National Aboriginal Women's Summit 2008 Update August 1: Liberals say Ottawa must address violence against women after aboriginal summit YELLOWKNIFE — The federal government needs to do more to address the root causes of violence against aboriginal women, says the Indian Affairs critic for the federal Liberals."Aboriginal women experience higher rates of violence. If that burden is going to be lifted, the socioeconomic conditions and prosperity gap between aboriginals and non-aboriginals will have to be addressed," said Anita Neville in a release.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn-YLYh0b4p_iZ-h6Gj4Onib3sYw Update: July 29 http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=df1f2d11-1e5e-434d-8612-20ad62e514d5 Organizers of aboriginal women's summit want to test sincerity of federal apology

July 27, 2008

Lisa Arrowsmith, THE CANADIAN PRESS The Canadian Press, 2008

EDMONTON - Now that the federal government has apologized for the havoc the residential school system wrought in the lives of generations of aboriginal people, the head of a national women's group says she's aiming to test whether that apology was at all sincere.

Beverley Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, will co-host the second annual National Aboriginal Women's Summit, a three-day meeting which begins Tuesday in Yellowknife.

Floyd Roland, the premier of the Northwest Territories, is also co-hosting the event.

About 150 delegates will hash out an action plan to implement more than 140 recommendations on a wide range of issues - such as poverty, violence and justice - that came out of last year's inaugural meeting in Cornerbrook, N.L.

There's been a lot of talk about making the lives of aboriginal people better, said Jacobs, but now it's time to see if Prime Minister Stephen Harper really means that.

"I don't want to hear about another missing woman, I don't want to hear about another murdered woman. I don't want to hear about a woman who doesn't have a home to live in.

"That's the change I want to see," said Jacobs, a Mohawk citizen of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in southern Ontario. more ...

http://www.thespec.com/article/410036

And see...

http://grannyrantson.blogspot.com/2008/07/four-rcmp-sexually-assault-aboriginal.html

And ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking In 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimated that 600-800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually and that additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States.^[29] In Canada, foreign trafficking for prostitution is estimated to be worth $400 million annually.^{[30] And ... http://www.cwhn.ca/resources/sex_trade/}

Child and Youth Trafficking and Prostitution in Canada

World trafficking in women and children for use in the sex trade is a multi-billion dollar market -- and it is on the rise. The United Nations estimates that 4 million people are trafficked throughout the world each year under threat of violence, due to poverty, or through deception.

A report by the Solicitor General of Canada (October 1997) concludes that migrant trafficking accounts for 8-16,000 illegal immigrants in Canada every year, many of them female youths and children who are forced to work in Canada's booming sex trade industry. The same report estimates that those profiting from the illegal trafficking of children and women in Canada earn as much as $400 million annually.

Authorities have infiltrated trafficking rings that have imported children and youths from every continent in the world to work as sex slaves in Canada. Every major urban centre in Canada has records of children and youths working as prostitutes, as escorts, in strip clubs and in pornography. Thousands of children are believed to be currently engaged in the commercial sex industry nationally.

Steps for Action*

As a result of the World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Yokohama, Japan (December 2001), Save the Children Canada, along with other children and women's organizations, urge the following measures to be adopted by Canada's national and provincial governments:

• address the market for sex with children and youths by focusing on the predators;
• decriminalize all children engaged in the commercial sex trade;
• address the needs of exploited children by providing health and counseling services to child and youth sex workers;
• allow meaningful participation of youths in the development and implementation of solutions;
• include prostitution-related activities in the legal definition of child abuse; and,
• address the root causes of exploitation, namely poverty.

*Based on documents produced by Save the Children Canada and Global March Against Child Labour.

For more information on child and youth trafficking and prostitution, please visit the following links:

• Trafficking in Children
• Sexually Exploited Youth