Program Planning and Evaluation in Public Health

This assignment discusses the national and international legal instruments of the interim report titled 'Our Women and Girls ARE SACRED' in relation to ending violence against indigenous females.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Program Planning and evaluation in Public Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction- Ending all kinds of violence against indigenous females has gained
recognition as a concern of utmost importance in recent years. Research reports suggest that
the Government of Canada has expended an estimated $53.8 million for the National Inquiry
into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Government of Canada 2018).
According to Dean (2015) Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) has gained
attention in the past decades in several countries, including Canada and has been described as
a major Canadian national crisis. Indigenous women have also been found to be unreasonably
affected by different types of violence, with an over-representation of Canadian female
homicide victims (Commission of Canada 2015). This assignment will elaborate on the
national and international legal instruments of the interim report titled ‘Our Women and Girls
ARE SACRED’.
Summary- The Canadian government has acknowledged the fact that there are several
indigenous women, who have lost their lives or are missing. The interim report can be
illustrated as an amalgamation of stories encompassing friends, grassroots citizens, and
family members, who want an end to violence against indigenous girls and women (Saramo
2016). The National Inquiry aims to build the foundation on grassroots efforts, with the aim
of ensuring that the indigenous females are protected and can feel safe and valued in every
family, community, and Nation in Canada (Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2017).
Hence, the primary objective of the interim report is based on the central belief that all girls
and women of Canada are sacred, with the aim of making recommendations that are able to
address the issues of missing and murdered women. In addition, the report has also taken into
consideration the fact that the indigenous women are economically, politically, and socially
marginalised, which increases their likelihood of acting as targets for deeds of violence and
hatred (Razack 2016). Therefore, the major goal of the interim report is to unravel truths, in
relation to the issue of major concern.

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Legal instruments- This interim report has been formulated from a legal perspective
that not only takes into consideration the federal jurisdiction, but also include all territories
and provinces for looking into the issue of missing and murdered women. The development
of 14 legal entities proves beneficial in conducting a comprehensive and thorough
investigation of the underlying reasons that make the women more vulnerable to assault, and
murders. This is in accordance with the fact established by Abraham and Tastsoglou (2016)
who stated that framing legal discourse helps in reducing the number of racialised Canadian
women, who are subjected to domestic violence (Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada
2017). The legal team of the report has the sole responsibility of providing legal guidance on
matters that are imperative for the functioning of the inquiry.
One major advantage of the legal instrument is associated with creating a provision
for statement takers who are entitled with the responsibility of helping survivors and families,
share their ordeals. This ensures maintenance of high levels of confidentiality,
professionalism, and sensitivity of the shared information (Her Majesty the Queen in Right of
Canada 2017). Another attribute of this instrument is the Legal Strategy Coalition on
Violence against Indigenous Women (LSC), a nation-wide coalition involved in legal
advocacy for addressing MMIW problems (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund
2018). The Descheneaux case that deals with two different circumstances of remaining sex-
based injustices in Indian registration also forms the basis of the report, thereby addressing
the identified inequities (McMahon 2017). The National Action Plan to Combat Human
Trafficking forms another crucial aspect of the legal instrument, by consolidating the federal
government efforts for reducing prevalence of human trafficking (Karam 2016). The fact that
the Canadian government has also taken into consideration the different Indigenous legal
systems, ensures validity of the report in addressing MMIW issues.

