I've traveled the world as a writer and an activist
for my entire life.
What we are talking about is a revolution.
We are the women that our parents warned us about.
And I can tell you that by confronting the problems
once marginalized as "women's issues,"
we can tackle the greatest dangers
of the 21st century.
Behind every major crisis,
there's an unseen factor at play,
a story you've never been told.
The greatest indicator of the world's stability,
wealth, and safety is the status of women.
Around the world, women from indigenous communities
are often most at risk
of being displaced, attacked, harmed, and killed.
In North America today, this pattern is no different.
Right now, in Canada,
violence against native First Nations women
has become a national crisis.
Across the country, they've gone missing
and been murdered by the thousands.
To avoid this fate,
many have fled the widespread violence on the reserves.
But what we're finding is that, for indigenous women,
no place is safe.
This is the Tachie Reserve.
It's one of several Tl'azt'en Nation communities
situated in north-central British Columbia,
about 10 hours north of Vancouver.
We are here at a scene
that's all too common in this part of the country,
a search party for a missing First Nations woman.
Immaculate "Macky" Basil was 26 when she went missing in 2013.
These guys behind me have been searching for Macky
for the last two years, since she went missing.
Right now in Canada,
there's a lot of women that are going missing,
and especially indigenous women.
And it's, like they say,
it's four times higher than the national average,
not that any woman should go missing.
But it seems to be there is some sort of epidemic
going on right now in Canada.
**
Canadian law enforcement estimates
that 1,200 native women throughout Canada
have disappeared or been murdered since 1980.
But some independent reports place that number
closer to 4,000.
So are you looking for an article of clothing?
Macky was last seen heading home
after a night of drinking with two male friends.
Apparently, everybody just assumed
that, one way or another,
she had made it back to the village,
and she either went to town or to Prince George.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP,
conducted an extensive search.
But after just four days, they called it off.
If they can't find any evidence of a missing person,
then they have to call off their assistance.
And then it's left up to the community after that
to organize themselves.
What do you think could've happened?
- Everybody's got a version... - Yeah.
...to try to unravel this puzzle to find out where Macky is.
And we just can't do it.
Macky's family knows that the odds of closure are low,
but they keep searching.
It's all they can do.
Meanwhile, First Nations women continue to disappear,
their cases often going unnoticed outside the community.
But in August, 2014,
police made an especially grisly discovery --
the body of a missing First Nations girl,
wrapped in a plastic bag,
floating in Canada's Red River.
The tragic death of 15-year-old First Nations girl Tina Fontaine
has renewed calls for a public probe.
International organizations,
including the United Nations,
have called for a national public inquiry.
Despite the outcry,
the Canadian government, at that time
led by conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
never launched an inquiry.
This phenomenon is affecting thousands
of First Nations families.
I wanted to hear from the women on the Tachie Reserve,
who live with this reality every day,
about why they think it's happening.
I'm just curious to know how many of you
have people you know who have gone missing
or have been murdered.
- Yup. - Yeah.
My sister was murdered...
by her...
her boyfriend.
She experienced, like, physical violence
before she was murdered.
But nobody really knew
that she was a victim until --
until the night she got murdered.
How many of you have been victims of sexual violence?
**
All of you.
And would you say by members of your own community,
or by... - It's...
- Yeah. - Yeah.
I just want to know why -- why you think,
um, native women, indigenous women,
are -- are targeted.
Because of residential school,
there was a lot of physical abuse.
There was a lot of, um, violence.
I mean, we are all, like, products of...
...residential school.
Residential schools were government-sponsored,
church-run boarding schools for indigenous children.
Kids were taken away from their parents
and forcibly assimilated into white culture.
Sexual and physical abuse were widespread.
The last residential school didn't close until 1996.
By that time,
150,000 First Nations children had gone through the system.
When the residential school,
the first wave that were coming back,
the young men were already physically abused,
sexually abused, and they were angry.
The family structure was obliterated.
Longtime native health and wellness advocate
Mary Teegee explains how the violence
inflicted on children in residential schools
made its way back to the reserve.
If you're living in a home where there is violence,
you're most -- you're more likely to be violent as well.
So then, you have all of those multigenerational effects.
And because of all of the abuses,
there is a higher rate of violence
against women within our communities.
**
Thousands of First Nations women
have been murdered and gone missing across Canada.
They are also the victims of violence
in their homes and communities.
As a result, native women don't feel safe or happy.
And that leads to some dangerous choices.
If you're unhappy at home,
if your life is not good at home...
That's what I did. I hitchhiked.
I got on the road and I left and I ran away.
And with all the abuse and the violence
that happens within the home, you don't...
...you don't feel
like you're connected or you have family to turn to.
So you just do things on your own
because you really do feel isolated.
And... - Anywhere is better than home.
You just want to get out, you know?
- Yeah. - I was raised --
You take all kinds of risks, and you go.
The threat of violence often drives native women
off the reserve and onto the road.
But in such a remote region,
with no transportation, they're forced to hitchhike.
This highway's called the Highway of Tears,
Highway 16, named that way for the number of --
of girls who have gone missing.
