Liberals expected to shed light on plan for missing, murdered women inquiry

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is stressing the need for a nation-to-nation relationship with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.

Ontario also proposed 10 Pan-Canadian Actions to improve the situation for Aboriginal women and girls across Canada during the first National Roundtable on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in February 2015.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper has said these tragedies were not due to a sociological phenomenon but rather were crimes to be investigated by police.

AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde adjusts a blanket presented to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following speeches at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Gatineau, Quebec, Tuesday…

Speaking to CKNW’s Simi Sara, Oppal says the fact the Trudeau government is willing to launch the inquiry, acknowledge there is a problem, and hear from those affected is a “real step towards a solution”.

“Phase two will be the actual inquiry itself, and we hope to be able to announce that next year in the spring”.

“I think it’s very empowering and it’s very hopeful to indigenous people across Canada that this government is actually hearing what our people have been saying for years”.

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day said, “The way forward is through the involvement of First Nations peoples of Canada in the inquiry”.

“The previous government certainly showed no respect, limited consultations, continued to push policies without the consent and involvement of the First Nations of this country”, he said.

The Prime Minister said work on the inquiry into the disproportionate number of indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing has already begun.

Canadian aboriginal peoples under the Harper administration launched multiple campaigns to, among other things, stave the widespread environmental degradation that they said had infringed on their constitutionally guaranteed right to autonomy over tribal lands.

Wilson-Raybould noted the “heartbreaking reality that girls born in our indigenous communities are three times more likely to experience violent crime”. “We know it’s time to end that violence in our communities and amongst our families…it has to stop”, Mr Bellegarde said before Trudeau addressed the gathering.

A national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls will be another crucial step on our path to healing and reconciliation.

“I know that renewing our relationship is an ambitious goal, but I am equally certain that it is one we can, and will, achieve if we work together”, Trudeau said. “We will listen clearly to their voices”.

The federal government announced as part of its first budget it will eliminate a two per cent cap on annual funding increases for First Nations programs that has been in place for nearly two decades.