MMIWG inquiry co-commissioner surprised, frustrated with lack of action on report's calls for justice

The former co-commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls says the changes made so far in response to that inquiry are "just the tip of the iceberg."

Michèle Audette, who is now a Quebec senator, was one of the commissioners for the inquiry, which heard from hundreds of witnesses during dozens of community meetings from 2016 to 2019.

The commission's final report, delivered in June 2019, made 231 calls for justice.

Four years later, CBC's "Mother. Sister. Daughter" project, which tracked progress on the 231 calls to justice from the inquiry, found just two have been fully implemented.

Sen. Audette spoke with CBC on May 15 about those findings.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Sen. Michèle Audette: Well, it is a surprise, because I was hoping that the number will be higher than two [calls completed].

But at the same time … some [calls] are put there that we're not going to see the result today or tomorrow. It's ongoing. Other places, we were very clear that it should have been done way before a national inquiry. 

Just … [a] couple weeks ago, a few ministers announced that they will put money on housing and shelter for a safe place for women and children. But at the end of the day when you look at it, it's just the tip of the iceberg.

So how they brought the message, like, "It's responding to one of the calls of the national inquiry." For me, it was natural to remind them, "No, no, no. It's something you're starting" — because it's just the beginning.

CBC: And while they recently announced more funding, we noticed that just weeks earlier, they'd confirmed that soon, $145 million in extra pandemic funding to some of these shelters was actually ending.

Well, you're the first one who brings that up.

It was like, OK, I think they're just trying to put the crisis on another place. So people will say, "Yay!" … hoping that we forget the cut that they made.

After all of your years of hard work on this, how frustrated are you with these results?

[Laughs] I try not to cry every day … because I am mad. I have that anger. I cannot lie to you.

And I have to breathe a lot, because I could be screaming, but I think I would scare people off.

And also, knowing that I agreed to go inside a place where it's very difficult to change … but I believe in the emotional intelligence of human beings, that we will do a small step or many small steps, and when we put this together, say, "Wow, we did a lot."

You know, women still face … all what we did present in that report. But we need to be everywhere, and we need to remind all of us that we all have a place to shake this world or to be shaken, also — because I need to be shaken also, as a senator. I don't pretend that I'm comfortable. 

The CBC counted at least 45 committees and task forces struck by different governments to implement these calls for justice. Some critics say they're covering the same ground and that the answers are already in the report and the calls for justice.

Well, if you had the former [MMIWG inquiry] Commissioner [Qajaq] Robinson on this call right now, she would say, "That's it, that's it."

After we tabled the report, we watch and listen carefully on Zoom the announcement of … the federal path [the government's response to the MMIWG inquiry, released in 2021].

And sometimes some people [in government] would say, "Well Michèle, you know, [there's] the report of the report within the report, with the action plan within the action plan" — like, OK, OK, I think I get it.

We showed you by the voices of the families and survivors, these are the priorities for those who participate. You don't have to recreate something. Just implement. 

Are you discouraged?

I am. I am. I bead a lot. I do beading. It's important for me. I connect with people who make me laugh. I connect with family members and survivors, and I listen or they listen.

I would say that the work we did, is for all levels of government, municipal and provincial, across Canada. And I would say to [Crown-Indigenous Relations] Minister [Marc] Miller, I know he has a good heart … and a good mind.

But the other ministers have the same, if not more responsibility to respond on the call for justice. So they need to come, they need to do something. They need to be strong.