Last week, at the National Aboriginal Women's Summit, the Minister for Heritage and the Status of Women announced five years of funding to build and support women's shelters on reserves. According to the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada news release, $56 million dollars will support 35 existing women's shelters and build up to five new shelters on reserves. Aboriginal women who live in the northern communities and off reserve are concerned because the funding does not include all aboriginal women. Read more in the CBC article, "Northern women 'excluded' from federal shelter announcement."

For the past eight years native groups have been asking the BC government for an inquiry into the death of Frank Paul. Frank Paul, a Mi'kmaq man from New Brunswick, died of exposure after police left him in an alley. After a corrections officer came forward with new information on the case, the Solicitor General agreed to call an inquiry into Frank Paul's death. On the same day the chief of the Vancouver Police announced he was stepping down.

Aboriginal children, on and off reserves are not doing nearly as well as non-Aboriginal children. Over half of Aboriginal children live in poverty. Twice as many Aboriginal babies will be born prematurely, underweight or die within the first year of life. Three or four times as many babies will die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Three to four times as many children will die by injury, poisoning or violence. Five times as many of Aboriginal young people will commit suicide. The National Children's Alliance Policy Statement (in PDF) addresses this sharp divide in quality of life.

The American agency, the National Coalition for the Homeless' four page fact sheet (in PDF) gives statistics and examples of crimes perpetrated against homeless people.

The latest issue of the newsletter of the B.C. Institute Against Family Violence focuses on the connection between family violence and homelessness from a variety of communities - women, youth, immigrants, Aboriginal and rural. The newsletter is available (in PDF) from BCIFV website.

From a report by Amnesty International: "Social and economic marginalization of indigenous women, including some government policies, have pushed indigenous women into "extreme poverty, homelessness and prostitution." A CBC news article covers the Amnesty International report and the "Stolen Sisters" report (in PDF) can be downloaded.

Substance use and homelessness are factors associated with death among street youth in Montreal, according to a study in the August 4 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, a theme issue on Violence and Human Rights. The full text of report is still under embargo but JAMA's press release is available and there's also CBC news story on the issue.

An Aboriginal women's shelter for victims of family violence, held a ceremony for its new facility which will open in Winnipeg in the coming weeks. For more information read the Manitoba Government press release.

The Canadian Women's March Committee demands that the United Nations and its member states take concrete measures to eliminate poverty and ensure a fair distribution of the planet's wealth between rich and poor, and between men and women. It also demands that violence against women be eliminated and equality between women and men be ensured.