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The prime minister has rejected calls from aboriginal leaders and premiers for an inquiry into the problem. Mr. Trudeau said he has no such hesitation.

He said he recently met with 16-year-old Rinelle Harper, who was assaulted and left for dead on a riverbank in Winnipeg.

“I promised her that I would open an inquiry,” he said, adding that too many aboriginals believe the government would be acting differently if it were non-indigenous women who were being killed. “This is a serious and real tragedy.”

Mr. Trudeau rejected, as “baseless” the prime minister’s argument that an inquiry would learn nothing new. “If we knew what we needed to do, we’d be doing it.”

Climate change

He said climate change “is a real and serious threat to people, to our economy, to our global stability. And it’s something that Canada, like all countries, has a responsibility to respond to.”

Mr. Trudeau said “immediate action” is required, citing weather events such as flooding in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and coastal storms as proof that the effects of climate change are already present.

“We have committed to putting a price on carbon.”

The premiers

“A Liberal government will hold a first ministers’ conference every single year,” said Mr. Trudeau.

By comparison, Mr. Harper has rarely called premiers together for a conference and often doesn’t publicize his one-on-one meetings with individual premiers.

Mr. Trudeau said this must change. “Understanding what federalism is all about is the fact that even though we are different orders of government, we all serve the same citizens. And the challenges that our citizens are facing require reflection and co-operation in order to meet them. And trying to score political points because of differing ideologies, I think, is weakening our system.”

Mr. Trudeau noted that Mr. Harper has refused to meet Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne for more than a year. He said that if he governed and an individual premier requested a meeting, he would grant it.

“The fact that this prime minister doesn’t get along with anyone who doesn’t share his particular ideology has hurt us not just across the country with premiers, but on the international stage as well.”

Postmedia News