Missing-women groups urge caution before inquiry
VANCOUVER — Canada’s new government should tread carefully to lay the proper groundwork for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, says a coalition of First Nations and advocacy organizations.
The group wants pre-inquiry consultation with the families of missing and murdered women and related community groups, and to have them included in establishing the inquiry’s terms of reference and its process for selecting commissioners. It also wants the government to pay legal costs for family members who wish to be involved.
“We firmly believe that indigenous women’s leadership is critical,” said Fay Blaney, co-chairwoman of the Women’s Memorial March Committee.
“We need indigenous women to be central to the substance and the process. This is about our lives and our safety,” she told a news conference Monday.
As the Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau campaigned on a promise to launch a long-sought inquiry into Canada’s almost 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous women.
The coalition, which consists of more than two dozen groups and individuals, said B.C.’s missing-women inquiry, which wrapped up in 2012, failed on several counts.
They say the inquiry led by former B.C. Appeal Court judge Wally Oppal should serve as a cautionary tale.
The coalition came together after various organizations were shut out of that inquiry looking into the actions of police and serial killer Robert Pickton after the DNA of 33 women were found on his pig farm.
Members have continued to meet to pursue justice for mur- dered and missing women.
Kendra Milne, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver-based women’s legal advocacy organization West Coast LEAF, denounced the scope of B.C.’s probe as too narrow.
She said the inquiry focused only on the criminal aspect of violence after it had occurred instead of looking at how to prevent it.
The investigation also neglected to consult the missing women’s families and fell short of implementing many of the final report’s 56 recommendations, she said.
“Take great care not to repeat these mistakes,” Milne advised the new Trudeau government.
Key on the list of failures is the still-outstanding recommendation to introduce a shuttle-bus service along the so-called Highway of Tears, a northern B.C. stretch of road known for the disappearances of women, mostly indigenous.
B.C.’s Transportation Minister Todd Stone has said consultation with communities along the route revealed that the bus plan was impractical. But the Opposition NDP said recently released documents contradict Stone and highlight concerns from local officials who support a transportation option.
Revelations from the province’s privacy commissioner that government officials allegedly destroyed documents for a freedom-of-information request about the Highway of Tears have also strained relations with First Nations, said group member Lorelei Wilson.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, rejected what he described as the provincial government’s “arrogant attitude” and its suggestion that the proposal of a shuttle-bus service doesn’t deserve further attention.