OTTAWA — Amnesty International Canada is supporting the call from the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women on the “urgent need” to consider the safety of Indigenous women in all stages of resource-extraction projects.
The inquiry, which released its final report on Monday, says it found “substantial evidence of a serious problem” in a link between resource extraction and violence against Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ and two-spirit people.
The report says that industries create “boomtown” and “man-camp” environments implicated in increased rates of drug- and alcohol-related offences, sexual offences, domestic violence, and gang violence, as well as sex-industry activities.
“This increased rate of violence is largely the result of the migration into the camps of mostly non-Indigenous young men with high salaries and little to no stake in the host Indigenous community,” the report said.
Jackie Hansen, a gender-rights campaigner with Amnesty International Canada, said Wednesday in an interview that the pattern of risk is well known not only in Canada, adding it remains an under-discussed issue. “It is critical to note that whether you’re in Guatemala or Canada or the Philippines, we are seeing similar impacts when industry comes to town,” she said.
For the rest of this article: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/consider-safety-of-indigenous-women-in-resource-development-projects-mmiwg-inquiry-1.4453284