The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is moving ahead despite continued calls for a "hard reset."
The inquiry’s commissioners have spent the week in Winnipeg hearing from experts to help them better understand Indigenous law and decolonizing perspectives.
Chief Commissioner Marion Buller told reporters gathered at Oodena Circle at the Forks during a media briefing that the inquiry will continue as planned and the commission is committed to work towards government-imposed deadlines.
"I hadn’t heard about a longer pause. All I'm hearing is people telling us we're not going fast enough," said Buller. “We intend to move forward with our schedule but we’re going to do it in a better way based on what we heard.”
A coalition representing families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls has called for the resignation of all the commissioners because of how the inquiry is being handled.
“The Manitoba coalition has not changed any of its positions with respect to the inquiry and to regional sub-commission,” said Sandra Delaronde, co-chair of the Manitoba MMIWG Coalition. “They are all very fine individuals, fine people with great backgrounds but not everyone’s experiences are able to blend the needs of the community with the needs of a legal system.”
“Perhaps they are not the right people at the helm.”
Buller said the commissioners have listened and are planning on making improvements to the inquiry.
"We've had recommendations from family and survivors about how to do our work better,” said Buller. “We’ve taken great note of that.”
A community hearing has already happened in Whitehorse but the bulk of the testimony from families across Canada will happen starting at the end of September in Smithers, BC.
The commission will be back in Winnipeg during the week of October 16 for community hearings.
This week’s session was aimed at allowing the commissioners to hear from experts however families and survivors were welcome to attend.
The schedule was changed to allow families to share stories on Thursday morning however the coalition said the it happened last minute and not all families could attend because they didn’t know about it in time.
Buller said the commission will provide an interim report to the Prime Minister and Premiers by November 2017. The final report is due in November 2018 once all the evidence and the stories from families and survivors have been heard.
