As MMIWG commissioner makes final visit to Manitoba, families hope for real change

For Isabel Daniels, a final meeting with one ofMMIWGinquiry's commissionersmarks the end of a journey through grief andhope of new healing.

"I'm happy that it's done. I really am. I'm happy that we get to move on with our lives," Daniels said Tuesday, standing outside Winnipeg's Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre.

Over the last 2years, she and dozens of familiesand survivors met there and gave testimony at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Victims and families gathered in Thompson, Man., onMonday and in Winnipeg on Tuesday to meet with Michle Audette, one of the inquiry's commissioners.

It's the first time many family members have been able to come together to react to the findings in the inquiry's final report,released at a ceremony in Gatineau, Que., on June 3.

This week, commissioners are travelling to sharethe inquiry's findings in Toronto, Saskatoonand Whitehorse.

Daniels has been an outspoken voice throughout the inquiry. Her cousin Nicoledied 10 years ago, after being found frozen in a snowbank in downtown Winnipeg. Police called her death accidentala decision the family never accepted.

"Even though the report needed to be done, even though we needed those recommendations, we were also kept in our grief," she said.

"It was a two-year process of being stuck in grief and bereavement. So I'm happy that this is a next phase, that we're working on tangible and long-term solutions for people."

Inquiry 'took Canada to a place it didn't want to go'

"It was very important to be here," Audette said in Winnipeg."Families from here were very vocal, very strong, andit's important that I come back and make closure with them."

The inquirymakes it impossible to deny what many have said for years is happening to Indigenous women and girls in the country, she said.

Among the inquiry's findings is the fact thatIndigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other demographic group in the country.

"Now, women, we have tools tools that come from a place where nobody wanted to go,"she said Tuesday, speaking to a group of families and survivors.

"With this, they cannot say to us again, 'we'll see,'" she said. "I think the priorities are here."

She said she's concerned about what will happen now that the commission is complete. She also said she's concernedabout the families who gave their stories, acknowledgingthat some felt the inquiry didn't bring the closure they needed.

'Whole world is watching'

The family of Jennifer Catcheway said they hope that the country will now take action.

Bernice Catchewayand her husband, Wilfred, have been searching for their daughter for more than a decade. Even yesterday, they said they were out looking for Jennifer, who disappeared from her Portage la Prairiehome on June 19, 2008.

"The whole world is watching," Bernice said."Maybe the government will see, and now take it seriously."

Theysaid they will continue to search for their daughter.

"This is the hardest part of my life, trying to find my girl," Wilfred said. "My Jennifer is still missing, and I'm still hurt."

MMIWG commissioner makes final visit to Manitoba

5 years ago

Duration 2:22

Over the last 2 years, dozens of families and survivors met and gave testimony at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.