Ottawa, June 5, 2018 – Amnesty International is alarmed at the government of Canada’s failure to act on a recommendation by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ to establish a national task force to review and reopen cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.
At a press conference today responding to recommendations in the Inquiry’s Interim Report and request for an extension, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett said it was premature for a national task force to be struck before the National Inquiry’s final report is issued on April 30, 2019.
“Indigenous families, Indigenous organizations, and human rights organizations have long called for such a task force,” said Alex Neve, Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada. “The failure to establish a task force parallel to the Inquiry was one of the key concerns raised by Amnesty International and others when the National Inquiry was announced, and failure to act on the Inquiry’s recommendation to form a task force now is a missed opportunity.”
The recommendation to “work collaboratively with provinces and territories to create a national police task force to which the National Inquiry could refer families and survivors to assess or reopen cases or review investigations” was made in the Interim Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, submitted to government on November 2, 2017.
The government of Canada extended the National Inquiry’s deadline to submit its final report by six months; the final report is now due on April 30, 2019.
For more information, please contact: Jacob Kuehn, Media Relations 613-744-7667×236, jkuehn@amnesty.ca.
