OTTAWA – Addressing concerns over comments made earlier this week regarding the death of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, Harper told reporters yesterday that, while aboriginal women are 3.5 times more likely to experience violence than non-aboriginal women, they are “clearly and empirically outnumbered by aboriginal women that aren’t missing or murdered.”
“Sure, they have nicknamed Highway 16 in BC ‘The Highway of Tears’ due to the number of aboriginal women who have gone missing there,” Harper said. “Having said that, I think the public needs to understand that not all Native women are missing or murdered, and there are many other highways not named after this non-issue.”
The Prime Minister continued: “Similarly, not all citizens are unhappy with the way my government operates, and there are at least some who are not unhappy, hence our majority status. So really, what’s the problem?”
