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Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women to be Launched Immediately

Trudeau spoke at the beginning of an annual three-day gathering organized by the Assembly of First Nations.

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A South Side police commander and his officers tortured black suspects into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit.

Hajdu will join Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould for an inquiry-related announcement in Ottawa, although no further details have been provided.

“Working together as partners, I am confident that we can make meaningful and immediate progress on the issues that matter most to First Nations communities”.

Beyond education, Trudeau promised that the Liberal government’s first budget will lift the two-per-cent funding cap that has been placed on First Nations programs for almost 20 years.

“This is going to be done in a different way, in a more substantive fashion, where families and victims are going to be heard from first and foremost”.

Trudeau reiterated Tuesday his government will study Canada’s crisis of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

After ministers receive public input on the process with priority given to families of missing and murdered indigenous women, the inquiry will be launched at a national level. If those laws do not meet those tests, said Mr. Trudeau, “we will rescind them”. A special screening of “1200+ Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women”, a film produced by Leonard Yakir and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson will take place Wednesday evening.

Calls for a national inquiry into the issue have been growing since a 2014 RCMP review found that roughly 1,200 indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing since 1980, of those 164 are still missing and 1,017 homicide are confirmed victims.

“The First Peoples of Canada have suffered for too much and too long”, Bellegarde said.

The removal of the funding cap, which was imposed originally to keep transfer payments in line with inflation, has been at the top of the First Nations wish list for years. “I see that change has already begun.”Under Harper, the Canadian government had tense relations with the aboriginal community. It will also include regional and community-based efforts to address and end violence and seek input for planning the second National Roundtable on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Trudeau said Tuesday that his government would implement all 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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Canadian aboriginal peoples under the Harper administration launched multiple campaigns to, among other things, stave the widespread environmental degradation that they said had infringed on their constitutionally guaranteed right to autonomy over tribal lands.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde adjusts a blanket presented to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following speeches at the AFN Special Chiefs Assembly in Gatineau