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The Inquiry and Overrepresentation of Indigenous Women
The Inquiry’s executive report notes that Indigenous women experience a “heightened vulnerability” to violence, disproportionally facing higher rates of violence with harsher severity. The Inquiry found Indigenous women alarmingly overrepresented in missing women cases, being approximately 33% of the cases, despite making up approximately 3% of the Province's total population. Additionally, the Inquiry found that Indigenous women have increased susceptibility to violence and other violent crimes such as “sexual assault, murder, and serial predation”. The Inquiry suggests a correlation between the increased risks of violence Indigenous women face to the systematic level of marginalization and inequality Indigenous women face within British Columbia, Canada, and globally. This systematic marginalization of Indigenous women throughout the Inquiry was linked to Canada’s colonial history, finding that such colonial links created an “unjust” relationship between the Canadian government and their Indigenous peoples. When considering the disproportionate number of Indigenous women represented in Inquiry, it condemned possible correlations between a women’s “high-risk lifestyle” to their “vulnerability to predation”. Beyond that, Indigenous women’s overrepresentation in missing women cases was considered “not within the mandate” of the Inquiry, and a matter better handled for Federal authority.

Criticisms of the Inquiry
Following the release of the Inquiry in 2012, scholars, non-governmental organizations, the families of the missing women, and various Indigenous communities across British Columbia and Canada, spoke out against the Inquiry. A response by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Pivot Legal Society, and West Coast LEAF, deemed the Inquiry a keynote example of “what should not be done in conducting a public inquiry involving marginalized communities”, with multiple other grassroots and legal organizations sharing similar sentiments. While the critiques of the Inquiry varied, the three common criticisms emerged: the lack of community inclusion, inadequate investigative framework, and failures in addressing the underlying issues contributing to missing women.

Lack of Community Inclusion
The lack of inclusion of the marginalized women and communities in focus is a common critique of the Inquiry. Many legal, human rights, and Indigenous organizations found the Inquiry’s limited representation of the population in question decreased its reliability and effectiveness. These groups found the Inquiry to be overly reliant on Western European traditions of study and investigation, hindering its ability from the start to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the issue. Additionally, many found the Inquiry’s mandate, directives, terms of references, processes, and recommendations to lack consideration and input from the community in question. Due to this lack of community inclusion, various groups found the Inquiry to be merely an application of governmental inquiry procedures, rather than a way to address and reduces the issue of missing women.

Inadequate Framework
The Inquiry's framework design was criticized and was thought by many to hinder the effectiveness of the investigation. Input from relevant witnesses, families, and civil society organizations was limited due to a lack of proper funding for legal representation. When individuals were granted sufficient legal funding, they faced arguable legal misrepresentation, with the commission using just two lawyers to advocate for the diverse voices of impoverished communities and Indigenous people. Along with inadequate funding, the Inquiry's investigation was limited by government time constraints, reducing the full participation of marginalized individuals and relevant organizations, as well as, limiting the insight the Inquiry was able to gain.

Many critics found the Inquiry was misled from the beginning, as the Commissioner of the Inquiry, Wally Oppal, previously expressed doubts about the usefulness of any inquiry regarding the issue of missing women and marginalized communities. Along with concerns regarding his openness to an inquiry, Oppal's position as Commissioner was further questioned in relation to his close ties to the ruling Liberal government, as he previously served as a Member of Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for the Liberals. In addition to the Commissioner of the Inquiry presenting conflicting interests, legal rights groups found a number of the personnel tasked with conducting the inquiry had previous employment relations with Vancouver Police Department, arguably influencing the neutrality of the Inquiry. The Inquiry’s credibility was further questioned as lack of community inclusion funding resulted in the underrepresentation of community voices, favouring government, and police representation.

Lack of Underlying Acknowledgment
Prior to the Inquiry’s publication, the commission garnered attention when Dr. Bruce Miller, a Canadian scholar who specializes in Canadian-Indigenous relations, had his report on systematic racism excluded from the Inquiry’s investigation. After the Inquiry was released to the public, it was seen that the issue and consequences of systemic racism were not considered or addressed in the Inquiry.

Critics found the Inquiry selective of their background history, with deliberate ignorance of Canada’s colonial history and its modern implications of Indigenous communities, especially Indigenous women. Jodi Beniuk, an Indigenous scholar, deemed the Inquiry as a “public spectacle” used by the government and police authorities to regain institutional legitimacy. Many found the Inquiry’s choice, use, and reference to historical events, themes, and evidence to be supportive of government narratives, rather than critical of the government and police authorities' shortcomings. Chief Jackie Thomas of the Saik'uz First Nation rejected the inquiry entirely, viewing it as an attempt at "rewashing" the issue of missing women, failing to address both the individuals and underlying issues that contribute to the problem.