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AFN head meets with Manitoba's vice-regal to seek independent inquiry into killings

  • Alessia Passafiume

  • Canadian Press

  • July 17, 2024

National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak gives her opening address at the Assembly of First Nations annual general assembly in Montreal on July 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

OTTAWA -- The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is urging Manitoba's lieutenant-governor to establish an independent inquiry into the killings of four Indigenous women in the province.

Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says she had a productive meeting with Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville today.

The meeting comes days after the AFN passed a resolution seeking an inquiry to assess the police investigation and provincial response to the killings.

Jeremy Skibicki was found guilty of first-degree murder last week in the deaths of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman the Indigenous grassroots community refers to as Buffalo Woman.

Woodhouse Nepinak says today's meeting was just the beginning of a process that will also include a conversation with the provincial premier.

She says she is hoping a provincial probe can reignite a national conversation about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls -- and pressure governments to act on unmet recommendations from a 2019 national inquiry.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 17, 2024.