Inquiry on Indigenous women faces deadline

Into the sad category of right ideas that somehow went wrong, put the federal inquiry into Canada’s murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.

A key Liberal election promise that had a fitful start followed by numerous breakdowns, the inquiry was last week denied a two-year extension and $50 million more from the Justin Trudeau government.

While that decision is being mourned by the commission that has managed — and mismanaged — this important quest for truth and justice, the Liberals made the best call.

The commission will receive a little more cash and a six-month extension that gives it an April 30, 2019, deadline for its final report.

Given the work it has done and the survivors and victims’ families it has consulted, the inquiry can still make a positive contribution to treating what remains an open wound in Indigenous communities.

But it makes perfect sense to put a tighter time limit on a process that could otherwise drag on into the next decade.

And it is entirely appropriate for the commission to deliver its recommendations to the government that started the ball rolling so the Liberals can deliver concrete action before the 2019 federal vote.

To be sure, the problems the inquiry is probing are massive and complex. The levels of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls are staggering.

While they make up just four per cent of Canada’s female population, they accounted for 16 per cent of female murder victims in this country between 1980 and 2012. Over those years, according to the RCMP, at least 1,181 Indigenous women and girls were murdered or went missing.

In a Canada attempting to atone for past mistakes committed against the nation’s original inhabitants and, just as importantly, trying to improve the fortunes of Indigenous peoples today, this inquiry met a need.

That was especially true because so many First Nations communities wanted it.

But some jets that look perfect on the drawing board can’t fly very well. Originally announced on Dec. 8, 2015, the inquiry didn’t even finalize its mandate until August 2016 and its crucial public hearings didn’t start until April 2017.

For the longest time, the inquiry was beset by bureaucratic snarls, personal conflicts and resignations — which included one of its original five commissioners. Among its harshest critics were members of the Indigenous communities it was created to serve. Many of them opposed an extension.

And while the inquiry eventually achieved some progress, its commissioners were skating on thin ice when they asked for two more years and $50 million on top of the $54 million they’d been allotted. Wouldn’t that $50 million be better spent ensuring clean drinking water on remote reserves?

It’s certain that the commission has gained valuable information and insight from the 1,200 survivors and family members who have testified before it. More wisdom will come from the 600 people still waiting to give evidence.

But at some point, the rubber has to hit the road. Even though talking can be therapeutic, words, if they are to heal, must be translated into action.

Nor should it be forgotten that other inquiries and reports into this terrible problem have already proposed more than 1,700 recommendations for action.

It’s time for this inquiry to enter its final phase, not only so the federal Liberals can keep a solemn campaign commitment, but so they can do something to make the lives of Indigenous women and girls safer — now, not later.