Amnesty investigates impact of resource development on Indigenous women
Amnesty International will release a new report on Thursday on the impact of resource development projects on Indigenous women and girls.
The study looks specifically at the situation in Fort St. John, in northern B.C., and it has documented some serious risks to the lives and safety of local Indigenous women and girls.
The impact of resource development is something local activist Connie Greyeyes knows a lot about. She is a First Nations woman from the Bigstone Cree First Nation in Treaty 8 territory in Alberta who lives in Fort St. John, B.C.
Greyeyes says the influx of workers who make large sums of money away from home is "a dangerous mix for our young women in our community."
Greyeyes tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti about the women she knows who have been sexually assaulted by a stranger in the community.
Of course. Greyeyes says not all oil field workers behave this way. But the stories she hears from women in the local centre make her scared to even allow her own children to walk to school unsupervised.
"I've seen this community change so drastically," she says.
"I don't feel that it's safe. I am so worried that something is going to be said to them or they are going to be grabbed."
Greyeyes tells Tremonti the fear comes from the the number of Indigenous women and girls who have disappeared or have been killed in her life.
"To know one or two people who are missing or murdered ... but to know a handful?"
While she says it is hard to talk about, it was her work that first led Amnesty International to begin research in northeast B.C.
"If this report causes awareness ... then all of it is worth it."
Listen to the full conversation.
This segment was produced by The Current's Shannon Higgins.