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Roundtable planned for missing
and murdered aboriginal women

Upcoming meetings in Yellowknife won't take the place of an inquiry, says premier

Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 29, 2014

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A national roundtable on missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada is planned for Yellowknife in February and Premier Bob McLeod says it will not take the place of the national inquiry he and the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group has called for.

The roundtable was one of McLeod's priorities during meetings in Sydney, N.S. last week, where he met with the working group made up of territorial and provincial aboriginal affairs ministers, and five national aboriginal organization leaders. McLeod became chair of the group in July.

"I've been mandated to lead on a number of files including missing and murdered aboriginal women and children, as well as children in care," said McLeod.

"When Canada's premiers met this summer, we supported the call for a national roundtable, as well as we already supported a call for a national inquiry and continue to do so."

The National Women's Association of Canada's Sisters in Spirit study established that there are more than 582 missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada. The association's NWT chapter has voiced interest in a private inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, as proposed by the Dene National Assembly.

The women's association, along with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Metis National Council and Congress of Aboriginal Peoples are members of the working group and will be represented at the roundtable, said McLeod.

"Our expectation is that we'll have all of the provincial and territorial ministers, also we would have national aboriginal leadership, also federal ministers with responsibilities for aboriginal people," said McLeod. "The working group will be working on finalizing the structure and agenda and also, who would be invited. The national aboriginal leaders were very clear that they wanted us to be accountable and work to some very specific outcomes, and they also said that having a national roundtable did not preclude the call for a national inquiry."

Federal ministers have suggested they would participate, McLeod said, as long as there is a clear structure for the roundtable. He noted another consideration was how the roundtable would acknowledge the families of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Planning for the meeting has already begun, said McLeod, though a specific date has not yet been set.

One of McLeod's focuses - looking toward the roundtable - is to look at the factors that contribute to the high rate of violence against aboriginal women.

"There are a lot of concerns about societal issues, such as how do we address root causes of missing and murdered aboriginal women? It crosses many mandates and jurisdictions, also current conditions such as poverty, access to education opportunities, systemic responses, stereotyping and generational impacts of historical trauma suffered in residential schools," said McLeod. "All of these things play a part ... we see the roundtable as an opportunity for fulsome discussions on how we can work together to address these root causes, identify solutions and have outcomes."

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