Making good on a promise outlined in the March budget, the government has announced its intention to launch several new initiatives aimed at discovering what has become of hundreds of missing aboriginal women.
The federal Minister for the Status of Women Rona Ambrose made the announcement Friday, noting that aboriginal women in Canada are much more likely to experience violent victimization, suffer spousal abuse and wind up the victim of homicide than their non-aboriginal counterparts.
"In the past 30 years, there have been at least 600 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women," Ambrose told reporters in Vancouver, adding that "the details of each case has been distressing and shocking to Canadians."
"What each of them had in common was the fact that they all deserved far better support and security from all of us to protect them."
To that end, Ambrose said her government is now taking "a multifaceted, multipronged approach" that includes the creation of a national police support centre dedicated to "the issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women."
Ambrose also promised to introduce changes to the Criminal Code, "which will allow law enforcement officers to obtain multiple warrants for the same crime investigation with a single application to a judge."
"These amendments will improve the efficiency of crime investigations," the minister said, noting missing persons databases will also be improved.
The suite of initiatives is expected to cost $10 million in funds already allocated in the last federal budget.
