Murdered women inquiry is ‘failing’
Indigenous group, families want a reset, voice concerns about haphazard process
As the launch of the national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls (MMIW) gets closer, its leadership is being criticized for being disorganized, haphazard and failing to produce something as basic as a schedule of events and locations.
An open letter to the inquiry’s Chief Commissioner Marion Buller, signed by nearly 40 families, indigenous leaders and artists, was released on Monday in advance of the inquiry’s formal start in Whitehorse on May 29. Also Monday, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) released its latest report card on the inquiry’s progress — giving failing grades nearly all around.
“Indigenous people, anybody, can be understanding as long as you communicate, as long as you know why it is happening and that is probably the biggest downfall of this inquiry — they don’t seem to have a plan,” said Francyne Joe, the interim president of NWAC, whose report card gave the inquiry failing grades on10 out of15 action items. The other five had lacked the information to assign a grade or needed work.
One failure is properly explaining to families that the onus is on them if they want to participate in the inquiry, which indigenous leaders and advocates fought for years to get. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say there are nearly 1,200 murdered and missing indigenous women and girls in Canada, spanning the last several decades, but many feel that number is larger.
The nearly 300 families now participating in the inquiry process, up from 92 in March, “do not represent nearly enough families to host a series of national hearings,” the NWAC report said. And it is unclear how the most marginalized groups — those who are homeless or in child welfare or incarcerated — will participate in the process.
“Right now they need to apologize to families, not just on their website or social media, but a proper letter to the families on how they will make amends and say this is our schedule,” Joe said.
Chief Commissioner Buller, a British Columbia judge, has repeatedly said the inquiry will start as planned and will have a final report by the end of December 2018. The inquiry was unable to provide immediate reaction to this story.
Both the NWAC report card and the open letter to Buller insist the inquiry must reset now in order to save itself.
“We request that you, as the leader of this inquiry, substantially rework your approach in order to regain trust and ensure that families are no longer feeling re-traumatized in the process,” said the May 15, 2017 open letter to Buller, signed by lawyer Beverley Jacobs, who is the former president of NWAC, Métis artist Christi Belcourt, Maggie Cywink, Ontario’s special adviser to the inquiry and sister of Sonya Cywink who was found murdered in 1994, and Pam Palmater, chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University.
The letter noted the time frame for the inquiry is “clearly too short” as the first report is due on Nov. 1, 2017 and the hearings for most of the families will be happening in the fall. Expert testimony is expected to take up much of the summer.
The letter writers want an answer from the commissioner by May 22 and if not, they say they will proceed to the next phase, but declined to say what that will be.
The families are being impacted by disorganization, an absence of information and they don’t even know if they should have lawyers with them when they testify, said Jacobs, who has been raising awareness of MMIW for decades.
“Nobody knows anything, that is the problem,” said Jacobs, who added the respect and care of the families should be the top priority. The letter writers have heard from families that the process so far has left some families re-traumatized.
“It’s horrible. I was really trying to stay positive or (hope) that something would change and they would start to build trust because if the families aren’t feeling safe, even in this process, how will they manage?” asked Jacobs, whose cousin Tashina General was murdered in 2008.
The inquiry has to understand that they are in serious trouble and at this point, trying to tread water and do things with little tweaks here and there isn’t going to do it, Belcourt said.
A formal request needs to be made to the Prime Minister’s office to adjust the terms of reference so the inquiry’s $53.8 million budget can be put in the inquiry’s control.