OTTAWA -- Beverley Jacobs has found herself in more or less the same place every year -- onstage in front of journalists, cameras trained on her as she describes her frustration at another 12 months of violence against Indigenous women. Jacobs, the former president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, has done the Families of Sisters in Spirit vigil every Oct. 4 since 2006.
"I'm tired... Eleven years, we've had these vigils," said Jacobs, whose cousin was murdered when Jacobs was heading up NWAC.
"So I'm angry. Still. I'm still very pissed off that nothing has been done and that we still have families like Annie's family, who are dealing with racism."
"Annie" is Annie Pootoogook, a 46-year-old Inuk artist who was found dead in the Ottawa River the morning of Sept. 19. Once a rising star in the art world, Pootoogook at times lived on the street in Ottawa and reportedly struggled with addiction.
Ottawa police initially said her death wasn't suspicious, although her family says she was fleeing an abusive relationship. On Sept. 26, the police reversed course and said some elements of the case had raised red flags. That reversal came just before Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau had to open an investigation into one of his constables for allegedly posting racist comments to an Ottawa Citizen story about Pootoogook's death.
"[It] could be a suicide, accidental, she got drunk and fell in the river and drowned, who knows," reads one of the postings, which was captured by APTN before the comments were deleted.
"Much of the Aboriginal population in Canada is just satisfied being alcohol or drug abusers," the post continued. "They have to have the will to change, it's not society's fault."
Sytukie Joamie, Pootoogook's cousin, calls the remarks racist, and questions how the community can trust the police. He also questions why investigators found nothing suspicious about Pootoogook's death.
"Nobody walks into the water. You have to understand Annie Pootoogook never went near the water. Never," he said at the Families of Sisters in Spirit press conference on Parliament Hill.
Joamie pointed to his partner, whom he described as white and from the Ottawa suburb of Nepean.
"If she was found in the water, there would be a full investigation. The police would never say [it's not] suspicious. And her family would be treated well every single day."
Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau declined an interview request, but said in a statement that the comments posted to the Ottawa Citizen story "have racial undertones and do not reflect the values of the Ottawa Police Service."
Trudeau: everyone failed
It's against that backdrop the Families of Sisters in Spirit rallied Tuesday on Parliament Hill. Throat singers paid tribute to Pootoogook and women spoke of missing or murdered loved ones. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the crowd, acknowledging the work needed to repair the government's relationship with Indigenous Canadians.
"These buildings behind us, and everyone who has sat in them, failed. Failed to uphold the values and principles which we were supposed to defend," Trudeau told the crowd, with Aboriginal Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu forming a wide circle around him.
"This building is a representation of this country and continues to be a representation of our failure to govern truly and deeply for all who share this land. And I understand the impatience and the frustration because I share it. We all have much work to do together."
A year into Trudeau's government, frustration is building over the slow pace of change. The Liberals spent several months holding a series of consultations ahead of the missing and murdered indigenous women's inquiry, and didn't announce the commissioners or the terms of reference until August, nine months after they took office. Now there's an additional lag time as the commission staffs up and takes care of the basic logistics of setting up an office.
Marion Buller, the former judge heading up the inquiry, said she understands the frustration. The actual inquiry likely won't get under way until the start of 2017.
"Nobody is watching the clock closer than I am," Buller said. "I want to get the inquiry up and going, the hearings started quickly, but carefully. And that takes time."
The fact an inquiry is planned at all is a sea change from the previous government, which dismissed calls for a national probe and painted the broad issue of violence against indigenous women as a matter for the police to handle. A year into the Liberal government, it's still striking to hear cabinet ministers refer to systemic racism and sexism.
"Systemic racism exists in all of our systems and structures," Hajdu said, noting she saw it when she ran a homeless shelter in Thunder Bay, Ont.
"Our government recognizes that and that's exactly why we need to have things like inquiries to call out that racism, but more than that to actually change those systems and structures so that they are no longer allowed to discriminate in that way."
The missing and murdered indigenous women's inquiry will have two years to report back with recommendations -- which can feel like just another delay for anyone who has already spent decades waiting.
"I feel like I'm repeating myself from 15, 20 years ago, that nothing has changed," Jacobs said.
"I want to see action... I want to see something done for families."
