It appears Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going to move his Liberal government closer to resolving the issues between Ottawa and Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples than any other federal government in more than a century.
During last fall’s federal election campaign, Trudeau promised he would have a public national inquiry into Canada’s murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls.
At the time, the incumbent Conservative Party candidates, including Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod, scoffed at the idea.
During the campaign, McLeod indicated there had already been more than 40 reports and First Nations people’s answers were already in those reports.
Even though there was an ongoing call for a public national inquiry on missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, the Conservative government under then prime minister Stephen Harper absolutely refuse to do it.
The Tories stated a public inquiry would be a potential waste of money that could be better spent on services and programs for aboriginal women and girls.
As the heat was being put on during the election campaign, the Conservative candidates pointed to Mr. Harper’s apology to the country’s Aboriginal Peoples on June 11, 2008 as a game-changer in the relationship.
However, First Nations people were somewhat skeptical, as they had heard many empty promises in the past.
Furthermore, their calls for the public inquiry fell on deaf ears and were eventually refused.
It was this attitude on this and other issues by Mr. Harper’s Tory government that resulted in numerous Conservative MPs being defeated at the polls or, like him, being booted to the Opposition side of the House of Commons after the Oct. 19 election.
Mr. Trudeau reiterated his election promise when he was sworn in as Prime Minister.
On Dec. 8 at a meeting of First Nations leaders in Gatineau, Quebec, he stressed the need to have a nation-to-nation relationship with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.
He also announced the first steps – consulting with families of the missing and murdered and coming up with a framework– to create a national public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls.
We believe this is an important step in starting a new relationship with the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.
It will be a necessary healing process for not only the families of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, but also for all First Nations people who have been victims – directly or indirectly – of the atrocities against Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.
This process will be intensive and expensive, but, hopefully, it will mark the end of finger-pointing and the start of respectful co-operation – a new beginning.
