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With the G8-G20 looming, the {warehouse} magazine would like to take a look back at the 2010 instalment of The Millennium Summit. What follows is our take on events that continue to change our world...

SOLIDARITY- A word that was not thrown around loosely at Montreal’s Millennium Summit, April 20th to the 22nd  at Palais des Congrès. Guest speakers ranged from Sarah Ferguson; Coca-Cola representatives, former US Vice-President and author, Al Gore; Philippe Cousteau and Kristen Davis.

Canada is a nation haunted by its legacy of colonization. Cruel residential schools, an ensuing fragmented cultural identity in Aboriginal nations, rampant racism, and the government´s refusal to acknowledge rights and treaties of First Nations communities all provide comfortable lodging for the spectres of a maliciously boorish history. Native women are particularly affected; enduring a ‘double colonization’, they bear oppression as women and as colonial subjects within the settler state of Canada. Native women must clear colossal hurdles in their struggle for self-determination, and face unprecedented statistics of risk. An historical framework is crucial for understanding this situation.

the {warehouse} magazine reached out Missing Justice to learn more about the group’s efforts to raise awareness and support for a crisis afflicting Indigenous women across Canada. This is their story in their own words.

Indigenous women are five times more at risk of dying as a result of violence than any other group of women in Canada. They are also being added to missing person reports at an alarming rate. When these two horrific facts are coupled with the reality that the Canadian government and law enforcement are often {too} slow to react, we have a crisis on our hands.  In the past 12 months alone, five Native women and girls have disappeared in Quebec.

On Sunday October 4th, a march and candlelight vigil were held on Sainte-Catherine street in Montreal. The vigil was held to demand justice for the indigenous women of Canada who have disappeared or been murdered. This event, organized by Missing Justice and Sisters in Spirit, followed a panel discussion which was held on Friday October 2nd at Concordia University.

If the term “human trafficking” does not mean anything to you, then consider this: every year, an estimated 4 million girls and women are recruited, transported, defrauded, sold and coerced into lives they never chose. Most of these women experience some form of physical or sexual violence, and many are forced into prostitution or marriage.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a modern slave trade. So why aren’t more people talking about it?