It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (

It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (
Women, Crime and Social Justice 22672 – SOC 3790 – A01 Fall 2022 1 Instructions – Final Paper • The final paper is a s hort essay (7 – 8 pages) on a topic of your choice related to the course material. • Your essay should make a clear and thoughtful argument and present evidence in support of that argument. • Gender should be central to your argument. • Your essay should demonstrate that you can apply sociological thinking. • Your essay should present at least two competing perspectives on your topic. • The topic of your essay sh ould be clearly delimited. For example: What form of crime or violence are you interested in? Which population will you focus on? Which location or historical period will you focus on? Whose perspective will you focus on? (e.g.: victims, perpetrators, law enforcement, etc.) • Make sure to use academic, peer – reviewed sources (aim for at least 4). If you have any question s, p lease don ’t hesitate to come to office hours, post your question in the “Questions ” section on UM Learn, or send me an email.
It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (
Topic: Law Enforcement in Manitoba towards Indigenous Victims of Domestic Violence The injustice of legislation towards indigenous women is not unknown. The rising issue of domestic violence towards this community is striking. But how much actually the legal personalities work to overcome the situation? There is a mass number of news reports that we see in daily life about this concern, yet the people of power fail to acknowledge the real deal. In Manitoba every 1 in 3 indigenous women experience domestic violence in form of physical or sexual violence (Heidinger, 2021). in this context more often experience forms of violence considered to be the most severe—for example, homicide (Moreau et al. 2020) and being sexually assaulted, beaten, or choked (Boyce 2016). The rate is 30% lower among non-indigenous woman. Indigenous women are more at risk of experiencing violence by a spouse (Burczycka 2016). As per finding of Government of Canada website intimate partner violence is a major problem facing by aboriginal woman. Some acts have been created to bring justice to this, but the question is how much does it comes to enforcement? And who should be blamed increasing rate of this? Low education levels, poverty and being of a young age are thought to characterize women victims. Police mostly does not deal seriously with such cases. While the mandatory charging policy has led to a significant increase in charges, as would be expected, a high percentage of these cases result in stays of prosecution (Violence towards Aboriginal Women and Children, n.d.). Evidence was presented to the Inquiry that suggested the police did not always consider spousal abuse a serious crime. In other instances, women spoke of being removed from their home by the police after they had made an initial complaint about a violent spouse. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission recommends that, the Government of Manitoba increase the number of Aboriginal persons employed by the Women’s Advocacy Program so that advocacy services delivered to Aboriginal victims are delivered primarily by Aboriginal service providers (Violence towards Aboriginal Women and Children, n.d.).
It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (
Sexu~t Viutenc,e ~s ~ JU(Jt uf genuc,i~e [Rape] is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimi­ dation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear. 1 ~ ape as “nothing more or less” than a tool of patriarchal control J’-undergirds the philosophy of the white-dominated women’s antiviolence movement. This philosophy has been critiqued by many women of color, including critical race theorist Kimberle Crenshaw, for its lack of attention to racism and other forms of op­ pression. Crenshaw analyzes how male-dominated conceptions of race and white-dominated conceptions of gender stand in the way of a clear understanding of violence against women of color. It is inadequate, she argues, to investigate the oppression of women of color by examining race and gender oppressions sepa­ rately and then putting the two analyses together, because the overlap between racism and sexism transforms the dynamics. Instead, Crenshaw advocates replacing the” additive” approach with an “intersectional” approach. The problem is not simply that both discourses fail women of color by not acknowledging the’ additional’ issue of race or of patriarchy 7 Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 8 I 6un’E’est but, rather, that the discourses are often inadequate even to the dis­ crete tasks of articulating the full dimensions of racism and sexism. 2 Despite her intersectional approach, Crenshaw falls short of describing how a politics of intersectionality might fundamentally shift how we analyze sexual/ domestic violence. H sexual violence is not simply a tool of patriarchy but also a tool of colonialism and racism, then entire communities of color are the victims of sexual violence. As Neferti Tadiar argues, colonial relationships are them­ selves gendered and sexualized. The economies and political relations of nations are libidinally con­ figured, that is, they are grasped and effected in terms of sexuality. This global and regional fantasy is not, however, only metaphori­ cal, but real insofar as it grasps a system of political and economic practices already at work among these nations. 3 Within this context, according to Tadiar, “the question to be asked .. .is, Who is getting off on this? Who is getting screwed and by whom?”4 Thus, while both Native men and women have been subjected to a reign of sexualized terror, sexual violence does not affect Indian men and women in the same way. When a Native woman suffers abuse, this abuse is an attack on her identity as a woman and an attack on her identity as Native. The issues of colo­ nial, race, and gender oppression cannot be separated. This fact explains why in my experience as a rape crisis counselor, every Native survivor I ever counseled said to me at one point, “I wish I was no longer Indian.” As I will discuss in this chapter, women of color do not just face quantitatively more issues when they suffer violence (e.g., less media attention, language barriers, lack of support in the judicial system) but their experience is qualitatively different from that of white women. Ann Stoler’s analysis of racism sheds light on this relationship between sexual violence and colonialism. She argues that racism, far from being a reaction to crisis in which racial others are scapegoated for social ills, is a permanent part of the social fabric. “Racism is not an effect but a tactic in the internal fission of society into binary opposition, a means of creating ‘biologized’ internal enemies, against whom society must defend itself.”s She notes that in the modem state, it is the constant purification and elimination Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 of racialized enemies within the state that ensures the growth of the national body. “Racism does not merely arise in moments of crisis, in sporadic cleansings. It is internal to the biopolitical state, woven into the web of the social body, threaded through its fabric.” 6 Similarly, Kate Shanley notes that Native peoples are a per­ manent “present absence” in the U.s. colonial imagination, an “absence” that reinforces at every tum the conviction that Native peoples are indeed vanishing and that the conquest of Native lands is justified. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam describe this absence as, an ambivalently repressive mechanism [which] dispels the anxiety in the face of the Indian, whose very presence is a reminder of the initially precarious grounding of the American nation-state itself … In a temporal paradox, living Indians were induced to ‘play dead,’ as it were, in order to perform a narrative of manifest destiny in which their role, ultimately, was to disappear? This “absence” is effected through the metaphorical transfor­ mation of Native bodies into a pollution of which the colonial body must constantly purify itself. For instance, as white Califor­ nians described them in the 1860s, Native people were “the dirtiest lot of human beings on earth.”s They wear “filthy rags, with their persons unwashed, hair uncombed and swarming with vermin.”9 The following 1885 Procter & Gamble ad for Ivory Soap also illustrates this equation between Indian bodies and dirt. We were once factious, fierce and wild, In peaceful arts un reconciled Our blankets smeared with grease and stains From buffalo meat and settlers’ veins. Through summer’s dust and heat content From moon to moon unwashed we went, But IVORY SOAP came like a ray Of light across our darkened way And now we’re civil, kind and good And keep the laws as people should, We wear our linen, lawn and lace As well as folks with paler face And now I take, where’er we go Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 10 I e,C7n’E’est This cake of IVORY SOAP to show What civilized my squaw and me And made us clean and fair to see.lO In the colonial imagination, Native bodies are also immanently polluted with sexual sin. Theorists Albert Cave, Robert Warrior, H. C. Porter, and others have demonstrated that Christian coloniz­ ers often likened Native peoples to the biblical Canaanites, both worthy of mass destruction.!1 What makes Canaanites suppos­ edly worthy of destruction in the biblical narrative and Indian peoples supposedly worthy of destruction in the eyes of their col­ onizers is that they both personify sexual sin. In the Bible, Canaanites commit acts of sexual perversion in Sodom (Gen. 19:1-29), are the descendants of the unsavory relations between Lot and his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38), are the descendants of the sexually perverse Ham (Gen. 9:22-27), and prostitute themselves in service of their gods (Gen. 28:21-22, Deut. 28:18,1 Kings 14:24,2 Kings 23:7, Hosea 4:13, Amos 2:7). Similarly, Native peoples, in the eyes of the colonizers, are marked by their sexual perversity. Alexander Whitaker, a minis­ ter in Virginia, wrote in 1613: “They live naked in bodie, as if their shame of their sinne deserved no covering: Their names are as naked as their bodie: They esteem it a virtue to lie, deceive and steale as their master the divell teacheth them.”12 Furthermore, ac­ cording to Bernardino de Minaya, a Dominican cleric, “Their marriages are not a sacrament but a saCrilege. They are idolatrous, libidinous, and commit sodomy. Their chief desire is to eat, drink, worship heathen idols, and commit bestial obscenities.”13 Because Indian bodies are” dirty,” they are considered sexu­ ally violable and “rapable,” and the rape of bodies that are considered inherently impure or dirty simply does not count. For instance, prostitutes are almost never believed when they say they have been raped because the dominant society considers the bodies of sex workers undeserving of integrity and violable at all times. Similarly, the history of mutilation of Indian bodies, both living and dead, makes it clear that Indian people are not entitled to bodily integrity. Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 I saw the body of White Antelope with the privates cut off, and I heard a soldier say he was going to make a tobacco-pouch out of them. 14 At night Dr. Rufus Choate [and] Lieutenant Wentz C. Miller … went up the ravine, decapitated the dead Qua-ha-das, and placing the heads in some gunny sacks, brought them back to be boiled out for future scientific knowledge.lS Each of the braves was shot down and scalped by the wild volun­ teers, who out with their knives and cutting two parallel gashes down their backs, would strip the skin from the quivering flesh to make razor straps of.16 Dr. Tuner, of Lexington, Iowa, visited this solitary grave [of Black Hawk] and robbed it of its tenant. .. and sent the body to Alton, lli., where the skeleton was wired together. [It was later returned] but here it remained but a short time ere vandal hands again carried it away and placed it in the Burlington, Iowa Geographical and His­ torical Society, where it was consumed by fire in 1855.17 One more dexterous than the rest, proceeded to flay the chief’s [Tecumseh’s] body; then, cutting the skin in narrow strips … at once, a supply of rawr-straps for the more” ferocious” of his brethren. 18 Andrew Jackson … supervised the mutilation of 800 or so Creek Indian corpses-the bodies of men, women and children that he and his men massacred-cutting off their noses to count and pre­ serve a record of the dead, slicing long strips of flesh from their bodies to tan and turn into bridle reins. 19 A few nights after this, some soldiers dug Mangus’ body out again and took his head and boiled it during the night, and prepared the skull to send to the museum in New York.20 In 1990, Illinois governor Jim Thompson echoed these senti­ ments when he refused to close down an open Indian burial mound in the town of Dixon. The State of Illinois had built a museum around this mound to publicly display Indian remains. Thompson argued that he was as much Indian as current Indians, and consequently, he had as much right as they to determine the fate of Indian remains. 21 The remains were “his./I The Chicago press similarly attempted to challenge the identity of Indian people protesting his decision by asserting that they were either only “part” Indian, or merely claiming to be Indian. 22 In effect, the Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 12 I 6C1nrn’est Illinois state government conveyed the message to Indians that being on constant display for white consumers, in life and in death, is acceptable. Furthermore, Indian identity itself is under the control of the colonizer, and subject to challenge or eradication at any time. In 1992, Ontario finance minister Jim Flaherty argued that the Canadian government could boost health-care funding for “real people in real towns” by cutting the bureaucracy that serves only Native peoples.23 The extent to which Native peoples are not seen as “real” people in the larger colonial discourse indicates the success of sexual violence, among other racist and colonialist forces, in destroying the perceived humanity of Native peoples. As Aime Cesaire puts it, colonization = thingification. 24 As Stoler explains this process of racialized colonization: The more” degenerates” and “abnormals” [in this case Native peoples] are eliminated, the lives of those who speak will be stron­ ger, more vigorous, and improved. The enemies are not political adversaries, but those identified as external and internal threats to the population Racism is the condition that makes it acceptable to put [certain people] to death in a society of normalization 25 The project of colonial sexual violence establishes the ideology that Native bodies are inherently violable – and by extension, that Native lands are also inherently violable. As a consequence of this colonization and abuse of their bodies, Indian people learn to internalize self-hatred, because body image is integrally related to self-esteem. When one’s body is not respected, one begins to hate oneself. 26 Anne, a Native boarding school student, reflects on this process: You better not touch yourself … If I looked at somebody .. .lust, sex, and I got scared of those sexual feelings. And I did not know how to handle them … What really confused me was if intercourse was sin, why are people bom? . .It took me a really long time to get over the fact that. .. rve sinned: I had a child. Zl As her words indicate, when the bodies of Indian people are des­ ignated as inherently sinful and dirty, it becomes a sin just to be Indian. Native peoples internalize the genocidal project through self-destruction. As a rape crisis counselor, it was not a surprise to Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 me that Indians who have survived sexual abuse would often say that they no longer wish to be Indian. Native peoples’ individual experiences of sexual violation echo 500 years of sexual coloniza­ tion in which Native peoples’ bodies have been deemed inherently impure. The Menominee poet Chrystos writes in such a voice in her poem “Old Indian Granny.” You told me about all the Indian women you counsel who say they don’t want to be Indian anymore because a white man or an Indian one raped them or killed their brother or somebody tried to run them over in the street or insulted them or all of it our daily bread of hate Sometimes I don’t want to be an Indian either but I’ve never said so out loud before … Far more than being hungry having no place to live or dance no decent job no home to offer a Granny It’s knowing with each invisible breath that if you don’t make something pretty they can hang on their walls or wear around their necks you might as well be dead. 28 Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project in Duluth, Minnesota, reports that a primary barrier antiviolence ad­ vocates face in addressing violence in Indian country is that community members will argue that sexual violence is “tradi­ tional.” This phenomenon indicates the extent to which our communities have internalized self-hatred. Frantz Fanon argues, “In the colonial context, as we have already pointed out, the natives fight among themselves. They tend to use each other as a screen, and each hides from his neighbor the national enemy.”29 Then, as Michael Taussig notes, Native peoples are portrayed by the dominant culture as inherently violent, self-destructive, and dysfunctionapo For example, townsperson Mike Whelan made the following statement at a 1990 zoning hearing, calling for the denial of a permit for an Indian battered women’s shelter in Lake Andes, South Dakota. Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 14 I ~On’f!:!e5t Indian Culture as I view it, is presently so mongrelized as to be a mix of dependency on the Federal Government and a primitive society wholly on the outside of the mainstream of western civili­ zation and thought. The Native American Culture as we know it now, not as it fonnerly existed, is a culture of hopelessness, god­ lessness, of joblessness, and lawlessness … Alcoholism, social disease, child abuse, and poverty are the hallmarks of this so called culture that you seek to promote, and I would suggest to you that the brave men of the ghost dance would hang their heads in shame at what you now pass off as that culture … .1 think that the Indian way of life as you call it, to me means cigarette burns in arms of children, double checking the locks on my cars, keeping a loaded shotgun by my door, and car bodies and beer cans on the front lawn …. This is not a matter of race, it is a matter of keeping our community and neighborhood away from that evil that you and your ideas promote. 