The Native Women's Association of Canada
Sisters In Spirit campaign -- set up several years ago by the federal Liberals -- has apparently hurt the delicate fee-fees of the Harper Conservatives, the RCMP and police departments.
What did they do? They collected data and raised public awareness about the
582 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.
This made police look bad. Very bad. All these women disappearing year after year after year, and police departments across the nation greeting the news with a collective yawn.
What to do? Well,
Allison reports the Conservatives have now found millions of dollars to set up a National Police Support Centre for Missing Persons. But
they're not going to fund the NWAC anymore unless they drop the "Sisters in Spirit" name and stop maintaining their database.
Way to solve the problem guys -- if nobody knows about it, then it isn't a problem anymore!
Oh, wait, we tried that already, didn't we?
Quite honestly, the Harper Conservatives just make me sick -- taking a profoundly important initiative that has great significance to Aboriginal families across the country, twisting it to advance their own agenda, then trashing it to make it all go away.
Trying to make it disappear just like all those women have disappeared.
And lets also keep a wary eye on
that Conservative idea that they're going to make "amendments to the Criminal Code to streamline the warrants application process where wiretaps are required in missing person cases". Thin edge of the wedge and all that...