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OTTAWA — The national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women says that reviewing police files is a “centrepiece” of its investigation, but nearly a year and a half into its mandate, many police agencies across the country say the inquiry has not asked them for records.

The inquiry also says it has been unable to start reviewing the police files it does have due to technological challenges, though the problems have recently been resolved and it expects that work to begin shortly.

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Since its launch, the national inquiry has been criticized for not focusing enough on police missteps during investigations involving Indigenous women. Last summer, the inquiry went out of its way to clarify that it “can and will consider the conduct of policing services.”

But it is unclear what has been achieved since then. Police agencies in eight major Canadian cities — Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal — say they have not been contacted by the national inquiry to provide documents.