Indigenous women

Women who are victims of violence are being turned away from shelters across Canada due to a chronic lack of resources and funding, according to two new national studies, including one by the House of Commons committee on the status of women.

The head of the RCMP says the police force is looking into whether any complaints about forced or coerced sterilizations have been made to law-enforcement agencies in Canada, but a preliminary review has not identified any.

The past two years have not been easy for Quebec's three major police forces, whose officers have been working in a climate of suspicion, scandal and now an allegation of criminal wrongdoing at the highest level.

Ongoing concerns about coerced sterilization of Indigenous women is nothing short of a "crisis" that warrants a public inquiry, says a prominent Alberta First Nations leader.

NDP health critic Don Davies is calling for the RCMP to immediately launch an investigation into all allegations of forced and coerced sterilizations in Canada.

Quebec won't be part of a working group the federal government wants to examine claims that Indigenous women have been sterilized against their will.

Indigenous women are probably not the only ones who have been coerced into being sterilized without wanting to be, an assistant deputy minister at Health Canada told the House of Commons' health committee on Thursday, January 31, 2019.

The grand chief who represents First Nations in northern Manitoba says it's alarming that RCMP have investigated nine sexual assault allegations at one power station construction site.

The federal Liberals are turning to a broad group of officials — from provinces, territories, Indigenous groups and medical organizations — for solutions to mounting allegations from Indigenous women that they were victims of coerced and forced sterilizations.

Forty days ago, a woman returned to her home on Nova Scotia's We'koqma'q First Nation to find her 22-year-old daughter, Cassidy Bernard — a new mother of infant twins — dead.

Morningstar Mercredi says she woke up from surgery at 14 and immediately broke down when she discovered the baby she had felt inside her was gone.

Forced sterilizations of Indigenous women are reprehensible and must immediately be stopped, says Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde.

The federal government needs to appoint a special representative to hear from Indigenous women coerced into being sterilized to learn what justice would look like for the survivors, says Amnesty International Canada.

When she was 17 years old, Liz was coerced by a Children's Aid worker into having an abortion and being sterilized at a northwestern Ontario hospital, she says — an experience she's carried for 40 years.

Artists are reclaiming space in inner cities and on highways where many Indigenous women have suffered violence or disappeared.