The three Commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls say using the term genocide is correct based on the evidence they collected.

Chief Commissioner, Marion Buller says the report which includes more than 200 calls to action for all levels of government tells the truth and that it’s a hard truth for all Canadians. The Commissioners also identified colonialism as one of the deep root causes of violence against Indigenous women.

Commissioner Brian Eyolfson says understanding the issues, reading the report and moving forward with solutions along with working with Indigenous women and girls is the place to start. Buller says the first steps will be different for every community as what works in the west won’t work in the north and perhaps maybe instead of focusing on one big first step, focusing on thousands of tiny first steps will work.

With the release of the report, Buller says people are having difficult conversations and she adds those conversations have to continue.

Other ways the Commissioners identified creating change moving forward is to have groups include Indigenous peoples on planning boards and create relationships with Indigenous peoples.

Some of the recommendations in the 1200 page report include making Indigenous languages official languages and that different police forces work more closely together to better investigate cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous woman and girls.

The Commissioners were in Saskatoon Friday speaking to an audience at the University of Saskatchewan.

(CJWW)