When I think of hitchhiking, I freak out.
Literally every single person I spoke to today
had hitchhiked, knowing that they're vulnerable,
knowing that they're compromised,
knowing that they may be targeted.
But there's no other way.
Despite these risks, many First Nations women
will try to flee the cycle of abuse,
often making the almost 600-mile journey to Vancouver
for a fresh start.
Some of our young girls are leaving their communities
to get a better life, but also to become safe.
They're escaping the pain from being abused,
be it sexually or physically...
...abused.
And that's sort of what they're leaving.
And so they end up in the -- in the Downtown Eastside.
**
This is Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside neighborhood.
It's sometimes referred to as the largest reserve in Canada
because of its massive First Nations population.
The area is notorious for homelessness, drugs,
and prostitution.
As many as 70% of the sex workers here are indigenous.
When they are working the streets,
they're leading that high-risk lifestyle.
They are escaping from something.
And usually, they're self-medicating to get drugs,
and how do they get that?
Is by sex trade works, or survival sex trade.
We passed a lot of First Nations women.
I can see why they call it the largest reserve.
I mean, it really is shocking
how many people are just living out here on the sidewalk,
just homeless and tweaked out
and bags of drugs and people shooting needles
and sharing needles and smoking pipes.
It's, it's bleak.
Bernie Williams, the founder of Sacred Circle,
a community center for at-risk women,
spends every night walking the streets,
looking for women in need of her help.
I work at 11:30 at night,
and I don't get off till 7:30 in the morning.
So when I see these women going out,
you know, making the choices,
sometimes, that they're not their choices.
Some of them, like, are pushed into it.
Some of them, like, are forced.
Some of them are sold, you know, with human trafficking
that we hear very little about.
But it's very real down here.
You know, I try to help them,
you know, with services that they need.
I've learned to be, like, a great listener.
And that's a huge thing for them,
even if that touch, just to say,
"Hey. How are you doing?"
How did you end up in Vancouver, doing the work that you do?
My mother was murdered,
um, November 5, 1977,
in the Downtown Eastside.
Two of my sisters were also murdered.
You -- you know, I could've easily been
one of the victims.
And the murderers of your mother and -- and your sisters...
...were they caught?
No.
Why do all of these cases go un-- they just go unsolved?
They don't matter.
They don't matter at all.
They're just another Indian.
They always say, you know,
"The only good Indian is a dead Indian,"
and that still exists.
This young woman here, she was a tree planter.
This woman was one of my clients.
Her name, um, is Angelina, still missing.
Even if they can escape abuse on the reserve,
First Nations women are finding themselves even more vulnerable
in Canada's cities.
**
The epidemic of missing and murdered First Nations women
isn't confined to Canada's reserves.
Here on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver,
indigenous women are in constant danger.
How many women have gone missing from the Downtown Eastside?
Well, the ones that are accounted for, 69.
We believe that there's well over --
at least over 200, maybe more.
You know, we spoke to many women.
When you sit with them, back in the alleys,
or when they share their stories --
- Women who are prostituting? - Yes.
You know, when you hear them share their stories,
it's all the same, over and over.
**
- Hi. - We met two women
living on the sidewalk
in front of Sacred Circle, named Crystal and Chanel.
I just came to stay with my friend, Crystal.
This is our little home.
Can I take a peek in?
Do you mind? - Yeah, go for it.
- You wouldn't mind? - Take a look.
We get all cuddled up in there, and it's nice and warm.
It -- it drops pretty cold, though, out here.
Body heat's the best.
- Okay. - Yeah.
You guys feel like you really don't have anywhere to go,
except for Bernie.
She's wonderful.
- And you're First Nations. - Yes.
I read that 70% of the women
who are out working on the streets are indigenous.
Do you see a fair amount of First Nations women?
Yeah. Yep.
Um, I see more First Nations women
out working down here
on the Downtown Eastside than --
than white, Caucasian girls.
But I do see a lot of the violence
with the native women out here a lot.
Like many homeless women on the Downtown Eastside,
Crystal and Chanel are addicted to drugs.
So when was the last time you used?
Ten minutes ago.
- Ten minutes ago. - And what --
what kind of drugs are you using now?
Um, I -- I use heroin now,
and sometimes crystal meth.
Are you working right now?
I'm escorting.
I don't work myself.
I just -- I go and I spot for her.
While I was there,
Chanel actually had to leave to meet a client.
How do you feel when she's out there working?
It -- it's scary.
I -- I'm scared for her because there could be a time
where she doesn't come back.
And I don't want that.
And I have a friend that's missing right now, actually.
And I don't want that to happen to this friend.
But I'm scared for her when she goes.
The women out here that you've met,
they're all aware of these murdered
and missing girls.
Is this something that everyone knows?
Yeah. They all know.
They all -- You know, they're very aware
that it could be them.
Do a lot of women end up prostituting because...
Because that is your only option sometimes.
There's nowhere else to go, nobody to turn to,
nobody to help you. So what do you do?
