Canadian Police Indifference to the Disappearance and Murder of Indigenous Women

Research in Canada has shown that efforts to address the disappearance and murder of Indigenous women in Canada are running into police indifference to the issue. A study in Canada found that Indigenous women are 400% more likely to disappear without a trace than other Canadians.

According to phys.org, the Canadian government does not know how many Indigenous women have disappeared or been killed. It is estimated that around 4,000 Indigenous women and girls and 600 Indigenous men and boys went missing or were killed between 1956 and 2016.

Researcher Roman Alfaro and sociologist Jerry Flores, according to a 2004 Amnesty International report, say that the problem with indigenous women is that they are subjected to excessive violence and insufficient support. Canadian police often use negative labels such as "runaways" along with insults in response to reports of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, Alfaro said.

Meanwhile, people reported hearing from the police when they wanted to report an Aboriginal woman missing; "There's nothing we can do" or "It's inevitable." In some cases, the police offer to close the missing person's report no earlier than 2-3 months after the disappearance.

Previously, the Institute for Monitoring Murder and Violence Against Women and Girls in Canada said in a report on the rise in homicide statistics in that country that 850 women and girls have died from violence over the past five years, an average of one every 48 hours.

In addition, according to a report by the Canadian Institute for the Study of Violence Against Women and Girls, between 2019 and 2022, the number of female deaths caused by male suspects increased by 27 percent.