Mr. Speaker, l will add some context for people watching at home. British Columbia is three hours behind, so maybe people are still up.

These late show debates are an opportunity to follow up after having 30 seconds to ask a question in question period and the government side having only 30 seconds to answer. Sometimes we do not really get a full answer. Maybe it is because 30 seconds is not long enough to ask a good question. I remain hopeful and I take advantage of these opportunities to have four minutes to ask a more extensive question, and then the government can take longer to respond.

When I asked my question, it was just after the terrible story of Tina Fontaine, a young girl in Manitoba who weighed only 72 pounds. She was murdered. Her trial was a mess, and it was a terrible disappointment when her accused killer was not convicted. There was no hope for the family of what might happen with her case. It was a real blow to the hope that the country would—through the justice system, the social support system, the social safety net, by repairing the damage of the residential school system, by repairing the damage of the child welfare system—give the families of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls some hope.

It was in this context that I asked the government how it would support the inquiry to ensure there would no more Tina Fontaines and to ensure we supported the families and survivors.

We had great hope in the murdered and missing indigenous women and girls Inquiry. We need it to do its work. We need this from a social justice point of view, but we also need this to move forward as a nation.

Since that debate, some other terrible news came out. The families that were working with the inquiry, trusting it with their stories, were encouraged to ask for the kinds of counselling and aftercare that would help them after they had gone through the trauma of telling their stories.

Then this was reported by CBC on May 8: families that were submitting bills for aftercare were being nickel-and-dimed by both the inquiry and the Privy Council Office. An elder was hired by the family of Joan Winning, the aunt of Nicole Daniels, a 16-year-old girl who was found murdered. She died of hypothermia, but there were complications. People were concerned this was a violent act. They were told they needed an invoice from the elder. It was completely disrespectful to the family, but also the elders, who are not business people.

The inquiry was stuck in between the families and the government and Privy Council Office bureaucracy. This blew up on the front pages of the news across the country just when we needed to build some faith for the families that they would be well cared for.

Again, what is the government doing to ensure families do not have these terrible experiences of being disrespected by our federal government bureaucracy at the time when they need us to treat them with the most sensitivity possible?

Sheila Malcolmson

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Adjournment Proceedings

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