National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

The final report of the MMIWG has been submitted to the Federal Government. Depending upon who one believes - the inquiry cost somewhere between $53 million (1) to $92 million (2). No matter how one looks at it, that is a lot of money. In the politically correct enthusiasm for the report and its recommendations, no one will dare question whether or not the money was well spent.

I have suggested ever since the inquiry was first announced that it would do little to address the issues that we should all know, need to be addressed. To the best of my knowledge, no new information was discovered, no easy panacea to the crisis was discovered and even worse it did nothing to stop the level of violence that is being perpetrated against Indigenous women -in fact, the rate of violence did not decrease during the inquiry. The report made numerous recommendations, but it is unclear whether there will ever be the political will to provide the necessary funds to create an environment where change is possible.

If the main purpose of the inquiry was to give answers to the families who have lost mothers, daughters or sisters - it failed. If its purpose was to allow the families to share their anger and grief and hopefully effect some sort of closure - then it was an incredibly expensive and perhaps not very effective counselling process. If its purpose was to discover how the law, the police and the courts have continually failed to address the issue of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women - we already knew that. If the purpose of the inquiry was to demonstrate the damage caused by decades-long mismanagement and underfunding of all support services- there are enough documents, studies and reports already published. One would have to be totally cut off from all news or else be absolutely indoctrinated into an Eropecentric view not to realize that Canada has had, and continues to have specific policies that are racists.

We should not get sucked into the rabbit hole that is the debate on whether or not it was genocide. To do so would absorb all of the little energy Canadians have for this issue - and nothing would change. Instead, we need to direct our energies to the things we know might work:

I am not too sure why, but it appears as if the various levels of policing in Canada attract people who more easily fall into the lazy habit of pigeon-holing people who look different than them. Clearly, there needs to be a more inclusive and rigorous selection and training process. How we train our police officers must be changed so that it becomes part of their culture that racism is never okay. Equally as important, the front line supervisors must be better trained and monitored to ensure that no decision is ever made based solely on the race of the victim or alleged perpetrator. Every victim has the right to have someone hear her story and to know that it will be pursued with the vigour equal to any other case.

We need to ensure that Indigenous women have the opportunity to be successful in whatever field they chose. This means better educational choices, better funding, more support - whatever it takes to reinforce the idea that they are valued members of our community. No woman should ever feel as if they had no choice or that they are unprotected by their community.

It would be a violation of human rights and in fact racist to suggest that men who perpetrate violence against Indigenous women should be treated more harshly. It would be tempting to be satisfied if those men were punished at the same level as were men who hurt non-Indigenous women. However, the reality is that far too often the courts do not consequence men nearly harshly enough for those types of offences. At a bare minimum, the courts (including the Crowns who lay the charges) need to stop considering the race of the victim before proceeding.

These types of changes could start to happen tomorrow. No laws would need to be changed - just follow the law as it is now written. The amount of money required to increase opportunities is minimal compared to its benefits. We just need to get on with it.

The fact that so many Indigenous women have been damaged, or have gone missing is an embarrassment to all Canadians. For us to do nothing about it is disgusting and unacceptable.


(1) cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1470140972428/1534526770441?wbdisable=true#chp8
(2) https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/with-federal-government-set-to-grant-38m-more-mmiw-inquiry-budget-will-hit-92m