Federation Signals to Attend Roundtable on Missing Aboriginal Women

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The federal government has apparently taken a U-turn in their denial to premiers’ call for a roundtable conference as Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Bernard Valcourt, recently mentioned in an interview that it is now open to a roundtable into Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Valcourt stated that if premiers ask the federal government to be part of a roundtable, it would participate. He mentioned that “what I am open to is if the Council of the Federation and the aboriginal leaders that were present there want to spearhead the roundtable, where we will have the provinces committed to take action, of course I would recommend that we participate.” All provincial and aboriginal leaders proposed a national roundtable into Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women as a compromise last week, after the federal government straightforwardly and repeatedly refused a national inquiry.

Prior to these remarks, the federal government has often rejected the idea of a roundtable. Heritage Minister and Manitoba MP, Shelley Glover, reported stated that “this government has been very strong in putting forward measures that actually deal with this….We believe action is required and action is what we’ve demonstrated.” Whereas, prime minister’s director of communications, Jason MacDonald wrote, also spoke against it last week. He stated that “these are terrible crimes against innocent people. We don’t need yet another study on top of the some 40 studies that have already been done, in addition to roundtables and discussions…. Now is the time for action.”