The final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls calls such violence a type of genocide, and a crisis in Canada.
The report, titled Reclaiming Power and Place, brings over 230 calls for justice following a two-year Inquiry into the roots of violence against Indigenous women throughout the country.
The final report highlights what it calls persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations—the root causes of the high rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls throughout Canada’s history, and to this day.
Over two years, truths were gathered from more than 2,300 people—family members, survivors of violence, experts and others—leading to the creation of over 230 recommendations, or Calls for Justice, to multiple levels of government.
Chief Commissioner Marion Buller says the paradigm shift required must come from all levels of government and public institutions. As such, she says ideologies and systems of colonialism, racism and misogyny—both past and present—must be rejected.
Buller issued a call for true equality for Indigenous people, calling on all Canadians to be part of the solution.
Find the full report at this link, or the executive summary at this link.
Meanwhile, one of the presenters at the inquiry is hopeful that the report will have a positive impact on Indigenous communities.
Amy Hudson is the manager of research, education and culture with the NunatuKavut Community Council. She presented as an expert witness at the inquiry.
Hudson says now that the report has been released, they need to think positively about the future. She says they need to have hope that government will act on the recommendations in the report.
She says that being part of the process has allowed her to learn a lot about the character of Indigenous populations across the country.
She says she has witnessed the strength and resilience of the Indigenous community.
