Nat'l inquiry will break legal ground
Legal framework is to be based around culture, tradition and expression
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
RANKIN INLET
Poetry, shared family testimony and audio-visual displays could be included in future legal hearings for the Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
The commission announced plans for moving forward with the inquiry on Feb. 7.
Legally, the coming inquiry will break from common Canadian practice.
"Do not expect to see a traditional Western courtroom. Expect to see and hear indigenous people telling their own story, in their own way, on their own terms," said chief commissioner Marion Buller.
The commission has been holding meetings across the nation with family members of survivors, elders and indigenous organizations.
"All of this is being done through an indigenous lens," said Buller.
The hearing stage will be supported by a full legal team, as well as logistics, health, and community relations specialists.
"This national inquiry is to be unlike any other public inquiry in Canada's history from a legal-process standpoint," said Susan Vella, lead commission council for the inquiry.
"For the first time, the commissioners of a national inquiry are also empowered by each province and territory to compel evidence from institutions, government agencies and others, which will be enforced by the provincial and territorial superior courts across the country."
The inquiry will not be extended to look into issues of violence against indigenous men.
"We include women and girls who are lesbians, transgendered, bisexual and gender-fluid," said Vella.
While the national inquiry is meant to be consistent across Canada, the process will go to great lengths to be respectful of indigenous legal processes and values that are specific to individual regions.
"At its core this is a national inquiry where the mandate is for the entire country, not just specific jurisdictions," commissioner Qajaq Robinson, who is originally from Iglulik, told News/North.
"That being said, we the commission have committed to recognizing that there are different issues that arise in different areas of the country. For Nunavut specifically we recognize that the Government of Nunavut has raised the issue of domestic violence. That will be a part of what we are looking at."
She said the commission is looking at Inuit Nunangat as a whole.
"It's a way of looking at our country not by boundaries of provinces and territories but by cultural and linguistic groups," said Robinson.
The commission will be meeting with leadership from Inuit regions and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
"This will happen in advance of hearings in Inuit Nunangat. We are not going into communities without first hearing what is the best way for us to do our work and that we are welcomed in those communities," said Robinson.
Right now the commission is developing the tools and infrastructure for that hearing stage, she said.
"We are building a table where we can all come together and have tea together and talk together. It's a question of us building that space together, it's not a question of us imposing that space on to people."
Participation in the inquiry will be voluntary.
"We are asking people who want to share with us their experience to contact us."
The commission will also be looking to put out information through media, such as community radio.
The commission can be contacted by phone, e-mail or regular mail. Robinson said they do not offer a crisis line, but otherwise the commission is looking to speak with anyone interested in receiving more information about the inquiry process.
"If you want to share the experience you had of losing your loved one, we welcome you and ask that you connect with us."
