Due to the northern location of the Inuit, the isolated area makes cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women quite high. To make matters worse, the Royal Canadiam Mounted Police, or RCMP for short, are continuously called out for using systemic racism against Indigenous people. Inuit women in Nunavut state that they experience “repeated and systematic instances of unnecessary violence,” along with law enforcement having a lack of training specific to Inuit culture. Police officers in Nunavut have incited violence and discrimination against Inuit women including physical restraint and forced strip searches. The Legal Services Board of Nunavut also draws attention to “three coroner inquest into police-related deaths in Nunavut, citing that Nunavut’s rate of police-related deaths since 1999 is nine times higher than Ontario’s.” Benson Cownan, Legal Services Board of Nunavut CEO, follows up with a statement that the recommendations from those inquests have been mostly ignored.

The Pautuutit Inuit Women’s Association states that “gendered and racialized violence is a genocide … woven into the fabric of Canadian society.” While the data illustrates the mistreatment of Indigenous women as being part of racial and gender discrimination, Inuit women face the dangers of legal matters having less public attention due to their fairly secluded location. The Association also states that “women in Nunavut are the victims of violent crime at a rate of more than 13 times higher than the rate for women in Canada as a whole,” and the “rate of police-reported family violence against women in Nunavut is the highest in Canada -- 11 times higher than the national average.” The data here demonstrates that the combination of racial prejudice, gender discrimination, and the Inuit’s seculded area help explain why cases of missing and murdered indigenous women are taken far less seriously than other instances of threatening behavior. If we take this information and apply it to other Indigenous communities, we will find that these communities face similar forms of local racial and gendered discrimination. This further reveals that grouping communities that face discrimination into common locations tends to worsen the effects of law enforcement and legal services, illustrating the importance of larger forms of representation in the news and media as well as more accessible public awareness on racial and gender issues.

Sources

Bonesteel, Sarah. “Canada's Relationship with Inuit: A History of Policy and Program Development.” Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch, 15 Sept. 2010, www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100016900/1100100016908. 

Rohner, Thomas. “Inuit Women in Nunavut Suffer 'Unnecessary Violence,' Racism from RCMP, Legal Aid Board Says | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 8 June 2020, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/inuit-nunavut-rcmp-allegations-violence-rac...

Rohner, Thomas. “RCMP Violence against Inuit Happening Because Few Are Stopping Systemic Racism, Indigenous Leaders Say | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 10 June 2020, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/rcmp-violence-inuit-stopping-it-1.5604874.