“We’re going to do something more efficient for the coalition”.
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On Tuesday afternoon, the three federal ministers tasked with setting the framework of the national inquiry – indigenous affairs minister Carolyn Bennett, justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and status of women minister Patricia Hajdu – are expected to announce the consultation process that will shape the national inquiry.
The event is scheduled to follow an address from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is speaking to chiefs gathered across the river in Gatineau, Que., for an event hosted by the Assembly of First Nations.
Among the government’s top priorities, he said, will be the creation of a national public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Perry Bellegarde, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, opened the day by saying Mr. Trudeau has already taken some important steps in the right direction.
He also promised to lift the 2-per-cent cap on annual funding increases for First Nations programs in the first federal budget, fully implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and fully review all legislation “unilaterally” imposed on First Nations by the previous Conservative government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde speak as they arrive at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Gatineau, Tuesday December 8, 2015. “The victims deserve justice and their families an opportunity to heal and to be heard”, said Trudeau, receiving a standing ovation from the room.
“What’s needed is nothing less than a total renewal of the relationship between Canada and First Nations people”, said Trudeau to a loud round of applause from the assembly. Trudeau also said the government would work to create a new fiscal relationship with First Nations that would ensure sustainable and consistent program funding.
Delegates to CUPE’s recent national convention passed resolutions put forward by the union’s National Aboriginal Council committing the union to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
“During the election and the months before and in the days since, I have made a personal commitment to bring new leadership and a new tone to Ottawa”, said Trudeau. “I believe very strongly that anything that we can do as a Parliament to support what is a very tragic situation among aboriginal women in this country”.
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Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Some 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were taken from their families and forced to attend government schools over much of the last century.
