Ottawa offering $95M to help Indigenous families learn about missing loved ones

Ottawa is promising more than $95 million to help In‐ digenous families get infor‐ mation about missing or murdered loved ones.

On Monday, Justice Minis‐ ter David Lametti announced $95.8 million in new funding over five years for the families of missing and murdered In‐ digenous people, and an addi‐ tional $20.4 annually to keep support programs running.

"We are baking in the re‐ sources so that the resources themselves are not in ques‐ tion," Lametti said.

"They will be there for as long as victims need them."

The money comes from the 2023 federal budget and includes:

$37.3 million over five years, and $7.75 million annu‐ ally, to renew and expand Family Information Liaison Units $20.0 million over five years, and $4.15 million annu‐ ally, to support families with Indigenous-led healing initia‐ tives $38.6 million over five years, and $8.45 million annu‐ ally, for a wide range of In‐ digenous-led activities for vic‐ tims of crime and survivors of violence

Meggie Cywink, an advo‐ cate for missing and mur‐ dered Indigenous women and girls, called the announce‐ ment a good start but said that how the funding is dis‐ tributed will matter.

"How the funds flow to grassroots organizations and families will be critical to its success," Cywink said.

WATCH | Support for In‐ digenous victims of crime

Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, chair of the National Family and Survivors Circle, said more funding is needed to address the root causes of violence against Indigenous people.

"The funding is a major step in the right direction, but we all know that it's not enough," Anderson-Pyrz said.

"We will need a lot more funding to address the sys‐ temic and structural racism that perpetuates the violence that we experience."

No more worries about sunset clauses

Funding for Family Infor‐ mation Liaison Units (FILUs) was set to expire this year.

The units help families get information about their miss‐ ing or murdered loved ones from official channels — cor‐ rections staff, police, prosecu‐ tors, coroners, health and so‐ cial services and child protec‐ tion agencies.

They're meant to comple‐ ment the work of the Nation‐ al Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Sen. Michèle Audette was a commissioner for that in‐ quiry. She said she tested the effectiveness of FILUs when she became senator and found they work better in some regions than others.

In Quebec, Audette said, she couldn't call to get any answers. She said she had to submit inquiries through a website and it took a while before she got a response.

"It's important that we support that," Audette said. "But in some places, it seems like it's not working. Let's see why it's not working."

The new money from the 2023 federal budget will be used to make the units per‐ manent and offer services to the families of male victims.

"People tend to close their mind and say this is only about Indigenous women and girls and the LGBTQ com‐ munity," Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said Monday.

"That is some willful blind‐ ness when we forget about the role that men play in per‐ petuating the violence in soci‐ ety."

Men and boys who are abused are more prone to be‐ coming abusers or going missing later in life, he said.

Aligning MMIWG policy with U.S.

Miller said Canada is trying to align its work on MMIWG with that of the U.S. He said he's met with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to discuss an issue that doesn't respect borders.

"As we seek to align our positions and actually learn from each other and what we need to do to protect peoples that we have both mis-served for generations, I think it's im‐ portant that we do align some of the policy," Miller said.

Washington State recently established a unit for review‐ ing cold cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people – something the national in‐ quiry recommended.

Audette said the Call for Justice is "non-negotiable" and she is anxious to hear how the government will re‐ spond.

"People need to know what happened to their loved one when they went through the system," Audette said.

Leah Gazan, NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre, said she wants the government to be more accountable and get the money out the door.

The government has spent only a fraction of the $724.1 million earmarked in 2021 to fight gender-based violence against Indigenous women and girls.

"They're not investing ade‐ quately," she said.

"The federal government has a habit of making these big announcements and then not spending the money."