Mixed feelings in N.W.T. over MMIWG inquiry extension

Northern advocates for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls describe mixed feelings after Canada's inquiry was given a six-month extension by Ottawa on June 5.

The final report, which was expected by November this year, is now expected by April 30, 2019.

There will be two more months for the inquiry to wrap up after the report. The federal government says it will work with the inquiry to decide on how much more money to set aside for the process.

The inquiry was seeking an additional two years and an extra $50 million.

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'It's only money'

Kathy Meyer is the mother of Angela Meyer, who has been missing since 2010. She says she would have liked the inquiry to receive the full extension that it asked for "so we can get as many stories out as possible."

"There is no life worth any amount of money," she said. "I do feel for the other families who can't tell their stories."

Dean, Angela's father, is glad that there has been some extension.

"When we gave our testimony it was a huge relief, and I'm sure other families are feeling that too," hesaid, addingthe commissioners were "fabulous people to talk to," but that he would have liked them to spend more time in the North.

"It has helped our family," said Kathy. "We've told our story and we really are ready to move on. It's not that we don't think of Angela every day."

Regional recommendations at risk

Lesa Semmler, a member of the inquiry's National Family Advisory Circle, says she is glad that there is a new date the commission can work toward.

However, she's concerned the inquiry's commissioners won't have enough time to make recommendations for specific regions, which families of victims wanted.

"As they've been doing the visits they see themes coming up in different regions,"said Semmler, whose mother was murdered in 1985. "We don't want to get lost."

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Semmler worries that without regional recommendations, the unique needs of remote communities in the North will be overlooked to focus on problems in bigger population centres, like southern British Columbia or Quebec.

"In Yellowknife, we heard over and over again ... we don't have enough shelters for women to escape violence in their homes," she said. "If I was living in a small little community that has no roads, where am I going to go? I have to get on a plane and it only comes once every few days."

Criticisms remain

Yellowknife lawyerCarolineWawzonekrepresents a party in the inquiry. She toldCBCthe extension is a "recognition that there wasn't enough time provided in the front end."

"It's unfortunate they didn't have enough time when they were doing the planning so the whole thing could be rolled out in a more organized fashion," she said.

The inquiry's extension comes after it faced criticism for internal dysfunction and a "sick internal culture."

Multiple staffers have resigned. And some families of victims said they didn't get enough emotional support as they told their stories.

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Wawzonek saidit's been "a challenge" to communicate with commissioners and their lawyers.

"That doesn't mean you give up," she said, adding the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is "an absolute crisis in Canada."

"They have to do something to try to salvage what they can of it."

Kathy Meyerhopes the final report will "bring some answers to our family" and that any recommendations are followed through: "Hopefully it doesn't end up in a box in a filing cabinet in an office somewhere."