Feds Detail Program to Focus on Deaths of Aboriginal Women

Friday, October 29, 2010 03:20 PM

Prince George, B.C. - As a team of investigators probes the murder of 35 year old Cynthia Maas here in Prince George, the Federal Government has announced a set of new measures aimed at dealing with the high number of missing and murdered aboriginal women .

The Government has dedicated $10 million dollars to the effort.

Some of that money will go towards establishing a new National Police Support Centre for Missing Persons centre and some of the money will be used to set up a national tip website and make improvements to the Canadian Police Information Centre data base.

Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose made the announcement in Vancouver today saying in the past 30 years, there have been at least 600 cases of Aboriginal women who have gone missing or have been murdered "Aboriginal women, including First Nations, Inuit, Métis and non-status Indians are 3½ times more likely to experience violent victimization than non-aboriginal women. They're three times more likely to be victims of spousal violence than non-aboriginal women, and they are significantly overrepresented as victims of homicide."

The funding was initially announced in March as part of the Federal budget. The details announced today also promise:

- a national registry for missing persons and unidentified remains

-initiatives to improve the safety of aboriginal women in communities, as well as school and community based projects to help prevent young aboriginal women from falling victim to violence.

Ambrose says the Harper government will also look at making changes to the Criminal Code to make it easier to get warrants for wiretaps in missing persons investigations.

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Posted on Friday, October 29, 2010 03:20 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Harbinger on October 29 2010 8:19 PM

Anti-hitchhiking brochures would be a start.

Posted by: IAM on October 30 2010 9:30 AM

A data base that crosses city and provincial lines would be money well spent.
Too much information is not available to RCMP in initial stages of an investigation.

Posted by: bitter on October 30 2010 4:56 PM

I agree with Harbinger, Anti-hitchhiking , is a nice way to put it.

Posted by: uppercandian on October 30 2010 6:40 PM

you guys are nuts. No matter of info is gooing to stop these women from taking risks. Money would be better spent elsewhere. This money will evaporate into thin air and Aboriginal women will continue to be victimized.

Posted by: Harbinger on October 30 2010 10:25 PM

Hey uppercanadian...at least it makes us feel good. Is that yer point? Money doesn't really solve anything does it? It never will.

Posted by: newly retired on October 31 2010 8:16 AM

Why direct this just for aboriginal woman, why not include everyone, no matter what their color of skin is, this should also include men.

Posted by: Howrd_B_Stern on November 1 2010 1:11 PM

I am has the best suggestion. A national database would sure help the police when someone goes missing.