The Yukon’s second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit+ People Accountability Forum took place at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre on Oct. 16 and 17.
The two-day event saw government representatives and other decision-makers offer updates on initiatives to protect the vulnerable.
Ann Maje Raider from the Liard Aboriginal Women Society has been involved with work reckoning with threats to Indigenous women and girls for years. Having seen all stages of the process, she compared the opening day of the accountability forum to other hopeful days in recent years such as the launch of Canada’s MMIWG inquiry and the release of the implementation plan for the Yukon’s MMIWG2S+ strategy this June.
“It’s wonderful to have a feeling of hope and promise,” she said
Doris Bill, former chief of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, who has had long-term involvement with the MMIWG work, highlighted those still missing across the North, including Ramona Peter, who was last seen in the Ross River area on April 28 of this year.
Whatever work has been done so far, Bill says yearly accountability forums will remain key to the success of the strategy.
The Yukon government minister responsible for the Women and Gender Equity Directorate, Jeanie McLean, who has also played a major role in the work discussed at the forum, said the Yukon is the only place in Canada that has a roadmap like the Yukon’s MMIWG2S+ strategy.
The implementation plan for the strategy was released this June. It sets out 190 action items to be undertaken over the next 15 years.
McLean made a point to recognize the family members of missing or murdered people who provided input on the plan.
Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai also spoke about the Yukon’s Missing Persons Act, which came into force the morning of the first day of the forum. The premier said the new legislation was carefully crafted to balance privacy rights while giving the RCMP new tools to help them locate missing people. Under the act, the RCMP will be able to apply to the courts for emergency orders allowing them access to missing people’s phone, financial and health records. If the missing person is a minor or otherwise vulnerable it might also allow for search warrants. The police will have to report on their use of the act annually.
Much of the first day of the accountability forum was taken up by reports from the groups charged with implementing the MMIWG2S+ strategy detailing work that has gone on since the forum last year.
One of the groups offering a report on actions taken since the implementation plan was the Yukon Advisory Committee that informed work on the MMIWG2S+ strategy. The report from the advisory committee was presented by Maje Raider and Amanda Buffalo.
Speaking to the point of the strategy efforts to make youth a priority, Maje Raider said two youth groups had signed on for round-table discussions that are being organized.
Programming for men and boys aimed at stopping violence is also in the works. Maje Raider called this piece fundamental, as the men and boys need guidance. She said her group will continue to reach out to them.
The advisory committee representatives also told the forum that the Yukon Coroner’s Service and the Yukon First Nations Education Directorate had signed on to the MMIWG2S+ strategy.
Maje Raider spoke about efforts towards First Nations reclamation of residential school sites and nurturing First Nations family units.
She also expressed the importance of affordable telecom and internet, and safe transportation between Yukon communities.
Buffalo said getting representatives of local media to sign on to the strategy is another milestone the advisory committee hopes to achieve in the near term. The afternoon of the accountability forum’s first day featured two panel discussions — one with national media figures and the other with representatives of local outlets who discussed Indigenous representation among other topics.
There was also a keynote speech from journalist and author Angela Sterritt, whose most recent book, Unbroken, blends memoir and investigative journalism focusing on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Sierra van der Meer, deputy minister for the territorial government’s women and gender equity directorate, provided an update on the Yukon government’s efforts to support the MMIWG2S+ strategy. She noted that the territorial government’s role is large, as it is designated either the lead or co-lead group on 108 of the 190 milestones outlined in the strategy.
Noting that missing people can go or be taken across territorial or even national boundaries, van der Meer said the Yukon is pursuing memorandums of understanding with British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Alaska to aid cooperation in these cases. She said discussions with B.C. and N.W.T. have already begun.
She also noted efforts to extend the services of the Yukon’s Sexualized Assault Response Team (SART) to the Yukon’s rural communities. The team focuses on ensuring sexual assault survivors get access to the social, medical and legal supports of their choice.
Van der Meer said efforts to support women’s educations and economic independence are also seen as key ways to avert violence that the Yukon government can work on. She highlighted the government’s Indigenous Artists and Cultural Carriers Micro-grant program; 85 per cent of the grant recipients have been Indigenous women.
The forum also heard from representatives of the federal government’s Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs branch, who pledged progress on the aspects of the strategy that the federal government is set to lead.
The second day of the forum, Oct. 17, included more panel discussions, a presentation on land-based healing and information on future work on the MMIWG2S+ strategy and accountability forums.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com