Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada called on Prime Minister Trudeau to immediately implement at least one of the 46 Inuit-specific recommendations contained in last year’s Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) – namely, funding for five new Inuit shelters in Inuit Nunangat and in Ottawa. On May 29, 2020 the federal government announced $85 million in federal funding for the construction and operation of 12 new shelters for Indigenous women and girls.  However, the new funding does not include any Inuit-specific shelters for women and children fleeing violence. The Pauktuutit are asking for $20M for 5 shelters in the four Inuit regions of Canada: Nunavut, Inuvialuit, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik as well as Ottawa which has the highest urban Inuit population in Canada.

Inuit women face violence at a rate 14 times greater than other women in Canada. Of the 51 communities in Inuit Nunangat, 37 of them (73%) do not have safe places for Inuit women and girls fleeing violence.