Inuit women should be included on MMIWG inquiry commission

Pauktuutit President Rebecca Kudloo. (PHOTO BY FRED CATROLL)

REBECCA KUDLOO
President, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada

Last October, this country elected a new government, a government that promised a future of hope, optimism and equality for all Canadians.

Our Prime Minister told us that “we defeated the idea that Canadians should be satisfied with less, that good enough is good enough and that better just isn’t possible… in Canada better is always possible.” We were promised gender equality for all women in Canada “because it’s 2015.”

We were also told that this government would keep its commitment to holding a national inquiry on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, which has been a national tragedy and international shame for decades.

We were promised that they were “determined to do this right, to honour the spirits and memories of those we have lost, and to protect future generations.”

As Inuit women, we looked forward to and expected to be full and equal participants in a renewed relationship of reconciliation with the federal government that will be based on recognition of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership. We expected this renewed relationship to be based on our constitutional rights as Inuit, and our equality rights as Inuit woman as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A full nine months after we were made these promises, we don’t see those words or commitments being kept to us as Inuit women and as citizens of Canada.

In early 2014, as the national representative organization of all Inuit women in Canada Pauktuutit said publicly that we required more information about the mandate, scope and timeline of any potential national inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.

At that time, we continued to call for the immediate development of a national action plan to address Inuit-specific priorities.

We also said that in order for us to support a call for a national inquiry, there must be sufficient assurance that Inuit women, families, communities and representative organizations will have the necessary support for full and meaningful participation in such a process.

It was always our expectation that should a national inquiry be held we would be directly included in our own right at the level of commissioner.

Just over a week ago the Pauktuutit board and I felt we had no choice but to issue a public statement about the forthcoming national inquiry on MMIWG.

We spoke out because it is not acceptable for Canada to go to New York and commit to fully implementing the UNDRIP, but not consult with us when it comes to naming commissioners to this national inquiry.

We spoke out because being set aside on this issue is just repeating past wrongs. Because “it’s 2015” now sounds empty.

Only we — as Inuit women — know the impacts of the wrongs committed by past governments and other institutions.

Only we know in our souls the lived experience and intergenerational impacts of forced relocations of our people and traditional communities, mass outbreaks of communicable diseases that removed many of us from our homes and families for treatment in alien, southern medical facilities, and in many cases for years.

We are survivors and former students of residential schools. Too many of us have not survived to see this day.

Every day we live the spirit and meaning of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, our traditional knowledge, wisdom and ways of living and being as one in our world as Inuit.

Pauktuutit has been working on this issue for over three decades. We will learn from the outcomes of the national inquiry, but that will be years from now and none of the recommendations to come will be legally binding on any party to implement.

The federal government had, and still has the opportunity to “get this right.”

We need to get it right, for us as well, so that it does not fall apart like the first year of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This time around we must be full participants.