31 Similarly, in a recent case among the Aboriginal peoples of Aus­ tralia, a judge ruled that a 50-year-old Aboriginal man’s rape of a I5-year-old girl was not a serious crime, but an example of tradi­ tional culture. He ruled that the girl “knew what was expected of her” and” didn’t need protection” when raped by a man who had been previously convicted of murdering his former wife. An “expert” anthropologist in the case testified that the rape was” tra­ ditional” and” morally correct.” 32 According to Judy Atkinson, an Aboriginal professor, survivors have reported numerous inci­ dents of law enforcement officials dismissing reports of violence because they consider such violence to be “cultural behavior.” “We are living in a war zone in Aboriginal communities,” states Atkinson. “Different behaviors come out of that,” she says. “Yet the courts of law validate that behavior.”33 Taussig comments on the irony of this logic: “Men are con­ quered not by invasion, but by themselves. It is a strange sentiment, is it not, when faced with so much brutal evidence of invasion.”34 But as Fanon notes, this destructive behavior is not “the consequence of the organization of his nervous system or of characterial originality, but the direct product of the colonial system.”35 Tadiar’s description of colonial relationships as an enactment of the “prevailing mode of heterosexual relations” is useful Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 because it underscores the extent to which us. colonizers view the subjugation of women of the Native nations as critical to the success of the economic, cultural, and political colonization. 36 Stoler notes that the imperial discourses on sexuality II cast white women as the bearers of more racist imperial order.”37 By exten­ sion, Native women are bearers of a counter-imperial order and pose a supreme threat to the dominant culture. Symbolic and literal control over their bodies is important in the war against Native people, as these testimonies illustrate: When I was in the boat I captured a beautiful Carib woman … .1 conceived desire to take pleasure …. I took a rope and thrashed her well, for which she raised such unheard screams that you would not have believed your ears. Finally we carne to an agreement in such a manner that I can tell you that she seemed to have been brought up in a school of harlots. 38 Two of the best looking of the squaws were lying in such a posi­ tion, and from the appearance of the genital organs and of their wounds, there can be no doubt that they were first ravished and then shot dead. Nearly all of the dead were mutilated. 39 One woman, big with child, rushed into the church, clasping the altar and crying for mercy for herself and unborn babe. She was followed, and fell pierced with a dozen lances … The child was tom alive from the yet palpitating body of its mother, first plunged into the holy water to be baptized, and immediately its brains were dashed out against a wall. 40 The Christians attacked them with buffets and beatings … Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the island had to see his own wife raped by a Ouistian officer.41 I heard one man say that he had cut a wornan’s private parts out, and had them for exhibition on a stick. I heard another man say that he had cut the fingers off of an Indian, to get the rings off his hand. I also heard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts of females, and stretched them over their sad­ dle-bows and some of them over their hats. 42 The history of sexual violence and genocide among Native women illustrates how gender violence functions as a tool for racism and colonialism among women of color in general. For Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 16 I e-un’E’tst example, African American women were also viewed as inher­ ently rapable. Yet where colonizers used sexual violence to eliminate Native populations, slave owners used rape to repro­ duce an exploitable labor force. (The children of Black slave women inherited their slave status.) And because Black women were seen as the property of their slave owners, their rape at the hands of these men did not” count.” As one southern politician declared in the early twentieth century, there was no such thing as a “virtuous colored girl” over the age of 14.43 The testimonies from slave narratives and other sources reveal the systematic abuse of slave women by white slave owners. For a period of four months, including the latter stages of preg­ nancy, delivery, and recent recovery therefrom … he beat her with clubs, iron chains and other deadly weapons time after time; burnt her; inflicted stripes over and often with scourges, which literally excoriated her whole body; forced her to work in inclement seasons, without being duly clad; provided for her insufficient food, exacted labor beyond her strength, and wantonly beat her because she could not comply with his requisitions. These enormi­ ties, besides others, too disgusting, particularly designated, the prisoner, without his heart once relenting, practiced … even up to the last hours of the victim’s existence. [A report of a North Carolina slaveowner’s abuse and eventual murder of a slave woman.]44 [My master) was a good man but he was pretty bad among the women. Married or not married, made no difference to him. Whoever he wanted among the slaves, he went and got her or had her meet him somewhere out in the bushes. I have known him to go to the shack and make the woman’s husband sit outside while he went into his wife … He wasn’t no worse than none of the rest. They all used their women like they wanted to, and there wasn’t nobody to say anything about it. Neither the woman nor the men could help themselves. They submitted to it but kept praying to God. [Slave testimony from South Carolina.]45 “Some of the troops,” a white complained to their commander Rufus Saxton, “have forcibly entered the negro houses and after driving out the men (in one instance at the point of a bayonet) have attempted to ravish women.” When the men protested and sought to protect “their wives and sisters,” they “were cruelly beaten and Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 threatened with instant death” “‘The morals of the old plantation” Saxton feared, “seem revived in the army of occupation” [A report of the activities of Union soldiers during the Civil War.]46 Immigrant women as well have endured a long history of sexual exploitation in the U.S. For instance, racially discriminatory employment laws forced thousands of Chinese immigrant women into prostitution. To supplement their meager incomes, impoverished Chinese families often sold their daughters into prostitution. Other women were lured to the U.S. with the promise of a stable marriage or job, only to find themselves trapped in the sex trade. By 1860, almost a quarter of the Chinese in San Francisco (all female) were employed in prostitution. 47 Karen Warren argues that patriarchal society is a dysfunc­ tional system that mirrors the dysfunctional nuclear family. That is, severe abuse in the family continues because the family members learn to regard it as “norma1.” A victim of abuse may come to see that her abuse is not “normal” when she has contact with less abusive families. Similarly, Warren argues, patriarchal society is a dysfunctional system based on domination and vio­ lence. “Dysfunctional systems are often maintained through systematic denial, a failure or inability to see the reality of a situa­ tion. This denial need not be conscious, intentional, or malicious; it only needs to be pervasive to be effective.”48 At the time of Columbus’s exploits, European society was a dysfunctional system, racked by mass poverty, disease, religious oppression, war, and institutionalized violence. For example, in the Inquisition, hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were slaughtered and their confiscated property was used to fund Co­ lumbus’s voyages. David Stannard writes, Violence, of course, was everywhere … In Milan in 1476 a man was torn to pieces by an enraged mob and his dismembered limbs were eaten by his tormenters. In Paris and Lyon, Huguenots were killed and butchered, and their various body parts were sold openly in the streets. Other eruptions of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon. 49 Furthermore, European societies were thoroughly misogynistic. The Christian patriarchy which structured European Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 society was inherently violent, as has been thoroughly docu­ mented. 50 For example, because English women were not allowed to express political opinions, a woman who spoke out against tax­ ation in 1664 was condemned to having her tongue nailed to a tree near a highway, with a paper fastened to her back detailing her offense. 51 Hatred for women was most fully manifested in the witch hunts. In some English towns, as many as a third of the pop­ ulation were accused of witchcraft. 52 The women targeted for destruction were those most independent from patriarchal au­ thority: single women, widows, and healers.53 The more peaceful and egalitarian nature of Native societies did not escape the notice of the colonizers. In the” colonial” period, it was a scandal in the colonies that a number of white people chose to live among Indian people while virtually no Indians voluntarily chose to live among the colonists. According to J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, the eighteenth-century author of Letters from an American Farmer, “Thousands of Europeans are Indians, and we have no example of even one of these Aborigines having from choice become Europeans!”54 Colonists also noted that Native peoples rarely committed sexual violence against white prisoners, unlike the colonists. Brigadier General James Clinton of the Continental Army said to his soldiers as they were sent off to destroy the Iroquois nation in 1779: “Bad as the savages are, they never violate the chastity of any women, their prison­ ers.”55 William Apess, a nineteenth century Pequot, asked, “Where, in the records of Indian barbarity, can we point to a vio­ lated female?”56 Shohat and Starn argue, the real purpose behind colonial terror “was not to force the indigenes to become Europe­ ans, but to keep Europeans from becoming indigenes.”57 In contrast to the deeply patriarchal nature of European soci­ eties, prior to colonization, Indian societies for the most part were not male dominated. Women served as spiritual, political, and military leaders, and many societies were matrilineal. Although there existed a division of labor between women and men, women’s labor and men’s labor were accorded similar status. 58 As women and men lived in balance, Native societies were conse­ quently much less authoritarian than their European counterparts. Paul LeJeune, a Jesuit priest, remarked in the seventeenth century: Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 [Native peoples] imagine that they ought by right of birth, to enjoy the liberty of wild ass colts, rendering no homage to anyone whomsoever, except when they like … All the authority of their chief is in his tongue’s end, for he is powerful insofar as he is elo­ quent; and even if he kills himself talking and haranguing, he will not be obeyed unless he pleases the savages. 59 Furthermore, 70 percent of tribes did not practice war at all. 60 For those that did engage in war, the intent was generally not to annihilate the enemy, but to accrue honor through bravery. One accrued more honor by getting close enough to an enemy to touch him and leaving him alive than by killing him. Tom Holm writes: Traditional Indian warfare had much more in common with Euroamerican contact sports, like football, boxing, and hockey, than with wars fought in the European manner. This, of course, is not to say that nobody was ever killed … They were-just as they are in modem contact sports-but the point of the exercise was not as a rule purposefully lethal. 61 Of course, in discussing these trends, it is important not to overgeneralize or give the impression that Native communities were utopian prior to colonization. Certainly gender violence oc­ curred prior to colonization. Nevertheless, both oral and written records often note its relative rarity as well as the severity of the punishment for perpetrators of violence. This record of punish­ ment for sexual assault among the Kiowa serves as an illustration: The Kiowas inflicted such embarrassment and ridicule on a crimi­ nal that he reportedly soon died. The man was a chronic rapist who was finally taught the error of his ways by the women; they laid an ambush and baited the trap with a beautiful young girl. When he took the bait, they suddenly appeared and overpowered him. As others held him helpless on the ground, each woman in tum raised her skirts and sat on his face. The experience was not in itself fatal, but the loss of status stemming from the derision it in­ spired was. The possibility of such drastic punishment was perhaps more chastening in its effect than the threat of the electric chair in more sophisticated societies.62 Similar practices existed among the Anishinabe: Wife battering, as we have seen, was neither accepted nor tolerated among the Anishinabe people until after the freedom to live Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 20 I e,,,nqJ’est Ojibwe was subdued. Wife battering emerged simultaneously with the disintegration of Ojibwe ways of life and the beginning use of alcohol. The behavior of the Ojibwe people under the influ­ ence of alcohol is often totally contrary to Anishinabe values. It is especially contrary to the self discipline previously necessary to the development of Ojibwe character. There is no single philosophy among the people in today’s society regarding the social illness of wife battering. Many have forgotten or did not receive the teachings of the social laws surrounding it. In the old Ojibwe society, society itself was responsible for what took place within it; today that is not so. What is the evidence of that statement? The harmful, destructive, traumatic cycle of domestic violence that is befalling the Anishinabe Orildren of the Nation. Today we have lost a lot of the traditions, values, ways of life, laws, language, teachings of the Elders, respect, humility as Anishinabe people because of the European mentality we have accepted. For the Anishinabe people to survive as a Nation, together we must turn back the pages of time. We must face reality, do an evaluation of ourselves as a people-why we were created to live in harmony with one another as Anishinabe people and to live in harmony with the Creator’s creation. 63 European women were often surprised to find that, even in war, they went unmolested by their Indian captors. Mary Rowlandson said of her experience: “I have been in the midst of roaring Lions, and Savage Bears, that feared neither God, nor Man, nor the Devil … and yet not one of them ever offered the least abuse of unchastity to me in word or action.”64 Between 1675 and 1763, almost 40 percent of women who were taken captive by Native people in New England chose to remain with their captors.65 In 1899, an editorial signed by Mrs.Teall appeared in the Syracuse Herald-Journal, discussing the status of women in Iro­ quois society. They had one custom the white men are not ready, even yet, to accept. The women of the Iroquois had a public and influential p0- sition. They had a council of their own … which had the initiative in the discussion; subjects presented by them being settled in the councils of the chiefs and elders; in this latter council the women had an orator of their own (often of their own sex) to present and speak for them. There are sometimes female chiefs … The wife Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 owned all the property … The family was hers; descent was counted through the mother. 66 In response to her editorial, a man who signed himself as “Student” replied: Women among the Iroquois, Mrs. Teall says … had a council of their own, and orators and chiefs. Why does she not add what follows in explanation of why such deference was paid to women, that” in the torture of prisoners women were thought more skillful and subtle than the men” and the men of the inquisition were outdone in the refinement of cruelty practiced upon their victims by these savages. It is true also that succession was through women, not the men, in Iroquois tribes, but the explanation is that it was generally a difficult guess to tell the fatherhood of children … The Indian maiden never learned to blush. The Indians, about whom so much rhetoric has been wasted, were a savage, merciless lot who would never have developed themselves nearer to civili­ zation than they were found by missionaries and traders …. Their love was to butcher and burn, to roast their victims and eat them, to lie and rob, to live in filth, men, women, children, dogs and fleas crowded together. 67 Thus, the demonization of Native women can be seen as a strategy of white men to maintain control over white women. This demonization was exemplified by the captivity narratives which became a popular genre in the U.S. 68 These narratives were sup­ posedly first-person narratives of white women who were abducted by “savages” and forced to undergo untold savagery. Their tales, however, were usually written by white men who had their own agenda. For instance, in 1823 James Seaver of New York interviewed Mary Jemison, who was taken as captive by the Seneca. Jemison chose to remain among them when she was offered her freedom, but Seaver is convinced that she is protecting the Indian people by not describing their full savagery. “The vices of the Indians, she appeared disposed not to aggravate, and seemed to take pride in extolling their virtues. A kind of family pride induced her to withhold whatever would blot the character of her descendants, and perhaps induced her to keep back many things that would have been interesting.”69 Consequently, he sup­ plements her narrative with material” from authentic sources” Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 22 I (!’t1n’E’est and Jemison’s cousin, George?O Seaver, nevertheless, attributes these supplements to her voice in this supposed first-person narrative. In these narratives, we can find what Carol Adams terms an “absent referent.” Adams provides an example by noting how the term “battered woman” makes women the inherent victims of battering. The batterer is rendered invisible and is thus the absent referent. 71 Another example of an absent referent can be found in the Christian symbol of the crucifixion, in which Jesus is repre­ sented as one whose inherent nature and purpose is to be crucified. The individuals who put him on the cross, never de­ picted in representations of the cross, are erased as the perpetrators and they become the absent referent. Andrea Dworkin argues that in a patriarchal system, “men are distinguished from women by their commitment to do vio­ lence rather than to be victimized by it. In adoring violence -from the crucifixion of Christ to the cinematic portrayal of General Patton-men seek to adore themselves.”72 June Namias argues that the point of these depictions is to instill the belief in white women that they need white men to protect them from savages. 