The Quebec portion of the public hearings of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) begins this morning.
Hearings will be in the Quebec Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, near Sept-Îles on the province’s North Shore. More than 60 family members and survivors are expected to testify.
The inquiry is investigating the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls across Canada. RCMP have identified 1,200 victims between 1980 and 2012, though some experts believe the real number is much higher.
The daily community hearings are expected to begin at 9 a.m. ET and finish around 5 p.m. They will wrap up on Friday.
Both commissioners of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Marion Buller and Michèle Audette, will be at the hearings in Quebec. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
The grand chief of the Algonquin Anishnabeg Nation, Verna Polson, says many families were hoping to make the trip, but the distance is proving to be an obstacle.
The community is about 900 kilometres from Montreal, and about 640 kilometres from Quebec City.
This week will be the inquiry’s only planned stop in Quebec, but families are pushing for hearings in Montreal.
Polson said she had to push to find out if the inquiry will eventually come to Montreal, which is much closer to the Algonquin communities. She says she was told Montreal will be on the agenda for the winter of 2018.
“I find there is a lack of information for the families, you know, the families are dealing with lots of trauma as it is. We need to make this [easier].”
When contacted by CBC, the inquiry could not confirm if a hearing would take place in Montreal, and only provided the dates that have already been scheduled for 2017.
In the inquiry’s interim report, released earlier this month, commissioners recommended the creation of a national police task force that could review cold cases and reopen investigations.
The final report is to be completed by Nov. 1, 2018.