MMIWG inquiry returns to Nunavut next month

MMIWG inquiry commissioner Qajaq Robinson watches elder Monica Ugjuk tend a qulliq at the commission’s hearings in Rankin Inlet this past February. The commission will return to Nunavut next month and hold hearings in Iqaluit on Sept. 10-13. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Members of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls will return to Nunavut next month for four days of public hearings in Iqaluit.

It’s part of a series of four hearings set for Iqaluit, Quebec City, Winnipeg and St. John’s this September and October, each featuring a “key theme,” the MMIWG inquiry said yesterday in a news release.

“The key themes emerged from the personal stories shared with the national inquiry by more than 1,270 families and survivors, as well as other evidence collected in earlier phases of the national inquiry’s work,” the inquiry said.

The theme of the Iqaluit hearings, scheduled to run between Sept. 10 and Sept. 13, is “colonial violence—socio-economic, health and wellness impact,” the inquiry said.

MMIWG commissioners last held hearings in Nunavut this past February in Rankin Inlet, when they heard harrowing testimony from multiple survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence, and members of bereaved families.

On the last day of the Rankin Inlet hearing, Nunavut recording artist Susan Aglukark created a sensation when she named the man who sexually abused her when she was a child.

That man, Norman Ford, 64, pleaded guilty in June to sexual interference and was sentenced to 15 months in jail.

This upcoming round of hearings, however, will “feature knowledge keeper, expert, and institutional representative testimony,” the inquiry said.

That will likely mean testimony from elders, front-line workers, academics, legal experts and others.

The MMIWG inquiry did not state in its release whether RCMP or justice system officials, such as Crown prosecutors, would give evidence at the Iqaluit hearings.

The other three themed hearings are scheduled as follows:

• Sept. 17-21, 2018, Quebec City: criminal justice system—oversight and accountability.

• Oct. 1-5, 2018, Winnipeg: family and child welfare—family supports and domestic violence.

• Oct. 15-18, 2018, St-John’s: sexual exploitation—human trafficking and sexual violence.

These will be the MMIWG inquiry’s last public hearings. The commission will finish its research by Dec. 31 this year and must submit its final report by April 30, 2019.

Marion Buller, the inquiry’s chief commissioner, suggested that she regrets not being able to hold more public hearings.

The commission has asked for a two-year extension, but the federal government only granted a six-month extension.

“Bound by the government’s deadline to conclude our investigation and file our final report, the national inquiry had to make some difficult decisions about the specific subject areas we need to examine in greater detail,” Buller said.

However, the commission is still gathering statements from families and survivors, the release said.