Indigenous activist Maggie Cywink, who has campaigned tirelessly to call attention to murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, including her own sister Sonya, will act as Ontario’s special advisor between the province and the families as the historic national inquiry begins.

Cywink, from Whitefish River First Nation on Manitoulin Island, has spent the last several months trying to find and contact as many Ontario families as she can, to let them know she is the bridge between them and the province and all its departments and agencies, as the national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls gets set to start on May 29 in Whitehorse, Yukon.

“This is a passion. It is not just a job for me. I want to keep the needs of the families in the forefront of my mind. They must walk ahead of me and I must follow their lead,” Cywink said in an interview.

As the national inquiry struggles to overcome logistical issues and ensures it has proper counseling and health supports in place before the hearings begin, Ontario says it is ready to go.

Ontario has set up and opened its family information liaison unit (FILU) office, which intends to provide families and survivors with support. The unit will also act as a bridge to government agencies including the police, child welfare, and the provincial coroner. The FILU is headquartered in Toronto but there are three field offices — one each at Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre in Sudbury, Anishnawbe Mushkiki in Thunder Bay and Equay-wuk (Women’s Group) in Sioux Lookout, according to the provincial Ministry of the Attorney General.

The units were promised by the federal Department of Justice as part of the MMIW inquiry process and $16.7 million was set aside so they could be created across the country.

But, so far, many of the provinces and territories are still in the process of creating the units and $9 million in funds over three years has been approved to support the FILUs, said Ian McLeod, a spokesperson for the federal Department of Justice.

Ottawa has been “working closely” with the provinces and territories to move their funding applications forward, McLeod said, adding the majority of applications are approved and some jurisdictions are preparing to launch their FILUs.

“We look forward to providing an update with specifics soon,” McLeod said.

Alberta is ready to start helping families, said Jason van Rassel, a spokesperson for Alberta’s Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General. The province recently hired four people to be family liaisons and they can contact the FILU by calling (1) 780-427-3460, said van Rassel.

British Columbia is currently in a provincial election and calls from the Star were referred to the federal government for comment on the FILUs.

One of the biggest complaints families have is that when they have questions, they do not know who to contact inside a vast government bureaucracy.

“It takes time to develop trust relationships with the families,” said Cywink. “It is traumatic answering questions with strangers they don’t know.”

Cywink knows how difficult it is to navigate these waters. Her sister Sonya’s body was found outside London at the Southwold Earthworks, a national historic site in Elgin County on August 30, 1994. Sonya was last seen on August 26th, 1994, in the Dundas and Lyle St. area of London. Her murder remains unsolved.

Cywink said her role as special advisor helps her own healing journey as she deals with her sister’s death. “It will be ongoing for the rest of my life. It makes me able to clearly see the issues. The pain, it never goes away,” she said.

Francyne Joe, interim president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, has been publicly calling for proper supports to be put in place before the hearings can begin.

Last Friday, Joe told the Star she welcomed the news that the two pre-inquiry hearings scheduled for this week in Thunder Bay and Edmonton, had been put on hold in order for the inquiry to pause and focus on how it can better support the families.

However, previous to the pause, it has been very disappointing to see the lack of communication and planning surrounding the inquiry, said Joe.

“It is like a bad follow-up movie. It had all this hype coming out and we are waiting for some results. We are waiting for proper communications to come out from the commissioners. We can’t keep on being put off,” Joe said.

Culturally sensitive measures need to be put in place to allow for the inquiry to make sure it is indigenous led in every aspect, she said.

“When a family member calls the 1-800 number to see what is going on, they should be talking to a trained indigenous person at the other end, they shouldn’t be talking to a lawyer, they should be talking to someone who understands us, indigenous people,” Joe said.

Mental health supports need to be fully in place before the hearings, during and afterwards, Joe added. “There will be an influx of families and people who will need the resources,” she said. “People will have to take time off work before and after. They are going to have to be supporting their other family members who are going.”

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The NWAC was not recognized in any formal role in the upcoming inquiry, but it will continue to support families and survivors even though it is stretched to capacity. The previous Conservative government slashed NWAC’s budget in half.

“We were down to 12 employees and when you are working on missing and murdered, child welfare, health and housing, our staff is getting stressed,” Joe said, adding NWAC has applied to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to hire more staff.

“We have a number of government departments asking for our input from the perspective of indigenous women but we need more people. We could probably have a small unit of indigenous people strictly for monitoring north, south and east and west, specifically for the inquiry,” she said.