One of four Canadian-themed sessions at ISA World Congress of Sociology this week, “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada: What Can Sociology Bring to the Table?” took place today. The session featured four separate presentations and a discussant with representation from three Canadian Universities. The session focused on societal factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) in Canada, including, but not limited to, past and present impacts of colonization, which contribute to their increased risk of femicide. Presenting were Gillian Balfour, Trent University; Myrna Dawson and Paulina Garcia-Del Moral, University of Guelph; and Carmela Murdocca, York University. The session discussant, Dawn Lavell-Harvard, Trent University, is a past-president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) during which time she played an instrumental role in the appointment of an independent commission to investigate the disproportionate rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls. The session was organized by Dawson, who is President of the Canadian Sociological Association, the host of the conference. The session was chaired by Katherine Morton, Memorial University.
