Federal delay of MMIWG action plan sparks dismay

Disheartened, disappointed, disbelieving. But still determined.

Indigenous women and leaders fighting to end violence against Indigenous women in Canada say that’s how they feel about today’s anniversary of the final report of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Families of victims who shared painful testimonies about the deaths and disappearances of their loved ones hoped their truths would spark immediate action and meaningful change.

But Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett’s announcement last week that Ottawa is delaying its national action plan because of the COVID-19 pandemic has instead sparked widespread dismay.

“These families opened their hearts and soul about their missing daughter, their mother, their sister, their aunt, their wives. And how heartbreaking is that when you feel there is some hope, that the government is truly listening to you, when nothing has been done in a year,” said Lorraine Whitman, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

“For that excuse to be used, that’s an embarrassment to the government.”

The inquiry delivered its final report June 3, 2019 with a stunning conclusion that decades of systemic racism and human-rights violations had contributed to the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of Indigenous women and girls in Canada and that it constituted a genocide.

Many were hopeful the national action plan promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the report was released would be delivered in time for the June 3 anniversary this year — something Bennett promised in December.

Marion Buller, chief commissioner of the inquiry, said she doesn’t buy the pandemic as an explanation for the delay.

“The government has had 10 months prior to the real hit of COVID in order to lay the groundwork,” she said.