Privacy concerns slow efforts to trace missing, murdered aboriginal women

OTTAWA – A national aboriginal women’s group has shared data with the RCMP on more than 100 unsolved cases of missing or murdered women and girls, but privacy concerns have delayed further co-operation.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada has vigorously pursued the issue of aboriginal women who have met with a violent fate or simply disappeared, compiling a database of 582 cases through the Sisters in Spirit initiative.

The association began working with the RCMP’s National Aboriginal Policing Services branch in 2009 and provided the Mounties with names from its database in cases where there was little information to go on.

RCMP briefing notes released under the Access to Information Act show the list of 118 names included 60 murdered women or girls, three who were missing and 55 whose status was unknown.

The initial project prompted the RCMP to ask the association for all 582 names.

The association says it cannot hand the information over to the Mounties because of confidentiality guarantees given to family members, who provided much of the data.