Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

by Patty Krawec

And although former Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined to investigate this “sociological phenomenon” and insisted that these cases be seen as individual crimes, this direct action eventually forced the Canadian government to hold a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Their report, Reclaiming Power and Place, was released in June 2019 after two years of hearings and testimony. It contains the testimony of thousands of family members and survivors, 231 calls for justice, and named this “sociological phenomenon” genocide. Canada’s report on MMIWG2S is the first time that an official body has used the term genocide in relation to the actions of Canada or the United States.