Yukon’s premier is calling for action, not an inquiry, when it comes to missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.
Darrell Pasloski made the comments last week from the 55th Annual Premiers Conference in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
“Another important component to this would be First Nation leadership, and men in communities to start to stand up and say that this isn’t acceptable,” he said.
“This is a very important case, we can’t just call on governments to do something. In fact, during our meetings with aboriginal leaders, it was pointed out that there have been at least 29 inquiries and reports, and over 500 recommendations made. There’s been a lot of work done already - I think it’s about getting things done now.”
Pasloski said premiers supported the call from national aboriginal organizations for a national inquiry, but they were looking at the possibility the federal government and prime minister would not move forward with it.
“We also thought we’d propose a compromise to that,” he said. So premiers have proposed that key federal ministers meet with them to discuss the matter at a roundtable conference.
When asked if he agreed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s remarks that the murder of aboriginal women is not a sociological phenomenon, Pasloski dodged the question.
“We support the national aboriginal organizations’ call for a public inquiry,” he said.
“We support their call for a roundtable of federal ministers if they’re not going to go forward with a public inquiry. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing and there’s more that we can do by sharing information with each other. I think we should see leadership in First Nation men standing up.”
Contact Myles Dolphin at
myles@yukon-news.com