VANCOUVER—In its extensive final report, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls details Canada’s shameful failure to protect and provide justice for Indigenous people.It acknowledges the genocide that has especially targeted Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) people.What it has not done, though, is solve the thousands of deaths and disappearances that still weigh on families and communities across the country.That’s where the focus must be now, said Sheila North, a long-time MMIW advocate and the former Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak.“I would say almost all of the families, they want answers, they want closure, they want resolution on what has happened to their loved ones, and this inquiry hasn’t done that,” she said by phone Saturday.The inquiry’s final report, which will be released officially on Monday, also emphasizes the need to find answers. It reiterates the call for a National Task Force to reinvestigate all unresolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Read more: Canada has enabled a ‘genocide,’ says inquiry report into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girlsB.C. has twice the national rate of missing people, but the province says it’s waiting to actOpinion | Tanya Talaga: The inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls has spoken. Is Canada ready to listen?North said she supports the recommendation, with the important caveat that any task force be led by Indigenous people and Indigenous police officers.“I believe there are lots of answers within the communities, but a lot of (people) won’t share it with police agencies because they don’t trust them,” she said.North, a former journalist who made a documentary on the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous wom ...
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