QUOTE: Victory is within sight. All 13 provinces and territories, both federal opposition parties, the United Nations, thousands of social activists, millions of women, even the male-dominated Assembly of First Nations are supporting the call by the Native Women’s Association of Canada for a national inquiry into the disappearances and deaths of 1,200 indigenous women. The only holdout is Prime Minister Stephen Harper — and he faces an election this year. It is extraordinary that a small, marginalized group of aboriginal women has managed to turn the political tide. It took 10 years. There were deaths and disappointments along the way. But the Native Women’s Association propelled an issue that governments, police and many band chiefs considered inconsequential to the forefront. It shamed the RCMP into re-examining its records. It altered public perceptions. It made its cause the litmus test of Ottawa’s willingness to confront the toxic mix of socio-economic woes festering in many of Canada’s aboriginal communities. One danger remains: the women will get what they want but lose what they ultimately seek: a nation-wide effort to break the cycle of violence, repair the damage and build safe, healthy aboriginal communities. It has happened before. In 1991, after a violent showdown between First Nations and Canadian troops in Oka, Que., former prime minister Brian Mulroney established a Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to mend the broken relationship between First Nations and the Crown. It took five years, spent $60 million and issued a 4,000-page report with 440 specific recommendations. The vast majority were never implemented. In 2008, as part of Ottawa’s settlement with the survivors of the country’s notorious Indian Residential Schools, Harper agreed to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document the abuse of native students and pave the way for a mutually respectful relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. It gathered personal stories for four years. Its final report is due on June 30 of this year. That will fulfil the “truth” part of its mandate. The “reconciliation” part remains a mystery. Aboriginal women can’t afford another hollow triumph. But they have inadvertently set the stage for exactly that. They have focused so single-mindedly on holding an inquiry that politicians and the public assume that is what they want. In the early years of their campaign it made sense to proceed one step at a time, building a credible case and rallying support. But at this juncture, the risks of that strategy outweigh the benefits: - It would be easy for Ottawa to agree to an inquiry without making any commitment to implement its recommendations. - It would be cheap for the government to hand off a complex, expensive problem to a group of commissioners without earmarking funds to solve it. - It would be natural for taxpayers who see the need for a national inquiry to be satisfied when that is achieved. There will be an investigation of some sort in the coming months: a judicial probe, a national commission, a task force or a roundtable on missing and murdered aboriginal women. In all likelihood it will produce a comprehensive blueprint for change. That is when the moment of reckoning comes. A few aboriginal women are quietly urging their peers to adjust their message, explaining that an inquiry is just the means to an end. “Unless we broaden the scope, we’re not going to move the agenda forward,” says Sylvia Maracle, executive director of the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres. That view is not popular in the aboriginal community. Nor is it welcome in the corridors of power. But it is wise. One of the harsh lessons of history is that the truth doesn’t set victims of violence free. One of the sad realities of inquiries, commissions, task forces and blue-ribbon panels is that they don’t come with a guarantee of action. Aboriginal women have fought with passion, tenacity and skill to get where they are. It would be heartbreaking to see them settle for too little too soon.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 18:24:47 +0000
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