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Yukon community liaison for MMIWG inquiry fired

Melissa Carlick, the Whitehorse-based community liaison officer for the national Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry, was fired from her position earlier this month.
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Stewart Tizya/via Facebook Melissa Carlick was fired this week from the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Melissa Carlick, the Whitehorse-based community liaison officer for the national Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry, was fired from her position earlier this month.

Carlick, whose job covered the Yukon and Northwest Territories, Alberta and some of British Columbia, confirmed the fact to the News but declined to comment further.

Two other women were also fired.

Speaking to APTN, Carlick said she was fired Nov. 7 during hearings in Edmonton and that it was done without warning.

In an interview with the CBC, Carlick said inquiry executive director Debbie Reid called her into her office where a security guard and elder in B.C. were waiting, along with Carlick’s director, who was on the phone.

Carlick told the CBC they told her she was being fired, effectively immediately.

”It was like a ball just dropped, they threw me under the bus. It was just like, ‘you’re going home, you’re done,’” Carlick told the CBC.

She told APTN that she had been made lead for the Edmonton hearings and was given six weeks to organize them.

“It was just a lot of planning a lot time, a lot of pressure and no support, no debrief,” she said.

“They don’t hear you, they don’t listen to you,” Carlick told APTN. “It’s just about, ‘Make me look good,’ and if you don’t, then you’re out, and if you push back you’re gone.”

The national inquiry did not respond to a request for comment.

As of Nov. 16, the inquiry’s website still listed Carlick as the community liaison officer for Yukon and the Northwest. It’s unclear who, if anyone, will be replacing her.

Contact Jackie Hong at jackie.hong@yukon-news.com