MMIWG inquiry asks for patience as commission prepares for spring launch

Inquiry commissioner Michèle Audette stands during a smudging ceremony ahead of a Feb. 7 press conference and update into the inquiry’s progress. (CPAC IMAGE)

Commissioners with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls have asked survivors’ and victims’ families for more patience as they prepare to gather testimony from across the country this year.

Commissioners held a news conference in Ottawa Feb. 7—the first since the inquiry was initially launched in August 2016—to provide updates on the national inquiry designed to look into the systemic causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

“We’re very much aware of the impatience and the frustration felt by families and organizations,” said the inquiry’s chief commissioner, Marion Buller.

“There’s nothing that we’d like to do more than to get the hearings underway, but we also know we have to do the hearings and our work in a thoughtful and purposeful way.”

Over the last five months, commissioners say they’ve been putting the inquiry’s infrastructure in place, guided by regular meetings with national Indigenous groups and elders.

The inquiry itself is now supported by a staff of 35 people, 22 of whom are Indigenous.

Now, commissioners say they expect to launch hearings by the spring, although there’s no set date or location.

That’s because the inquiry will only go to communities and regions where it’s invited, commissioners said.

In that sense, Susan Vella, the newly-hired lead counsel for the inquiry, said the inquiry will be unlike any other in Canada’s history.

Vella said the inquiry will steer away from the court-like format usually used in commissions and instead try to adopt spiritual and customary practices.

That could mean allowing families to give evidence together, she said, or the use of storytelling in place of a question-answer format.

“Right now it’s a very flexible concept,” Vella said. “This national inquiry is committed to do no further harm.”

Contrary to some media reports, the inquiry does not intend to focus on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys, although Vella said commissioners may well hear from men and boys to understand if their circumstances, “contributed to violence against women and girls.”

In addition to Buller, the inquiry’s other commissioners include former Femmes autochtones du Québec president Michèle Audette, Métis lawyer Marilyn Poitras, First Nations lawyer Brian Eyolfson and Nunavut-raised, Ottawa-based lawyer Qajaq Robinson, who is fluent in Inuktitut.

Robinson’s appointment has drawn a mix of praise and heat from Inuit—criticism from those who believe the inquiry should include an Inuk commissioner.

Indigenous groups have also complained of being left out of the inquiry’s planning process, at least until inquiry officials began regular check-ins with Indigenous groups last November, which now take place once every two weeks.

“We all have a big contribution to make to the success of the inquiry,” said Pauktuutit Inuit women’s association President Rebecca Kudloo last November. “We are here and ready to help.”

The inquiry has committed to putting a multidisciplinary team in place to offer health support wherever it hosts hearings but it hasn’t yet identified any Inuit-specific initiatives.

Last fall, however, the Government of Nunavut announced it was giving the commission both federal and territorial powers to host the inquiry in Nunavut, where the GN wants additional consideration of its high level of domestic violence.

Over the next two years, the federal government will allocate a $53.86 million budget to the inquiry, which is expected to complete its work by the end of 2018.