VANCOUVER — A group on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside says Indigenous women need to be included in leadership and decision-making positions in governments and other organizations if violence against women is going to stop.
It's one of 35 recommendations made in the Red Women Rising report released by the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre.
The report is based on interviews with 113 Indigenous women and 15 non-Indigenous women.
Co-author Carol Muree Martin says the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which is expected to release its recommends this month, will consider their report.
She says she hopes their report — which include personal stories of child apprehensions, lack of access to adequate housing and poverty, and other issues — contributes to an overhaul of existing laws to create a more just society.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says the report is "timely," as it comes the day after former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, who is Indigenous, was ejected from the Liberal caucus.