Alaya McIvor did not hold back in her testimony at the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
McIvor spoke for her cousin, Roberta McIvor, who was decapitated on the Sandy Bay First Nation in 2011.
“I don’t believe in this [inquiry]. I am sitting here because of my auntie,” said McIvor. “When my auntie died, she believed in a national inquiry.”
McIvor’s aunt Cindy Rubio, Roberta’s mother, died from cancer in 2016.
Roberta McIvor was decapitated on the Sandy Bay First Nation in 2011. (Facebook)
McIvor said she once believed in a national inquiry and walked across Canada in 2013 calling for one. What she and other families envisioned isn’t what she sees, she said.
“You guys really failed us. You really failed drastically,” she told commissioner Michelle Audette in the public hearing.
“No family should be left behind. This is supposed to be our inquiry, not your inquiry.”
McIvor was critical of the inquiry’s spending, questioning why all of the commissioners weren’t present in Winnipeg.
“Where are those other three commissioners … that head commissioner who is making $270,000 off the back of our loved ones,” she said. Buller’s salary range is $230,800 to $271,500, says an order-in-council that sets out her salary.
‘You guys really failed us. You really failed drastically’ – Alaya McIvor to MMIWG inquiry commissioner
Buller will be in Winnipeg on Wednesday. She was previously scheduled to speak at a conference in Alberta.
During opening remarks on Monday, the commissioners explained that only two at a time travel to attend community hearings, while the others stay back to research and prepare.
Commissioner Audette is expected to comment about McIvor’s testimony after the lunch break.
McIvor also presented Audette with 36 recommendations.