Trudeau’s government launched an investigation into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls.
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Five independent commissioners will provide recommendations to deal with violence against the country’s indigenous women. In June, Ontario released its strategy to end human trafficking aimed at increasing awareness and coordination, enhancing justice-sector initiatives and improving survivors’ access to services.
“Many of these families, they want to know who killed their daughter or sister and the minister… raised enormous expectations in the families of these victims when they started to speculate publicly about the numbers”, Angus said.
One of those murdered woman was Tanya Brooks of Millbrook First Nation.
December 2007: Pickton is convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to life without chance of parole for 25 years.
But some are already questioning whether the inquiry has the mandate.
“My auntie Belinda has been missing since 1978”. The issue has gained increased attention in the past year. The latter is the number estimated by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. “Police are racist, judgmental, that’s what flawed the cases…” Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called the inquiry an “opportunity and hope to end that violence in our communities”.
Walker said the RCMP numbers were a “shocking wake-up call for a lot of Canadians who may not have been familiar with the issue even though, it’s been on going in indigenous communities for so long”. They include the lingering trauma of Canada’s residential school system, ongoing systemic oppression, institutional racism, substance abuse, family violence, poverty, lack of resources on reserves and so forth, all of which demand immediate action, arguably more so than continued study.
“We had to get political and pressure the police to do their job”, she said.
Not just how indigenous women are treated.
September 2010: British Columbia sets up a Missing Women Commission of Inquiry under former judge and attorney general Wally Oppal. He found the police failed to protect women, but the inquiry was slammed by advocates as “deeply flawed”.
As we listened to the stories shared by family members, by mothers and fathers, grandparents, siblings and children, I was deeply saddened by the many, many ways that you have been hurt.
Pierre’s niece Cheryl Ann Joe was brutally murdered in 1992 by Brian Allender in Vancouver, and Pierre said she was satisfied with the response of the VPD.
Bernadette Smith said families need all the help they can get.
“Systems that are broken need to be fixed”, Bellegarde said.
“This is very important to me because of what happened to my family”.
At yesterday’s announcement, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett said that the inquiry would examine policing as part of its review. However, whatever one thinks of the breadth and range of the terms of reference and the background and experience of the commissioners, I am certain that the commission will be revealing to all of Canada, and the world.
The measures are created to ensure families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls feel connected to the inquiry process as it proceeds.
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Craig Benjamin of Amnesty International Canada said it remains to be seen whether the inquiry is equipped to address the concerns raised by international groups.
