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Indigenous women’s groups call for funding to limit risks to safety, prosperity
By Canadian Press on April 8, 2026.
OTTAWA — Advocates are calling for long-term, stable federal funding to safeguard Indigenous women and girls and warning the federal government’s major projects push could place them at higher risk.
Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, president of the National Family and Survivors Circle, said groups like hers still don’t know if they’ll receive continued funding from Ottawa. She said that uncertainty undermines their efforts to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“When we’re looking at the safety and human security of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit and gender-diverse people, it’s really critical that organizations who are doing this important work — and even through the lens of prevention and economic participation — that they receive long-term, sustainable and equitable funding,” she said.
“They’re severely underfunded. There’s a real power imbalance.”
Anderson-Pyrz joined the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak, Giganawenimaanaanig and NDP MP Leah Gazan on Parliament Hill Wednesday to call for continued funding for programs and services.
They said piecemeal federal funding agreements with no long-term commitments hinder their efforts to plan and to support Indigenous women.
Anderson-Pyrz told The Canadian Press on Tuesday the federal government must take action to protect Indigenous women and girls — especially as it ramps up plans for resource extraction and infrastructure projects that could put them in harm’s way.
“If our voices aren’t at the table then, as the prime minister often says, we’re on the menu,” Anderson-Pyrz said.
Amnesty International has reported that binge drinking and drug use among transient resource sector workers, combined with high housing prices and a shortage of childcare services, can lead to the exploitation of Indigenous women and girls and make it harder for them to leave abusive relationships.
A 2019 inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls concluded Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
The final report was culled from the testimony of more than 2,380 family members, survivors, experts and knowledge-keepers brought together over two years to study the crisis and propose solutions.
Family members told the inquiry how intergenerational trauma and poverty compound the threats facing Indigenous women and girls, while knowledge-keepers described how women, through colonization, have been displaced from their traditional roles.
The commission brought forward 231 calls to action to address what it described as a genocide but seven years later, little progress has been made implementing them.
Anderson-Pyrz said the problem will only get worse without federal help.
“Today our right to life is threatened by the lack of political will, and it will remain so unless the government enacts the 231 calls for justice … Prevention means investing in Indigenous solutions — safe housing, community-based supports, culturally-grounded services that stop violence before it happens,” Anderson-Pyrz told the news conference Wednesday.
“We have seen short-term funding decisions that undermine the very organizations working to prevent violence and support families and survivors. The cost of this violence is measured in lives lost, families shattered.”
A recent report drafted by the Ontario Native Women’s Association for the United Nations Human Rights Committee says Canada’s justice and social systems continue to fail Indigenous women and girls.
“Our lives continue to be devalued and our safety dismissed by governments and by the very systems intended to protect the people of this country,” the report says. “Canada’s continued inaction is a form of systemic discrimination and structural violence against Indigenous women.”
That same UN committee said in a report last month it was “concerned about the limited substantive progress achieved to date and notes the need for additional human and financial resources to ensure effective and sustained implementation.”
Gazan said at the news conference Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government are “turning a blind eye on this violence.”
“We are of national interest, and it’s time that the Liberal government and Prime Minister Carney stop leaving us out of the table,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2026.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
26-25
Indigenous violence reduction must begin the homes of all Indigenous. Most of the murders, violence against Indigenous women and girls, sexual assaults, child abuse-sexual assaults, and other crimes are Indigenous on Indigenous! Many of the homeless Indigenous on our streets state their aunti or uncle or cousin or parents sexually abused them. Whether true or not, the issues are in the homes!
It must begin in the home and spread from their into the communities, the leadership in those communities and then you will see results!
Why is it always about funding? I do agree that there need to be some funding, but too many times we see money thrown at issues, only to see the problems increase! Begin in the homes!
The report on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls showed most of offenders were Indigenous and in many cases from the same community!
Many of us want to see an end to all of this, but until you take responsibility and understand you need to make changes in lifestyles, this trend will continue! I say this not to be hurtful, but understanding where resolution can be found.
The United Nations has been an agitator who does not have the Indigenous people in Canada at heart, but is using them to cause unrest, to divide and to eventually weaken Canada so they can place their One World Government in place globally within the next 10 years. Just a warning to the Indigenous, that once that happens, you won’t have your treaties, your reserves, or all of your benefits because under that new government, there will be no borders, no property ownership, and many other socialist changes including a global religion!
You have many educated people now who can see where the issues are in your lifestyle and know many of the issues begin in your homes!
Focus on that! Move to bring changes to end it in your homes and communities! The UN is a failed organization that is dominated by China, Russia, and the Arab League and promote their own ideals now, while attached to the hip with the WEF, who is pushing for the One World Order!
Start in your homes, not the UN!