BCAFN -- High-level federal focus and immense energy is required to coordinate an immediate concrete response to the National lnquiry’s recommendations

Lheidli T’enneh Territory, Prince George, BC – May 6, 2019

The BC Assembly of First Nations looks forward to the upcoming release of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that will be submitted to the public next month, on June 3. We join numerous organizations calling on the government of Canada to quickly and fully implement the report’s recommendation to bring about transformative change and eliminate all forms of violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. 

As part of this commitment, we reiterate our call for an end to sex-based discrimination in the Indian Act, as expressed by the National Inquiry in response to First Nations women leaders who gathered in Ottawa on April 9, 2019 to demand an end to this discriminatory practice.

High-level federal focus and immense energy is required to coordinate an immediate concrete response to the National lnquiry’s recommendations. The plan to implement these recommendations must be cross-jurisdictional, and must fully and properly engage Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. 

Lives are imperiled with every day of inaction. I can’t overstate the urgency and seriousness of the situation 

– Regional Chief Terry Teegee

The federal government began assembling the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2015, with the Inquiry commencing its work in September 2016. An interim report, Our Women and Girls are Sacred, was published in November 2017. 

Some of the recommendations made in this report remain unimplemented to this day. 

It is now time for the government to renew its commitment to the National Inquiry and their responsibility to all the Métis, Inuit, and First Nations women, girls, and two-spirit people who have experienced violence, and to all those who shared their truth with the National Inquiry.

Canada must concretely, publicly, and promptly commit to implementing the solutions identified by the National Inquiry to end this human rights crisis.