The B.C. government has issued an order-in-council that some legal advocates fear places new restrictions on the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.
Attorney General Suzanne Anton said the order-in-council confirms the province’s support for the inquiry by giving commissioners the power to examine relevant matters within B.C.
“It gives them the authority that a provincial commission of inquiry would have,” she said.
But West Coast Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association both expressed concern Tuesday that the B.C. order comes with conditions attached.
“I’m happy that they’ve committed to participating,” said Kasari Govender, executive director of West Coast LEAF. “I’m less happy about the additional restrictions they placed on the terms of reference.”
She said the federal terms of reference already made clear that the inquiry will not reopen specific cases.
The B.C. government’s additional terms go beyond that by indicating that the commission “may not inquire into any matter respecting the exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” she said.
Govender said the reference seems to suggests that the B.C. government does not want Crown discretion in the province to be examined at all.
“And that’s a really significant piece of how cases proceed, particularly in B.C.,” she said. “So I’m very concerned about how that will play out.”
Josh Paterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, raised concerns about another condition that says the commission “may not require the disclosure of information that is subject to a privilege, immunity or other legal restriction.”
He said the clause about other legal restrictions is “way too broad” and could lead to battles over disclosure.
“That could potentially be used by government to shield itself from having to produce any piece of information that has so much as a scintilla of a legal restriction around its disclosure,” he said.
Anton defended B.C.’s terms of reference, saying they are “completely consistent” with the broad aims of the national inquiry to examine the systemic causes of violence.
“Their job is not to discuss individual cases,” she said. “If they find that there’s something in an individual case that needs to be referred back to the police, they’ll do that.
“But their goal is really the bigger picture: What is it that leads women to be vulnerable? What is it that leads girls to be vulnerable? How can we reduce that vulnerability? How can we help communities?”
Govender worries, however, that B.C.’s new conditions will undermine the commission’s ability to get at the root causes of violence.
“If there’s all these legal restrictions placed on it, are we going to have yet another ineffective body examining this incredibly important issue?” she said. “We want the inquiry to have broad powers of investigation and also some weight to it — some ability to make change.”
