Colonization, Sexual Assault, and the Courts

            In September, the Harper government rejected the UN call for a review of violence against Aboriginal women. Rightfully so, there was a lot of backlash against the decision to ignore the call for review. It is well documented that Aboriginal women disproportionately experience sexual violence, overcriminalization, more likely to be engaged in survival prostitution, etc. The rates of violence against Aboriginal women are not slowing. I think Ruzack’s analysis of the murder of Pamela George is crucial to this, as she argues that the violence against Aboriginal women in particular is an effect and reproduction of colonization.

            In the CBC article I read Golberg stated, “Canada has a strong legal and policy framework for the promotion and protection of human rights, and an independent court system.” Reading this through Ruzack’s analysis, we see that the Canadian system of law is problematic. The court system is supposedly ‘race-less’ in attempt to create some level of equality when judging or sentencing. However, this itself is discriminatory. The experience of Aboriginal women (ie. Pamela George) and white men (ie. Kummerfield and Ternowetsky) are shaped by opposite ends of colonization; it is problematic to assume that all people come from a background of equal affluence and opportunity. Doing this, the court pays attention to the specific moment in time and ignores the historical and colonial past. Ruzack rightly argues that we need to look at the colonial project. With the court dismissing the colonial background, it is missing the construction of the naturalization of violence against Aboriginal women: roles of the making of the colonized and colonial subjects need to be addressed to fully understand the issue. As we saw in Finding Dawn, violence was a natural part of life: ‘that’s how you treat Aboriginal women.’

            As Ruzack lays out, colonization formed the basis for this naturalization. Aboriginal women were linked as objects, dirty – not fully human objects. They were treated, and still are, as objects that exist for sexual gratification. For example, Ruzack talks about how RCMP would perform systematic rape in Aboriginal communities. This is still evident today, when we look at the over-representation of Aboriginal women in survival sex work and the lack of urgency of the RCMP in investigating the reports of murdered and missing Aboriginal women.

            Therefore, for Golberg to justify the dismissal of the review based on the fact that we have an independent court system is deeply problematic. The courts are, as Ruzack and as we talked about in class, in a space of ‘whiteness.’ De-contextualizing the murder of Pamela George so it appears as a separate moment in time portrays her, and other Aboriginal women as ‘choosing’ to live a ‘high-risk lifestyle’ and therefore to somehow have ‘contracted violence.’ It is under these assumptions that two boys who committed murder are only charged with manslaughter. Their role, and the role of colonized structures in relegating Pamela George to the space of ‘dirty’ and ‘high-risk lifestyle’ is not taken into account. It is even more clear, after reading this article and watching Findign Dawn, that the need for a review of the violence against Aboriginal women is seriously needed.

The CBC article: 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/canada-nixes-un-review-of-violence-on-aboriginal-women-1.1860828