An international human rights watchdog was in Prince George on Thursday, collecting data on Canada's track record with vulnerable communities.
The vulnerable community that came to light was aboriginal women. After so many were murdered or missing over so many years, consistently the same demographic, it became a matter of concern for the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights (IACHR), a division of the Organization of American States. Canada is a signatory to this collection of nations encompassing North and South America.
Two commissioners from the IACHR - Tracy Robinson (specializing in women's rights) and Dinah Shelton (specializing in the rights of indigenous peoples) - are on a small tour of key sites pertaining to this concern. Prince George, with its well-chronicled history of death, violence and underachievement of aboriginal females, was on their list along with Ottawa and Vancouver.
"It means the stories of suffering that have been going on for years have been heard and acknowledged at an international level," said Terry Teegee, elected chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, the organization that hosted the contingent's visit.
He noted that an overrepresentation of victims were historically aboriginal women, but despite claims by governments and other authorities that their methods have changed with the times, the headline victims keep emerging and they keep being women or aboriginal or both.
"We believe the federal government has a legal obligation to act," said Teegee. "They are signatories to the Organization of American States and the United Nations, yet Canada keeps stonewalling these organizations, not acting, and people keep suffering because they do nothing meaningful."
Robinson and Shelton acknowledged that they are well aware of these allegations, and many voices have provided them with information on that side of the issue. The IACHR has been pursuing this investigation for more than a year (testimony was given at a set of hearings in Washington in 2012 and early '13), and hope to hear more from those on the other side of the allegations - namely the federal government - but so far that has not happened in a concerted way.
"We are hearing a wide variety of perspectives about the past and proposals for the future," said Shelton. "There is a lot of unresolved cases and mistrust that's been built up. We know the government has acknowledged some areas of concern, but some still need to be addressed."
"It would be impossible to create a credible report on such a complex and significant issue if you haven't gone to the extent of visiting the areas being discussed and actually meet the people involved," said Robinson. "We have been given reports, we have heard testimony, we have many input sources for information on this issue but we are reporting out based on our organization's own standards."
Shelton said a site visit for "ground truth" also helps dissolve what might be partisanship or rhetoric in written information or indirect advocacy. Looking the victims' families in the eyes and being out on the same highways and streets where the victims suffered helps bring the truth into focus.
"What struck me was hearing about the widely dispersed effects of each victim," said Shelton. "You assume the immediate family is deeply affected, but we have gotten a better sense of how the loss of these people has rippled across whole communities."
"We've heard more about the complexities behind colonialism and residential schools and the whole spectrum of vulnerabilities faced by aboriginal persons," said Robinson, "which has a strong connection with the general circumstances of vulnerability to violence of all kinds - against women, clearly, but also children, also men, it radiates out."
Part of their trip to Canada includes providing the federal government's officials in related bureaus in Ottawa with better knowledge about the legal implications of ignoring or complying with the anticipated reports that will eventually come from their analysis of this issue.
