Missing, murdered inquiry calls for creation of national police task force
OTTAWA — The federal government needs to set up a national police task force to investigate missing and murdered Indigenous women, commissioners heading a much-maligned inquiry into the crisis urged Wednesday as they blamed procedural red tape for a false start that delayed proceedings by eight months.
The commission — savaged in recent months by families and survivors disappointed in what they see as a lack of concrete action — released a 111-page report detailing its progress to date, while also calling for some sort of investigative body to re-open existing cold cases.
The inquiry is somewhat hamstrung by its own terms of reference, which allow it to refer cases to police only when new information is uncovered, chief commissioner Marion Buller told a news conference.
Families that have lived for generations with questions about what happened to their loved ones “do not fall neatly” within that box, Buller said, noting many want to know why investigations were halted or police didn’t fully investigate promising leads.