OTTAWA — Advocates say aboriginal women tend to be underprotected and overpoliced, making it vital for police behaviour to be examined in the coming inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women.
Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, says indigenous women are grossly overrepresented in the prison system and commonly suffer from poverty and abuse.
Pate also says rates of violence are particularly high for indigenous women, who are less likely to have support in addressing such problems.
Dawn Lavell-Harvard, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, says many of the crimes linked to aboriginal women are related to desperation and circumstance.
The prison watchdog says the aboriginal inmate population ballooned by more than 50 per cent between 2005 and 2015, calling the situation even more distressing for federally sentenced aboriginal women.
Over the last 10 years, the number of imprisoned aboriginal women has doubled.
