She’s also watched as a campaign that started with posters tacked to lamp posts grew into a national movement that culminated on Wednesday with the federal government finally revealing the details of its long-awaited inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.
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The federal government is preparing to mark the end of its work to shape the design and scope of the inquiry examining missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada.
Missing and murdered indigenous women and girls are now the subject of a national formal inquiry, after years of demands by the hundreds of families who’ve waited, in some cases, decades for justice.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett released the terms of reference and announced the names of the five inquiry commissioners at an occasionally emotional early-morning ceremony in Gatineau, Que., on Wednesday.
In Canada, indigenous women are three times more likely to be victims of violence than other women.
To date, the only formal figures available are from the RCMP.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in 2014 that 1,017 aboriginal women had been murdered between 1980 and 2012.
Once the commission completes its mandate, it will make recommendations to eliminate (or at the very least reduce the rate of) violence against aboriginal women and girls.
“They may not be flawless, but we’re off to a solid start”, said Ernie Crey, Chief of the Cheam First Nation in B.C.
“I really honour those families that are standing up.”
Smith said when her sister, Claudette Osborne, went missing from Winnipeg in 2008, the police gave them little more than a file number. She said the government has repeatedly heard about the “devastating” impact on children who are apprehended and what often happens to their mothers. I am just hoping and praying this helps some families, if not mine.
Marilyn Poitras, constitutional and Aboriginal law expert at the University of Saskatchewan.
But he said one of his greatest concerns is that the federal government raised expectations for families.
The five-person commission is well poised to succeed with the appointment of B.C.’s first female First Nations judge, Marion Buller, at its helm.
The federal government has earmarked almost $54 million for the inquiry, which is set to begin on September 1 and run through to the end of December 2018. It is indeed a sociological anomaly that bears close scrutiny by an independent panel with the power to subpoena witnesses and compel testimony, and to delve into such things as policing and welfare policies.
“How well the inquiry can actually serve that objective is going to depend to a large degree on the co-operation that it receives from the provincial and territorial governments, from policing services – and questions remain about that”.
Bridget Perrier, whose adoptive daughter’s biological mother was killed by British Columbia pig farmer and mass murderer Robert Pickton between 1999 and 2002, said police accountability is imperative to understanding why Indigenous women disappear and die.
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Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said he is confident chiefs will co-operate in the process, noting his organization has passed resolutions among its leaders to support the inquiry.
