{Canadians have a global reputation for being kind – grin. It seems that their reputation should be “some kind of racist!” when it comes to First Nation peoples.}

These numbers are connected to the history of colonialism, a legacy of sex abuse in the residential school system, missing & murdered Indigenous women, as well as the ‘60s scoop‘, all of which disproportionately affect women and girls. (The term ‘60s scoop‘ refers to the staggering numbers of ‘adoptions’ in 1960s enabled by the abduction of children from their homes and communities without the knowledge or consent of families and bands. The Federal government and social workers acted under the ‘colonialistic assumption that native people were culturally inferior and unable to adequately provide for the needs of the children.’)First Nations communities have called these acts genocide, while governments continue to resist the term. Shamiran Mako, a Canadian scholar, sees a pattern of opposition from countries with a history of colonization, and especially from countries that “had some systematic laws that either resulted in genocide or cultural genocide of the indigenous population.”Despite being identified yearly as a both a priority and human rights concern, Sapers said efforts to decrease these numbers are not working, and identified major gaps and issues including: lack of coherent implementation of the recommendations made by the Truth And Reconciliation Commission, and legislative provisions that were chronically under-funded, under-utilized and unevenly applied by the correctional service.There remains an urgent need for accountability and reform at a federal level to Indigenous People and First Nations in Canada, and increased services and support to prevent criminalization.

Source: An alarming 36% of women in Canadian prisons are Indigenous