Confront scourge of sexual abuse, stand up for children, Inuit leaders demand

Prominent Inuit politicians are urging Canada's leadersindigenous and otherwise to protect children from the scourge ofsexual abuse and suicide running through indigenous communities,saying no child deserves to have their innocence stolen.

The head of Canada's national Inuit organization says it isincumbent upon all leaders to proclaim that abuse in indigenouscommunities is unacceptable.

Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, is himself nostranger to intergenerational trauma; his own father struggled withalcoholism after falling victim to sexual and physical abuse atresidential school.

"There is no way to talk about this issue without it beingdifficult," Obed said in an interview. "I always think of the
children, the children that shouldn't be abused and they are at thecentre of my thoughts."

Children deserve the right to live happy, healthy childhoods andto fulfil their potential, he added.

"We need to do more to keep our children safe," Obed said. "Weknow the risk factors that child sexual abuse is for suicide."

• Inuit-led suicide prevention strategy to focus on mental wellness, social equity

'An open secret'

Talk of sexual abuse often falls on deaf ears at all levels ofgovernment, a frustrated Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern said Mondayfollowing a Canadian Press investigation that highlights thealarming prevalence of sexual abuse in some indigenous communities and the fact that it remains an open secret.

"If you acknowledge it, you have to deal with it," Redfernsaid. "Just the same way that the Catholic Church abuse went on fordecades; that was an open secret until media ... decided that thosestories needed to be told."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stuck to a familiar script whenasked about the issue Monday, citing existing government investmentsand the Liberal commitment to establish a new relationship withCanada's indigenous people.

"The one thing we will not do is decide from Ottawa how to fixthese problems because that's part of what has got us intosuccessive failures," Trudeau said.

"We will work in respect and in partnership with indigenouscommunities, indigenous leadership, to ensure that we are addressingthese problems together for the long-term."

Shockingly high numbers

Researchers, indigenous leaders and victims told The CanadianPress the level of abuse in some communities is shockingly high,although there is limited data to indicate exactly how pervasive theproblem is across the country.

Independent Sen. Murray Sinclair, the chairman of the Truth andReconciliation Commission which explored the depths of Canada'sresidential school legacy, said data is sorely lacking that couldpoint to the magnitude of the problem inside indigenous communities.

Sexual abuse has gone beyond residential school survivors, theirchildren and grandchildren, said Sinclair. The cycle of abuse hasinfected subsequent generations, he warned. Children are abusingeach other across generations; members of street gangs are victimizing young girls; and women are being hauled into the sextrade.

Mental health resources to address the issue and researchpossible connections to the alarmingly high number of indigenoussuicides are sorely lacking, especially in Canada's far North,Sinclair noted.

Scared of the abusers

In the 2007-08 Inuit Health Survey conducted in Nunavut, astaggering 52 per cent of women and 22 per cent of men said theyexperienced severe sexual abuse during childhood.

A 2012 Statistics Canada report found rates of sexual offencesagainst children and youth were highest in the territories theNorthwest Territories and Nunavut recorded the highest rates inCanada, followed by Yukon.

Fear remains a very real barrier for victims to speak up aboutabuse, Redfern said, noting many are concerned about possibleretaliatory attacks from community members themselves includingfamily and friends.

"They are very scared of their abusers ... often if it is familymembers or close family friends, especially if the person is in aposition of power, if that person is an elder, a politician, acommunity leader, a leader within their family a father, agrandfather," she said.

"Society will be judged on the basis of how it treats itsweakest numbers."