You got to go sell yourself
to the devil, I guess they call it.
You know, like, just survive.
These high-risk lifestyles
make First Nations women easy targets.
Some guys that kind of brag around downtown here,
you know, how easy it is, like,
to kill, like, a First Nations woman.
And they have no conscience over it
because we are filth to them.
We are dirty to them.
We are less than.
Nobody would even miss us, like, if we were gone because,
like, we just basically don't really exist down here.
I wanted to understand where such extreme racism comes from.
So, this street here used to be a quick escape route.
I was able to meet up with Daniel Gallant,
a reformed white supremacist,
who's spent years on the Downtown Eastside
preying on First Nations people.
This area's a lot of First Nations people.
I've shot, I've stabbed.
I've, beat people with
baseball bats, shovels,
chains, propane bottles,
um, vehicles.
Like, I -- I could go on and on.
Did you ever kill anyone?
Not that I'm aware of. I don't know.
Why -- Why were you targeting First Nations people?
It was really easy to -- to believe that they were a --
a -- a plague on society,
that they were leeching off of the white Canadian,
that they were lazy, they didn't --
they didn't want to work, and they --
they were just useless people, filled with social sickness.
And they had to be gone.
Did you get away with a lot?
I got away with most of the stuff I did.
I can't say exactly,
but I think I had 12 or 13 charges in total.
And I had about six or seven convictions.
And I never -- never did actual jail time.
Um... Do you think that's because you're white?
**
The very fact that I could talk about this stuff publicly...
If I were Fist Nations,
I wouldn't have the privilege of saying what I say.
I think our society, in general,
doesn't value indigenous people,
that that's why we see what we're seeing.
The amount of murdered
and missing women is a structural issue,
and I think is ingrained in our values
as a, - as a society.
**
According to Daniel, ingrained racism against natives
has opened the door to the deadly violence
here on the Downtown Eastside.
It's also the one thing
keeping these women from finding justice.
If there were, say,
1,600 missing white women,
wouldn't we have already had an inquiry by now?
The -- It's an issue
that all Canadian citizens should be aware of.
You can't live in a society where you're -- where...
We talk about we're in first world in Canada,
but yet, our First Nations people
are living in second-, third-world country.
I think every Canadian should be upset.
I think every Canadian should be saying,
"I can't believe this is happening
in the first-world country Canada."
**
Canada's First Nations women
are under assault everywhere they turn.
But many believe the road to change starts
within the community itself.
You wanted honey, right?
Joe and Joyce Fossella
have lived together for 48 years.
- Mommy! - Mommy!
And for many of those years, Joyce suffered severe emotional
and physical abuse at the hands of her husband.
Your mum.
Today, Joe and Joyce run Warriors Against Violence,
a group that works with First Nations men and women
to end domestic violence.
I was, spiraling out of control real fast.
I tried to kill my wife 20 --
in our 24th year of marriage.
What we've all learned as men
that the men are the kings of the castles.
I heard my dad tell my mom,
and I told my wife,
"If you ever leave me, I'm gonna hunt you down,
and I'm gonna kill you."
And she says either I change my ways,
or this relationship's over.
That scared the hell out of me.
Where'd she find the courage to talk to me like that?
Um, as a victim myself,
I know that, um, one of the best things
I did for me was to get the help
and, um, you know, empowering myself.
It still didn't stop him from being abusive,
but he kind of held back on the physical part of it.
But the other damage that was done is there.
It probably will be there for some time.
And I think you all come to that point in life
when you say, "I've had enough."
I, I had a girlfriend that I used to --
to hit back in the day.
Um, I will never, ever behave in that way again.
I don't want to be fucking mad
and -- and for treating my daughters
the way that I may have treated women
'cause maybe that violent side comes up on me again.
I don't want any man treating my mother
with disrespect, right?
I was raised better than that, right?
Be good to each other. Be good to yourselves.
We're all fragile people.
Thank you for coming and spending time with us.
All my relations. - All my relations.
Community efforts like these are the first step
towards changing the culture of violence.
But change also has to happen at the highest levels.
In June of 2015,
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
released a report
calling the government's forced assimilation
of indigenous children into residential schools
a "cultural genocide."
Later that year, Canadians elected liberal Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau.
One of his top priorities was addressing the issue
of missing and murdered First Nations women
by launching a national inquiry.
The constitutionally guaranteed rights
of First Nations in Canada are not an inconvenience,
but a sacred obligation.
**
We know that we have issues of poverty.
We know we have issues of violence against women.
But it will be our solutions
coming from our culture's perspective
that is going to propel us forward,
to get over this -- these horrible atrocities.
But we also need to look at the role of the government.
It's got to be a collaborative effort.
And -- and only then can we have true reconciliation.
**
The recent steps taken by the Trudeau government
signal a major shift
in the fight for justice for First Nations women.
But the problem may be greater than any one law
or politician can solve.
We need to address the violence at its source.
Until systemic racism is recognized,
until there is a national effort around this cause,
the indigenous women of Canada will never be safe.
To support First Nations women in Canada,
go to viceland.com/woman.