73 Jane Caputi also suggests that in depictions of killings of women, the killer plays the alter ego to the male reader or viewer of the killing. “This convention allows the identifying viewer to gratify­ ingly fantasize himself in the two mutually reinforcing male roles at once. He is both … the protector and the menace.”74 According to Jane McCrea, the white man both symbolically kills the white woman through the Indians, which mirror his desires, and rushes to her rescue. The white male is absent when the violence occurs. Yet, he is the one who has created the image in which the white man is the absent referent. He glorifies his ability to brutalize white women through the Indian savage while denying his culpability. Meanwhile, Native women are completely absent from this picture, and consequently, their actual sexual brutalization at the hands of white men escapes notice. The white man literally brutal­ izes her, while symbolically brutalizing the white woman through this representational practice. Native men are scapegoated for his Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 ::>eXViPvt Virlence Pv5 Pv Jrut uf 9enuci~e I 23 actions so white women will see them as the enemy, while white men remain unaccountable. Paula Gunn Allen argues that colonizers realized that in order to subjugate indigenous nations they would have to subjugate women within these nations. Native peoples needed to learn the value of hierarchy, the role of physical abuse in maintaining that hierarchy, and the importance of women remaining submissive to their men. They had to convince “both men and women that a woman’s proper place was under the authority of her husband and that a man’s proper place was under the authority of the priests.”75 She further argues: It was to the advantage of white men to mislead white women, and themselves, into believing that their treatment of women was superior to the treatment by the men of the group which they con­ sidered savage. Had white women discovered that all women were not mistreated, they might have been intolerant of their men’s abusiveness.?6 Thus in order to colonize a people whose society was not hier­ archical, colonizers must first naturalize hierarchy through instituting patriarchy. Patriarchal gender violence is the process by which colonizers inscribe hierarchy and domination on the bodies of the colonized. Ironically, while enslaving women’s bodies, colonizers argued that they were actually somehow freeing Native women from the” oppression” they supposedly faced in Native nations. Thomas Jefferson argued that Native women” are submitted to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case with every barbarous people. It is civilization alone which re­ places women in the enjoyment of their equality.”77 The Mariposa Gazette similarly noted that when Indian women were safely under the control of white men, they are “neat, and tidy, and in­ dustrious, and soon learn to discharge domestic duties properly and creditably.” In 1862, a Native man in Conrow Valley was killed and scalped with his head twisted off, his killers saying, “You will not kill any more women and children.”78 Apparently, Native women can only be free while under the dominion of white men, and both Native and white women have to be pro­ tected from Indian men, rather than from white men. Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 24 I 6u11.rn’tst A 1985 Virginia Slims ad reflected a similar notion that white patriarchy saves Native women from oppression. On the left side of the ad was a totem pole of cartoonish figures of Indian women. Their names: Princess Wash and Scrub, Little Running Water Fetcher, Keeper of the Teepee, Princess Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Preparer, Woman Who Gathers Firewood, Princess Buffalo Robe Sewer, Little Woman Who Weaves All Day, and Woman Who Plucks Feathers for Chief’s Headdress. The caption on top of the totem pole reads: “Virginia Slims remembers one of many so­ cieties where the women stood head and shoulders above the men.” On the right side of the ad is a model adorned with makeup and dressed in a tight skirt, nylons, and high heels, with the famil­ iar caption: “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The message is that Native women, oppressed in their tribal societies, need to be liber­ ated into a patriarchal standard of beauty, where their true freedom lies. The historical record suggests, as Paula Gunn Allen argues, that the real roots of feminism should be found in Native societies. But in this Virginia Slims ad, feminism is tied to colonial conquest -(white) women’s liberation is founded upon the de­ struction of supposedly patriarchal Native societies. Today we see this discourse utilized in the “war on terror.” To justify the bombing of Afghanistan, Laura Bush declared, “The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women.”79 These sentiments were shared by mainstream femi­ nists. Eleanor Smeal, former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and founder and president of the Fund for a Feminist Majority said, “Without 9/11, we could not get the Afghanistan tragedy in focus enough for the world powers to stop the Taliban’s atrocities or to remove the Taliban. Tragically, it took a disaster for them to act definitively enough.”BO It seems the best way to liberate women is to bomb them. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghani­ stan (RA WA), whose members were the very women who were to be liberated by this war, denounced it as an imperial venture. RA WA has in the past repeatedly warned that the U.S. govern­ ment is no friend of the people of Afghanistan, primarily because during the past two decades she did not spare any effort or expense in training and arming the most sordid, the most treacher- Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 ous, the most misogynic and anti-democratic indigenous Islamic fundamentalist gangs and innumerable crazed Arab fanatics in Afghanistan and in unleashing them upon our people. After the retreat of the Russian aggressors and the collapse of Najib’ s puppet regime in Afghanistan these fundamentalist entities became all the more wildly unbridled. They officially and wholeheartedly ac­ cepted the yoke of servitude to the interests of foreign governments, in which capacity they have perpetrated such crimes and atrocities against the people of Afghanistan that no par­ allel can be found in the history of any land on earth. RAWA roundly condemns the u.s. air strikes against Afghanistan because the impoverished masses of Afghanistan­ already trapped in the dog-fighting between the US’s Taliban and Jihadi flunkeys -are the ones who are most hurt in the attacks, and also because the US, like the arrogant superpower she is, has violated the sovereignty of the Afghan people and the territorial integrity of the Afghan homeland. The US is against fundamentalist terrorism to the extent and until such time as her proper interests are jeopardised; otherwise she is all too happy to be a friend and sponsor of any fundamentalist-terrorist criminal entity. If the US does not want her ridiculous bigotry to show and really wants to eliminate fundamentalist terrorism, she should draw lessons from her own past myopic policies and realise that the sources of fundamentalist terrorism are America’s support to the most reactionary regimes in Arab and non-Arab countries and her military and financial largesse to Afghan fundamentalist criminals. Terrorism will be uprooted only when these two sources are dried up. 81 So why does a group like the Fund for a Feminist Majority ignore the voice of RAW A? Again, even within feminist circles, the colonial logic prevails that women of color, indigenous women, and women from Global South countries are only victims of oppression rather than organizers in their own right. The II assimilation” into white society, however, only in­ creased Native women’s vulnerability to violence. For instance, when the Cherokee nation was forcibly relocated to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears in the nineteenth century, soldiers tar­ geted for sexual violence Cherokee women who spoke English and had attended mission schools instead of those who had not taken part in these assimilation efforts. They were routinely Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 gang-raped, causing one missionary to the Cherokee, Daniel Butrick, to regret that any Cherokee had ever been taught English. 82 Homi Bhabha and Edward Said argue that part of the colonization process involves partially assimilating the colonized in order to establish colonial rule. 83 That is, if the colonized group seems completely different from the colonists, they implicitly challenge the supremacy of colonial rule because they are refusing to adapt the ways of the colonizers. Hence, the colonized must seem to partially resemble the colonists in order to reinforce the dominant ideology, and establish that the way colonizers live is the only good way to live. However, the colonized group can never be completely assimilated -otherwise, they would be equal to the colonists, and there would be no reason to colonize them. If we use Bhabha’s and Said’s analysis, we can see that while Chero­ kee women were promised that assimilation would provide them with the benefits of the dominant society, in fact assimilation efforts made them more easily subjugated by colonial rule. Historically, white colonizers who raped Indian women claimed that the real rapists were Indian men. 84 Today, white men who rape and murder Indian women often make this same claim. In the late 1980s, a white man, Jesse Coulter, raped, murdered, and mutilated several Indian women in Minneapolis. He claimed to be Indian, adopting the name Jesse Sittingcrow, and emblazoning an AIM tattoo on his arm.8S Roy Martin, a full-blooded Native man, was charged with sexual assault in Bemidji, Minnesota. The survivor identified the rapist as white, about 25 years old, with a shag haircut. Martin was 35 with hair past his shoulders.86 In a search of major newspaper coverage of sexual assaults in Native communities from 1998 to 2004, I found coverage almost entirely limited to cases where Native man (or a white man who purports to be Native) was the suspected perpetrator and the victim was a white woman; there was virtually no coverage of Native women as victims of sexual assault. This absence is even more startling when one considers that Native women are more likely than other groups of women in the U.S. to be sexual assault victims. s7 Similarly, after the Civil War, Black men in the U.s. were tar­ geted for lynching for their supposed mass rapes of white women. Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 The racist belief was that white women needed to be protected from predatory Black men, when in fact, Black women needed protection from white men. In her investigations of lynches that occurred between 1865 and 1895, anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells calculated that more than 10,000 Black people had been lynched. During that same period, not one white person was lynched for raping or killing a Black person. 88 In addition, while the ostensible reason for these lynches was to protect white women from Black rapists, Wells discovered that only a third of those lynched had even been accused of rape. And most of the Black men accused of rape had been involved in obviously con­ sensual sexual relationships with white women. 89 Of course, Indian men do commit acts of sexual violence. After years of colonialism and boarding school experience, vio­ lence has been internalized within Indian communities. However, this view of the Indian man as the “true” rapist serves to obscure who has the real power in this racist and patriarchal society. Thus, the colonization of Native women (as well as other women of color) is part of the project of strengthening white male ownership of white women. And while the era of Indian massacres in their more explicit form has ended in North America, the wholesale rape and mutila­ tion of indigenous women’s bodies continues. During the 1982 massacre of Mayan people in the Aldea Rio Negro (Guatemala), 177 women and children were killed. The young women were raped in front of their mothers, and the mothers were killed in front of their children. The younger children were then tied at the ankles and dashed against the rocks until their skulls were broken. This massacre, committed by the Guatemalan army, was funded by the u.s. govemment. The historical context of rape, racism, and colonialism contin­ ues to impact women in North America as well. This legacy is most evident in the rate of violence in American Indian communi­ ties -American Indian women are twice as likely to be victimized by violent crime as women or men of any other ethnic group. In addition, 60 percent of the perpetrators of violence against Ameri­ can Indian women are white. 93 In times of crisis, sexual violence against Native women esca­ lates. When I served as a nonviolent witness for the Chippewa spearfishers who were being harassed by white racist mobs in the 1980s, one white harasser carried a sign that read, “Save a fish; spear a pregnant squaw.” During the 1990 Mohawk crisis in Quebec, Canada, a white mob surrounded an ambulance carrying a Native woman who was attempting to leave the Mohawk reser­ vation because she was hemorrhaging after giving birth. She was forced to “spread her legs” to prove she had delivered a baby. The police at the scene refused to intervene. An Indian man was ar­ rested for “wearing a disguise” (he was wearing jeans), and was brutally beaten at the scene, with his testicles crushed. Two women from Chicago Women of All Red Nations (WARN) went to Oka to videotape the crisis. They were arrested and held in custody for 11 hours without being charged, and were told that they could not go to the bathroom unless the male police officers could watch. The place they were held was covered with porno­ graphic magazines. This colonial desire to subjugate Indian women’s bodies was quite apparent when, in 1982, Stuart Kasten marketed”Custer’s Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 Revenge,” a video game in which players got points each time they, in the form of Custer, raped an Indian woman. The slogan of the game is “When you score, you score.” He describes the game as” a fun sequence where the woman is enjoying a sexual act will­ ingly.” According to the promotional material: You are General Custer. Your dander’s up, your pistol’s wavin’. You’ve hog-tied a ravishing Indian maiden and have a chance to rewrite history and even up an old score. Now, the Indian maiden’s hands may be tied, but she’s not about to take it lying down, by George! Help is on the way. If you’re to get revenge you’ll have to rise to the challenge, dodge a tribe of flying arrows and protect your flanks against some downright mean and prickly cactus. But if you can stand pat and last past the strings and arrows- You can stand last. Remember? Revenge is sweet.~ Sexual violence as a tool of racism also continues against other women of color. Trafficking in women from Asian and other Global South countries continues unabated in the u.s. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, 45,000 to 50,000 women are trafficked in the U.S. each year. 95 In addition, there are over 50,000 Filipina mail-order brides in the U.S. alone.% White men, desiring women they presume to be submissive, procure mail-order brides who, because of their precarious legal status, are vulnerable to do­ mestic and sexual violence. As the promotional material for mail order brides describes them, Filipinas have” exceptionally smooth skin and tight vaginas … [they are] low maintenance wives. [They] can always be returned and replaced by a younger model.”97 Women of color are also targeted for sexual violence crossing the U.s. border. Blacks and Latinos comprise 43 percent of those searched through customs even though they comprise 24 percent of the population. The American Friends Service Committee doc­ umented over 346 reports of gender violence on the U.S.-Mexico border from 1993-1995 (and this is just the report of one agency, which does not account for the women who either do not report or report to another agency). This one case is emblematic of the kinds of abuse women face at the border: A Border Patrol agent, Larry Selders, raped several women over a period of time. Finally one of the rape victims in Nogales, Arizona had to sue the United States government for not taking action to investigate her rape. Selders Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 demanded sex from the woman in return for her release. When she refused, Selders drove her out of town to an isolated area, raped her and threatened her not to say anything to anyone. Her defense describes in great detail the horrible trauma that she contin­ ued to suffer after the incident. Although the rape took place in 1993, it was only in October 1999 that the court finally arrived at a decision in favor of the victims. “The government guarded infor­ mation about Selders’ prior acts. It took more than three years of legal battles to uncover that at least three other victims were known to the government,” declared the victim’s attorney, Jesus Romo. 98 The ideology of Native women’s bodies as rapable is evident in the hundreds of missing indigenous women in Mexico and Canada. Since 1993, over 500 women have been murdered in Juarez, Mexico. The majority have been sexually mutilated, raped, and tortured, including having had their nipples cut off. Poor and indigenous women have been particularly targeted. Not only have the local police made no effort to solve the cases, they appear to be complicit in the murders. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations and activists have noted their failure to seriously investigate the cases-the police have made several arrests and tortured those arrested to extract confessions, but the murders have continued unabated. Furthermore, the general re­ sponse of the police to these murders is to blame the victims by arguing that they are sex workers or lesbians, and hence, inher­ ently rapable. 