CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — One year after the release of the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), Premier Dennis King has released an update on the province’s progress on its recommendations.
On Friday, the premier tabled a status report on the 231 recommendations of the inquiry that related to P.E.I. and tabled another status report detailing progress on the 94 recommendations from the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Both reports contained detailed and comprehensive information on actions taken in government departments and are reflective of significant work undertaken by the current government to address the injustices of Canada and P.E.I.’s history with Indigenous people.
But neither report includes specific information on how many of the recommendations from either the inquiry or the commission the province believes it has implemented to date.
King presented the reports in advance of National Indigenous Peoples Day, which will took place on Sunday, June 21.
“I encourage all Islanders to take this time to understand more about the history and let it inform your actions,” King told the House.
“Celebrate the Mi’kmaq and Indigenous people but learn from them as well.”
The reports were tabled hours before a Healing Walk was scheduled to take place in front of the Coles Building, to mark the death of Chantel Moore, a Nuu-chah-nulth woman, and Rodney Levi, a Metepenagiag First Nation man. Both were shot and killed after separate encounters with RCMP in New Brunswick.
The MMIWG report included 231 calls for justice. Fourteen individuals from P.E.I. participated in the inquiry, which found that Indigenous women and girls are more likely to experience violence or be murdered than non-Indigenous women and girls.
In the province’s status report on these recommendation, provincial staff noted that work on the recommendations requires work across all provincial departments. In March 2020, the province’s executive council established an interdepartmental working group, which would work with an Indigenous working group.
The status report says the interdepartmental working group will present an annual report of “the government of P.E.I.’s actions to move the Calls for Justice forward.”
Examples of steps taken to address the 231 calls for justice include:
- Continued funding for family information liaison units, which assisted families in obtaining police reports, court records and autopsy reports.
- Increased funding for an Indigenous justice program, administered by MCPEI.
- Plans to fund a Mi’kmaq Language initiative, which will help produce video or print material in the Mi’kmaq language.
- A pilot project involving students from Stonepark Intermediate, Mount Stewart Consolidated and Ecole Franscois-Buote to gather at the Abegweit First Nation and “start the working progress of reconciliation.”
- The establishment of an independent child and youth advocate office in November 2019.
- Funding for development of temporary housing for off-reserve Indigenous people.
- Funding from the province for constructing the Urban Indigenous Centre on the Charlottetown waterfront.
P.E.I.’s status report on the TRC contained 44 pages detailing information on each of the commission’s 94 calls to action. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the legacy of residential schools in Canada.
The TRC status report included information about reforms undertaken in child protection, education, health care and justice intended to address inequities experienced by Indigenous people.
As one example, the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of P.E.I. provides ongoing training with the Atlantic Police Academy about Mi’kmaq history and the impacts of residential schools.
Funding for an Indigneous Courtwork Program was announced in the recent provincial budget.
However, the report also notes that the province lacks specific data collection on the degree of overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody. The report notes that an “automated offender management information system” is under development.
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