MMIW inquiry grows even more dire
It must come as a relief in Ottawa that the mainstream media exhibits no more than moderate interest in the activities of the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. Other than sporadic reports when yet another member quits after just a few months on the job, most observers have been content to let events play out in obscurity, their historic guilt abated by the knowledge “something” is being done and they can rest easy, temporarily free of colonialist angst.
It’s a good thing, because the news is mostly bad. When inquiry head Marion Buller appeared before Assembly of First Nations chiefs in December, her update was so poorly received the chiefs passed a resolution offering ongoing support only on the condition she step down. A subsequent resolution was scathing in its assessment of the inquiry’s shortcomings 15 months into its twoyear mandate, urging a full reset with a new mandate, and demanding a broader scope, fewer policy barriers, a less legalistic approach, better outreach and greater grassroots input.
Commission members, it said, must “move away from a topdown colonial approach and include a local culturally sensitive based process which is respectful of families.”
The Trudeau government’s two Indigenous affairs ministers insist everything is being done to satisfy demands and make headway, yet Buller missed her own deadline for requesting a two-year extension, with more money and the requisite resources. It was expected before the end of the year but ran into unexplained delays, a silence which so far has been a hallmark of the investigation itself. When yet another high-ranking member quit this month — this time it was executive director Debbie Reid, who’d been on the job just three months — the commission said it could not discuss her departure for confidentiality reasons, as if a publicly appointed leader of a publicly financed public inquiry couldn’t possibly be discussed with the public.
The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, which has been tracking the inquiry with understandable interest, reports that almost two dozen people have quit so far, while Ottawa ignores calls for a reset on the basis that the investigation’s independence must be respected. Crown- Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett maintains the ongoing troubles are “internal matters” in which Ottawa must not meddle, even if those most impacted by the difficulties ask it to. APTN also reported that while commission members complain of limited resources, a $ 450,000 “team- building” get- together was planned at a Toronto hotel, with staff brought in at an estimated cost of $ 6,000 apiece for travel, accommodation and meals.
The two- year mandate of the inquiry ends in September, but progress is so hopelessly behind schedule that Buller is seeking an extension and more funding to its $ 54- million budget. Indigenous leaders have argued the extension must come with new leadership; Kevin Hart, AFN regional chief for Manitoba, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “needs to address this situation right away.”
But Trudeau is in no more hurry than his Indigenous affairs ministers to get involved. In a Canadian Press interview this week he said his government is “a long way from ... starting over or scrapping it,” though “we are certainly alert to the challenges that are being faced with something that was always going to be very, very difficult.”
The reality is that a two- year extension is the best thing the Liberals could hope for. Pushing the windup to 2020 would take it conveniently past the next scheduled federal election in 2019, freeing the prime minister from having to answer for the lack of progress on one of his government’s signature issues, while allowing his ministers to continue making reassuring noises every time another sign of dysfunction crops up.
Offering money and running for cover is the traditional way Ottawa deals with the Indigenous affairs file. It’s a puzzle that the Liberals didn’t foresee the improbability of completing a national inquiry on such a fraught issue in just two years and establish a longer mandate in the first place. Trudeau is no doubt eager for the extension request to hit his desk so he can quickly scribble a signature and insulate himself from further blame.