Introduction
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INTRODUCTION Chapter 9, “Wellness and Healing,” takes a closer look at the National Inquiry’s own health and wellness approach for family members and survivors, and what we have learned from families and survivors who participated in the National Inquiry who discussed their own healing journeys. In Chapter 10, “Commemoration and Calling Forth,” we turn to the National Inquiry’s efforts to raise awareness and engage in public education through our Legacy Archive, art outreach, and youth engagement guide. Altogether, we assert, these actions, engagements, and interactions will help reclaim the role of women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people as powerful cultural carriers and sacred knowledge holders who are capable of shaping a safer future for the next generation of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. In Chapter 11, “On the Front Lines: Valuing the Insight of Front-line Workers,” we provide a summary of four Guided Dialogue sessions, held in the fall of 2018. These dialogues brought together people of diverse perspectives to discuss best practices and solutions for change. These were not aimed at gathering individual testimony, but instead aimed to bring together front-line service providers, organizers, people with lived experience, Elders, academics, and outreach support to fill in gaps and discuss best practices related to their own backgrounds within specific Inuit, Métis, 2SLGBTQQIA, and Quebec contexts. Over the course of three days, participants identified barriers and discussed what best practices and solutions look like through the lenses of culture, health, security, and justice. Calls for Justice We end with our Calls for Justice. These Calls are anchored in human and Indigenous rights in- struments, Indigenous laws, and principles shared through the testimonies of family members, survivors, Knowledge Keepers, and Expert Witnesses, along with the National Inquiry’s advisory groups, both internal and external. These Calls for Justice, as their name implies, demand action that reflects, respects, and actively works to create relationships where Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are recognized as rights bearers and have those rights upheld – work- ing to address where justice, seen in the larger context of dispossession and marginalization, has failed. These Calls for Justice are based on the findings of fact found at the end of each chapter and in the Deeper Dives, where applicable, as well as the overarching findings we lay out at the begin- ning of Section 4. In addition, they are undergirded by important Principles for Justice – lenses through which all Calls for Justice must be interpreted, applied and implemented, for change to materialize. Restoring safety for Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people is an urgent responsi- bility for us all. These Calls are not simply moral principles; they are legal imperatives. 84 Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls INTRODUCTION Summary of the Forensic Document Review Project In this annex, we summarize the important work of the Forensic Document Review Project, which examined 174 police files consisting of 136,834 documents and 593,921 pages. While the Project's important work has been limited by the time frame of the National Inquiry’s mandate, our examination demonstrates the important reasons that this kind of work and re-examination must continue, to find justice for those families and survivors still desperately searching for answers. Conclusion: An Invitation One of the things that makes this National Inquiry unique is that we are not investigating a past wrong, but one that is still ongoing and that is getting worse. Acts of violence stemming from the structures of colonization and coupled with racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia are not few and far between, but pervasive, immediate, and urgent. However, this violence is also preventable – if Canadians are willing to change. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls gave Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people a national platform to speak their truths, but the real work is only getting started. Ending violence against Indigenous women and girls will require fundamental realignment and transformation of systems and society as they currently exist. The investment into solving this crisis must be equal to or better than the over five hundred years of deficit that have preceded it. The rights of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are violated or upheld every day, in small ways and large. The National Inquiry believes that the restoration of these rights is a pressing priority, as a way of transforming harmful encounters Indigenous Peoples have with systems that impact their lives. In particular, governments have a responsibility to protect and promote rights grounded in concepts of culture and identity, of health, of safety, and of justice, which are key to ensuring overall progress in addressing the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. They are also key to ending violence and finding holistic solutions to help build the foundation that will restore Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people to their power and place. Documenting these encounters is one way we insist on accountability and a realistic assessment of the ongoing reality of violence in the lives of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. This is critical to understanding how our society can be transformed from its very roots. 85 Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls INTRODUCTION There is a role in this transformation for government, for industry, for communities, for allies, and for individuals – we all have a part to play. By focusing on specific moments of encounter – moments that form relationships – we offer one path through all of these stories. We have chosen this path because we believe it achieves the mission of the National Inquiry to document in precise and exacting ways the root causes of violence and the ongoing human rights violations against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. We also hope, however, that the path this report leads to for you, the reader, is one that shows you that change is possible right now. As you follow this journey through the testimony, you might find you have other questions or that there are other routes you are interested in exploring in more detail yourself. You might find that when you hear about a particular encounter, you want to know more about that family’s entire story, or about how certain issues play out in the health care system, the justice system, or other institutions. We encourage you to follow that path and incorporate what you learn into relationship within your own lives, communities, and societies. Your relationship with the stories included in this report and available online is an encounter – a transformational moment of relationship – of the utmost importance in itself. 86 Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls INTRODUCTION Notes 1 Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, 79; 82-89; 89. 26 TAKEN, “About the series.” 2 Ibid., 79. 27 TAKEN, “Infographic.” 3 Ibid. 28 Boyce, “Victimization of Aboriginal People in Canada, 2014.” 4 Feierstein, “Defining the Concept of Genocide,” 15. 29 Bruser et al., “Nearly half of murdered Indigenous 5 Ibid. women.” 6 United Nations, Convention on the Prevention and 30 Blaze and McClearn, “Prime target.” Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article II. 31 Anaya, “Statement upon Conclusion of the Visit to 7 Schabas, Genocide in International Law, 46. Canada.” 8 Bjørnland, Markuson, and Mennecke, “What Is Geno- 32 Boyce, “Victimization of Aboriginal People in Canada, cide?” as cited in Feierstein, “Defining the Concept of 2014.” Genocide,” 12. 33 Conroy and Cotter, “Self-reported Sexual Assault in 9 Semelin, “Around the ‘G’ Word,” 27. Canada, 2014.” 10 Feierstein, “Defining the Concept of Genocide,” 14. 34 Canada, Public Safety Canada, National Action Plan to 11 Ibid. Combat Human Trafficking. 12 Krotz, “A Canadian genocide?” 35 National Aboriginal Consultation Project, Sacred Lives. 13 Woolford and Benvenuto, “Canada and Colonial 36 Native Women’s Association of Canada, “Boyfriend or Genocide,” 375. Not.” 14 Ibid. 37 Bucik, “Canada: Discrimination and Violence,” 4. 15 Krotz, “A Canadian genocide?” 38 Pyne et al., “Barriers to Well-Being.” 16 Palmater, “Sexualized Genocide.” 39 Boyce, “Victimization of Aboriginal People in Canada, 2014.” 17 Palmater, “The Ongoing Legacies.” 40 Kohkom (Piapot First Nation), Part 1, Statement 18 Fontaine and Farber, “What Canada committed against Volume 122, Saskatoon, SK, p. 30. First Nations.” 41 Bernice C. (Sagkeeng First Nation), Part 1, Public 19 Woolford and Benvenuto, “Canada and Colonial Volume 15, Winnipeg, MB, p. 51. Genocide,” 380. 42 Tamara S., Part 1, Public Volume 15, Winnipeg, MB, pp. 20 Danny P. (Membertou First Nation), Part 1, Statement 51-52. Volume 69, Membertou, NS, pp. 2, 4. 43 Danielle E. (Kawacatoose First Nation), Part 1, Public 21 Native Women’s Association of Canada, “What Their Volume 31, Saskatoon, SK, p. 117. Stories Tell Us.” 44 Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern 22 Pearce, “An Awkward Silence.” Affairs Canada,”Terms of Reference for the National 23 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, “Missing and Inquiry.”