99 For instance, one former state public prosecutor commented in 1999, “It’s hard to go out on the street when it’s raining and not get wet.”l00 Similarly, in Canada, over 500 First Nations women have gone missing or have been murdered in the past 15 years, with little police investigation. Again, it seems that their cases have been neglected because many of the women were homeless or sex workers. Ada Elaine Brown, the sister of Terri Brown, president of Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 the Native Women’s Association of Canada, was found dead in her bed in 2002. She was so badly beaten her family did not recog­ nize her. According to Terri Brown: “The autopsy report said it was a brain aneurysm. Yeah, because she was beaten to a pulp.”lOl Within the United States, because of complex jurisdictional issues, perpetrators of sexual violence can usually commit crimes against Native women with impunity. A review of U.s. criminal justice policy in Indian country helps to clarify the current situa­ tion. In Ex Parte Crow Dog (1883), the Supreme Court recognized the authority of Indian tribes over criminal jurisdiction on Indian lands. In response, the U.S. passed the Major Crimes Act (1885), which mandated that certain “major crimes” committed in Indian country must be adjudicated through the federal justice system. In 1883, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) created the Court of Indian Offenses, which appointed tribal officials to impose penal­ ties based on Anglo-American standards of law. These courts were charged with enforcing the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the compilation of regulations issued by federal adminis­ trative agencies, which generally stressed laws intended to assimilate Native peoples, such as laws which prohibited the practice of Indian religions. The 1950’s ushered in what is called the “termination period” in U.S. Indian policy. The government began a policy of terminat­ ing tribal status for many Indian tribes and funded relocation programs to encourage Indian peoples to relocate to urban areas and assimilate into the dominant society. During this period, the U.S. government sharply defunded the justice systems in Indian country, leaving many tribes, who did not have their traditional systems intact, with no law enforcement at all. After obliterating tribal justice systems, the U.S. government passed Public Law 280 (PL 280) in 1953, granting states criminal and limited civil jurisdiction over tribes covered in the Major Crimes Act, without tribal consent. PL 280 is a major infringement on Native sovereignty, since tribes have generally not come under state jurisdiction. That is, while the U.S. government policy has deemed tribes under the guardianship of the federal government, tribes are supposed to be recognized as sovereign to some degree and not under state government jurisdiction. Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 32 I 617nqJIest In 1968, the U.S. made provisions for tribes to retrocede from PL 280-however, retrocession can only be undertaken with the permission of the state. However, later court decisions have found that PL 280 provides for concurrent state jurisdiction rather than state jurisdiction which supersedes tribal jurisdiction altogether. That is, while the state has the right to prosecute cases in PL 280 tribes, those tribes can prosecute the cases at the same time through tribal courts, if they have them. However, with the advent of what is known as the period of “self-determination” in U.S. Indian policy beginning in 1968, many tribes, particularly non-PL 280 tribes, began to develop their own tribal governance. As a result, more than 140 tribes have their own court systems today. Of these, about 25 have retained CFR systems with BIA-appointed judges and others have their own tribal courts. Some tribes, operating under the radar of U.S. gov­ ernment surveillance, have never lost their traditional forms of governance and continue to practice them today. But because rape falls under the Major Crimes Act, tribes are generally reliant upon the federal governments to prosecute sexual assault cases. Department of Justice representatives have informally reported that u.s. attorneys decline to prosecute about 75 percent of all cases involving any crime in Indian country. U.S. attorneys are particularly reluctant to prosecute rape cases; indeed, the Department of Justice reported in 1997 that only two U.S. attorneys regularly prosecute rape cases in Indian country.102 Because sexual assault is covered under the Major Crimes Act, many tribes have not developed codes to address the problem in those rape cases the federal government declines to prosecute. Those with codes are often hindered in their ability to investigate by a wait that may last more than a year before federal investiga­ tors formally tum over cases. In addition, the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) of 1968 limits the punishment tribal justice systems can enforce on perpetrators. 103 For instance, the maximum time someone may be sentenced to prison through tribal courts is one year. 104 Also, Native activist Sarah Deer (Muscogee) notes that the U.S. can prohibit remedies that do not follow the same penalties of the dominant system. Thus, sentencing someone to banishment or to another traditional form of punishment can be deemed a Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018 violation of ICRA. lOS In addition, u.s. courts have conflicting rulings on whether the Major Crimes Act even allows tribes to maintain con­ current jurisdiction over certain crimes, including sexual assaultYJ6 To further complicate matters, tribes covered under PL 280, which gives states criminal jurisdiction, must work with state and county law enforcement officials who may have hostile relation­ ships with the tribe. And because tribes are often geographically isolated-reservations are sometimes over 100 miles from the closest law enforcement agency, with many homes having no phone -local officials are unable to respond to an emergency situ­ ation. Racism on the part of local police officers in surrounding border towns also contributes to a lack of responsiveness in address­ ing rape cases. And since the federal government does not compensate state governments for law enforcement on reservations, and tribes generally do not pay local or federal taxes, states have little vested interest in providing “protection” for Indian tribes. Finally, American Indian tribes do not have the right to prose­ cute non-Indians for crimes that occur on reservations. In Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe (1978), the Supreme Court held that Native American tribes do not have criminal jurisdiction over non-Native peoples on reservation lands. This precedent is partic­ ularly problematic for non-PL 280 tribes, because tribal police cannot arrest non-Indians who commit offenses. Furthermore, state law enforcement does not have jurisdiction on reservation lands. So, unless state law enforcement is cross-deputized with tribal law enforcement, no one can arrest non-Native perpetrators of crimes on Native land.107 In response to these deplorable conditions, many Native peoples are calling for increased funding for criminal justice en­ forcement in tribal communities. (See Chapter 7 for a critique of this strategy.) It is undeniable that U.s. policy has codified the “rapability” of Native women. Indeed, the U.S. and other coloniz­ ing countries are engaged in a “permanent social war” against the bodies of women of color and indigenous women, which threaten their legitimacy. lOB Colonizers evidently recognize the wisdom of the Cheyenne saying” A nation is not conquered until the hearts of the women are on the ground.” Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/chapter-pdf/81512/9780822374817-002.pdfby NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY useron 26 March 2018
It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (
DATE DOWNLOADED: Thu Dec 1 19:13:55 2022 SOURCE: Content Downloaded from HeinOnline Citations: Bluebook 21st ed. Julie Kaye, John Winterdyk & Lara Quarterman, Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada, 56 CANADIAN J. CRIMINOLOGY & CRIM. Just. 23 (2014). ALWD 7th ed. Julie Kaye, John Winterdyk & Lara Quarterman, Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada, 56 Canadian J. Criminology & Crim. Just. 23 (2014). APA 7th ed. Kaye, J., Winterdyk, J., & Quarterman, L. (2014). Beyond Criminal Justice: Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 56(1), 23-48. Chicago 17th ed. Julie Kaye; John Winterdyk; Lara Quarterman, “Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 56, no. 1 (January 2014): 23-48 McGill Guide 9th ed. Julie Kaye, John Winterdyk & Lara Quarterman, “Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada” (2014) 56:1 Canadian J Criminology & Crim Just 23. AGLC 4th ed. Julie Kaye, John Winterdyk and Lara Quarterman, ‘Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada’ (2014) 56 Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 23. MLA 8th ed. Kaye, Julie, et al. “Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, vol. 56, no. 1, January 2014, p. 23-48. HeinOnline. OSCOLA 4th ed. Julie Kaye, John Winterdyk & Lara Quarterman, ‘Beyond Criminal Justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada’ (2014) 56 Canadian J Criminology & Crim Just 23 Provided by: University of Manitoba Libraries — Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnline’s Terms and Conditions of the license agreement available at https://heinonline.org/HOL/License — The search text of this PDF is generated from uncorrected OCR text. — To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your license, please use: Copyright Information Beyond Criminal justice: A Case Study of Responding to Human Trafficking in Canada’ Julie Kaye* Ambrose University College, Calgary John Winterdyk Department of Justice Studies, Mount Royal University, Calgary Lara Quarterman Action Coalition on Human Trafficking -Alberta Mal&gr la sensibilisation accrue en maticre de la traite des personnes au Canada, les connaissances portant sur la manidre dont les communautis rdagissent a l’expirience des victimes sont limities. En se concentrant sur les interventions de lutte contre la traite des personnes a Calgary, en Alberta, ce projet reprtsente lapremicre tentative canadienne a documenter la manicre dont un centre urbain important aborde la traite des personnes. Le projet exploratoire interrogea 53 rdpondants qui reprisentaient des agences faisant partie de la lutte contre la traite d’itres humains, lesquelles assistent les victimes a divers titres. En se basant sur les risultats des entrevues, cinq groupes de discussions fu rent crdis a l’automne 2011. Cet article suggire que, bien qu’un cadre juridique pinal soit important pour lutter contre la traite des personnes, des stratigies locales tireraient profit d’une collaboration intersectorielle plagant les droits des victimes au-dessus des besoins des agents de police. Mots clis : traite des personnes, lutte contre la traite d’etres humains, exploitation, systime juridique pinale, assistance aux victimes Despite increasing awareness of human trafficking in Canada, there is limited knowledge about how local communities are responding to the experiences of trafficked persons. By focusing on the case of counter-trafficking responses in Calgary, Alberta, this project represents the first Canadian attempt to document how a major urban centre is addressing human trafficking. The exploratory project surveyed 53 respondents representing agencies involved in the counter- trafficking response, which in various capacities serve individuals victimized by trafficking. Building on the survey findings, five focus group discussions were conducted during the autumn of 2011. The article suggests that, while a *Please direct correspondence to Julie Kaye, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Ambrose University College, 150 Ambrose Circle SW, Calgary, AB T3H OL5; [email protected] @ 2014 CIRCJP doi:0.3138/cjccj.2012.E33 Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p6nale janvier 2014 criminal justice framework is important for addressing human trafficking, local strategies will benefit from an emphasis on cross-sector collaboration that emphasizes the rights of the trafficked persons above the needs of law enforcement. Keywords: human trafficking, anti-trafficking, exploitation, criminal justice system, victim assistance Human trafficking -what some refer to as ‘modem-day slavery’ (Kara 2009) -has been described as the second most profitable organized criminal activity in the world. 2 While evidence to support this and other claims about the prevalence of human trafficking remains controversial (see Barrett 2011; Jordan and Burke 2011), trafficking has received significant attention from academics, policy makers, and advocates, both internationally (e.g., Kempadoo 2005; Shelley 2010; Lee 2011) and in Canada (see, e.g., Bruckert and Parent 2002; Oxman-Martinez, Lacroix, and Hanley 2005; Ogrodnik 2010; Perrin 2010a). Yet there is still little consensus about the nature, extent, or definition of human trafficking, which at various times has been understood as, and often conflated with, prostitution, labour exploitation, irregular migration, and transnational crime (Sanghera 2005). Since the adoption of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children in 2000 (Palermo Protocol), international definitions of human trafficking emphasize human traf- ficking as a form of transnational crime, resulting in counter-trafficking initiatives that focus on restrictive border controls and immigration policies (e.g., Jordan 2002; Kempadoo 2005; Lee 2011). However, such anti-trafficking responses have struggled to successfully prosecute per- petrators as well as protect the rights of trafficked persons (Dottridge 2007; Lee 2011; Milivojevic and Segrave 2012). The fundamental rights afforded to all human beings outlined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights offer some protection to trafficked persons, such as the right to freedom from slavery and servitude, freedom of movement, and freedom from inhu- man or degrading treatment (see Lee 2011). Through this declaration and that of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, human trafficking has been seen as a violation of human rights. Nonetheless, mandatory provisions to protect and assist individuals victimized by human trafficking were absent from the Palermo Protocol (Jordan 2002). Thus, building on the international definition, Canada ratified the protocol by establishing crime-focused 24 Beyond Criminal justice response mechanisms (e.g., enhanced border security, immigration controls, and initiatives driven by law enforcement), yet paid limited attention to the development of provisions to address the rights and experiences of trafficked persons. In Canada, there is a widespread belief that both internal and interna- tional forms of human trafficking are occurring within and across Canadian borders (Bruckert and Parent 2002; Oxman-Martinez, Lacroix, and Hanley 2005; Perrin 2010a). 4 Yet, from a criminal justice standpoint, there have only been a handful of successful charges laid and fewer convictions since the inclusion of human trafficking legislation in the Criminal Code in 2005 (Government of Canada 2012). Yet, in spite of a legally untested definition and a limited number of criminal cases, law enforcement and criminal justice actors have largely shaped discussions of human trafficking and responses to trafficking in Canada (RCMP 2010).s In a context where the law remains relatively untested, yet the response emphasizes criminal justice approaches, the actual experiences of trafficked persons remain unclear and poorly defined. To help clarify understandings of human trafficking within a localized context, this article explores the patterns and trends of human trafficking in Calgary, Alberta, and specifically examines how front line workers perceive human trafficking and the existing counter-trafficking re- sponse. Calgary offers a unique context to examine human trafficking responses, given the municipal interdisciplinary network established by the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking (ACT) Alberta. 6 This article comprises five main sections. The first section briefly engages with the literature on human trafficking and responses to trafficking in Canada. The second section outlines the methodology underlying our findings. The third and fourth sections highlight some of our key find- ings, including the identified patterns and trends and the problem of overreliance on criminal justice response models. In the final section, we offer recommendations for responding to human trafficking in Canadian cities and present a prospective research agenda for future analysis. Human trafficking and responses to trafficking in Canada Canada is known as a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking (Bruckert and Parent 2002; Perrin 2010a; Government of Canada 2012; US Department of State 2012; RCMP 2012) where men, women, and children are trafficked for the purpose of sexual 25 Canadian journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice January 2014 exploitation 7 and/or forced labour. To identify the national trends of human trafficking, the RCMP released the findings of a threat assess- ment that examined cases and intelligence between 2005 and 2009 (RCMP 2010). In particular, the assessment found that, while men, women, and children are trafficked in Canada, women represent the majority of identified trafficked persons and are trafficked primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation. 8 However, more recently, cases involving trafficking for the purpose of forced labour are being detected (see, e.g., Government of Canada 2012; “How Hungarian criminals” 2012; “Human trafficking affects foreign workers” 2012). As of Decem- ber 2012, charges of labour trafficking have been laid in Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia and have involved the exploitation of male and female foreign nationals (Government of Canada 2012).9 In these cases, police have faced significant barriers to obtaining cooperation from victimized individuals, especially since the individual often faces real and perceived risks of job loss and/or deportation if he or she cooperates (Faraday 2012). Moreover, it is suspected that forced labour cases have gone undetected because they can occur through the fraudulent use of legal entry points into Canada (e.g., R v Domotor et al.).”o According to the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, socially and economically disadvantaged persons -especially some First Nations women, youth, and children, as well as migrants and new immigrants, street-involved youth, children in protective services, and new arrivals to large urban centres -are considered “at risk” of being trafficked (Government of Canada 2012). Some evidence suggests that First Nations women are specifically targeted for trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation (see Bruckert and Parent 2002; Oxman-Martinez, Lacroix, and Hanley 2005), including trafficking by gangs (see Sikka 2009) and exploitation during the migratory movements from First Nations reserves to cities in search of education, employment, or other opportunities depicted in media portrayals and anecdotal descriptions of city life (Sethi 2007; Oxman-Martinez, Lacroix, and Hanley 2005). In these and other cases, socio-economic marginalization increases vulner- ability to human trafficking (see Quayson and Arhin 2012). Canada was among the first countries to ratify the Palermo Protocol by enacting two pieces of anti-trafficking legislation. The first is section 118 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).” This section only covers international human trafficking, referring specifically to cases that involved crossing the border into Canada. 