WHITEHORSE—Relatives who poured out heart-wrenching stories of their missing or murdered loved ones in Yukon say the national inquiry must keep listening and adapting as it moves on to other communities.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls heard its first public testimony in Whitehorse last week and commissioners will spend the summer preparing for the next hearings in the fall.
The hearings, held inside a large white tent next to the Yukon River, were a “testing” to make sure the inquiry has it right when it goes elsewhere, said Chief Commissioner Marion Buller.
Buller said it takes time to develop relationships with families, elders, traditional healers, and support workers in each location.
“It would be very unfair and very unrealistic of us to just arrive uninvited into a town or a city and set up for a hearing. That would be so disrespectful of the people and their land,” she said in a recent interview.
“There’s no such thing as an inquiry in a can that you just open up and it creates itself. It takes a lot of groundwork to do this right.”
Shaun LaDue testified about his mother, who he said was beaten to death after he was taken from her as a baby. He said when the commissioners first came to Whitehorse in April for an advisory meeting, they were talking too much instead of listening.
