the scale of the crisis has been clear for years hundreds of indigenous women murdered or missing in Canada a haunting national disgrace with no solution in sight but tonight there is a new development a CBC News online project to help propel the debate forward the aim is to give faces and names to these women and girls turning them from mere cases to individual lives like Amber ELISA Tucker o mother of an infant missing five years ago aged 20 her remains found two years later no arrests learn about her life hear from her loved ones details
we will continue to fill in in her story and in those of more than 200 others connie walker is our lead reporter on the project sue Martin has lit this fire for her daughter Terry and often a and the hundreds of other missing or murdered indigenous women yes I'm traumatized yes I'm hurt I'm not that that mom I was 13 years ago but I'm here in 2002 her daughter was murdered in her home in Calgary and although she said she was led to believe there would be a quick arrest 13 years later no one has
been charged so I don't want another mother or another father to feel what we're feeling or siblings to feel what Terry's siblings are feeling but it's a pain known by hundreds of families across Canada a cbc news investigation found more than 230 cases of unsolved murders or disappearances of indigenous women and girls British Columbia has the highest number of unsolved cases with 65 Alberta has 51 Manitoba 44 CBC News interviewed more than 110 of their families we found 70% of the deaths and disappearances occurred offers ERV in urban areas 60% say their loved one lived
circumstances that may have put them at higher risk hitchhiking serious drug or alcohol or sex work an overwhelming majority were dissatisfied with the police investigations the average rating was two point eight out of ten after a while they just become another person that they don't want to deal with anymore that's pretty much the way it is with dealing with the police Oklahoma's own Krista Big Canoe was a lawyer an advocate for justice for Aboriginal women who were murdered or missing she says the solution is more complicated than violence prevention this is about stereotypes racism at
play discrimination so we need to start reconceptualizing and valuing indigenous woman as a society it should be a crisis when we see this level of loss of life seventy percent of the families we spoke to want a national inquiry sue Martin thinks it could help make a difference I don't like doing it but this is my journey and this is my path and I'll keep on doing it this till the day I die and hopefully it'll be safer for my grandchildren and future generations we asked the RCMP to comment on our investigation in a written
statement it says it is updating its big picture report on missing and murdered indigenous women next month but says it is not conducting any new research CBC News will continue to investigate even today we've heard of mornings to be added and that will mean more stories to tell
