By Matt Fetinko

Still no plan

‘We need action’: Teegee on delayed MMIWG National Action Plan

Jun 25, 2020 | 1:41 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — It has been a little over a year since the final report on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and still no National Action Plan to show for, causing some unrest among First Nations.

June 3 is when a National Action Plan was supposed to be released, built from the findings of the National Inquiry. The inquiry, which was founded in 2015, was to lay the framework for the Action Plan addressing systematic issues such as placing Indigenous families and children in unacceptable positions, loss of language and culture, and gender discrimination.

“We were told by the federal government that there will be an action plan. That was conveyed to us in December. We are still waiting for an action plan. I think people are frustrated, we’re tired of just simply talking. We need action,” explained Terry Teegee, Regional Chief for the BC Assembly of First Nations.

The plan was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since it began, the federal government has committed close to $45 million for shelters in First Nations communities with another $41 million to support operational costs for the first five years. There has also been $50 million to support shelter and sexual assault centres for women and children. A statement from the Office of the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations reads, “Although the realities of living in a time of pandemic has changed the manner by which partners are engaging on a National Action Plan at this time, we are employing innovative ways to continue the work of co-developing a National Action Plan staying physically isolated. This important work is ongoing. Building off of engagement at Federal-Provincial-Territorial meetings, Minister Bennett has been engaging with her colleagues directly to discuss the whole-of-country response.”

Meanwhile, from Melissa Moses, the Women’s Representative with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs: “The pandemic has instead exacerbated the pre-existing challenges and inequities Indigenous women and girls confront and impresses upon us the critical need for a National Action Plan as rates of domestic violence against Indigenous women and girls have alarmingly increased. In its decision to delay the plan, Canada also does a discredit to the thousands of survivors of violence, family members, and loved ones who came bravely forward to provide hours of testimony despite immense pain and trauma.”

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The Office of the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations gave no timetable on when the National Action Plan will be released. For more on what the federal government is doing, click here.