Inquiry important to First Nations

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This article was published 09/12/2015 (3627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GATINEAU, QUE. — On another unseasonably warm December day in the national capital region, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossed the Ottawa River to deliver a speech to the Assembly of First Nations’ annual special chiefs assembly.

Trudeau’s speech Tuesday was filled with the kind of rhetoric one could expect from a leader who says it is a priority to improve the relationship between the government and indigenous people.

The audience, a ballroom filled with chiefs, elders and First Nations representatives from across Canada, was notably tepid in its initial response.

Those in attendance showed some mild appreciation for Trudeau’s attempt to say hello in several indigenous languages.

They clapped politely when he promised to increase investments in First Nations education. They nodded and smiled when he said he would lift the two per cent cap imposed on annual funding increases for First Nations programming that has been in place for almost 20 years.

These are things that could have a tangible impact on First Nations communities, but after decades of promises that have largely gone unfulfilled, one could excuse the skepticism clearly present in the room.

But there was one — and only one — moment during the speech that prompted a standing ovation: the promise of an inquiry into the epidemic of murdered and missing indigenous women in Canada.

“We have made this inquiry a priority for our government because those touched by this national tragedy have waited long enough,” Trudeau said as the audience members leaped to their feet. “The victims deserve justice, their families an opportunity to be heard and to heal.”

It was clear just how important such an inquiry is to First Nations in Canada. More than just a study of what may be causing the high rates of violence facing indigenous women, it is a symbol of a country that is finally, maybe, willing to listen.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada put the issue on the radar screen a decade ago, when it secured research funding for the Sisters in Spirit project. Cases of missing and murdered indigenous women have since garnered more attention.

Many Canadians know their names: Tina Fontaine, Jennifer Catcheway, Claudette Osborne-Tyo.

And yet aboriginal women are still disappearing or being killed at an alarming rate.

The RCMP says since 1980, more than 1,000 aboriginal women have been murdered. Indigenous women account for 16 per cent of female homicide victims, but just four per cent of the population.

Some say Canada doesn’t need an inquiry because the problems are known: poverty, alcoholism and generational family breakdown. And it’s believed, in the majority of cases, aboriginal men are the perpetrators.

But, as the Toronto Star pointed out this week, that’s not the whole story. Almost one-third of murdered aboriginal women tracked in a Star investigation were killed by a serial killer or a complete stranger.

The Star analysis, stymied in many ways by unco-operative police forces and holes in the data police will not fill in, proves one thing: Canadians don’t have a clear picture of the problem at all, they just think they do.

There is perhaps a legitimate argument that an inquiry will end with recommendations similar to those of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which last spring delivered 94 calls to action after five years of hearings and interviews with survivors of residential schools.

But just as the TRC offered a safe place for former students to tell their stories, an inquiry will do the same for the families of the women in all the databases.

And just as the TRC uncovered facts not publicly known about residential schools, an inquiry is likely to unearth information on why aboriginal women are so much more prone to becoming victims of violence.

The cost is yet to be known. The Liberals initially said $40 million over two years but Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said Tuesday that was just a “placeholder” cost for the election platform. Same with the two-year time frame.

Either way, an inquiry won’t be fast and it won’t be cheap. But the reaction from the chiefs and others in the room in Gatineau proved one thing.

Without an inquiry, any other attempts to work together with First Nations will fall flat. Symbolic or not, it is the way to open the door to that promised renewal of a relationship.

 

Mia Rabson is the Free Press parliamentary bureau chief.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @mrabson