Inuit women’s group backs MMIWG inquiry’s interim report

Marion Buller, chief commissioner of the National Inquiry in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and commissioner Brian Eyolfson at a news conference held in Ottawa Nov. 1 to announce the release of the commissioner’s interim report, broadcast live on its Facebook page.

The national organization representing Inuit women says it welcomes a new report that highlights the urgent need for supports to protect Inuit women and girls from violence.

Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada said it backs recommendations made in the interim report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, including calls for increased funding to Indigenous organizations and for healing and commemorative efforts in Indigenous communities.

The 118-page report, titled Our Women and Girls are Sacred, was released Nov. 1 to mark the halfway point of the inquiry’s work looking into the systemic causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Rather than make proposals based on the testimony gathered so far, the commission used the report to ask the federal government for more time and more collaboration to support its two-year mandate.

That includes additional funding for Health Canada’s Resolution Health Support Program and a review to consider the restoration of funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation—a fund introduced through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—which closed in 2013.

Pauktuutit president Rebecca Kudloo said the organization supports the inquiry’s work but Pauktuutit wants to see the commissioners have the time and resources it needs to do the best possible work.

“Many of our communities were beginning to see real progress as a direct result of the Healing Foundation but then the funding was eliminated,” Kudloo said in a Nov. 6 release.

“We lost all of the new programs that had been developed and piloted from this funding, but we can restore and enhance what we had started together.”

Pauktuutit has been critical of the inquiry since before the federal initiative even launched, calling on the commission to ensure the process had a clear and supportive focus on Inuit communities across the country.

As the inquiry prepares to host its first hearing in an Inuit community—with a visit planned in Rankin Inlet in early December—the women’s group urged commissioners to consider the unique challenges faced by Inuit women and girls.

Kudloo repeated Pauktuutit’s concerns that the inquiry isn’t communicating with Inuit families as well as it could, including the use of local Inuktut dialects and FM radio as a preferred medium.

“We welcome many parts of this report, but we worry about the accuracy and gaps of some of the information as it relates to Inuit as well as the timelines for the community hearings across Inuit Nunangat,” Kudloo said.

“Many families are still unaware of when they will be able to share their stories and honor their loved ones … We continue to ask for more clarity and engagement from the inquiry moving forward.”

Kudloo noted that the inquiry has yet to publish a schedule for its planned visit to Rankin Inlet the week of Dec. 11.

The inquiry’s interim report also called for:

• The creation of a national police task force to reopen or review criminal cases that are raised during the inquiry.

• Contact information from the federal government for participants from the pre-inquiry process, or to have the federal government reach out to those participants to encourage them to take part in the inquiry.

• Alternatives for some government administrative and procedural rules that commissioners say have slowed the inquiry’s work to date.