OTTAWA, November 23, 2021 – Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada welcomes the direction signaled by the federal government in today’s Throne Speech as it focuses on making progress toward reconciliation, advancing gender equality, and accelerating action to tackle climate change.
Pauktuutit is encouraged to hear the government highlighting the need to work in partnership with Inuit to address systemic inequities faced by Inuit women. Priority issues such as lack of access to quality health care, the highest rates of gender-based violence in Canada, and the lack of inexpensive healthy food, including access to country food which climate change threatens with warming temperatures and thawing permafrost, require urgent action and new investments.
One of the government’s immediate priorities is to implement a plan to support systemic change to end the tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, (MMIWG), and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. “Inuit women’s voices and leadership must be at the forefront of this work for Inuit – at the national, regional, and community levels,” said Rebecca Kudloo, President of Pauktuutit.
Pauktuutit believes a distinctions-based approach toward reconciliation with Inuit is essential for concrete progress to be realized. “We are encouraged by the government’s pledge to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as quickly as possible. Pauktuutit looks forward to providing a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) lens at all discussion tables, as full and equal participants in the federal government’s plan to implement UNDRIP,” said Kudloo.
President Kudloo is meeting with newly appointed cabinet ministers to share Pauktuutit’s recommendations on public policy and program areas that are critical to improving the lives of Inuit women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, across Inuit Nunangat and the south. Kudloo looks forward to working together with key ministers to achieve progress on new shelters and transition housing, increased access to Inuit midwifery services, and empowering Inuit women’s leadership in the months ahead.
Pauktuutit is the national representative organization for Inuit women in Canada. Its mission is to foster a greater awareness of the needs of Inuit women and to encourage their participation in community, regional and national concerns in relation to social, cultural, and economic development.
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Amanda Deseure
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