Safe bus service must be priority: MMIWG director
Inquiry, FSIN, NDP decry loss of Greyhound, say officials must help
Greyhound Canada’s planned October closure of bus service will heighten the vulnerability of Indigenous women, girls and twospirit people, says a spokesperson for the national inquiry looking at the systemic issues that have led to thousands of their murders and disappearances.
“We heard a lot of stories (not only) from the Highway of Tears but from everywhere ... how important it was for safety that (reliable transportation) be available,” said Karine Duhamel, interim executive director for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Making more frequent and accessible transportation available was included as an “urgent” recommendation in the inquiry’s November 2017 interim report, Duhamel said.
Greyhound announced on Monday that it is shutting down all its routes in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, plus its routes in northwestern Ontario and all but one route in British Columbia.
“In really remote areas where hitchhiking is one of the only options that people can travel without cars, this is a particularly pressing issue,” Duhamel said.
The recommendation for accessible transportation is not a new one but there has never been a “larger strategy” on how to solve the problem or fund the solution, she said.
“Government and industry need to work on this. For us, the priority is that this service needs to exist,” Duhamel said.
Rachel Rappaport, a spokeswoman for Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, said the government recognizes the impact that Greyhound’s decision will have on First Nations communities, including those who require transportation for medical appointments.
“We also recognize the serious concerns being raised regarding the safety and security of Indigenous women and girls. We will be reaching out to Indigenous partners to better understand the impacts on their communities, and we will continue to analyze the situation as we look to identify options to address these serious concerns.”
The closure last year of the government-owned Saskatchewan Transportation Corp. has already affected the ability of people in Saskatchewan to travel for education and employment, said Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.
“If they can’t get to these places, how are they going to improve their lives?” he said.
He said efforts to discuss the matter with the provincial minister last year were met with silence.
While there is nothing individuals can do to influence the Greyhound business decision, Cameron said the closure of STC will likely be an election issue in the 2020 provincial election.
“We’re elected to try and improve the quality of life for all our people in this province, not to make it more difficult, not to put more hardship. Citizens, they’ll remember this for sure,” he said.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene in the cancellation of the Greyhound bus routes. Singh asked that Trudeau immediately step in with a “federal funding plan” to prevent the cancellations.
Singh wrote that he was dismayed by the Liberal government’s initial response to the cancellations, which largely directed funding questions to the provinces.
“For your government to leave this problem for the provinces to deal with is an abdication of your responsibility to Canadians, including the 400 who will lose their jobs, as well as an abandonment of federal government’s jurisdiction on matters of inter-provincial transportation.”