MMIW inquiry: Nova Scotia victim advocates hope for answers

Nova Scotia victim advocates say they hope the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women will bring peace to families.

Five commissioners will examine the factors driving a systemic, high rate of violence against Indigenous women and girls, and the role of various institutions, such as police forces, governments and coroners' offices. The inquiry will take more than two years, at a cost of $53.8 million.

The long-anticipated details were made public by the federal government Wednesday.

• Missing & Murdered: The Unsolved Cases of Indigenous Women and Girls

​In Nova Scotia, Denise John, a victim support navigator at the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax, and Patti Doyle-Bedwell, a Mi'kmaq lawyer and Dalhousie University professor, shared their thoughts with CBC's Information Morning Thursday.

• ANALYSIS: How an 'unflinching gaze' on missing and murdered Indigenous women might move Canada forward

"We've been suffering for 500 years, when the Europeans came and our land was taken away from us, our rights," John said, holding an eagle feather. 

"I can only hope and pray that this inquiry will get some answers."

In 2014, the RCMP tallied more than a thousand Indigenous women murdered since 1980, and another 152 missing since 1952. 

'Decades of no answers'

Both Doyle-Bedwell and John said they were happy to hear that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the decision to institute the inquiry.

"I thought that's a fabulous idea because you're dealing with families who are dealing with their own grief and pain," John said.

"Many families are suffering after decades of no answers."

'She still mattered'

John said she first thought about families, and specifically the mother of Tanya Jean Brooks, whose remains were found in Halifax in 2009. Seven years later, no one has been arrested or charged.  

"Connie Brooks died with a broken heart, not knowing what's going on with the investigation," John said of the mother.

"Her daughter's remains weren't all intact for the burial. I thought about her, I thought about her words that she spoke, that she doesn't want people to forget Tanya," she said.

"There was more to Tanya; she was a mother, a sister, and she had five children that she loved dearly. She had her struggles, but she still mattered."

• Accurate tally of deaths essential to national inquiry on missing, murdered Indigenous women, chief says

Doyle-Bedwell said she also thought about the families of victims, and noted she had lost several people close to her. 

"Being Indigenous, being an Indigenous woman, you're at risk, and that's scary as I'm an Aboriginal woman," she said.

Fear of police

One problem that should be addressed is that many Aboriginal people fear police, and the "racism in the RCMP, as noted by the head commissioner," Doyle-Bedwell said. 

"There's this feeling that we're not worth the investigation," she said. 

That sort of institutional injustice stretches back years to the Indian Act, residential schools and the government "killing the Indian in the child," she said. 

"That was their stated goal, so we are still reeling from years of cultural genocide," Doyle-Bedwell said. 

"One of the things I had hoped for from hearing about this inquiry is that finally we would be humanized, that racial stereotypes, sexual stereotypes about us, the victim blaming — we will find a way beyond that."

• MMIW inquiry: Meet the 5 commissioners

The federal government also earmarked $16.17 million over four years for family information liaison units, and more funding for culturally appropriate victims' services.

​"[I hope] that the general Canadian public will have an understanding of the issues we face, and it's not always our fault that we are subjected to a culturally genocidal system," Doyle-Bedwell said.