Martha Troian reflects on launch of MMIW inquiry
Journalist Martha Troian on what the long-awaited inquiry means to victims' families
I remember sitting in my office at home, staring out my window while conducting my first interview for CBC's missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls project. I was four days into the work.
I talked to Nancy Masuskapoe, the older sister of Bernadette Ahenakew.
Bernadette Lynda Ahenakew, originally from the Metis community of Île-à-la-Crosse, Sask., was just 22 years old when her body was found on Oct. 24, 1989 in a ditch outside of Edmonton.
The family doesn't know if Bernadette died beforehand or if her body was simply placed there.
During that same week, I tracked down and found the family members of Margaret Blackbird.
Blackbird was 21 years old when she went missing from Loon Lake, Sask. in 1951. It remains the oldest case in CBC's missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls database.
Blackbird's relatives, as well as Masuskapoe, were among the family members CBC spoke to who supported an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In fact, 70 per cent of family members we spoke to for our investigation in 2015 — over 110 interviews — did as well.
For the past two years, I've been part of CBC's investigations into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. However, I've been writing about this tragedy for close to a decade.
Over those years, time and time again, I've heard first-hand from family members about the need for an inquiry, and about their dissatisfaction with how their relatives' cases were handled by officials and the lack of interest from the general public and media.
Memories of another announcement
On Aug. 3, 2016, the federal Liberal government announced the details of that long-awaited national inquiry — one that will likely won't start hearing from families until sometime next spring.
I watched the live broadcast of this announcement, and as I did, all of the families' voices and the names of their relatives rushed through my mind — just as they did on June 11, 2008, while I was working for another media outlet and the government of Canada apologized to residential school survivors.
As a journalist, you sense that history is being made and as an Indigenous person, you're acutely aware of its significance.
These are pivotal moments in a journalist's career and something we don't forget.
Finally on the radar
Indigenous families, along with local and national organizations and leaders, have called for this inquiry for more than a decade.
Perhaps even longer.
The 1988 Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People and the 2010 Missing Women Commission of Inquiry all spoke of the need to address the issue.
But these commissions and inquiries did not exclusively investigate violence against Indigenous women and girls.
Despite it all, I've witnessed families push for political change — even if it wasn't loud enough for previous governments.
Around two years ago, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated in a televised interview with The National's Peter Mansbridge that an inquiry into slain or missing Indigenous women and girls was not high on the government's radar — though he later appeared to deny saying that.
- OPINION: Stephen Harper's comments on MMIW show 'lack of respect'
- Full text of Peter Mansbridge's interview with Stephen Harper
Hearing that an inquiry will finally be held must have been like a weight lifted off the shoulders of many family members, although not all supported an inquiry — and there are many who still do not.
Still, families are just waiting for the inquiry to actually begin, some with cautious optimism.
For the families who wanted this inquiry, I hope it is everything they expect it to be, that their voices form its nucleus, and that it becomes the drive behind the drastic social and political change needed to address this overwhelming national tragedy.
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