26 Beyond Criminal Justice In 2005, section 279.01 was incorporated into the Canadian Criminal Code.1 2 In addition, section 279.011 criminalizes the trafficking of a person under the age of 18 years. Further, sections 279.02 and 279.03 criminalize the material benefit gained from trafficking in persons and withholding or destroying documents for the purpose of human trafficking. Finally, section 279.04 defines the concept of exploitation in human trafficking cases.’ 3 However, the definition of exploitation has proved problematic for obtaining human trafficking convictions.1 4 The onus has been on the individual victimized by trafficking to demonstrate their belief that their safety was threatened. However, trafficked persons do not always wish or are not always able to cooperate with official agencies, given the potential consequences of giving evidence against a trafficker (e.g., possible job loss, deportation, threats against family members, etc.). In this way, the very nature of the human trafficking abuse (e.g., deception or coercion) can create challenges that prevent trafficked people from considering themselves as victims of crime. In these instances, respect for autonomy can be violated by responses that link “victim” cooperation to service provision or prioritize the prosecu- tion of perpetrators above the rights of trafficked persons. Despite the adoption of legal mechanisms, Canada has faced major challenges when prosecuting human traffickers. As of April 2012, there have been 25 human trafficking convictions under the Criminal Code, representing 41 trafficked persons (Government of Canada 2012).’ In addition to charges under the Criminal Code, three charges have been laid under section 118 of the IRPA, including one charge in Alberta. In response to significant gaps in the protection of trafficked persons in Canada, in May 2006, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) adopted a policy to enable trafficked persons to secure immigration status by providing a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP).1 6 Initially for up to 180 days, TRPs offer legal immigration status to interna- tional trafficked persons identified in Canada and can be extended at the discretion of CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2009). During this time, trafficked persons can obtain access to health care and other services (such as trauma counselling and work permits). While CIC considers whether the person can assist law enforcement in criminal proceedings, the policy clearly states, “victims of traffick- ing are not required to assist in any criminal investigation or testify against their trafficker to gain tem orary or permanent resident status” (Department of Justice 2012).’ Despite the stated TRP policy, 27 Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p6nale janvier 2014 an overreliance on criminal definitions of human trafficking has created barriers for trafficked persons to access TRPs. Therefore, it is important to explore alternatives to the conventional criminal justice response mechanisms. Methodology Given the complexity and diversity of experiences represented by the single concept of human trafficking, this exploratory study adopts a mixed-method approach, including a survey and facilitated focus group discussions. The sampling procedure for this research was designed to draw on the existing response mechanism in Calgary: the counter- trafficking network coordinated by ACT Alberta. Consequently, a range of agencies and front line workers providing services to trafficked persons or populations considered vulnerable to human trafficking (e.g., agencies serving immigrants, sexual assault centres, and youth drop-in centres) were the focus of recruitment efforts for participation in the study.’ 8 Each of the participants self-identified as being directly involved in the counter-trafficking response and the final sample included government officials, law enforcement personnel, non-govern- ment organizations, and other social service agencies. Based on the sampling criteria, a link to an online survey of 28 questions was sent to a total of 94 individuals.1 9 The survey questions were designed to gather information about the organizations repre- sented by the respondents as well as their knowledge of human trafficking, their experience working on cases of human trafficking (including details of the cases they identified), and their perceptions of the existing response to human trafficking in Calgary. The survey questions were also designed to inform the focus group portion of the research. In total, 53 survey responses were received, representing a response rate of 56.4%. Focus group discussions offered survey respondents the opportunity to expand on their responses to the survey questions and to build on the information collected through the survey data. Five focus group sessions were held with a total of 18 representatives. 20 Due to the diverse composition of each focus group, the discussions took different paths, and participants were encouraged to contribute from their areas of expertise and speak on behalf of their current position and agency as well as in light of their previous experience and knowledge. 28 Beyond Criminal justice Patterns and trends of human trafficking in Calgary, Alberta Given the exploratory and predominantly qualitative nature of the data, it is not possible to state with confidence that certain types of trafficking or the victimization of individuals from a specific demo- graphic is more common or prevalent in Calgary. Rather than identify specific numbers of trafficked persons in the city, the present research provides a detailed picture of the perceptions of front line workers to the existing response. According to survey respondents and focus group participants, in- stances of trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation, involving both foreign nationals and Canadian citizens, occur in Calgary. In a context where there have been no criminal convictions for human trafficking, it is notable that 44.4% of respondents indicated that they believed they had come into contact with one or more cases of human trafficking (see Table 1 for further detail). Of the survey respondents who indicated they had come into contact with one or more trafficked persons, 18 had encountered internal cases of trafficking and 11 had encountered international cases. This is contrary to many media, academic, and policy discourses that focus on interna- tional forms of trafficking. In terms of internal forms of human trafficking, respondents identified Aboriginal persons as an over-represented group among individuals victimized by trafficking primarily for the purposes of sexual exploita- tion. 21 Trafficking of Aboriginal persons was also a key theme men- tioned during focus group discussions. In particular, there was a desire to understand how human trafficking affects or includes Aboriginal communities, especially populations living on First Nations reserves. As one front line service provider suggested, participants were particularly concerned with the limited training and awareness available: Table 1: To your knowledge, has your group or agency come into contact with trafficked persons? Number of Survey Responses Percentage of Survey Responses Yes 24 44.4% Maybe 9 16.7% No 13 24.1% Don’t know 8 14.8% 29 Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal justice January 2014 I think the individuals coming to the city from the reserves, a lot more awareness needs to be brought to the Aboriginal community … but I think that you have to be very culturally sensitive in terms of going to the reserve, in how someone would present this information; it’s their youth. Despite such an expressed desire for more awareness and culturally based education, there is very little research on First Nations’ experi- ences of human trafficking. The characteristics of identified trafficked persons in Calgary were varied. While participants described popular stereotypes of trafficked individuals as young, female, and Asian, trafficked for forced prostitu- tion, their experiences working with trafficked persons deviated from such stereotypes. Specifically, responses varied about whether or not the majority of trafficked persons in Calgary are male or female; yet there was general agreement that those trafficked for labour exploitation were typically male (with the exception of domestic servitude) and those trafficked for sexual exploitation were typically female. Although there was no conclusive data that determined if there were more cases of trafficking for the purposes of labour, sexual, or other forms of exploitation, some focus group participants suggested, in spite of popular images of trafficking, that labour trafficking is more prevalent in international cases of human trafficking: It was posed to us that human trafficking was explicitly imbedded in our communities … and it was incredibly prolific, a huge problem, and so as an enforcement unit we could either take that and just go investigate, but we didn’t have anything to investigate. So, strategically, we determined that what we would do is assess whether that was a true statement -whether human trafficking is to the extent that it’s being reported to be. And we focused mainly on two categories, of course, labour and sexual exploitation, and international because that’s our mandate. What we’re seeing is – although there’s a propensity to sort of gravitate or be drawn to the sexual exploitation component … we’re seeing, in terms of minor complaints to actually fully blown investigations and charges -it’s on the labour [side]. (Law Enforcement Representative) As this excerpt suggests, the prevalence and form of human trafficking identified from a law enforcement standpoint differs from a service 30 Beyond Criminal justice provision perspective. Meanwhile, both perceptions diverge from sen- sational campaigns to raise awareness that predominantly emphasize the sexual exploitation of women. Rather, the research confirmed that front line workers in Calgary have come into contact with trafficked indivi- duals exploited for labour, including domestic servitude as well as forced labour exploitation in the construction, farming, and service industries. Another trend identified by the survey and the focus group respon- dents was the use of legal immigration channels to facilitate human trafficking and other forms of exploitation throughout Alberta. In particular, TFW programs for lower skilled workers, including the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), were used to facilitate legal entry into Canada. However, once in Canada, some workers involved in these programs have been subject to exploitation by their employers. Examples of such treatment include poor or unsafe working condi- tions, the withholding of passports or identity documents, confinement in warehouses, and the repayment of debts through forced work (known as debt bondage) (also see Bruckert and Parent 2002; Hastie 2012, Perrin 2010b). In these cases, the trafficked persons deviate from stereotypical images because they are legitimate migrant workers with legal immigration status in Canada. Yet, as participants argued, lack of familiarity with the laws that govern labour standards and the ambiguous relationship between human trafficking and labour exploi- tation have created challenges for identifying and responding to experiences of human trafficking in the province. While the above data cannot be interpreted as a reflection of the number of trafficked persons in the City of Calgary, they do offer useful insight into how front line workers understand the trends and patterns of human trafficking in Calgary. They can also be used to inform existing responses to the experiences of trafficked persons. Building on this understanding, we now turn to two key factors that have served to limit existing counter-trafficking measures: definitional challenges and an overreliance on criminal justice responses. Human trafficking definitions: Impeding counter-trafficking initiatives Trafficking discourse has been plagued by the proliferation of inaccurate information and confusion over what constitutes human trafficking (see, e.g., Barrett 2011; Salt and Hogarth 2000; Aronowitz 2001; Dottridge 2007; Kempadoo 2005; Segrave, Milivojevic, and 31I Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p6nale janvier 2014 Pickering 2009; Doezema 2010; Jordan and Burke 2011). In turn, ambiguous definitions have impeded the development of effective counter-trafficking responses. In this context, it is unsurprising that participants in this study expressed general confusion surrounding the relationship between legal definitions of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation and abuse. Participants similarly cited defini- tional challenges, including clear misunderstandings of the existing legal definitions in Canada, as hindrances to identifying and respond- ing to human trafficking. Such definitional challenges further point to the need to conceptualize human trafficking outside a restrictive criminal justice framework. Focus group discussions revealed that overemphasizing images of victimized women in the sex trade has restricted law enforcement, service providers, and the general public from accurately identifying and understanding the lived experiences of trafficked persons. In the words of one social service provider, It’s easy to ignore, if you believe [human trafficking] is one thing and then you come into contact with someone [and] if you had the correct information, red flags would be going up, but you’re thinking, “No, it has to be this. This is what it is.” You’re missing potential people who are at risk. In this way, sensationalized images of an “ideal victim,”2 while possibly helping to raise public awareness, can prevent realistic understandings and result in overlooking certain types of experiences as forms of victimi- zation. Overemphasizing sensational images of human trafficking spe- cifically resulted in individuals trafficked or exploited through legal programs -such as the TFW programs for lower skilled workers -being overlooked as possible trafficked persons in Calgary. As the following excerpt from a front line service provider highlighted, the distinction between labour exploitation and human trafficking remains unclear: The foreign workers, some of them are not really trafficked per se, they came legally, but when they get exploited, sometimes I find it hard to connect human trafficking because the foreign workers they might not have been trafficked in the definition of human trafficking but they are just as exploited as the ones who were trafficked … There is a grey area there for me because when someone is exploited, like if they are not being paid, the contract is not being adhered to, it could be an employment standards issue and maybe there is abuse 32 Beyond Criminal justice as well, which is a human rights violation … So with the foreign workers, it doesn’t start with transit, it starts here, they come here and everything is legal. Although human trafficking charges and a related conviction have occurred in a case involving the exploitation of TFWs in Alberta, 24 the ambiguous relationship between labour standards, labour exploitation, and human trafficking has created challenges around accessing services for victimized foreign nationals. Despite requiring similar services to those of a trafficked person, in- dividuals classified as experiencing forms of labour exploitation that fall outside the realm of human trafficking investigation have been unable to access services. In the words of a front line service provider, Foreign workers have really limited access to resources. So, if a foreign worker resigns from their job, then their work permit is also cut off. So once they are identified as victims of trafficking they will eventually be given a TRP but, you know, for some people who are not found to be victims of that have very limited options. As this excerpt suggests, when people enter Canada through TFW programs and experience coercion, deceit, or exploitation, they require support and assistance, irrespective of whether enforcement agencies are pursuing charges of a human trafficking offence or not. These experiences are especially problematic because individuals trafficked through legal government programs may be overlooked by government agencies, such as the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) or the CIC that issues TRPs, which are an important tool of support for international trafficked persons. According to the survey participants, this potential oversight occurs because many agencies, both governmental and non-governmental, are unclear on the definition of human trafficking or how to interpret and apply the legal definition of trafficking in Canada’s Criminal Code or IRPA. Thus, law enforcement agencies identified the Criminal Code definition of trafficking as particularly onerous and narrow when it comes to laying human trafficking charges, and this, if the definition is univer- sally applied, has created significant gaps in the service provision model. Beyond legal definitions and criminal justice responses In addition to sensationalized images of trafficked persons, participants identified as problematic an overreliance on the legal definition of 33 Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal justice January 2014 trafficking. As one law enforcement officer highlighted: “If you look at human trafficking, by anyone’s definition … there’s probably about 25 things that could, sort of, fit into that human trafficking definition.” This participant further stated that there were approximately 50 active cases that involve some component of human trafficking, yet only 15 that met the threshold of the legal definition. 