Published by Senator Mobina Jaffer on 06 July 2011
Many years ago, when several aboriginal women went missing, their loved ones and colleagues sought help from the police. Unfortunately, the police did not heed their plea.
At the time we all remained silent. After a lot of machinations, some of these cases were brought forward, providing a few families with the justice they longed for. Unfortunately, there were still several families who to this day continue to experience great pain as the cases of their loved ones were never heard in court.
At the time we all remained silent. At long last, the attorney-general has called for the establishment of a Missing Women's Commission. This commission will not only give those families an opportunity to express their pain, but also will answer some of their questions about why so little was done to save their loved ones. In addition, the commission will review the process of coordinating investigations into missing women and multiple homicides in British Columbia and recommend improvements that could prevent similar tragedies from reoccurring.
Unfortunately, the commission has yet to be fully established. There are several reasons for this, many of which are logistical in nature. Will we all once again remain silent? Will the families of the missing women be denied legal representation? Will their cries continue to fall on deaf ears?
I commend our government for calling a public inquiry into whether the disappearance and deaths of more than 65 women in British Columbia could have been prevented or resolved earlier by superior police investigation strategies. Indeed, it's hard to imagine a more pressing issue than whether the murder and disappearance of our community's most vulnerable women could have been prevented. It is a tragedy of epic proportion.
Unfortunately, the attorney-general, Barry Penner, has rejected Missing Women Commissioner Wally Oppal's recommendation that the government fund the legal costs of 12 groups, which he says have a legitimate interest in the work of his commission.
There is no doubt the cost of public inquiries needs to be accounted for. However, costs should be balanced against the need for a fair process and adequate examination of the issues. Most of the interest groups are front-line service providers with no means or capacity to participate in the inquiry unrepresented. It is unrealistic to assume these groups could engage in technical cross-examination of professional witnesses and review the hundreds of thousands of documents without the assistance of counsel.
Yet, it is their perspectives that must be heard if the inquiry is to avoid the same mistakes that were alleged to have been made by the police. Without the presence of these groups, the police evidence would not be rigorously tested and commission counsel would be forced into an untenable position of balancing the need for a fair inquiry with the need to be impartial.
The government is funding a lawyer representing the families of 10 of Robert Pickton's alleged victims. It argues that the 12 groups that have not received funding will still be able to have their voices heard in the "study" phase of the inquiry if they are unable to participate in the evidentiary hearings. But that's missing the point.
The 12 groups and the women they represent need and deserve the opportunity, through their legal representatives, to get answers to the questions that have been ignored and deflected for so many years. It's the least we can do for them. Denying them this opportunity means that many of those questions will continue to go unanswered and we will not move any closer to addressing the real issues confronting marginalized women in poor communities.
I am publicly urging Premier Christy Clark to revisit the issue. As someone who was once the chair of the Family Violence Task Force in British Columbia and a member on the Canadian Panel on Violence against Women, I have observed first-hand the vulnerable positions many aboriginal women are placed in.
As a compassionate and caring society, Canadians over many years have acknowledged the need for investigation into troubling social and policy issues through commissions of inquiry. In most cases they have contributed to healing where harm has been done and to positive policy changes where laws have been found lacking.
The time to act is now. The families of the victims have been suffering for far too long. Let us finally dry their tears.