Statement made on 08 March 2011 by Senator Lillian Eva Dyck
Hon. Lillian Eva Dyck:
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. For the past year, this government has been telling us that they are serious about the disturbing issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. They announced in Budget 2010 that $10 million would be put towards reporting services, community healing centres and education about missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
For the past year, myself and other honourable senators have continued to ask this government where this $10 million initiative was going. Finally, we were told that money was not going towards the Sisters in Spirit initiative that has already laid the groundwork on the issue but, instead, to the RCMP to set up their own database for missing persons that may not collect information that identifies victims by their Aboriginal identity. Reports now indicate that this database will not be running until early 2013.
Why has the government decided not to use the database belonging to the Native Women's Association of Canada to mark progress on whether or not the government is eliminating violence toward Aboriginal women and, instead, to start a new database with the RCMP that will not be operational until 2013?
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