Canada has officially launched a national inquiry into its sobering epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, or MMIW― a move many hope will shed light on an issue shrouded in decades of confusion and political inaction.
Echoed by activists nationwide, indigenous families’ repeated pleas for a formal investigation into the violent deaths and disappearances of female loved ones seem to have fallen on deaf ears over the years, despite troubling statistics highlighting the urgency of the crisis.
Sixteen percent of Canada’s female homicide victims in recent decades were indigenous, even though their demographic, which is “disproportionately affected by all forms of violence,” comprises only 4 percent of the nation’s female population, the government notes on its website.
Canada’s national and federal police force, the RCMP, released a shocking report in 2014 concluding that indigenous women in the country were nearly seven times more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women.
The findings also revealed that between 1980 and 2013, 1,181 indigenous women in Canada went missing or had been murdered. Of those cases, 225 remain unsolved with the cause of disappearance or death listed simply as “unknown” or “foul play suspected.”
These figures have been widely disputed, with several women’s rights advocacy groups like Native Women’s Association of Canada asserting there are actually thousands more Canadian indigenous women who are missing or slain.
The NWAC acquired research that suggests the RCMP failed to document almost 3,000 additional MMIW cases in its report, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett pointed out in February.
While in office, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeatedly denied public requests for an official MMIW inquiry, saying “we are way past the time for further study.” His Conservative government’s “failure” to adequately address the crisis yielded harsh backlash from critics, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Harper’s successor, Justin Trudeau, vowed during his election campaign to prioritize the issue.
Almost one year after Trudeau’s election in October 2015, his promised MMIW inquiry is underway, although the federal government is not directly involved at this stage. A panel of appointed independent commissioners will conduct a nearly $54 million investigation before presenting their final recommendations to the government by the end of 2018.
The commissioners’ approach will include reviewing existing literature on the issue, and listening to affected indigenous families and survivors of violence in a way that is “trauma-informed and culturally-appropriate.” Their ultimate objective is to analyze the root causes behind the MMIW epidemic by “looking for patterns and underlying factors that explain why higher levels of violence occur.”
The inquiry began Thursday, but Chief Commissioner Marion Buller, British Columbia’s first female indigenous judge, told Canadians not to expect major results in the near future due to the intimate nature of the process. Information about the committee and its work is limited currently, but it will establish its own office and website at some point.
In addition to the independent inquiry, the Canadian Department of Justice is allocating $16.17 million over four years for new Family Information Liaison Units in each province and territory to provide resources and support to those affected by the MMIW crisis.