Mr. Speaker, on May 13 I stood in this House along with my colleague from Labrador and called on the government to launch an independent public investigation into the known 520 missing aboriginal women and girls in Canada. Last week we made a formal request to the justice minister. To date there has not yet been a response.
We know the government is still funding Sisters in Spirit, committed to by the previous Liberal government, and we commend that, but three years later it is simply not enough.
Forty-three per cent of those 520 cases have occurred just since the year 2000, a phenomenon that appears to be rising as more women go missing, three in Manitoba in the past year alone.
Aboriginal women deserve no less concern, no fewer investigations and no less protection than all women in Canada. We believe the government must act to answer the questions of why this is happening, why the investigations are falling short, and why the women and their families are not being acknowledged. They deserve no less. It is time. Canadians deserve no less.