25 Thus, in a context where human trafficking responses are being developed predominantly from a law enforcement or criminal justice standpoint, some victimized individuals experiencing one or more components of human trafficking -or even cases that meet the legal threshold of trafficking -may not be identified. Similarly, a government representative highlighted the narrow scope and mandate of law enforcement compared to the breadth and com- plexity of experiences that potentially fall under human trafficking definitions: Because we are a law enforcement unit available to government, when we look at these things, I think we’re losing some of the picture. We have a certain amount of resources we can deploy in any area, so we are needing to prove our cases to the criminal court standard and therefore we’re simply not able to allocate resources to just going out, and just looking at feelers ’cause our mandate is pretty narrow on this pretty broad issue … There have been cases I’ve seen where I have some pause, but upon further questioning they just weren’t getting there for us to allocate those resources. As this excerpt suggests, relying on the criminal threshold outlined in the legal definition of trafficking leads to ignoring the varying experiences of trafficked persons that may fall outside the narrow criminal justice mandate and resource allocation. As a result, trafficked persons may not be able to access services that exist, especially services that are tied – explicitly or implicitly -to some form of criminal investigation. An overreliance on the legal definition is also problematic given some of the general challenges faced by law enforcement and the criminal justice system with laying charges, having the charges move forward, building case law, and attaining convictions. One representative of a law enforce- ment agency discussed the “onerous” nature of the Criminal Code definition: [The Criminal Code definition] is so unbelievably onerous, unfortunately, so onerous that we can’t lay charges to actually 34 Beyond Criminal justice create the case law that defines the Criminal Code … it’s horrific. It’s one of the first real Catch-22s we’ve seen in the Criminal Code. You know, assault is easily defined and you can lay those charges, case law defines it, very quickly. This one [human trafficking], it’s been on the books for several years and it is almost to the point where investigators are realizing we really can’t hit that standard and the prosecutors are very reluctant to try to prosecute on that standard. This participant went on to share additional detail on why the Criminal Code has proven problematic for law enforcement agencies when pursuing human trafficking charges and prosecutions: You have to prove a fear, you have to prove that [trafficked persons] were entirely unwilling or there was no real consent component at any point, or maybe if there was consent it’s a clear delineation of when that consent stopped, and it’s just unbelievably onerous … And it may continue to be until we either get charges and the case law defines it, or Parliament realizes that and starts clipping at it. And …if you attribute the threshold, for us, there’s two thresholds: one, do we have the grounds to charge and then the threshold to actually convict. This experience of implementing and applying the Criminal Code appears to be in opposition to the actual text of article 2 of section 279.01 that reads, “No consent to the activity that forms the subject matter of a charge under subsection (1) is valid.” Nonetheless, this problem has also been identified by other research in the area (see, e. g., Perrin 2010a). Regardless, the narrow scope of the legal definition of human trafficking, alongside the resource constraints of law enforce- ment agencies aiming to meet the criminal threshold of this definition, result in a limited capacity of law enforcement to identify the complex experiences of trafficked persons. Thus, while criminal definitions and responses are key elements of any response model, they should not be the exclusive, or even the dominant, element of the response. Rather, as will be discussed, the experiences of trafficked persons are better served by expanding response models to include government, non-govern- ment, and criminal justice elements. Overall, it was suggested that the confusion surrounding the definition of human trafficking has limited effective identification and support of persons victimized by human trafficking or elements of trafficking and has created challenges for pressing criminal charges against traffickers. 35 Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p6nale janvier 2014 This highlights the need to examine and accept definitions of human trafficking between and across sectors. As discussed, while law enforce- ment agencies will require a definition that outlines the threshold of evidence to determine that a crime has been committed, many social service agencies can and will accept a more liberal interpretation of the phenomenon for the purposes of service delivery. Towards cross-sector collaboration Despite the limitations just discussed of approaches that centre on a criminal justice framework and definition, Canada’s response to human trafficking is largely driven by the same criminal justice mandate (RCMP 2010; Perrin 2010a; Government of Canada 2012) that is characteristic of how most countries attempt to respond to human trafficking (see Shelley 2010; Dalla, Baker, DeFrain, and Williamson 2011). While the criminal justice system remains an important aspect of any response model, the present research points to the need to move beyond a strict criminal justice framework when responding to the trafficking of human beings. In Calgary, since 2008, law enforcement, social serving agencies, and government have participated in cross-sector information exchanges and ad hoc case management of identified trafficked persons through the ACT network. A common observation in focus group discussions was the need to move cross-sector interactions beyond information sharing to develop a more collaborative response, including protocol agree- ments, standard operating procedures, and collaborative case consulta- tion and management. As discussed, participants representing government and law enforce- ment agencies indicated that human trafficking experiences are falling outside the realm of a criminal justice response. As one government official declared, ” [W]e could be missing a lot of the picture and a lot of them are afraid of government. So, the social agencies are probably getting a bigger picture than the enforcement agencies.” Although social services agencies may be best situated to identify the broad-ranging experiences of human trafficking, it is law enforcement and government agencies that have been mandated with key aspects of victim assistance and support. 26 For instance, to access a TRP, trafficked persons are, in essence, required to report their experiences to law enforcement, and law enforcement is mandated with primary aspects of victim support during the investigative process. However, as one law enforcement representa- tive suggests, the interest of law enforcement centres on investigation and obtaining criminal convictions, goals that are not necessarily in line 36 Beyond Criminal justice with the interest or rights of the individual victimized by human trafficking: The investigative side is unbelievably selfish, and I’d like the two to split, so there’s still consult between the support group and the investigative group in terms of the best things for the victim, but the investigative group should not be doing the support piece. It’s impacting negatively the prosecution of these cases in terms of time delays, in terms of manpower, and resources. So, I’d like those two things split. (Law enforcement representative) As this excerpt suggests, offering support to trafficked persons con- strains the limited resources available to law enforcement to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases. Meanwhile, the support offered to the trafficked individual is connected to the investigative needs of law enforcement, which can be counter-productive to the interests of traf- ficked persons. This is especially the case in a context, such as Canada, where prosecutions are dependent on the testimony of a “victim” of crime. Overall, participants pointed to a need to move away from strict legal interpretations of human trafficking to better incorporate the autonomy and rights of trafficked individuals. Participants further perceived a need to support collaborative efforts that made a clear separation between assistance to trafficked persons and the investigation and prosecution of human traffickers. Notwithstanding the importance of such collaboration, it is worth noting that effective collaboration across these sectors can prove challenging, given the unequal resources and capacity that each actor brings to the table. For instance, NGOs typically face more significant resource constraints, including human resources, making it difficult to maintain an equal footing in collaborations with government and law enforcement agencies. Even more problematic are occasions when NGOs receive government funding that is attached to the mandates of the funding body. For example, ACT Alberta receives funding from the Victim of Crimes Fund, which could potentially prohibit ACT from offering a response that distinguished between law enforcement and service provision mandates. As discussed, emphasiz- ing the “victim of crime” status of trafficked persons can limit support, especially in cases of internationally trafficked persons who could benefit from accessing a TRP but who do not wish to report their experiences to government or law enforcement. In this way, discussions of collaboration should not be naive as to the role of power dynamics, 37 Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal justice January 2014 funding sources, and the specialized mandates of the organizations involved in the collaboration. Conclusion and future research Through an exploratory examination of counter-trafficking responses in Calgary, Alberta, the article shows that definitional challenges alongside an overemphasis on law enforcement and criminal justice responses have limited the identification of trafficked persons, especially those trafficked and/or exploited through legal entry points into the country, such as individuals arriving in Alberta through TFW programs for lower skilled workers. Further, in examining a localized context, the article suggests that by centring the national response model on restrictive legal definitions of human trafficking and the investigative requirements of law enforcement agents, the existing response strategy limits service provision in the city for trafficked persons and individuals experiencing elements of exploitation related to trafficking. In light of this, it is suggested that there needs to be enhanced cross-sector understandings of human trafficking to account for the narrow investigative needs of law enforcement alongside the broad ranging services required to address the experiences of trafficked persons. In this way, it becomes important to situate response models outside the limited realm of the criminal justice system by developing cross-sector collaborations whereby gov- ernment, non-government, and law enforcement agencies collaborate to develop and implement localized protocols to respond to human traf- ficking. However, in doing so, such partnerships require a thorough recognition of the politicized nature of responses to human trafficking and the funding, mandate, and power dynamics that shape anti-traf- ficking agendas. Overall, the research highlights the need to better understand specific forms of human trafficking, especially the internal trafficking of Abori- ginals in Canada and the effects of human trafficking on Aboriginal communities. In addition, the use by traffickers of TFW programs for lower skilled workers, as well as the relationship between human trafficking and labour exploitation, requires further examination. More- over, future analyses may enhance existing knowledge by replicating this study and comparing the findings with findings from other jurisdic- tions throughout Canada. Thus, this research can inform the develop- ment of protocols within other communities and provinces that can eventually be used to inform interprovincial partnerships and collabo- ration. As the present article demonstrates, localized understandings of 38 Beyond Criminal justice human trafficking can contribute to the adoption of more effective national understandings and response strategies to address human trafficking in Canada. Notes 1 The researchers would like to acknowledge support from Mount Royal University, PrairieAction Research Foundation, and Changing Together: A Centre for Immigrant Women. Julie Kaye further acknowledges support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). 2 Multiple sources attribute this claim to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (see, e.g., Jordan and Burke 2011); however, the claim is no longer on the department’s web site. Nonetheless, it proliferates in materials to raise awareness and associated “fact” sheets on human trafficking, with no reference as to its original source. 3 According to the Palermo Protocol, trafficking in persons refers to, “[T]he recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purposes of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs” (Palermo Protocol, art 3(a) at 366; qtd. in UNODC 2000). 4 Due to the clandestine nature of human trafficking, the Department of Justice acknowledges that it is difficult to provide accurate estimates as to the number of trafficked individuals. Similarly, as Savona and Stefanizzi point out, in the introduction to Measuring Human Trafficking, “the low reliability of data in this field of study results from a number of factors which cannot be easily or quickly eliminated” (Savona and Stefanizzi 2010: 3). In this context, the RCMP (unpublished) report that the number of trafficked persons in Canada ranged between 600 and 800 persons. However, this figure is no longer used. In fact, contrary to previous years, the RCMP (2012) fact sheet offers no numbers regarding the scope of HT. 5 Compare, for example, the funding outlined by the Government of Canada (2012) in the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking that falls within a criminal justice framework, including just over $2 million for a dedicated enforcement team (RCMP and CBSA), $1.3 million for a human trafficking national coordination centre (RCMP), $1.6 million for regional 39 Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p6nale janvier 2014 coordination and awareness (RCMP), $445,000 for border service officer training and awareness (CBSA), $96,000 for an anti-crime capacity building program (DFAIT) versus up to $500,000 to support victims services (Government of Canada 2012). 6 ACT Alberta is a non-profit organization with a central office located in Edmonton, Alberta. ACT operates as a coalition of government agencies, NGOs, survivors of trafficking, and the general public involved in the response to human trafficking. ACT has chapters in five communities within the province: Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, and Red Deer. The Calgary-based chapter was established in 2008. 7 While the terms sexual exploitation and sex trafficking have been conflated with sex work and prostitution in anti-trafficking literature (see, e.g., Barry 1984; Raymond 2005), we used the phrase trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation to recognize that sex industries represent one site of labour where human trafficking can occur (Sanghera 2005). In this way, we align with the Palermo Protocol definition quoted in note 3 above. In other words, the Protocol recognizes that not all forms of sexual labour are exploitive; while human trafficking, by its nature, entails exploitation. For further discussion, see Downe (2006: 66) on “systems of prostitution” and Sanghera (2005: 46) on the “proverbial shades of grey” in explorations of prostitution and sex work. 8 Identification can be skewed by instances where human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is conflated with prostitution or sex work. 9 Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation has been recognized as both an international and internal problem; however, at present, responses to labour trafficking focus solely on international forms of human trafficking. 10 In 2010, the first charges of labour trafficking in Canada were laid against Ferenc Domotor in Hamilton, Ontario (see “Three make court appearances” 2010). This case represents Canada’s first prosecuted case of labour trafficking (see “Hamilton human trafficking kingpin sentenced to 9 years” 2012). 11 Section 118 of IRPA states, “(1) No person shall knowingly organize the coming into Canada of one or more persons by means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion … (2) For the purpose of subsection (1), ‘organize,’ with respect to persons, includes their recruitment or transportation and, after their entry into Canada, the receipt or harbouring of those persons.” 12 Section 279.01 of the Criminal Code states, “(1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or 40 Beyond Criminal Justice exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence … (2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject matter of a charge under subsection (1) is valid.” 13 Section 279.04 Criminal Code states, “(1) For the purposes of section[] 279.01 … a person exploits another person if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that, in all the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service; (2) In determining whether an accused exploits another person under subsection (1), the Court may consider, among other factors, whether the accused (a) used or threatened to use force or another form of coercion; (b) used deception; or (c) abused a position of trust, power or authority.” 14 For a broader, yet similar, international perspective, see Wade (2012). 15 While the number of cases before the courts is in constant flux, there were approximately 56 cases before the courts as of April 2012 (Government of Canada 2012). These cases represent 136 trafficked persons and 85 accused traffickers. The majority of these cases concern internal trafficking. 16 For more infonnation about the Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) and its relevance to human trafficking support, see Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2009.. 17 Significantly, between May 2006 and December 2010, 120 TRPs were issued to 68 foreign national victims of human trafficking (Department of Justice 2012). Since, to date, there has only been one successful human trafficking prosecution involving the victimization of foreign nationals -R v Domotor et al. (for nationalities of those convicted, see Domotor et al. 2011) -the issuing of TRPs has been distinct from criminal investigative processes (Hastie 2012). 18 The assumption made was that individuals involved in the existing counter- trafficking response, particularly those working at the front line of service provision, are well suited to offer observations on their perceptions of the existing response to human trafficking and to comment on the lived experiences of their clientele. While trafficked persons are best suited to speak to their unique experiences, there are a limited number of documented cases from which to draw in the local context. While formerly trafficked persons involved in the existing response were also invited to participate, they participated in their current capacity as front line workers and are identified as such in the analysis. 41 Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal justice January 2014 19 Since the informants were invited to suggest other agencies they felt would be interested in participating in the study, these 94 individuals include a small number of agencies recommended by the informants. Only recommended agencies fitting the target description were contacted. 