Saskatchewan’s Northern MP says a new report lays out a clear path to addressing violence against Indigenous women and girls and now all that remains to be seen is whether the Liberal government acts on it.
The final report on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls makes more than 230 calls for justice.
In accepting the report Monday, Prime Minister Justice Trudeau pledged to act immediately on its recommendations.
However, NDP MP Georgina Jolibois says the Prime Minister has a track record of making big promises but failing to deliver.
“Prime Minister Trudeau is very good with words and he is very good at making promises and very good at saying that he will do something,” she says. “However, when it comes to action, really doing something, and really caring, he doesn’t.”
Jolibois says the Liberals have still failed to live up to many of the calls to action demanded of government in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
She also says the Prime Minister missed an historic opportunity to address the gravity of the issue at hand in his initial response to the report.
In her speech on Monday morning, the inquiry’s chief commissioner Marion Buller referred to the ongoing violence against Indigenous women and girls as “genocide.”
However, Trudeau carefully chose not to use the word in his own speech.
“It is very disappointing for the Prime Minister not to acknowledge the ongoing genocide against First Nations, Métis and Inuit women across Canada,” Jolibois says. “He fell short of saying genocide. By doing that, I see it as him not standing up and not protecting Indigenous women across Canada.”
Nevertheless, in a speech later that day, Trudeau did use the term “genocide” when referring to the final report.
The Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River MP says the final report hits home for a lot of people living in northern Saskatchewan who have been affected by violence in one way or another.
The inquiry heard submissions from more than 2,300 people across Canada over the course of two years before filing its final report.
(PHOTO: Georgina Jolibois. File photo.)