FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2014 03:52 PM CST | UPDATED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2014 03:57 PM CST
BY KRISTIN ANNABLE, WINNIPEG SUN
The head of the B.C. Missing Women Commission of Inquiry says action is needed before the government spends millions of dollars on a national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women.
In Wally Oppal's opening remarks at Thursday's Murdered and Missing Women: Lessons Learned workshop in Winnipeg, he said action on poverty, addiction and homelessness issues within the aboriginal community is the real work that needs to be done, instead of an inquiry.
"Let's start dealing those things, we could spend two years and $15 million on another inquiry or we could take that time and the $15 million and go correct all the ills in a particular reserve, (one) that needs running water, that needs homes," he said during a break from the workshop.
Oppal isn't opposed to inquiries; the lawyer, former judge and former B.C Attorney General has worked on five during his decades-long career, including taking the lead on the missing women inquiry into serial killer Robert Pickton in British Columbia.
"I am saying it because of the work that I have done ... my comments are not political, I speak from the heart and I believe this," he said. "I think inquiries are good because it gives people a chance to be heard ... but as far as what has gone on with murdered and missing women, we know what's happened."
He outlined a few areas which he believes could help aboriginal women in a more hands-on manner, including education to better equip them to enter the workforce, adding more resources to aboriginal schools and empowering the women within the schools.
"We know it is through neglect, through society not caring about the poverty and the drug addiction and the homelessness," he said
"The reason I don't think we need another inquiry is that I think it is time for action."
This story will be updated.
