The National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples is urging the Federal Government to get to the root cause of violence against aboriginals.
Dwight Dorey says Indigenous peoples are more than willing to work with the Liberals.
Dorey says they need to address inequalities facing their people, including affordable housing, unemployment and the lack of access to quality education.
He notes last year, almost a quarter of the 516 homicide victims in Canada were aboriginal and unfortunately that’s not surprising.
A national report also shows out of roughly 6,500 murders involving female victims over a 34-year period, nearly 1,100 involved Indigenous women.
Dorey says these numbers confirm what many violence prevention advocates have been saying for years, that the number of aboriginal women who are murdered is disproportionately high.
Dorey stresses there’s an urgent need to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal girls and women.
