{"id":63797,"date":"2017-01-19T10:50:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T10:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/?p=63797"},"modified":"2017-01-19T10:50:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T10:50:36","slug":"mmiw-inquiry-names-additions-to-its-legal-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/mmiw-inquiry-names-additions-to-its-legal-team.html","title":{"rendered":"MMIW Inquiry names additions to its legal team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has added two well-known lawyers to its legal team.<\/p>\n<p>Christa Big Canoe, an Indigenous lawyer known for her work with Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto\u00a0and an advocate for Indigenous women, will join the inquiry as commission counsel.<\/p>\n<p>Susan Vella, who has represented several Indigenous organizations and is also known for her work on the Ipperwash Inquiry, will join the inquiry as lead commission counsel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[Vella] is a pioneer in advancing claims on behalf of survivors of sexual and institutionalized abuse,\u00a0and sexual harassment in the civil litigation context\u00a0for over 25 years,&#8221; an announcement from the commission says.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Trauma-informed&#8217; experts<\/h2>\n<p>A spokesperson said the commission is tapping lawyers who are considered experts in their fields\u00a0and who have extensive experience working with people who are victims of violence or exploitation \u2014 also known as trauma-informed.<\/p>\n<p>Vella\u00a0comes from\u00a0Toronto law firm Rachon Genova LLP, where she is\u00a0senior litigation counsel and practice group leader of the firm&#8217;s sexual and institutional abuse and Aboriginal rights groups, but she&#8217;s also served as counsel to the Ontario Minister of Health and Long Term Care&#8217;s task force on the prevention of sexual abuse of patients. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She was also commission counsel to the Ipperwash Inquiry, which examined the circumstances surrounding <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">the 1995 shooting death of Dudley George<\/a> by a member of the Ontario Provincial Police.<\/p>\n<p>Christa Big Canoe, a\u00a0member of the Georgina Island First Nation\u00a0Anishinaabe community in Ontario, said she&#8217;s taking a leave of absence from Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto to work with the Inquiry.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"><strong>Legal warriors: Profiles of 5 indigenous lawyers<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Big Canoe, known as an advocate for Indigenous women, has appeared before all levels of court in Canada, where she&#8217;s provided an Indigenous perspective and representation on issues that most affect Indigenous people in Canadian law, including Bill C-36, <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">the government&#8217;s controversial prostitution law, in 2014<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is something that I&#8217;ve been advocating for\u00a0for many, many years\u00a0\u2014 even before I was a lawyer,&#8221; Big Canoe said.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/4677e_christa-big-canoe.jpg\" alt=\"Christa Big Canoe\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\">Lawyer Christa Big Canoe testifies before a House committee reviewing Bill C-26, the government&#8217;s controversial prostitution law, in 2014. (CBC)<\/p>\n<p>Aside from women&#8217;s issues, Big Canoe also represented six of the seven families of students whose deaths are the subject of an inquest in Thunder Bay. All of the young people went to the city from remote First Nations to attend high school.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"><strong>First Nations student deaths inquest: lawyer reflects<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The independent inquiry led by five commissioners formally began on Sept. 1. The federal government directed the commission to find out why hundreds of First Nations, M\u00e9tis and Inuit women have disappeared or been murdered in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioners won&#8217;t start hearing formal testimony from the families until spring.<\/p>\n<p>A commission spokesperson said more additions to the legal team are expected in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/indigenous\/mmiwg-inquiry-legal-team-announced-1.3940919?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has added two well-known lawyers to its legal team. Christa Big Canoe, an Indigenous lawyer known for her work with Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto\u00a0and an advocate for Indigenous women, will join the inquiry as commission counsel. Susan Vella, who has represented several Indigenous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-63797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}