What’s Current: Trudeau launches national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women

Missing Women

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau launches inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

“No inquiry, as we know, can undo what has happened, nor can it restore what we have lost. But it can help us find ways forward, because we know, as a country, that we can and must do better,” Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told reporters.

The jury is currently deliberating on the case of Daniel Holtzclaw, the cop on trial for the rape of 13 women (that we know of) who “used power to prey” on his victims.

Why is no one talking about black women abused by the police?

“As the trial of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw enters the month of December, it is becoming clear that America still has little interest in crimes committed against black women…

All of these accounts seem like classic cases of police brutality. The only difference is that the ex-cop used sexual violence instead of a gun or a chokehold. These disturbing allegations should evoke national outcries from every corner of American society; black people should be shutting down the streets exalting the victims’ names with the same vigor as Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and other black men whose lives were stolen by the hands of racially predatory police officers. Instead, much of the conversation over Holtzclaw’s abuse has been led almost exclusively by black women on social media.”

“Human traffickers: hard at work in our own backyard.” A 2014 RCMP report shows that 93 per cent of Canada’s sex trafficking victims are Canadian.

“Human trafficking is considered the second largest source of illegal money worldwide and one of the fastest growing areas of crime. It’s an area of law in Canada that can be difficult to enforce, because to win in court the case rests on the testimony of the victim.”

Male porn stars are feminist? Their product paints a different picture. Laura McNally writes:

“The question is not whether a man can be feminist and a porn actor, but why an industry that promotes sexual violence and rape porn is regarded as ethical at all. What of the ethical considerations stemming from the millions masturbating to scenes of sexual violence on film?

An industry that contributes to and profits from rape culture is an unlikely ally for gender equality.”

Susan Cox

Susan Cox is a feminist writer and academic living in the United States. She teaches in Philosophy.