20 When possible, the focus groups were organized by sector (e.g., government and law enforcement, non-government and service provision, etc.). However, due to scheduling constraints, many of the focus groups included a cross-sector mix, which, in the end, led to some interesting cross-sector dialogue and information sharing. 21 Other frequently mentioned demographic details of identified cases of trafficking included female children, female adults, and both Canadian and non-Canadian citizens. 22 Important exceptions include Sikka (2009) and Sethi (2007). 23 See Christie (1986) for a description of an “ideal victim,” including presenting as weak and vulnerable and without any possibility of choice. 24 Migrant workers from Poland and the Ukraine were allegedly trafficked to St. Paul, Alberta for the purpose of labour exploitation (“Human trafficking affects foreign workers” 2012). 25 This observation is consistent with the issues and concerns raised by various contributors in Savona and Stefanizzi (2010). 26 As outlined in a presentation by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2012), CIC is responsible for issuing TRPs; however, all human trafficking referrals to CIC require consultation with the RCMP, which then consults with the possibly trafficked person for purposes of investigation and victim assistance. 27 The Alberta Victims of Crime Fund emerged from the Victims of Crime Act. The fund is supported by the surcharges on provincial fines and surcharges imposed by the courts under the Criminal Code of Canada (Alberta Justice and Solicitor General 2012). References Alberta Justice and Solicitor General 2012 Victim Services. https://www.solgps.alberta.ca/programs-and_ services/victim-services/Pages/ default.aspx. 42 Beyond Criminal Justice Aronowitz, Alexis A. 2001 Smuggling and trafficking in human beings: The phenomenon, the markets that drive it, and the organizations that promote it. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 9 (2): 163-95. http://dx.doi. org/10.1023/A:1011253129328. Barrett, Nicole 2011 An Exploration of Promising Practices in Response to Human Trafficking in Canada. Vancouver, BC: International Centre for Criminal Law Reform. Barry, Kathleen 1984 Female Sexual Slavery. New York: University Press. Bruckert, Christine and Colette Parent 2002 Trafficking in Human Beings and Organized Crime: A Literature Review. Ottawa: Research and Evaluation Branch, RCMP. http:// www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/ccaps-spcca/traffick-eng.htm. Christie, Nils 1986 The ideal victim. In From Crime Policy to Victim Policy: Reorienting the Justice System, ed. Ezzat A. Fattah. London: Macmillan. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) 2009 Protection and Assistance for Victims of Human Trafficking. http:// www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/trp.asp. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) 2012 November. Presentation at the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking networking meeting Calgary, AB. Dalla, Rochelle L., Lynda M. Baker, John DeFrain, and Celia Williamson, eds. 2011 Global Perspectives on Prostitution and Sex Trafficking. New York: Lexington. Department of Justice 2012 Help and Protection for Victims. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/ information/applications/trp.asp. Doezema, Jo 2010 Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters: The Construction of Trafficking. London: Zed. Domoto et al. 2011 Human Trafficking Case Law Database. http://www.unodc.org/cld/ en/case-law/can/2011/domotor etal.htnl. 43 Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p6nale janvier 2014 Dottridge, Mike 2007 Introduction. GAATW Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti- Trafficking Measures on the Human Rights around the World, Bangkok: GAATW. Downe, Pamela J. 2006 Aboriginal girls in Canada. In Girlhood: Redefining the Limits, ed. Yasmin Jiwani, Claudia Mitchell, and Candis Steenbergen. pp. 1-15. Montreal: Black Rose. Faraday, Fay 2012 Made in Canada: How the law constructs migrant workers’ insecurity. Metcalf Foundation. http://metcalffoundation.com/publications- resources/view/made-in-canada/. Government of Canada 2012 National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. http://www. publicsafety.g.ca/prg/le/cmbt-trffkng-eng.aspx. Hastie, Bethany 2012 Doing Canada’s dirty work: A critical analysis of law and policy to address labour exploitation trafficking. In Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations, ed. Ato Quayson and Antonela Arhin. New York: Routledge. Hamilton human trafficking kingpin sentenced to 9 years 2012 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 3 April. http://www.cbc.ca/ news/canada/story/2012/04/03/hamilton-human-trafficking.html. How Hungarian criminals built a slave trade in Ontario 2012, 3 April Globe and Mail. http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ how-hungarian-criminals-built-a-slave-trade-in-ontario/ article2390190/?service=mobile. Human trafficking affects foreign workers 2012, 29 March Fast Forward Weekly. http://www.ffwdweekly.com/. Jordan, Ann and Lynn Burke 2011 Is human trafficking really the third most profitable business for organized crime? Rights Work http://rightswork.org/2011/03/is- human-trafficking-really-the-third-most-profitable-business-for- organized-crime-3/. 44 Beyond Criminal justice Jordan, Ann 2002 Human rights or wrongs. Gender and Development. Spec. issue: Human Trafficking 10: 28-37. Kara, Siddharth 2009 Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modem Slavery. New York: Columbia University Press. Kempadoo, Kamala 2005 Introduction – From moral panic to global justice: Changing perspectives on trafficking. In Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights, ed. Kamala Kempadoo, Jyoti Sanghera, and Bandana Pattanaik. Bolder, CO: Paradigm. Lee, Maggy 2011 Trafficking and Global Crime Control. London: Sage. Milivojevic, Sanja and Marie Segrave 2012 Evaluating responses to human trafficking: A review of international, regional, and national counter-trafficking mechanisms. In Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns, and Complexities, ed. John Winterdyk, Benjamin Perrin, and Philip Reichel. Boca Raton, FL: CRC. Ogrodnik, Lucie 2010 Towards the development of a national data collection framework to measure trafficking in persons. Crime and Justice Research Paper Series, Catalogue no. 85-561-M, No. 21. Statistics Canada. http:// www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-561-m/2010021/part-partiel-eng.htm. Oxman-Martinez, Jacqueline, Marie Lacroix, and Jill Hanley 2005 Victims of Trafficking in Persons: Perspectives from the Canadian Community Sector. Report prepared for the Department of Justice. http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/tp/rr06_3/rrO6_3.pdf. Perrin, Benjamin 2010a Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking. Toronto: Penguin. Perrin, Benjamin 2010b Trafficking in persons and transit countries: A Canada-U.S. case study in Global perspective. Working paper no. 10-05. Metropolis British Columbia. http://mbc.metropolis.net/assets/uploads/files/wp/ 2010/WP10-05.pdf. 45 Canadian journal of Criminology and Criminal justice January 2014 Quayson, Ato and Antonela Arhin, eds. 2012 Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations. New York: Routledge. Raymond, Janice 2005 Sex trafficking is not “sex work”. Conscience 26: 45. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) unpublished Project Surrender: A Strategic Intelligence Assessment of the Extent of Human Trafficking to Canada. Criminal Intelligence Directorate, Ottawa. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) 2010 Human Trafficking in Canada. Unclassified. Ottawa: RCMP Criminal Intelligence. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) 2012 Frequently Asked Questions on Human Trafficking. http://www. rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ht-tp/q-a-trafficking-traite-eng.htm#q3. Salt, John and Jennifer Hogarth 2000 Migrant trafficking and human smuggling in Europe: A review of the evidence. In Migrant Trafficking and Human Smuggling in Europe: A Review of the Evidence with Case Studies from Hungary, Poland and Ukraine, ed. Frank Laczko and David Thompson. Geneva: International Organization for Migration. Sanghera, Jyoti 2005 Unpacking trafficking discourse. In Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights, ed. Kamala Kempadoo, Jyoti Sanghera, and Bandana Pattanaik. Bolder, CO: Paradigm. Savona, Ernesto U. and Sonia Stefanizzi, eds. 2010 Measuring Human Trafficking: Complexities and Pitfalls. New York: Springer. Segrave, Marie, Sanja Milivojevic, and Sharon Pickering 2009 Sex Trafficking: International Context and Response. London: Willan. Sethi, Anupriya 2007 Domestic sex trafficking of Aboriginal girls in Canada: Issues and implications. First Peoples Child and Family Review 3 (3): 57-71. 46 Beyond Criminal Justice Shelley, Louise 2010 Human Trafficking: Global Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511760433. Sikka, Anette 2009 Trafficking of Aboriginal women and girls in Canada. Publications. Institute on Governance. http://iog.ca/publications/trafficking-of- aboriginal-women-and-girls-in-canada/. Three make court appearances on Hamilton human slavery charges 2010 Toronto Sun, 12 Oct. http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/ 2010/10/12/15667051.htnl. United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) 2000 What Is Human Trafficking?. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/ human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html. United States. Department of State 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/ tiprpt/2012/. Wade, Marianne 2012 Prosecution of trafficking in human beings cases. In Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns, and Complexities, ed. John Winterdyk, Benjamin Perrin, and Philip Reichel. Boca Raton, FL: CRC. Cases cited R v Domotor et al., 2011 ONSC 626 (Bail decision), Legislation cited Bill C-310, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons), 1st Sess, 41st Parl, 2004. Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC 2001, c 27. 47 48 Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice p~nale janvier 2014 International materials cited Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, 16 May 2005, Eur TS 197. http://www.conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/treaties/ Html/197.htm. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 15 November 2000, 2237 UNTS 319 (entered into force 25 December 2003) [Palermo Protocol]. http://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ UNTS/Volume%202237/v2237.pdf. Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights, GA Res 217(111), UNGAOR, 3d Sess, Supp No 13, UN Doc A/810 (1948) 71. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/.
It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (
Session 27: Media Representations of Gender and Crime (3/3)1 Brandon Teena2•Labeled female at birth•Started going by men’s names and dressing in men’s clothing as a teenager•Brutally murdered by two of his girlfriend’s friends Gwen Araujo3•Labeled male at birth•Came out to her family as transgender at age 14•Brutally beaten to death by four men and buried in the woods Famous Cases and Violence Against Transgender People4Famous Cases•Murder victimsMost Cases•Survivors of violence•”Overkill”•Murdered in response to “gender deception”•Several perpetrators•Only 42% of cases result in convictions•Murdered by someone who knew they were transgender•“Overkill” is rare•One perpetrator•All perpetrators were convicted•Brandon àwhite•Gwen àLatinx•98.6% of murder victims were transwomen, 58% were black, 18% were Latinx, and 17% were white (1900-2009) What are the unintended consequences of the Media’s focus on unrepresentative cases? 5 Unintended Consequences 6Famous victims are: Described as intrinsically trans. Transgender people who identify as men or women. •Encourages strict labeling and normalization •Encourages binary gender identities•Erases the complexity of gender and sexual identities•Denies the subjectivity of the victim 7Unintended Consequences Famous victims are disproportionately: Young.Light-skinned.Normatively attractive.Gender conforming.•Shapes who feels that they can claim the label transgender. •Shapes which crimes are reported to the police, investigated, and described in the Media. Unintended Consequences 8Famous victims were killed in especially brutal ways. •Produces high levels of fear. •Constructs transgender people as inherently vulnerable. •Inaccurately represents patterns of violence. •Preventive efforts focused on lethal violence. Session 28: International Perspectives on Gender and Crime (1/2)1 Domestic Violence and the Law2•At least 144 countries with laws against domestic violence (UN 2019)•Laws are unevenly implementedSocial / political environment•Victims and survivors can face retaliation, social isolation and marginalization, and financial consequencesCultural beliefs about genderFeminist movementsSocioeconomic conditionsReligion/State religionState capacity 3Domestic Violence and the Law in India•31% of women report experiencing DV (IIPS 2017)•1983 àSection 498A of the Indian Penal Code criminalizes “physical and emotional cruelty” in marriageconviction rate: 15.9%•2005 àProtection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) extends protection to other intimate relationshipsBy 2018, 616 cases registered Capable Women, Incapable States PoulamiRoychowdhury4How do victims and survivors of domestic violence claim rights in a context where laws exist to protect them, but the state is unwilling to act? 5What Challenges Do Women Face to “Run a Case”?Family systemsLaw enforcement 6Family SystemsDeep commitment to maintaining relationships with extended families. Source of support / safety netPlayed a role in arranging marriages •Gender expectations of marriage and family ties•Fear of estrangement from family of origin vs. fear of being separated from children 7Law Enforcement•Vulnerability to political pressure and organized violenceLocal landlords Tr i b a l l e a d e r sPoliticiansInterest groupsOrganized crimeWomen’s organizations•Limited enforcement capabilities•Nepotism•No monopoly of violence 8What Do Women Need to “Run a Case”?The role of “brokers” The role of brokers9•Coerce law enforcement personnel•Deploy a range of extralegal tactics•Mediate between women and the state 10“Incorporating” Women in the State Response to Domestic Violence•Criminal justice system rewards women with organizational connections.•Criminal justice actors “outsource” the work to women. Session 30: International Perspectives on Gender and Crime (2/2)1 2Rape during Wartime•Rape and other forms of sexual violence have been widespread during wartime throughout history. Women and girls, but also men and boys. RapeForced nuditySexual tortureSterilizationForced pregnancyForced marriageEnforced prostitutionSexual enslavement Wartime Rape in the Collective Imaginary3 4Rape during WartimeMass rapes of women documented in modern-day armed conflicts: •Vietnam•Bangladesh•Rwanda•Former Yugoslavia•Uganda•Sierra Leone•Timor-Leste•Peru•Democratic Republic of Congo•Darfur•Libya•Iraq•Syria•Ukraine 5Enduring Consequences•Victims/survivors continue to suffer from:•Perpetrators often enjoy immunity from prosecution. •Exacerbated intergroup tensions. Øshame and stigmaØhealth problemsØPTSDØunwanted pregnancies 6Wartime Sexual Violence in International LawIn International Humanitarian Law, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and enforced sterilization are explicitly prohibited in the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). War crimeCrime against humanityCrime of genocideBreach of Geneva conventionsWartime sexual violence has been successfully prosecuted at the ICC and other international courts as: 7ActivityRead “Rape as a Tool of War”(Elizabeth Renzetti, The Globe and Mail, April 14, 2022)Identify competing perspectives for explaining rape during wartime. Pay attention to evidence that supports these perspectives. 8Conceptualizing Wartime RapeWartime rape is: ØPatriarchy ØCapitalismCollective dimensionsØEnvironmental determinants of behaviorUnderstanding wartime rape requires considering: A product of (militarized) hegemonic masculinityEmbedded in pre-conflict gender inequality and unequal power relationsA form of political and symbolic violenceØImperialism ØWhite SupremacyIndividual dimensions Session 31: Community responses to gender-based crimes (1/3)1 2Community Organizations and Domestic Violence Interventions in CanadaMid-1960sSecond wave of the Canadian Women’s Movement puts the issue of domestic violence on the political agendaCriminal justice system as a patriarchal institutionFocus on broader social change1970sGrassroots women’s groups organize victim servicesFirst shelters emergeCreation of treatment programs for perpetratorsMany feminist and antiviolence activists initially opposed state intervention. 3Community Organizations and Domestic Violence Interventions in Canada1980sMovement towards increased criminalizationFiscal crisis: increased pressure to secure fundingProfessionalization of women’s organizations and increased focus on service provisionDiminishing influence of the feminist perspectiveSuccess or Cooptation? Multiculturalism and Domestic Violence Services1980sGrowing institutionalization of multicultural policy. 4Influx of funding for grassroots organizations providing services to women and ethnic minorities. 5What are some of the barriers to accessibility of domestic violence services for Indian immigrant women in Canada? 6Understanding the specific needs of immigrant women who experience domestic violence requires paying attention to: Native cultureExperience of immigrationHost countryImmigrant community 7What are some of the barriers to accessibility of domestic violence services for Indian immigrant women in Canada?Cultural barriersVulnerabilities related to immigrationOver-reliance on law enforcementEmphasis on the feminist perspective 8Cultural BarriersGender roles /Marriage customsFear of judgment from the immigrant communityFear of reinforcing negative stereotypes of the communitySocial stigma attached to domestic violenceSocial stigma attached to asking for helpLinguistic barrier Vulnerabilities Related to Immigration9Isolation / sense of alienationIncreased dependence on partnerStronger financial and emotional investment in marriageLimited knowledge of legal system in host countryChange in power dynamics within the relationship 10Emphasis on the Feminist PerspectiveNot identifying as “feminist”Stigma associated with feminismHistory of exclusion in mainstream feminism Unfunded fears about feminist practice in host country Over-Reliance on Law Enforcement•Fear of being compelled to involve law enforcement. 11•Racism/xenophobia in law enforcement in the host country.•Negative experiences / fear and mistrust of law enforcement in the country of origin. •Resistance from the immigrant community.
