Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada makes it a key priority to address violence against all women, and in particular aboriginal women who experience both a higher rate and more serious forms of violence than non-aboriginal women.
As to the question of when, we are working right now to address the complex web of societal issues related to the disappearance and murder of so many aboriginal girls and women in Canada. My friend talked about the Native Women's Association of Canada's Sisters In Spirit initiative which is collaborative and multi-departmental. We are continuing to work with the Native Women's Association of Canada beyond that.
This initiative is now in its fifth year and it has really laid the foundation to address the roots of violence against aboriginal girls and women. This is the responsibility of all of us, all levels of governments, the police, the justice system, civil society, and other stakeholders. There are currently ongoing investigations at the provincial level and the RCMP is taking part in them as well.
Since 2007 our government has supported 117 projects to address violence against women in all of its forms, including violence against aboriginal women. A federal-provincial-territorial working group of senior criminal justice officials is currently reviewing criminal justice system responses to cases involving serial killers who target vulnerable women.
I know Justice Canada is playing an active role in this working group, while Status of Women Canada is actively involved with the subcommittees of this federal-provincial-territorial group on healing and on missing and murdered aboriginal women. Together with the partners, Justice Canada is working hard to improve the criminal justice system in response to missing and murdered aboriginal women.
The Government of Canada recognizes that the solution to the problem of missing and murdered aboriginal women, and to the more generalized problem of violence against women lies in the achievement of equality for women. We today recommit ourselves to that goal.