Statement in Solidarity with the Families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Feminists Deliver is in full solidarity with the families and friends of the many Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People who have disappeared and were murdered.

 

We mourn with the families of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Beatrice Harris, Marcedes Myran, and a fourth victim who has been named Buffalo Woman out of respect. We also extend our condolences to the people and communities of Crane River First Nation and Long Plain First Nation and share their grief with them.

The twisted irony of the news of these murders amidst 16 Days of Activism is not lost upon us. Many of our member organizations work on the frontlines of gender-based violence and continue to fight against the genocidal and ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People. We are devastated that Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People continue to face such extreme levels of violence across the country. We are furious that countless reports acknowledge the “persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses”, and yet nothing seems to change.

Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People continue to die at alarming rates and their murders are a direct result of colonialism, racism, white supremacy, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and the multiple other layers of oppression that exist in between.

Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki, a resident of Winnipeg, MB and known member of the extremist far-right, has been charged with first-degree murder of the four women. His social media is ripe with violent racist, xenophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, and white supremacist beliefs. Our country’s and our policymakers’ willful ignorance towards linking gender-based violence with systems of oppressions is troubling, and has resulted in these genocides.

We, yet again, call on federal and provincial governments to action the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People and their families are pleading for action, not words.

Feminists Deliver Co-chairs
Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director
Battered Women’s Support Services
Jennifer Johnstone
President and CEO of Central City Foundation