Dozens of people make towards downtown Yellowknife Oct. 3 during Sisters in Spirit, a walk to honour Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women. The march ended at the Tree of Peace, where they held a candlelight vigil and heard speeches from prominent NWT women. - Randi Beers/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Members of the legislative assembly passed a motion to support a national roundtable discussion and inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada on Nov. 4 - but not everyone was convinced it was the best course of action.

The motion passed by a vote of 17-0 with one abstention from Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen.

"I can't support this motion because I am absolutely opposed to a national inquiry," said Groenewegen. "I have seen many national inquiries over the years and many of them come out with recommendations that are never acted upon."

She also said she believes a national inquiry will only quantify a problem that is already well-quantified and the millions of dollars that would potentially be spent on such an inquiry could be funneled straight into support programs for Canada's indigenous women.

Although they voted in favour of the motion, Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny and Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro echoed Groenewegen's concerns.

"I am not totally convinced an inquiry is what we need," said Bisaro.

"I do believe a roundtable is certainly a good move ... and I think my rationale for not spending (money) on an inquiry is that if we took those millions and put them into providing better homes, better services for all aboriginals, but particularly aboriginal women and girls, I think we would be providing a better solution to the problem."

Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya said thinking about the motion gave him a "sad and sick feeling" because he has a personal connection to its contents.

"One of the people that we're talking about in the Northwest Territories is a family member of mine in Yellowknife who was killed and still today we don't know what happened," he said. "So, before I could say anything, I had to sit down with the father, and it was very, very scary because you don't know what the father will say or what will come out in the conversation."

He said listening to the father speak about his daughter with tears in his eyes "put a sense of how real this issue is" in the Sahtu.

"So I'm sitting here, and he's sitting there, and I can imagine the father sitting there every night going to bed saying, 'I wonder what happened to my daughter?'," he told the room.

He asked the assembly to join aboriginal and Metis leaders in the NWT in a call for a national inquiry.

Nahendeh MLA Kevin Menicoche began by saying he would "definitely" support the motion because he believes an inquiry will find the root cause of why indigenous women are overrepresented in statistics of missing and murdered people in Canada.

In 2012, indigenous women were victims in 23 per cent of Canada's homicides. In the Northwest Territories between 1980 and 2012, 92 per cent of homicide victims were indigenous women.

"What this motion means to me, and us as MLAs, and us as a government, (is) that we support our women and support our aboriginal communities when they say this needs to stop," he said.

"We must find the root cause. I believe that a national inquiry would do that ... a roundtable is significant, yes, but it has got to have teeth."

The motion was tabled by Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins and its passage adds the territorial government's voice to a growing call for a national inquiry and national roundtable on missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada and also requires the government to share the contents of the motion with the rest of Canada's provinces and territories.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister Bernard Valcourt has voiced his opposition to a national inquiry on numerous occasions, but has given support to the possibility of a roundtable discussion in recent months.

Premier Bob McLeod announced last month he's helping aboriginal leaders schedule a national roundtable in February on the subject in Yellowknife.

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