MMIWG Releases Final Report, Issues Calls For Justice to Redress “Genocide”
UPDATED June 4, 2019 2:16pmET
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls formally released its final report on June 3, including 231 calls for justice and the conclusion that Canada’s treatment of cases has amounted to a genocide.
“The violence the National Inquiry heard about amounts to a race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis, which especially targets women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. This genocide has been empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools and breaches of human and Indigenous rights, leading directly to the current increased rates of violence, death, and suicide in Indigenous populations.”
What the Report Said
After hearing from nearly 1,500 witnesses over the course of nearly three years, the inquiry concluded that:
- Despite the National Inquiry’s best efforts to gather all of the truths relating to the missing and murdered, we conclude that no one knows an exact number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people in Canada. Thousands of women’s deaths or disappearances have likely gone unrecorded over the decades, and many families likely did not feel ready or safe to share with the National Inquiry before our timelines required us to close registration.
- An absolute paradigm shift is required to dismantle colonialism within Canadian society, and from all levels of government and public institutions. Ideologies and instruments of colonialism, racism, and misogyny, past and present, must be rejected.
- The Canadian legal system fails to hold the state and state actors accountable for their failure to meet domestic and international human rights and Indigenous rights obligations.
- The Canadian state has displaced Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA people from their traditional roles in governance and leadership and continues to violate their political rights. This has been done through concerted efforts to destroy and replace Indigenous governance systems with colonial and patriarchal governance models, such as the Indian Act, and through the imposition of laws of general application throughout Canada. Indigenous governments or bands as established under the Indian Act or through local municipal governments do not have the full trust of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
- Efforts by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people to be self-determining face significant barriers. Many Indigenous women’s advocacy organizations and grassroots organizations engaging in essential work to support survivors of violence and families of missing or lost loved ones, and working toward restoring safety, are underfunded and under supported by current funding formulas and systems.
Watch the full closing ceremony
Watch the commissioners’ full news conference
A Canadian Genocide?
Of note was the commissioners’ decision to call the violence a “race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples,” complete with a 25-page legal analysis.
Presenting MMIWG inquiry report findings, Chief Commissioner Marion Buller identifies “significant, persistent & deliberate pattern” of state-perpetuated rights abuses as the cause of violence experienced by Indigenous women & girls. “And this is genocide,” Buller says. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/tGKHtttMsu
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 3, 2019
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged that his government would review the final report — and not let it gather dust on a shelf. But he did not repeat the word “genocide” in his closing-ceremony remarks.
“This is an uncomfortable day for Canada but it is an essential day,” says PM Justin Trudeau after receiving the final report of the #MMIWG inquiry. Addressing missing & murdered, families and survivors, the PM says “we have failed you. But we will fail you no longer.”#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/83MohEVGI9
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 3, 2019
At a news conference following the presentation of their final report, #MMIWG inquiry commissioners Marion Buller and Michèle Audette were asked about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks at the presentation ceremony, in which he did not mention the term “genocide.” #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/vT2X3Iykzb
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 3, 2019
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said this about the report’s language:
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett is asked about the use of the term genocide in the #MMIWG inquiry’s final report:
“What we’re saying is we agree with the findings of the commission. That colonial policies have killed people,” she says #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/3yPGOKK7hG
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 3, 2019
Trudeau was asked one day later about his acceptance of the term “genocide”:
Asked about #MMIWG report, PM Trudeau tells reporters in Vancouver “we accept their findings—including that what happened amounts to genocide.” PM notes “many debates ongoing around words & use of words” but says focus must be on steps “to put an end to this situation” #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/pAcdBK4FBy
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 4, 2019
More political reaction from Parliament Hill:
Conservative MP Cathy McLeod says of the #MMIWG inquiry’s final report and the conclusion of genocide: “I think the focus on one word today takes away the importance of what we have;” says today we are focused on the families moving forward, and an action plan #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/JFTN1hjRVC
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 3, 2019
On the #MMIWG inquiry’s final report, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says what is happening to the Indigenous community is a complete system failure:
“This systemic failure is a genocide and I support the final report calling it a genocide.” #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/6CDuO0FJwz
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 3, 2019
Survivors and Families
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls heard from 1,484 survivors and family members in 15 communities across Canada. These are some of their stories.
CPAC’s Martin Stringer also spoke to families after the report’s release:
Calls For Justice
As for what comes next, the MMIWG commissioners were clear: their recommendations “are legal imperatives — they are not optional.”
The 231 calls for justice encompass everything from policing, the courts, and the prison system to health care, education, the media, and natural resource projects.
MMIWG commissioners joined Peter Van Dusen on PrimeTime Politics to discuss their report:
This broadcast deals with sensitive subject matter. For immediate emotional assistance, viewers can call Canada’s national, toll-free 24/7 crisis call line: 1-844-413-6649.
More information here: https://bit.ly/30JbBbm
Browse below for archived MMIWG Inquiry public hearings. And read the interim report.