Madam Speaker, I am pleased to once again stand here to call on the government to initiate a government funded public investigation into how and why the number of murdered aboriginal women and girls from the aboriginal community have gone missing and why this number is so unacceptably high.
I raised this matter in the House on May 13, 20 and 26 and again on June 2. It has been nearly a month and my colleague, the member for Labrador, and I, who both raised this issue, have heard no response from the government.
We have written to the Minister of Justice, asking for a full investigation into this matter and to date we have not heard a response from him.
It is a shameful record in our country of the number of known missing and murdered aboriginal girls. We know that 520 of them have gone missing. They are mothers, daughters, granddaughters, sisters and wives. They are young and they are old and they are victims of heinous crimes.
According to the Sisters in Spirit initiative, 347 of the 522, or 67%, have been murdered, 126, or 24%, are still missing and unaccounted for, 43% of the cases, or 223, women have gone missing since the year 2000, 150 of the 347 murder cases remain unsolved, 52% of the women were under the age of 30 at the time of their disappearance and 14% of them were less than 18 years old. These missing women have gone forgotten for too long.
We are concerned that these women have been victims of crime, yet not enough has been done investigate their disappearance and indeed to help prevent this from reoccurring. We need to find out why they disappeared, what the root causes are that contributed to their vanishing, do they include violence against aboriginal women, racism, sexism, aboriginal poverty, historical grievances and what government policy undertakings must be strengthened or further developed.
We must protect those who are most vulnerable in society. It is critical that we implement measures to both prevent the disappearance of aboriginal women or the lack of response to their disappearance.
We have heard in response to the request before that the Sisters in Spirit initiative addresses it. It is an important initiative, but it is a research initiative. It is a recording initiative. It is not an investigation into how, why and where these women have gone missing.
We are asking the government, in good faith, to launch such an investigation and to do it in a comprehensive way, in consultation with aboriginal communities as to the best manner and method of doing so. Other models of investigations have been implemented by government. This is one that should be unique to the situation.