Yukon aboriginal women's group hails RCMP deal
Women's council lists 29 cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women since 1960s
The Yukon RCMP has been working with the Yukon Aboriginal Women's Council for about a year and a half to resolve its outstanding cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women.
The RCMP and the Assembly of First Nations agreed last week to work together to resolve the hundreds of such cases in Canada.
The women's council says the new deal is important because it helps to formalize its relationship with the police.
"If we can work together also with the Assembly of First Nations we might be able to further our efforts and ensure all of the necessary information to come out of Yukon is documented," said Jayla Rousseau-Thomas of the Yukon Aboriginal Women's Council.
According to the council, there are 29 cases of Yukon women who have gone missing or been murdered since the 1960s. Several have been solved and some have gone to trial, which has resulted in convictions or acquittals. Others were not criminal and police knew the outcomes.
But there is a small number of outstanding cases.
The case of Angel Carlick is prominent among them. The 19-year-old’s remains were found in a forested area near a Whitehorse subdivision in 2007, six months after she went missing. Her case remains unresolved.
RCMP Cpl. Rick Aird said he hopes the public can help solve the Carlick case and others like it.
"We’re not going to discuss the active case in any detail but absolutely it’s still ongoing and we look for the public’s support and involvement to help solve all cases," he said.
He said the force is comparing the names on the council's list with other databases.
"We’re taking that same information, we’re comparing it with our records, our databases, and ultimately what we’ll do is we’ll sit down with Yukon Sisters in Spirit."
Sisters in Spirit is an initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada that researched and compiled a database of 582 cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women and girls.
Aird said police already know the outcome of some of the cases on the council’s list. That information will be given to Sisters in Spirit and they will provide it to the families.
The files that can't be closed will be investigated further.