‘We’re very much aware of the impatience’: MMIW commissioners reassure families at 1st press conference
The commissioners charged with overseeing the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW) urged families and survivors of violence to be patient Tuesday, while acknowledging frustration because of the inquiry’s slow start.
“We’re very much aware of the impatience and the frustration felt by families and organizations,” the inquiry’s chief commissioner, Marion Buller, said Tuesday at the inquiry’s first news conference since its launch.
“We share those same feelings, because 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 that, of course, is culturally appropriate and well-informed.”
The inquiry has been plagued by delays and personnel problems, and recently, its director of communications, Michael Hutchinson, was let go, after only a few months of service. Families of victims have said they have been left in the dark by the commission, which has not yet given a definitive start date for gathering testimony.
Buller said Tuesday that the inquiry will begin gathering testimony in the spring.
“Families and loved ones of the MMIWG were discouraged by the lack of communication from the inquiry following its official date of establishment,” Francyne D. Joe, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, said last month. “Many concerns and questions requiring response remain unanswered.”
Families have also been critical of the commission’s terms of reference that stipulate the inquiry will focus primarily on violence prevention and not police conduct and practices. The commissioners will also not reopen individual cases or review police investigations.
The federal government officially launched the $53.8-million independent inquiry last August, and commissioners are expected to submit an interim report in fall 2017, and a final report by the end of 2018.
- MMIW commission off to a bumpy start as communications director let go
- Survivors, families ‘discouraged’ by lack of communication from MMIW inquiry
- MMIW inquiry won’t hear testimony from families until spring 2017
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mmiw-commissioners-press-conference-1.3970205?cmp=rss