APTN National News
Most of the families who wish to share their story with the commissioners at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls will have to wait until the fall to do so.
While the inquiry will hold three days of family hearings in Whitehorse the week of May 29, it will not hear from families again until September.
The five commissioners will spend the summer hearing from “expert panels” according to a statement from the inquiry.
The inquiry is delving into the staggering numbers of Indigenous women who have been murdered and went missing in Canada.
It was announced in August 2016.
The inquiry also no longer has plans to hold regional advisory meetings. The new approach is “community visits.”
In an email, the inquiry said a team, made up of members from the inquiry’s health, research, community relations and legal teams will participate in these community visits in order to lay the groundwork for the truth-gathering process.
The inquiry confirmed all future community visits will be for the purpose of planning and preparation for community hearings that are part of the overall truth-gathering process.
No dates have been confirmed for the community visits and hearings.
Commissioners are expected to provide recommendations to the federal government through an interim report by Nov. 1 and a final report one year later.
At this time, the inquiry was unable to respond to questions about whether those dates would be pushed back given the majority of the testimony won’t be heard until the fall.
