NDP Critic, Ashton, Criticizes Report on Violence against Indigenous Women

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The federal NDP’s status of women critic and Churchill NDP MP, Niki Ashton, grilled the Harper government today for completely ignoring the demand to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. Ashton issued these remarks in response to the release of a report today, which was drafted by the Special Committee on Violence against Indigenous Women.

The House of Commons committee straightforwardly refused to call a public inquiry into the matter, despite strong endorsements by many in the aboriginal community. In addition to that, the federal government also failed to call for a national action plan to deal with the causes of violence against aboriginal women. Addressing the reporters at the Manitoba Legislative Building, Ashton, alleged that she was incensed at the omissions and mentioned that “this report is appalling. It does not reflect the demands, the messages brought forward by family members who’ve lost their loved ones.”

Ashton, who is also a member of the committee, alleged that the Harper government has utterly failed to listen to “unanimous messages from premiers” along with strong and growing demand from international human rights organizations for an inquiry. Commenting on the federal report, entitled Invisible Women: A Call To Action, Ashton stated that “this report is deficient in every way.” The report overall makes a total of 16 recommendations, none of which address even a single concern of opposition parties, who offered dissenting opinions.