The First People’s Centre organized a vigil in the Oliver’s student space at Dawson on Feb. 14 to commemorate the MMIWGT2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Trans and Two-Spirited.) There is an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women in Canada. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has reported that Indigenous women and girls make up 24 per cent of female homicide victims in Canada, despite only making up four per cent of the country’s female population.

The report cited research that “Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than any other women in Canada, and 16 times more likely than Caucasian women. … Other than murder, statistics also reveal how Indigenous women consistently experience higher rates and more severe forms of physical assault and robbery than other groups in Canada. Sexual violence is a huge problem in all its forms: Indigenous women are sexually assaulted three times more often than non-Indigenous women, and most of the women and children trafficked in Canada are Indigenous.”