in these schools. The RCMP’s history of subjugating and policing indigenous people is fraught with ineptitude and discrimination, creating an environment highly susceptible to violence—not only are they failing to police, in many cases the RCMP are the perpetrators themselves. Again, this is the organization trusted to maintain the safety of indigenous people and investigate the crimes committed against them.
Overall, Canada’s negligent, prejudicial treatment of indigenous people has cultivated a breeding ground for crime. Through poverty, police impotence, and general apathy towards the issue, Canada’s indigenous population continues to suffer, and disappear, in silence. Currently, organizations like Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls fight for change and search for the disappeared.