The rapid increase in resource extraction activities in the province of British Columbia, Canada has led to a significant increase in violence against local and indigenous women, according to a new report by the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI). The report highlights the influx of thousands of transient workers to the region and the associated rise in violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and social and economic dislocation within local communities. These factors, combined with struggling social service agencies and the “erosion” of traditional culture, have created “an environment where Indigenous women and girls are confronted with levels of extreme violence that are shocking and pervasive.” The report makes several recommendations to federal, provincial and local Canadian officials, as well as to private industry, to minimize the harms suffered by indigenous women and their communities from intensive industrial and mining activities in British Columbia.
The full report is called, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Gender, Indigenous Rights, and Energy Development in Northeast British Columbia, Canada,” and is available on AI’s website.
Compiled from: Ball, David, Amnesty report links B.C. resource sector to violence against Indigenous women, MetroNews Canada (November 4, 2016); Canada: Rampant resource development puts Indigenous women and girls at higher risk of violence, Amnesty International News (November 3, 2016).