{"id":69857,"date":"2017-02-07T17:27:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T17:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/were-very-much-aware-of-the-impatience-mmiw-commissioners-reassure-families-at-1st-press-conference.html"},"modified":"2017-02-07T17:27:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T17:27:23","slug":"were-very-much-aware-of-the-impatience-mmiw-commissioners-reassure-families-at-1st-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/were-very-much-aware-of-the-impatience-mmiw-commissioners-reassure-families-at-1st-press-conference.html","title":{"rendered":"‘We’re very much aware of the impatience’: MMIW commissioners reassure families at 1st press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

The commissioners charged with overseeing the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW) urged families and survivors of violence\u00a0to be patient Tuesday, while acknowledging frustration because of the inquiry’s slow start.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

The inquiry has been plagued by\u00a0delays and\u00a0personnel problems, and recently,\u00a0its director of communications<\/a>, Michael Hutchinson, was let go, after only a few months of service. Families of victims\u00a0have said they have been left in the dark by the commission<\/a>, which has not yet given a definitive start date for gathering testimony.<\/p>\n

Buller said Tuesday that the inquiry will begin gathering testimony in the spring.<\/p>\n

“Families and loved ones of the MMIWG\u00a0were 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.\u00a0“Many concerns and questions requiring response remain unanswered.”<\/p>\n