On April 23rd 2017 at 13:00 the Montreal branch of The Canadian Association for Equality (C.A.F.E.) continued The Necktie Campaign at place Émilie-Gamelin in Montreal. To learn more about the Campaign, click here.

C.A.F.E Montreal gathered in support of Lydia Daniels’ efforts to open our government’s exclusive $54 000 000 Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women to include her son and other indigenous boys and men. Males are 71% of the murdered Indigenous population while the number of missing Indigenous men isn’t even known because the RCMP has declined to collect this data.

We asked “Do indigenous men and boys matter? Why does our government espousing gender equality exclude the males from the inquiry? Is this gender based violence? Is this equality?”

Several Indigenous men gathered around us and gave us words of praise and encouragement. I asked if they wanted to be interviewed on camera. Their eyes started to tear up and I could recognize the look of helplessness. (I’ve seen it on so many fathers facing the family court and the loss of their children.) The three men sited a lack of faith that anyone, especially the government, cares about them.

Click here to read the Global TV report

by Daniel Bonin, Canadian Association for Equality – Montreal branch