Former Aboriginal Affairs Minister calls MMIWG Report ‘Identity politics’

Former Conservative Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Bernard Valcourt in Parliament in October 2013. (File Photo)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed his tune on using the work ‘Genocide,” when discussing the recent release of the final report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

One former minister from the Harper Government, called out Trudeau and the Inquiry as playing politics, and “using the plight and sorrow of innocent victims to advance their propanganda.”  Those strong words came from former Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister Bernard Valcourt who was on a social media tear on Monday, saying the MMIWG Inquiry Report, “unfortunately attempts to trivialize genocide. It is the prime example of lefties.”

Valcourt while Minister of AANDC repeatedly told media and the House of Commons, that a majority of women were murdered by Indigenous men, and continued to repeat the talking point that , “it is a department of justice issue,” and to “let the RCMP do their job.”

Valcourt went further in another tweet to call the Inquiry and the Liberals approach to the report “identity politics.”

On Monday Prime Minister Trudeau did not used the term “genocide” to describe the report’s findings, despite the inquiry’s Chief Commissioner Marion Buller saying it was “an inescapable conclusion” of the inquiry. Trudeau faced significant on-line criticism over leaving the word genocide out. But on Tuesday Trudeau vacillated and  said, “We accept the findings of the commisioners that it was genocide, but our focus as it must be on the families and the communities that have suffered such loss,” at the Women Deliver Conference in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, current Conservative MPs distanced themselves from Valcourt’s tweets. Tory MP Cathy McLeod, who is the Conservative Indigenous Affairs Critic, took to Twitter saying, “Mr. Valcourt does not speak for the Conservative party of Canada with these unacceptable comments.”

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde thanked Ms. MacLeod for her statements shared on Twitter.

 

About the Author

Josh Campbell
Start your morning with the Splash on Denendeh Sunrise from 7:30-8:30am. Campbell was trained and mentored by longtime CKLB host and Gwich'in entertainer William Greenland. Prior to hosting the morning show and filling in on the Saturday Request Show, he had stints in the Yukon on CKRW the Rush, CBC North in Yellowknife, and began his broadcasting career at CJCD Mix 100. Before moving North he was born and raised on the banks of the Tobique River, the traditional territory of the Wolastoqiyik, Tobique Maliseet First Nation.