La plus ça change, la plus ça reste la même: An analysis of violence and conflict in Indigenous-Canadian government relations, and missing and murdered Indigenous women

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to investigate the Canadian government’s stance on addressing the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and to perform an analysis of ongoing violence and asymmetric conflict in Indigenous-Government of Canada relations. The Canadian government’s approach in regards to holding a national inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada was placed into the broader context of Indigenous peoples in Canada in order to understand the logic behind the government’s refusal and response. This was done by performing a deductive thematic analysis on gathered discourse and developed context, drawing the applied themes from the forms of violence outlined in Galtung’s violence triangle. As the results of the analysis indicated the clear presence of violence, both in the situation of missing and murdered Indigenous women as well as the broader context of relations, Galtung’s conflict triangle was employed to understand the significance of this violence. From this secondary analysis it was concluded that the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, as well as the government’s response, constitutes just one event in a much larger ongoing full conflict in Canada based on the underlying logic of settler colonialism and territorial gain.