Nevertheless, it’s clear that after many years of dismissing calls for an inquiry – as was the case under the Harper government – abandoning this promise now would be an intractable impediment to true reconciliation with Canada’s indigenous communities.
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“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. It’s going to require the collective efforts on everyone’s part”. The province is investing up to $72 million into this strategy which includes Indigenous-led approaches to support culturally relevant services and responses – designed, developed, and delivered jointly with Indigenous partners.
But he said one of his greatest concerns is that the federal government raised expectations for families.
“She had five children, she was a attractive woman, a handsome artist”, One-Breath Mitchell said. The strategy was developed in collaboration with Indigenous partners from the Joint Working Group on Violence Against Aboriginal Women.
Marion Buller, named chair of the commission overseeing the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, is flanked by fellow commissioners August 3 following the formal announcement of the inquiry in Gatineau, Que.
Family members of missing and murdered women gathered in Ottawa as three federal cabinet ministers, including Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu, outlined the terms of the inquiry.
In 2014, the RCMP created a database of murdered and missing Indigenous women which contained the cases of over a thousand Indigenous women who had been murdered from 1980 to 2012 and 169 missing Indigenous women dating back to 1952.
It has not been easy for Goforth to stand up and speak about the issue, but she does so because she is determined to have her daughter remembered.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has stressed the need for the inquiry to be done properly, meaning the federal government is open to the possibility that the commissioners need more than two years to finish their work.
“When you’re dealing with past hurts… it’s very important they you’re counselled in your own language, in your own dialect”, Kudloo said.
And that in the case of aboriginal women, they are most often killed by aboriginal men, and that the frequency of these murders is increased by the appalling social conditions in which many aboriginal men and women live, both on and off reserves. A frequent complaint by native communities is that police don’t investigate deaths in their communities with the same rigor as crimes against other Canadians and often classify suspicious deaths as suicides or the result of natural causes.
“Similarly, victimization data indicates that aboriginal women have higher rates of self-reported spousal and non-spousal violence”.
Buller and her fellow commissioners have an onerous task: examining the systemic causes of the disproportionate levels of violence committed against aboriginal girls and women.
The meeting was co-chaired by Taylor, Bill and Doris Anderson, president of the Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council.
It’s still early days, and details of how the inquiry will play out in the Yukon are unclear.
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There were also concerns about the composition of the commission.
