Manitoba Minister Stresses on Better Response to Native Women Deaths

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Manitoba’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Eric Robinson of Cross Lake First Nation, recently learned about the news confirming that the body of Tina Fontaine had been pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River. Thereafter, he claims to have thought to himself, “not again.”

In his remarks, Mr. Robinson alleged to have received similar news time and time again in his province, where half of the female murder victims over the past 30 years have been aboriginal. Mr. Robinson grew up on the same reserve as Helen Betty Osborne. During a recent interview at his legislature office on Wednesday, Mr. Robinson discussed the troubling issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women in Manitoba and across the country in detail. He said that Tina’s death has “touched a nerve,” and “it’s not only a Manitoba issue. It’s not a Winnipeg issue. It’s not a Regina, Saskatoon or Edmonton issue. It’s not a ‘[highway] of tears’ issue. It’s not a Pickton murders rampage-type issue,” signaling to the disappearances and killings in British Columbia. He alleged that “there are 1,200 murdered and missing women, for Pete’s sake.”

Having had lost his own loved ones to death and disappearance, Mr. Robinson didn’t mince words. He alleged that he lies in bed at night wondering whether there would be more outcry if the missing and murdered were “fairer-skinned” women. He also mentioned that “I think Indian people are viewed to be dispensable, in a lot of ways.”

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