Will Canada's Inquiry into Murdered Indigenous Women Actually Do Anything?

On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the Assembly of First Nations to lay out his government's plan for restoring its tattered relationship with Indigenous people. Speaking in Ottawa to chiefs and community leaders, he described the need for a "a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations peoples, one that understands that the constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations in Canada are not an inconvenience but rather a sacred obligation."

By noon, the ministers of Indigenous Affairs, Justice, and Status of Women—all women, one of them Indigenous—stood in the foyer of Parliament Hill to launch what is surely the crown jewel of the plan: the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Families and activists have been calling for national attention into the startling rates on Indigenous victimization in Canada for years. While homicide rates have been falling nation-wide since 1990, the proportion of Indigenous female victims has risen—from 14 percent to 21 percent this year. In an echo of the Black Lives Matter movement, the names of each new victim has become emblematic of the systemic tragedy: Rinelle Harper, Tina Fontaine, Loretta Saunders, Cindy Gladue. These deaths often go under-investigated, as though the risk factor of being an Indigenous woman is explanation enough.

Read: Jane Gerster's Series on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Under Stephen Harper's rule, there was steadfast resistance to calling an inquiry. Conservatives often invoked what Americans might recognize as the black-on-black crime explanation: the idea that most crimes against marginalized people are committed by marginalized offenders. Former Conservative minister of the Status of Women Kellie Leitch suggested that 91 percent of Aboriginal women are killed by an partner or acquaintance, likely Aboriginal. (This statistic has recently challenged in an in-depth analysis by the Toronto Star.) The less-than-subtle implication is that "these people" are simply killing each other. It's a classic denial of structural inequality, found in the heartless conservative handbook alongside "Poor People Are Lazy" and "She Was Asking For It."

The most notable aspect of Tuesday's announcement was the change in language from those not-so-distant Harper days.

Tuesday's event began with a recognition from each speaker that Parliament stands on "the traditional territory of the Algonquin people." This practice, standard in much of Western Canada, has yet to become part of Canadian political discourse more broadly. While it may seem like a basic politically correct gesture, it isn't. It's a reminder that our presence in what we call Canada remains in many ways unresolved—it's supposed to be unsettling, not comforting. (The Capital Region is currently involved in treaty negotiations with the Algonquins of Ottawa, which makes this statement less empty gesture, than legal reality.)