User:Ucalpoli/Missing Women Commission of Inquiry

Purpose of the Inquiry:
The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry aimed to gain insight into the British Columbia’s police response and investigation processes into missing women reports. Additionally, the Inquiry reviewed the judicial reasoning regarding missing women cases, and recommend improvements to the police forces within British Columbia regarding their internal and co-operative processes regarding missing women cases.

The inquiry was called under the Public Inquiry Act in direct response to a series of murders committed by Robert Pickton, mounted upon the general public anger regarding the missing and murdered women “phenomenon” province-wide. Since the 1970s, British Columbia has faced an “ongoing epidemic of violence against marginalized women”. The victims of such high rates of violence are often women living within a “disadvantaged” position within Canadian society.

The Commission had a fourfold mandate:

a) to inquire into and make findings of fact respecting the investigations conducted between January 23, 1997 and February 5, 2002, by police forces in British Columbia respecting women reported missing from the Downtown Eastside of the City of Vancouver;

b) to inquire into and make findings of fact respecting the decision of the Criminal Justice Branch on January 27, 1998, to enter a stay of proceedings on charges against Robert William Pickton of attempted murder, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, and aggravated assault;

c) to recommend changes considered necessary respecting the initiation and conduct of investigations in British Columbia of missing women and suspected multiple homicides; and

d) to recommend changes considered necessary respecting homicide investigations in British Columbia by more than one investigating organization, including the co-ordination of those investigations.

The Inquiry and Missing 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 that while Indigenous women only made up approximately 3% of British Columbia’s population, they were alarmingly overrepresented in missing women’s cases, making up approximately 33% of the cases. In addition to facing higher rates of violence, the Inquiry remarks that Indigenous women have increased susceptibility to various other crimes such as “sexual assault, murder, and serial predation”. The Inquiry suggests links 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 being considered in the inquiry, the Inquiry states that “it is wrong” to describe 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 at the Federal level.

General Reaction to the Inquiry (Indigenous and Public):
From the Indigenous community

As an extension of the The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was formed by the Government of Canada in September 2016** Can we say this?

The Indigenous community and Canadian government have focused their attention on systemic causes of all forms of violence and institutional policies and practices implemented in response to violence. The community has been open, allowing anyone who has experienced violence to participate in the inquiry, from family member to survivors. Together, the inquiry went through a four part sequence to bring awareness to the issue. First, a Truth-Gathering Process to hear and share testimonies from participants, then involving experts such as elders, academics, legal experts, front line workers, young people, specialists and others to provide their recommendation on system causes of violence and possible solutions. Lastly, the report was presented to the National Inquiry.

The Indigenous community and general public (?) - need a better word, have engaged in in multiple actions to raise awareness and ensure Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women receive the attention they deserve.

In October 2020, Coalition on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls in B.C. demanded an action plan from provincial leaders. In an open letter, the coalition called on each party to commit to fully implement the recommendations from the Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women (LSC); Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside; the Path Forward Indigenous Women and Girls Safety Action Plan; the report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada; the report of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on its Article 8 Inquiry into murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls in Canada; and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Post-Inquiry Actions:
https://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/reports/FINAL_MWCI_2.pdf

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-auditor-general-tells-province-to-follow-through-on-missing-women-inquiry-1.3889067


 * In 2016, six years after BC launched their inquiry, the Government of Canada launched independent National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This may have been an extension of the BC inquiry.
 * The British Columbia Ministry of Justice released their Final Status Update Report in Response to” Forsaken - the Report of The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. The opening message from Suzanne Anton, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the time claimed that since the 2012 publication of the Inquiry, “the Province has taken significant action on the recommendations”, stating that “more than 75%” of the Inquiry recommendations have been fulfilled or in the works.

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After the conclusion of the inquiry in 2012,  two urgent outcomes and 63 separate recommendations to the BC government were made[source]. Among these included recommendations for additional funding to centres providing services for sex workers, as well as enhanced public transit along highway 16, sections of which are where many of the missing and murdered women had been abducted from [source]. Following the inquiry the provincial government took action on many of the recommendations of the report. Some of these commitments included the establishment of a compensation fund for children of missing and murdered women, funding for safer public transit along highway 16, and investments in community orginizations to support sex workers[source]. In the Ministry of Justice’s final update on the inquiry they stated that “action has been taken on over three quarters of the recommendations directed at the Province” [source].

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and its consequences eventually gave way to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, sponsored by the  Canadian federal government. This program began in 2016 with the goal of developing a more inclusive methodology as well as expanding the inquiry nationally [source]. The National Inquiry has been regarded as a more refined and effective expansion of the original BC inquiry.

Criticism of the Inquiry:

 * Lack of acknowledgment of the systematic racism existing within the Police forces and judicial system
 * “If nothing else, this Inquiry demonstrates what should not be done in conducting a public inquiry involving marginalized communities”
 * Lack of inclusion of the community (Indigenous women, sex workers, women using durgs and living in poverty)
 * Lack of Indigenous representation for the Inquiry, lack of Indigenous women represented, “missed opportunity for truth and reconciliation”,
 * The Inquiry is long overdue,
 * Ohf conflicts of Interest

Following the release of the Inquiry in 2012, scholars, NGO’s, grassroots organizations, families of missing women, and various Indigenous communities across British Columbia and Canada, spoke out against the Inquiry. One publication collaboratively written 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”, along with multiple other grassroots and legal organizations sharing similar sentiments. The critiques of the Inquiry varied in areas of concern, common critiques of the Inquiry were: the lack of inclusion of the marginalized individuals and communities in focus, an inadequate guiding framework, and failing to acknowledge the underlying issues contributing to missing women.

Lack of Inclusion:

The lack of inclusion of the marginalized women and communities in focus, is a prominent critique of the inquiry. Many Indigenous, legal and human rights organizations found the Inquiry’s limited representation the population in question, a limitation to the Inquiry’s reliability and effectiveness. One Indigenous scholar expressed that many Indigenous and human rights organizations found the Inquiry to be rooted in “Euro-Western traditions” of research and policymaking. Many found the Inquiry’s mandate, directives, terms of references, processes and recommendations to lack input from the community in question,, seeming more as a  with it being used rather as a tool of study over a means to reduce and solve the issue. , Found the inquiry to be the application of governmental inquiry procedures, lacking adaptation to

Framework Failures:

(Lack of Funding, conflicts of interests,

The Inquiry received criticism due to framework limitations that hindered an effective investigation. Input from revlevent witnesses, families and civil society organizations were limited due to lack of proper funding for legal representation. When individuals were able to be granted sufficient legal funding, they faced arguable legal misrepresentation, with the commission using just two lawyers to “‘represent'’” the diverse voices of impoverished communities and Indeipous people. Along with inadequate funding, the Inquiry’s investigation was limited by government time constraints, reducing the participation of marginalized individuals and relevant organizations, as well as, limiting the dept 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 having expressed doubts about the usefulness of any inquiry to begin with. The Inqiury’s credibility was further questioned, as lack of community funding seemed to favour the representation of the government and police in the Inquiry.

Lack of Underlying Acknowledgement:

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 disregarded from the Inquiry’s investigation. Following the publication of the Inquiry, it was seen that possible systematic racism was not considered within the Inquiry.

Jodi Beniuk, an Indigenous scholar, deemed the Inquiry as “public spectacle” used by the government and police authorities to regain institutional legitimacy. 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. Many found the Inqiury’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.