A report recently released by three leading British Columbia human rights organizations calls the province's Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (MWCI) “a failure.”
Meanwhile, commissioner Wally Oppal delivered the final inquiry report to Justice Minister and Attorney General Shirley Bond on Nov. 22, after having received a one-month extension at the beginning of the month.
South Cariboo resident Gail Edinger is the regional co-ordinator for the Community Co-ordination for Women's Safety (CCWS) Program.
She says the provincial inquiry was disrespectful to participants, did not include the voices of the people about whom it was held and, in general, did not meet the needs of the families of missing and murdered women in B.C.
Since 2010, the B.C. Liberal government has used $8.6 million of taxpayers’ money for the commission to analyze and report on the investigations into missing and murdered women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside between January 1997 and February 2002.
Edinger notes some marginalized women in the South Cariboo do migrate into that area of the city, and others are coerced into the move.
“Some young girls are trafficked in our communities, and then taken down there [for prostitution].”
The new report, prepared by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Pivot Legal Society, and West Coast LEAF, stated Oppal's MWCI shut out 15 groups, which had been granted standing at the inquiry, and noted it was picketed for weeks by the very women it was intended to support.
The province says Oppal is drawing on “a large amount of material,” including evidence from three months of public hearings, written submissions, evidence from public policy forums and input from community engagement forums throughout the province.
However, Edinger says the 94 days of hearings was “a travesty.”
Many testimonies were brushed over, while other key witnesses and family members were not allowed to give evidence, she adds.
Some social organizations applied for standing at the inquiry, Edinger explains, so family members of missing and murdered women and people in the Downtown East Side would have representation.
“Those groups were not funded by the government in the same way the police were. Police had several lawyers, and the families and [residents] had one.
“That was the first hurdle, and then it just went downhill from there.”
The results of Oppal's inquiry are yet to be made public, but Canim Lake Band (CLB) health director Sheila Dick says, ideally, she would like to see it lead to an action plan and some policies around the safety of women implemented.
“And, to hold the justice system accountable... because it's not just the government [responsible], it's law enforcement. In the past, some of our women have suffered at the hands of the justice system.”
The recent report makes a number of recommendations on ways future commissions of inquiry can include the participation of marginalized groups.
It notes the MWCI hearings ended amid “a firestorm of controversy about excessive salaries” paid to junior and senior lawyers. The most senior commission lawyers received almost $500,000 each for six month’s work, which it says is close to the entire annual budget for the target area's drop-in centre for street-based sex workers.