International summit on violence against Indigenous women amid delayed MMIWG action plan from feds

TORONTO -- Approaching two years since the release of the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, many remain frustrated with the slow pace of the federal government’s response to its recommendations.

CEO of the Native Women's Association of Canada Lynne Groulx sat down with CTV's Your Morning on Monday, to share her view of the federal government’s progress.

"We're now more than a year and a half in and we have not seen an action plan yet," said Groulx.

The group is hosting a two-day International Summit of the Americas on Violence Against Indigenous Women starting Monday. The summit is virtually convening more than 1,000 attendees from across the Americas and beyond, to discuss policy solutions for protecting Indigenous people from violence.

"We do think there are some best practices out there and we want to hear about them," said Groulx, pointing to the Presidential Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. and healing centres in Mexico as possible examples.

After the summit, the Native Women's Association of Canada will prepare a solutions-based document to present to governments around the world.

"We're going to gather that information, we're going to present it to different countries… and then we're going to actually try to implement some of these suggestions that are coming forward," Groulx said.

The Trudeau government has promised to release a national action plan to address the 231 recommendations, but delayed the release of the plan last year, putting the blame on the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement to CTV's Your Morning, the federal government said that the development of a national action plan is underway, calling it a "priority."

"The co-development of the different components of the National Action Plan, including the federal chapter, is a priority for our governments… There is a working group structure in place… to support the development of the distinct components of the national action plan," a spokesperson for the minister of Crown-Indigenous relations said.

Groulx feels the level of trust in the Canadian government among Indigenous people is "quite low."

"We're really hoping that, at least this year, in June, on the anniversary… that we actually have something concrete coming from the government."

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  An international summit on violence against Indigenous begins Monday, as activists await the federal government's delayed action plan in response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.