Marion Buller, the first female First Nations judge in British Columbia, will serve as the chief commissioner for the inquiry. “Obviously, there’s a lack of respect for women and girls on reserves”, he said, throwing part of the blame back at native communities. This national inquiry needs to be done right.
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Pam Palmater, an Indigenous activist and professor at Ryerson University, in an email to teleSUR said that while it’s good Canada is taking action on its commitment to the inquiry, neither its terms of reference, nor its choice of commissioners was done in collaboration with Indigenous groups.
The national probe into the more than 1,200 cases of missing and murdered women since 1980 is set to begin after the announcement on Wednesday of the commissioners who will lead the process.
Bridget Tolley from the Kitigan Zibi reserve near Maniwaki, Que., said she has searched for answers for 15 years.
When aboriginal women and girls, who comprise about 4.3 per cent of the national female population, account for 16 per cent of all female homicide victims and more than 11 per cent of all females who disappear, an inquiry is definitely warranted into the causes.
But Kudloo said the issues and trauma Inuit have faced in recent generations – residential school, relocation and food insecurity, to name a few – are issues “only an Inuk can understand”.
“But when Minister Wilson-Raybould came up, then I was like, ‘OK, there’s actually hope here”.
“We welcome the leadership shown by the federal government today”.
Some 2,000 native women who met with ministers in recent months to lay the groundwork for the inquiry “left no doubt in our minds about the urgent need to examine the underlying and deep systemic challenges of this violence, including racism, sexism and the sustained impact of colonialism”, said Bennett.
With the process expected to last at least two years and cost at least US$53.8 million, it’s high time that justice be realized for the many women and their families.
Systemic issues that contribute to violence will be examined along with policing, child welfare practices and policies.
She also stressed the need to make sure all voices are heard, including men.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde adjusts a blanket presented to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December. “There is support for that to happen”.
However valid the concerns raised about the commission are though, we’re choosing to be optimistic – because what’s the alternative?
Alex Neve, executive director of Amnesty International Canada, told Al Jazeera that “there are still doubts, uncertainty and concern” about the extent to which the inquiry will be able to investigate Canada’s federal and provincial justice systems and police forces.
“I know that they are extraordinary people, I know they fully appreciate and understand the sacredness of the role they’ve all just agreed to, and they will do everything within their power to ensure that the national inquiry meets its mandate”.
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Qajaq Robinson, Ottawa-based lawyer specializing in Aboriginal issues and land and treaty claims, born in Nunavut.
