While only one in 20 women in Canada are Indigenous, Indigenous women make up half the female population in our federal prisons. Indigenous men are similarly hyper-incarcerated at 31.9 percent. To address this horrific reality, we need to defund and dismantle the penal system, as abolitionists have long made clear. Reforms alone simply won’t cut it, writes Abby Stadnyk.

On February 16, a group of abolition organizations across the country released a historic declaration to divest from prisons and policing and build safer communities for all. It gained immense traction nationally, with prominent signatories from the public sector and mainstream unions. But what is the deeper meaning of this movement, and what has happened since the historic protests of the summer?