It is an assignment of Women, Crime and Social Justice course. The topic is “Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada” You need to give an one page memo (
15 Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada Student Name Course Title and Name Instructor Name Due Date Legislation and its policy towards the Indigenous women of Domestic Violence in Canada Introduction This will advance the relationship between domestic abuse among indigenous women and historical trauma, Indian Act section 35 (1), hegemonic masculinity, cultural patriarchy, and the absence of standard federal reporting and law enforcement. Domestic abuse is a societal issue that has substantial implications for law, jurisdiction, and traditions. It is not exclusive to Indigenous women. Indigenous women have historically been subjected to a variety of forms of abuse at the hands of their current or former legally married or common law spouses and intimate partners (Borrows, 2012). Domestic violence is more prevalent among indigenous women than among non-indigenous women; 56% of indigenous women have experienced physical or sexual abuse, compared to 34% of non-indigenous women (Klingspohn, 2018). Historical trauma, witnessing domestic violence, normalizing domestic violence, and PTSD all contribute significantly to the domestic abuse of indigenous women. The Indian Act of 1876 interfered with cultural customs and self-government, whereas the Indian Act of 1985 results in unequal representation of men and women (citation). This legislation has significantly contributed to the subjection of indigenous men’s hegemonic masculinity, as it interferes with their customs and hunting grounds. In addition, the cultural patriarch that grants men privilege, dominance, and authority leads to oppression and subjugates women to domestic violence (Klingspohn, 2018). Section 35(1) of what?Is it criminal code or some other act? includes land and treaty rights at the expense of human rights, and the Canadian government rarely addresses indigenous trauma. The judicial system is structured to protect the rights of non-indigenous people; hence, victim and witness reluctance to report domestic violence is exacerbated by heightened intimidation and racist behavior on the part of law enforcement. Violence against indigenous women constitutes a national emergency. A startlingly high proportion of Indigenous women in Canada has been sexually assaulted and murdered (Borrows, 2012). Violence is prevalent among indigenous women relative to the overall population. Indigenous women are five times more likely than other women to endure a significantly higher rate of intimate relationship abuse (Palmater, 2016). Domestic abuse, including that perpetrated by a current or past legally married or common law spouse or dating partner is forms of violence indigenous people endure (Heidinger, 2021). Domestic abuse will have profound and long-lasting effects on victims, their families, and communities (Palmater, 2016). The rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) against indigenous women includes both self-reported and police-reported cases. The Indian Act of 1876 contributes to the marginalization of indigenous people because it established the federal government’s control over indigenous people in Canada (Hoffart, 2016). Long-term effects of the Indian Act included partitioning their land and relegating them to reserve settlements, as well as the enactment of a series of legislation such as the Pass system (Heidinger, 2021). The pass system necessitated the approval of an Indian agent for natives to leave the reserve. This resulted in a dysfunctional family that served as a breeding ground for further dysfunction. The intergenerational trauma caused by colonization and cultural genocides is prevalent among indigenous people and has a significant impact on domestic violence (Borrows, 2012). Unresolved rage trauma passed from one generation to the next had negative effects on the behavior, psychology, and environment of later generations of indigenous people (Hoffart, & Jones, 2018). A study found that the transmission of intergenerational stress from one generation to the next has weakened parental skills and the potential to offer a healthy environment for children (Kulkarni et al., 2011). If trauma healing is not handled appropriately, it will have a negative impact on future generations and lead to a cycle of abuse. Indigenous women who are abused as children are most likely to be abused as adults (Borrows, 2012). The intimate partner abuse hindered the psychological and social development of the child. It raised the probability of intimate partner violence by fostering an environment in which violence is an accepted means of settling disagreement. Due to cultural genocides and forced family separation to residential Indian schools, a lack of parental skills has led to substance abuse, mental health issues, and a lack of positive role models (Hoffart, & Jones, 2018). Parenting was difficult for indigenous women who attended residential schools because they lacked a parent role model as a youngster to teach the competence of wifely obligations (Heidinger, 2021). Due to PTSD associated with childhood trauma, those who were exposed to violence as children were more likely to repeat this behavior as adults and pass this trait on to their children, resulting in generational domestic violence. Economic marginalization and government policy have shattered indigenous families, placing a substantial number of women in precarious situations (Palmater, 2016). Gender-based violence is a result of historical inequities between men and women, which has impeded the protection of women (Hoffart, 2016). Normalization of domestic abuse has caused women to accept violence, resulting in decreased disclosure of information to friends and support-seeking (Borrows, 2012). Those women, who have experienced domestic violence perpetrated by their parents or other family members, as well as their friends and the entire community, felt they had no way out (Klingspohn, 2018). Observation is the means by which people acquire knowledge; hence, the fact that seeing a mother being beaten is entirely acceptable (Hoffart, & Jones, 2018). As a result of seeing these horrific occurrences throughout their early years, the majority of abusive spouses ultimately developed abusive attitudes and behaviors. Studies demonstrate a direct link between direct child maltreatment and the development of PTSD in adulthood (citation). Approximately one-third of adult victims of direct abuse, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, matched the criteria for PTSD at some point in their lives (Kulkarni et al., 2011). Another study revealed the negative psychiatric consequences of early exposure to intimate partner abuse in adulthood (Kulkarni et al., 2011). Those who witnessed IPV during childhood were more likely to acquire PTSD symptoms than those who did not. The severe parenting throughout childhood increases the likelihood of developing mental and physical violence as an adult (Hoffart, 2016). The historical trauma connected with forced assimilation has a negative effect on parenting styles and transmits trauma from one generation to the next, leading to an increase in intimate partner violence (Hoffart, & Jones, 2018). The aboriginal and treaty provisions of section 35 of the Constitution could play an important role in ensuring that all levels of government are charged with addressing violence against women (Borrows, 2012). However, violence against women did not receive the attention it deserved since section 35(1) of the Constitution Act of 1982 focuses on land and resource conflicts between the crown and indigenous government and excludes human rights issues such as family issues (Borrows, 2012). The leaders focus on topics that have acquired legal traction, such as land rights and administration of people and rights, and fail to respond to indigenous concerns, such as domestic violence against women, that have received less Canadian government attention (Borrows, 2012). The Canadian government only addresses indigenous concerns if a court orders it to do so (Borrows, 2012). This demonstrates that Canadian governments have placed less emphasis on indigenous issues and the historical trauma that has contributed to domestic violence against women and the normalization of intimate partner abuse (Borrows, 2012). Indigenous leaders must ensure that their political objectives are determined entirely by what judges consider to be fundamental to s.35(1) jurisprudence since the court is insensitive to the lived reality of indigenous people (Borrows, 2012). Focusing on section 35(1) causes leaders to disregard past trauma and the role of historical injustices in generating dysfunctional families and leading to PTSD child trauma (Borrows, 2012). The Canadian government gives domestic violence against women and its causes a lower priority (Borrows, 2012). The provision 35(1) of the constitution of 1982 does not directly address violence against indigenous women, and the courts have not interpreted the section to include the authority as part of indigenous people’s jurisdiction (Borrows, 2012).. Still, the Canadian government has not acknowledged the jurisprudence necessary to handle the issue of women against indigenous women, as indigenous people are not fully trusted to adequately address violence against women (Cariou et al., 2015). Even though the indigenous population understands their entire legal responsibility for issues relating to violence against women, they lack the means necessary to ensure that a true and lasting reform occurs (Borrows, 2012). Hegemonic masculinity serves as an analytical tool to identify men’s attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate gender inequality, including men’s dominance over women and the power of some men over others (Jewkes et al., 2015). Indigenous men’s masculinities were affected by colonization and the imposition of white supremacist heteronormative patriarchy, leaving a detrimental legacy for indigenous women, children, and communities as a whole. In subordinating indigenous men, hegemonic masculinity has encouraged them to exercise authority and control through subordinating indigenous women and women of color (Jewkes et al., 2015). Non-white privilege is ultimately subdued by white privilege, leaving indigenous men to accomplish their privilege while persecuting those who are viewed as helpless (Jewkes et al., 2015). Indigenous women and children are regarded to have a weaker and more vulnerable dominant masculine worldview (Jewkes et al., 2015). The hegemonic masculinity was fostered by historical inequity, which caused males to become more unemotional and uncaring since they lacked the appropriate parenting skills to enable them to conform to societal orders (Jewkes et al., 2015). The hegemony is connected with violence and apathy because indigenous men, particularly those who attended residential schools in India, are subjected to physical assault (Jewkes et al., 2015). Domestic violence is promoted by historical context, the normalization of violent behavior, and a lack of empathy for women. Women and men perceived to have weak hegemonic masculinity admired hegemonic masculine guys. The purpose of hegemonic masculinity was to equip men with rules and a model of masculine behavior so that they would behave appropriately and be admired by non-hegemonic men and women (Jewkes et al., 2015). The indigenous males demonstrate their hegemonic masculinity through hunting and fishing, for which they have received credit and praise, and traditional values have placed these men under intense inspection to ensure they do not deviate into unmasculine behavior (Mshweshwe, 2020). The cultural disturbance caused by the Indian Act led to the control of all Indian Territory, fishing grounds, and hunting grounds. This meant that Indians lacked a venue to demonstrate their hegemonic masculinity, and as a result, in order to achieve recognition and respect inside their families, Indigenous men turned to domestic violence. The patriarch of the tribe excludes women from all aspects of society, and men hold the greater authority to govern and control women. Domestic violence is associated with the masculinity ideology, a socialization-assigned acceptance of patriarchy-related attitudes and ideas (Cariou et al., 2015). Domestic violence results from men’s need to exert authority and control over their female partners, a behavior which has been legitimized and justified within the patriarchal system. The Indian Act was amended in 1985 by law C-31, which eliminated all sex-based distinctions influencing eligibility to register for status. This rule had an effect on the societal worth of women, hence encouraging trial patriarchy (Cariou et al., 2015). Men’s domination through the Indian Act of 1985 exacerbates the unequal allocation of power, which results in widespread domestic abuse against indigenous women. Over time, the criminal justice system has implemented new charging and prosecution policies on domestic violence, such as the federal prosecutorial policy and the British Columbia violence against women in relationships policy (Policy, 2003). There is, however, no one federal prosecutorial policy applicable to all federal jurisdictions. The existing prosecution policy applicable in each province and local jurisdiction does not achieve a single success due to victim recanting or unwillingness and victim dissatisfaction (Policy, 2003). This restricted the capacity of law enforcement to charge a victim of domestic violence with domestic abuse. Despite fleeing to a shelter, the victim of domestic violence may continue to assume parental responsibilities (Policy, 2003). This behavior by a victim of domestic violence complicates police work. Due to the history of settle colonialism and racist assimilation programs, the relationship between law enforcement and indigenous population’s remains strained (Policy, 2003). The indigenous culture is seen as a mixture of reliance on the federal government and a primitive community entirely outside the mainstream of western civilization and philosophy (Palmater, 2016). The policy employed the same mainstream western culture perspective when documenting domestic abuse, which resulted in an investigation that was premature and went beyond incompetence or neglect (Palmater, 2016). Some part of racism related with harassment, physical aggression against suspects, and intimidation contributes to victim and witness reluctance to disclose domestic violence. Conclusion Domestic abuse is a pervasive global problem that affects numerous women regardless of their demographics and the matter is about Indigenous women the drawback is even greater due to proper law enforcement. Additionally, the historical trauma linked with forced assimilation into mainstream Canada as a result of the 1876 Indian Act. The consequences of this crime include cultural genocides, family disturbance and dysfunction, a lack of parenting skills, substance misuse, and childhood PTSD. This increases the likelihood of intimate partner abuse against indigenous women, and the trauma is passed on to their children. Children who witness domestic violence are more likely to assault their wives because they regard the violence as usual (citation). The section 35 (1) focuses on land and treaty concerns, ignoring domestic violence, which is a serious social concern (citation). Hegemonic masculinity and tribe partiality contributed to domestic violence among individuals who were perceived as having less hegemonic masculinity. The Indian Act of 1876, which forcibly removed Indian hunting and fishing sites, deprived Indian males of opportunities to demonstrate their masculinity. After their masculinity is devalued by White male privilege, indigenous men resort to domestic violence to demonstrate their masculinity. Witness and victim reluctance to report domestic violence is further influenced by the absence of a unified federal reporting policy, as well as by laxity and racism in law enforcement. What initiative you suggest that might the government/state do to overcome or put together the situation by little? ** Please make all the I of indigenous upper class (capital letter)** References Borrows, J. (2012). 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