Glacial pace an affront
The Trudeau government’s decision to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls has provided new hope to First Nations families that they would finally get overdue answers about the violence that has long affected their communities.
But apparent inefficiency and undue delays are threatening to undermine that hope. Since its formation, the $53.8-million commission has been mired in controversy over its mandate, pace and lack of public communication. On Twitter and elsewhere, a backlash is growing. As Matthew Oliver tweeted of the commission this week, “One more injury to those already hurt.” The hashtag “resettheinquiry” is gaining steam.
The likelihood that the commission will meet its deadline to file an interim report by Nov. 1 looks increasingly remote. After all, the five commissioners won’t begin to hold hearings until May 29 in Whitehorse, a full 10 months after the inquiry received its vitally important assignment to probe the decades of violence against indigenous women and girls.
On top of these delays, the commission announced this week that, after Whitehorse, they will suspend hearings until the fall. The stated reason: Some members of indigenous communities will be out on the land during the summer.
Given the history, this simply looks like bad planning. And there’s no reason why the commission couldn’t at least hold hearings in urban areas where more than half of all indigenous people — and many victims and their families — live.
The commission is fully aware of the human costs of delay. In February, the chief commissioner of the inquiry, B.C. Judge Marion Buller, acknowledged “the impatience and frustration” surrounding how long it has taken to get the hearings underway.
Of course, she was right when she said the inquiry must be conducted in “a thoughtful and purposeful way.” That goes without saying. But there is no excuse for the history of delays or this latest promise of suspension.
We know this sort of work can be done both sensitively and quickly. Consider that the three ministers responsible for establishing the commission — Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and then-status of women minister Patty Hajdu — heard from 2,100 participants and received 4,100 online submissions in a mere two months leading up to the start of the inquiry.
Yet, as we learned this week, the commission has, over its first 10 months, lined up only 294 families to testify.
Indigenous families, victims, leaders and organizations have fought hard over the past decade to get this inquiry in place. In under a year, the commissioners have squandered much of the trust that was placed in them.
As a 2015 United Nations report concluded, Canada’s police and justice system have “failed to effectively protect indigenous women from violence, hold offenders to account and ensure redress for victims.” It’s up to the inquiry to come up with recommendations to stop this violence and to hear the testimony of voices that have been silenced for too long.
Indigenous communities deserve no less — and they have already waited too long. If the commissioners cannot soon demonstrate that they can get this vital inquiry on track, the Trudeau government should look to leadership that can.
Ten months after it was established, the inquiry will finally hear from its first witnesses. Then it plans to suspend hearings until the fall. That’s not acceptable