Edmonton activist calls for more research on killers of Indigenous women

Muriel Stanley Venne was left for dead in the back alley of her home. It was a violent end to a marriage marred by years of abuse.

Looking back, Venne feels she was perilously close to becoming a statistic — just one of hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

"The only reason he didn't kill me was because he thought I was dead," Venne recalled.

Nearly 50 years later, Venne —  now an internationally-recognized human rights activist  — is calling for more research on the killers of Indigenous women and girls. She wants federal prisons to interview the convicted murderers. 

To understand why Indigenous women are murdered at disproportionate rates, advocates and policy-makers must hear from the killers themselves, she said. 

This is an excellent opportunity to start dealing with the root causes of this pain.- Muriel Stanley Venne

"If we don't interview them and find out why did what they did what they did, we will be missing a great part, a factor in the awful tragedies that are happening in the country and have been happening for many years," said Venne, who pitched her idea to Correctional Service Canada commissioner Anne Kelly last week.

"This is an excellent opportunity to start dealing with the root causes of this pain that is throughout the Indigenous community."

Venne met with corrections officials in Laval, Que. last week.

She is a member of National Aboriginal Advisory Committee, which provides advice and recommendations to Correctional Service Canada on Indigenous offenders. She's also the founder of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, based in Edmonton.

"The statistics have gotten worse instead of better and that's of very grave concern to me," she said. We are not speaking to the perpetrators and valuable information could be gained from this. 

"It's something that I, as a Canadian woman, find very concerning," she said in an interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. The fact that it's taken so long to get where we are is something that haunts me." 

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A 2017 report from Statistics Canada showed Indigenous women are six times more likely to be victims of homicide than non-Indigenous women.

An RCMP report in 2014 found 1,181 police-recorded incidents of Indigenous female homicides between 1980 and 2012, and missing Indigenous females dating back to 1951.

Of these, there were 164 missing and 1,017 homicide victims, making Indigenous women and girls over-represented among missing and murdered women in Canada.

In September 2016, a national inquiry was launched to examine the disproportionate numbers and investigate how such cases are handled. The inquiry is set to release its final report in April.

But a lack of information around what drives killers to prey on Indigenous women will leave that final document lacking key answers, Venne said.

'To answer the question why'

Venne said she plans to meet with correctional officials again but no meeting date has been set.

While her idea remains only a proposal, Venne remains confident the model could provide valuable insight on the motivations and psychology behind each killing — and help prevent future violence. 

"To answer the question why," she said. "Why is it that this happens?

"With these startling statistics, I just agonize over the fact that our women are killed on a routine basis and it's being left at that. I'm hoping that things will evolve."