MMIW lawyer’s interference claim disputed

Slams inquiry as ‘speeding towards failure’

OTTAWA • The national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women has suffered yet another resignation and a public airing of grievances, after an outgoing lawyer alleged government interference in its investigative work.

But the government is rebutting that claim, pointing out that the inquiry was established with a broad mandate and exercises its evidence-collecting powers independently of government.

It’s the latest in a long line of troubles for the inquiry, which recently had its request for a two-year extension rejected by the Liberal government and was instead given an extra six months to finish its work.

After having started up in September 2016, the inquiry is already on its third executive director and has seen numerous resignations and firings, often in murky circumstances with little explanation. Along with the two executive directors, the departures have included a commissioner, a director of communications, a director of operations, and multiple lawyers.

Breen Ouellette, who worked as a commission counsel for the inquiry at its Vancouver offices, posted online that he resigned on June 21. The resignation was reported by The Canadian Press on Monday.

Breen, who is Metis, said in the statement that he believes the federal government has “undermined the independence and impartiality of the national inquiry” and that he cannot remain part of a process that he says “is speeding towards failure.”

As an example, he said the inquiry needs to be able to properly investigate allegations of “illegal and improper” foster-care apprehensions.

“The national inquiry could use its powers to force government departments to comply with investigations into these allegations. The perpetrators could be identified so that governments could stop the misuse of billions of Canadian tax dollars by a few heartless bureaucrats seeking to advance their careers,” Breen wrote.

“However, interference by the federal government

(THE GOVERNMENT IS) TRYING TO KILL THE NATIONAL INQUIRY IN A DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS.

is undermining this important function of the national inquiry. Canadians deserve to know which provinces and territories perpetuate this unnecessary and harmful spending of billions of tax dollars on foster-care apprehensions.”

But a spokesperson for Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, disputed that claim.

“The Inquiry is independent from government and exercises its powers such as requesting evidence by subpoena under the federal and provincial inquiries acts,” said a statement sent on Tuesday.

“The Federal Government has not, in any way or at any time limited National Inquiry’s powers to gather evidence. Families have been demanding a national inquiry free from any political interference for many years — and that is what we have given them. It’s why we deliberately wrote the Inquiry’s terms of reference to be as broad as possible, and why the Minister has not intervened in the Commissioners’ work.”

The statement encouraged the inquiry “to use all of the resources at their disposal to seek the answers families have been demanding for decades.”

With the new deadline, the inquiry now has until Apr. 30, 2019, to submit a final report with recommendations, instead of its request to have until Dec. 31, 2020.

Bennett said last month that the decision for a shorter extension was made after discussions with survivors and family members, Indigenous organizations and provincial governments.

“Based on those discussions, we found support for giving the inquiry more time to submit its final report, but little support for the commission’s mandate to extend beyond the next election,” Bennett said. She said the government wants to be able to respond to the inquiry’s final report before the next election in October 2019.

The inquiry’s chief commissioner, Marion Buller, responded by calling it a “sad day for all Canadians,” and accused the government of prioritizing “political expediency.”

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Breen said the rejected extension means the government is “trying to kill the national inquiry in a death by a thousand cuts, and they’re trying to pin the failure on the commissioners.”

In addition to the staffing turmoil, the inquiry has been plagued by delays. In February, the National Post reported the inquiry still had not requested files from many major police forces, including Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal — despite having promised that reviewing police conduct would be a “centrepiece” of its work.