AFN’s Bellegarde wants meeting with top Mountie over unreleased Indigenous women data – APTN
April 13, 2015
OTTAWA—Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde is requesting a meeting with RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson to discuss still undisclosed information held by the Mounties on murdered and missing Indigenous women.
The letter, dated Saturday, follows a statement issued by Bellegarde Friday calling on the RCMP to release data that backs up Paulson’s statement that Indigenous perpetrators are responsible for 70 per cent of the solved murdered of Indigenous women.
Paulson made the statement in a letter to Treaty 6 Grand Chief Bernice Martial which was released last Thursday by Status of Women Minister Kellie Leitch’s office. Paulson’s letter backed Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt who faced a backlash after he mentioned the 70 per cent statistic during a closed-door meeting in Calgary with several chiefs, including Martial, at the end of March.
