Tag Archives: law enforcement

Finding Dawn

Finding Dawn is a documentary highlights the struggles of Aboriginal women in Canada and the hardships many of these women face of a daily basis.

Reflecting on a recent Globe and Mail article “The National Shame of Aboriginal Incarceration,” and the disheartening statistic that one in three incarcerated women in Canada is of Aboriginal descent, the patterns of violence and abuse in this film are often, sadly, unsurprising. Finding Dawn is an attempt at putting a face on the (estimated) 500 Aboriginal women that have disappeared within the last 30 years (by many accounts, this estimate is far too low). This travesty has been highlighted many times over the years by many organizations, including Amnesty International,  the United Nations, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and numerous others.

Struggles continue in the efforts to bring justice to this situation. Just a few days ago, two Aboriginal groups in British Columbia declared their boycott of the Missing Women Inquiry as inadequate resources are being offered by the government.

(Please note is an extra post, beyond the 5 required for Module 4, but seeing as it’s written it may as well be contributed)

In the Same Boat

In the Same Boat is an article that describes a large canoe journey of over 250 paddlers.  These paddlers include law enforcement, Aboriginal youth and Aboriginal elders.  The week long journey is made in an attempt to break down the divide between Aboriginal youth and law enforcement.  Most of the article focusses on the difficulty of the journey and indicates that those involved have felt tensions leave during the journey.  Probably the most interesting part of this article is the reaction in the comment section.  Have a read and judge for yourself.  Many of the comments are highly critical of this initiative with the most interesting comment pointing out that these students need to be in school and be clean and sober and that these may not be the youth law enforcement needs to win over.