Canada, the Perpetrator: The Legacy of Systematic Violence and the Contemporary Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Abstract

Canada has a long history of perpetrating violence and discrimination against Indigenous peoples, especially women. State policies and practices have systematically disenfranchised Indigenous women through mechanisms of displacement, assimilation, and marginalization. More than a century of large-scale intersectional violence has embedded complex intergenerational trauma into Indigenous families, further heightening their vulnerability. The "public face of law" has institutionalized the State endorsement of individual executioners of violence against Indigenous women. For decades, Indigenous peoples and human rights organizations have urged the State to recognize its active role in the violence and launch a public national inquiry. This thesis seeks to highlight the culpability of the State in the contemporary crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls while reasserting the power of the Indigenous woman. My argument is that in order to restore Indigenous women to their rightful place of power and equality in society, the State must both acknowledge and take responsibility for its crimes.