100 Mile Free Press Wednesday, November 28, 2012
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NOVEMBER 28, 2012
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Chase Mills, left, had the good fortune to be selected as the person to ride alongside Santa Claus in his sleigh during the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce Santa Parade on Nov. 23. The parade featured 32 entries and the Meridian RV float was deemed “Most Festive” by the chamber judges.
B.C. won’t support inquiry Refusal leaves Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women policy a non-starter carole Rooney Free Press
Local First Nations women and other women’s safety advocates are disappointed and offended the B.C. Liberal government won’t support a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women. Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister Ida Chong divulged the decision in her comments at a recent National Aboriginal Women’s Summit. This prompted the BC Native Women’s Association to send a protest letter to Premier Christy Clark. It explains support for an independent Canada-wide inquiry has been pledged by many provinces and provincial, national and international organizations – on a list
that spans almost three pages – but of missing and murdered women British Columbia’s support was nec- in First Nation communities. She essary for it to move forward. explains these unsolved crimes often Canim Lake Band (CLB) health significantly affect the health and director Sheila Dick says she doesn’t well-being of the victims’ families. know who is pulling the ministry’s Gail Edinger, who is the regionstrings, but at face value, it al co-ordinator for the seems Chong is “victimizing Community Co-ordination her own gender.” for Women’s Safety “A national inquiry, if sup(CCWS) Program, works ported, is a ‘foot in the door’ with the Ending Violence to establishing some policy Association of British around the protection and Columbia (EVABC), and a safety of [all] women. South Cariboo resident. “Where do we stand as a Sheila Dick She suspects the provgender? Are we not just as ince’s Missing Women important as the rest of the women Commission of Inquiry, headed up in Canada?” by commissioner Wally Oppal to While Dick’s position for the CLB look at victims from Vancouver’s is in a health capacity, she has a East Side, is at the root of its lack of history of working extensively with support for a national inquiry. the problem and negative effects “I would be speculating, but I’m
assuming the government feels they have spent their dollars on the [provincial inquiry]. “[But] I think Oppal’s inquiry was obsessively inadequate, and there should be a federal inquiry.” Dick adds the greatest number of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada is from B.C., and many of those are not from Vancouver, but from the Interior – such as those on the Highway of Tears list. In its failure to endorse the inquiry, government is “victimizing” all women across the province, she says. “To me, it’s not only an attack on Aboriginal women, but on rural women. Just because we don’t live in a larger area doesn’t mean we don’t Continued on A7