The federal government has announced who will chair the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and it will be a B.C. First Nations judge.
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Justice Canada is also putting an additional $16.17 million toward “family information liaison units” in provinces and territories, tasked with offering support and seeking information on behalf of families.
The inquiry was one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election campaign promises.
The inquiry is to start at the beginning of September and, according to the government, run through the end of 2018, at a cost of $53.9 million Canadian dollars (more than $40 million US dollars).
The rejection from the previous federal government came after the RCMP released a report in 2014, identifying 1,181 police-recorded incidents of indigenous female homicides and unsolved cases of missing indigenous females.
The fact that the national inquiry comes after extensive consultation with First Nations families grieving the loss of a loved one, as well as aboriginal organizations, women’s groups and poverty advocacy groups, is a much-needed change from the provincial inquiry of about five years ago, Crey added, which was crafted behind closed doors with no consultation.
“That people could overlook thousands of missing and murdered Indian women and it wasn’t a national crisis until just recently” is mark of systemic racism Teegee said.
The establishment of this inquiry has taken years of tireless and heart-wrenching activism by the families of the murdered and missing. “But they represent almost 1 in 4 female homicide victims in Canada, based on 2012 numbers”.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada has called for exactly that, asking that it be independent and overseen by the inquiry.
“I really want to assure the indigenous population that the police will co-operate fully with all facets of the inquiry”, Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill, president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said Tuesday.
Ottawa is expected to appoint five commissioners tomorrow morning who will have the power to summon witnesses and compel testimony.
Alex Neve, executive director of Amnesty International Canada, welcomed the inquiry but also said “there are still doubts, uncertainty and concern” as to how it will examine Canada’s police and justice systems and include provincial and territorial governments. We need accountability. There’s no room for mistakes.
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. TMS is a US-based website, but we think it’s important to connect with women all over the globe to applaud successes, report injustices, and amplify the conversation around solutions to gender-based inequality. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good.
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Williams, who works with women and victims of violence, said she’s not sure she’s ready to embrace this inquiry.
