03) THE CLOCK HAS BEEN TICKING FOR 500 YEARS
By Kimball Cariou
After a decade of denial under the previous federal government, swift progress is now underway to launch a national inquiry into the tragedy of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. For family members, grassroots activists and Aboriginal organizations which have campaigned since the 1990s for such an inquiry, this reversal is breathtaking, even among those who remain wary of the Trudeau government’s intentions.
The new situation also compels everyone involved to think carefully about what comes next. The hunger for immediate answers and genuine justice is tempered with the realization that conducting this inquiry in a comprehensive and respectful manner may take several years. On the other hand, a recent series of articles in the Globe and Mail points to the likelihood that serial killers continue to target young indigenous women, adding new urgency to the crisis.
A key part of the problem is the enormous scope of this issue. After years of sharing stories and researching statistics, most family members and activists who have led this struggle agree that over 1200 indigenous women and girls have been killed or gone missing across Canada since 1980. This will likely be the general period addressed in most detail by the inquiry, in part because shortcomings in data collection make it increasingly difficult to arrive at precise numbers for earlier periods of time.
But indigenous peoples and their allies are painfully aware that the past 35 years are only a fraction of the historical era of colonization of the Americas.
In 1534, Jacques Cartier “claimed” the Gulf of St. Lawrence for France, and the pace of land grabs and genocide soon accelerated, including the extermination of the Beothuk people on Newfoundland. Other forms of genocide were a deadly consequence of colonization, such as the 1639 smallpox epidemic which killed half of the Hurons. Everywhere throughout the hemisphere, indigenous peoples died in huge numbers as European empires and then the newly independent settler-capitalist states expanded into their territories. Resistance was continuous, but as in the 1864 Tsilhqot’in War in central BC or the 1885 Metis Rebellion in Saskatchewan, was usually overcome by superior firepower and brutal repression.
For First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples, the events of the last 35 years can only be viewed through the prism of stolen lands, broken treaties, residential schools, the “60s scoop,” and shocking crimes committed by police and other state institutions. From this perspective, the 1200 murdered and missing women are not an exception; they are part of an ongoing pattern which weaves together complementary policies of extermination and assimilation. Even today, with a federal government which includes Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, the daughter of iconic First Nations leader Bill Wilson, the Canadian corporate elite remains deeply committed to the destructive extraction of tar sands and other resources from traditional aboriginal territories.
All this background hints at the complex issues around the convening of the national inquiry, especially to understand fears that the terms of reference could be set up to limit participation or to pre-determine an outcome favoured by the government.
It comes as welcome news that Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has already started pre-inquiry consultations with families of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Unlike her Conservative predecessors, Bennett has stated her intention to listen closely to the families, who are determined to be at the forefront of the inquiry process.
Bennett is also carrying out “engagements" with provincial and territorial governments, aboriginal organizations, and civil society groups. She wants an inquiry which will be culturally sensitive, not simply token attention to indigenous practices. So far, the Liberals have committed to spending $40 million over two years, and they have not finalized the scope of the inquiry. Bennett is aware, for example, that the systemic racism of the residential school system, which aimed to “take the Indian out of the child”, also had a terrible impact on boys, and that many indigenous men have been murdered or gone missing.
None of this is any guarantee that the outcome will satisfy the families or others who have been deeply involved in this issue, or that the inquiry’s final recommendations will be implemented by governments and other bodies. The Canadian state will still be in the hands of corporate interests determined to squeeze maximum profits from the exploitation of human beings and nature. The police, armed forces, the courts and prisons, spy agencies etc. will remain instruments of force to maintain the rule of the wealthy as long as they hold power.
Even if the inquiry exposes the systemic roots of violence against indigenous peoples, it will not by itself bring a final end to the legacy of centuries of colonial oppression and racism. As Buffy Sainte-Marie sang in Now That The Buffalo’s Gone, “oh it’s all in the past you can say / but it’s still going on here today.”
What might change, however, is something even more profound. Despite setbacks, the struggle to overcome the legacy of racism is gaining momentum. The Mohawk struggle at Oka, the Caledonia land reclamation by the Six Nations, the Idle No More movement, resistance against fracking and pipeline projects, and the demand for the national inquiry, have all won growing support across Canada. The Conservatives refused to accept the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 recommendations - including the definition of cultural genocide - and were voted out of office less than four months later.
The fact that this inquiry is about to happen reflects a dramatic shift in public opinion, which the new Liberal government has chosen not to ignore. The Liberals must establish broad terms of reference and ensure that the inquiry will allow people to speak truth to power. But they must also act quickly. Justice delayed is justice denied, and the clock has already been ticking for nearly five hundred years.
(An earlier version of this article was published in Radical Desi magazine.)
(The above article is from the December 1-31, 2015, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)