A need to focus on girls’ voices, concerns and realities

Violence is a reality for many girls in Canada. There is a need to focus on girls’ voices, concerns, and realities. Physical abuse against children is rarely publicized since they do not have a VOICE.

For example, when an Inuit girl child showed me the marks of physical abuse, I was told not to vent it out it, otherwise, her family would know we were after them and might beat her worse. For men, it is often their inability to provide their families with basic needs and their demands for certain foods, clothes, etc. For women, it is the burden of responsibilities at home and the lack of space and support.

Retreating in the shadows of shame

There is a need to build a sense of community amongst the girls to see each other as resources, as support and as allies dealing with similar issues and struggles. This would give them a chance to reach out, and communicate so as to enhance their own security instead of retreating in the shadows of shame.

Girls often face pressures to engage in sexual activity

The chance of any Indigenous child growing up without a single first-hand experience of abuse or alcoholism is almost inexistent. Girls also face pressures to engage in sexual activity and due to factors such as poverty, social pressures, failure to enforce laws, girls are more vulnerable to all kinds of violence, including sexual violence: rape, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and even trafficking.

Sexual violence, including sexually transmitted diseases, has devastating effects on all children’s health but girls are more vulnerable to the consequences of unprotected and premature sexual relations.

In order to break the silence, violence against girls and young women must be recognized by local authorities, law enforcement teams and policy-makers. More than that, they need to prioritize violence prevention in the Inuit communities.

Women are harassed and assaulted even by the police

The violence began in the residential schools. Parents, damaged by their experience of rape, physical and emotional abuse, continue the cycle of violence into adulthood through their intimate partner.
There are also racially-motivated attacks. Women are harassed and assaulted even by the police. Their marginalization and obvious “no-fit” within our dominant, white, heterosexual industrialized country leads them to be stigmatized and subjected to all kinds of abuse in a socially isolated world.

Poverty is a contributing factor to the violence experienced by girls

Poverty is one of the major contributing factors to the violence experienced by girls. Children, many of whom endure adverse living conditions, characterized by poverty, underemployment, idleness, poor sanitary conditions and overcrowded and inadequate housing, face unfavorable life outcomes.

Petition to empower the mothers and to reduce placements of the children

Like all that matters, we have to make the connections with what we can all do to help. This petition to be given to PM Justin Trudeau hopes to restore dignity but also their rights to a stable family and harmonious community. Policies and practices reflect longstanding and deeply embedded mother-blaming culture and father invisibility ideologies that shape child protection systems.