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Analysis of the arguments for and against- According to the Interim Report, the
aboriginal women residing in Canada are vulnerable to domestic violence, human trafficking
and physical abuse. Thus in order to restore the overall mental and physical well-being of the
aboriginal women in Canada, the interim report recommended providing health care funding
for complete health support. Interim report is of the opinion that proper funding for
comprehensive healthcare support will help in improving the healthcare access to the family
members, murdered indigenous girls and women while improving healthcare access support
services (Government of Canada 2018). Ly and Crowshoe (2015) stated that in order to
address the stereotype of the aboriginal health under the Canadian context, it is important to
increase the healthcare access to the aboriginals. Proper healthcare access and health
education will help in comprehensive improvement in the aboriginal health and well-being.
However, the research conducted by Goodman et al. (2017) highlighted that increasing the
healthcare access is not comprehensive in improving the overall health and well-being of the
aboriginal women residing in Canada. This is because, Canadian healthcare lacks trained
culturally competent nurse of aboriginal nursing population leading to poor healthcare
experiences of the women. The research was undertaken under the context of the Vancouver
city and the aboriginal women reported that they received ill-treatment in the healthcare
centres. The interim report also stated that life and legacies of the women who lost their life
as a result of the human trafficking and domestic violence are not commemorated and thus
interim report commemorated channelization of funding to support healing, truth and create
awareness to advance the process of reconciliation (Government of Canada 2018). Halseth
(2013) stated that increasing the funding will help to reduce the gap among the deprived
aboriginal women residing in Canada.
Decision and Conclusion- Thus the analysis of the interim report highlighted that
there are adequate recommendation in order to increase the healthcare access among the

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aboriginal women in Canada along with proper channel of funding to commemorate the loss
of life of the aboriginal women. However, the recommendation fails to cover effective
initiatives in order to control the human trafficking of aboriginal Canadian women. Stringent
security of the state and country borders might to prove to be effective in decreasing the
chances of human trafficking in Canadian women. At present there are only privately funded
services for the prevention of domestic violence in Canada like Domestic Abuse Service the
Government of Canada must come-up with government funded initiatives in order to prevent
domestic violence among the aboriginal women (Bugeja et al. 2015). Overall Interim report
helps in providing a comprehensive picture legal instruments and government services to
protect the aboriginal women in Canada.

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References
Abraham, M. and Tastsoglou, E., 2016. Addressing domestic violence in Canada and the
United States: The uneasy co-habitation of women and the state. Current sociology, 64(4),
pp.568-585.
Bugeja, L., Dawson, M., McIntyre, S.J. and Walsh, C., 2015. Domestic/Family violence
death reviews: An international comparison. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 16(2), pp.179-187.
Commission of Canada., 2015. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to
Action. [online] Available at:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170908092832/http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/
2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Dean, A., 2015. The CMHR and the Ongoing Crisis of Murdered or Missing Indigenous
Women: Do Museums Have a Responsibility to Care?. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and
Cultural Studies, 37(2-3), pp.147-165.
Goodman, A., Fleming, K., Markwick, N., Morrison, T., Lagimodiere, L., Kerr, T. and
Society, W.A.H.R., 2017. “They treated me like crap and I know it was because I was
Native”: The healthcare experiences of Aboriginal peoples living in Vancouver's inner
city. Social Science & Medicine, 178, pp.87-94.
Government of Canada., 2018. Government of Canada – National Inquiry into Missing and
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national-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls.html [Accessed 18
Feb. 2019].

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Halseth, R., 2013. Aboriginal women in Canada: Gender, socio-economic determinants of
health, and initiatives to close the wellness gap. Prince George, BC: National Collaborating
Centre for Aboriginal Health.
Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada., 2017. Our Women and Girls ARE SACRED.
[online] Available at: http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/files/ni-mmiwg-interim-report-en.pdf
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Karam, M., 2016. Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2014. Juristat: Canadian Centre for
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Ly, A. and Crowshoe, L., 2015. ‘Stereotypes are reality’: addressing stereotyping in Canadian
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McMahon, T., 2017. Canada's Legal System Hates Indigenous Women. [online] Available at:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2852544 [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Razack, S.H., 2016. Sexualized violence and colonialism: reflections on the inquiry into
missing and murdered indigenous women. [online] Available at:
https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cjwl.28.2.i [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Saramo, S., 2016. Unsettling spaces: Grassroots responses to Canada’s missing and murdered
Indigenous women during the Harper government years. Comparative American Studies An
International Journal, 14(3-4), pp.204-220.
Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund., 2018. Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence
Against Indigenous Women (LSC). [online] Available at: https://www.leaf.ca/legal/legal-
strategy-coalition-on-violence-against-indigenous-women-lsc/ [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].