Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

228 • Truth & Reconciliation CommissionCall to Action40) We call upon all levels of government, in collaboration with Aboriginal people, tocreate adequately funded and accessible Aboriginal-specific victim programs andservices with appropriate evaluation mechanisms.Violence against Aboriginal women and girlsThe overrepresentation of Aboriginal women and girls among crime victims is particularlydisturbing. Aboriginal women and girls are more likely than other women toexperience risk factors for violence. They are disproportionately young, poor, unemployed,and likely to have been involved with the child-welfare system and to live in acommunity marked by social disorder. 166Velma Jackson, who attended the Blue Quills residential school in Alberta, told theCommission her story.A lot of other girls my age were [in Blue Quills], but I only know of one thatsurvived, all the rest are dead today. Some died on the street. Some diedprostituting. Others into alcoholism got run over by vehicles. But their childrenare still alive today.... I can’t to this day wear a dress because of all the things thathappened in the school. It was like a sanctuary for pedophiles I would call it,that’s probably why I blocked out so much of my life is because of that. 167The most disturbing aspect of this victimization is the extraordinary number ofAboriginal women who have been murdered or are reported as missing. A reportby the rcmp, released in 2014, found that between 1980 and 2012, 1,017 Aboriginalwomen and girls were killed and 164 were missing. Two hundred and twenty-five ofthese cases remain unsolved. 168More research is needed, but the available information suggests a devastating linkbetween the large numbers of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and themany harmful background factors in their lives. These include: overrepresentationof Aboriginal children in child-welfare care; domestic and sexual violence; racism,poverty, and poor educational and health opportunities in Aboriginal communities;discriminatory practices against women related to band membership and Indian status;and inadequate supports for Aboriginal people in cities. This complex interplayof factors—many of which are part of the legacy of residential schools—needs to beexamined, as does the lack of success of police forces in solving these crimes againstAboriginal women.