Commissioners named for MMIW inquiry

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The federal government has

launched a national inquiry

into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Meet the commissioners named to the inquiry:

Chief Commissioner, the Honourable Marion Buller

Provincial
Court Judge, British Columbia

Mistawasis First Nation, Saskatchewan

The
Honourable Judge Marion Buller was appointed the first female First Nations
judge in British Columbia in 1994. Prior to being appointed to the Provincial
Court bench, Judge Buller worked as a civil and criminal lawyer (1988-1994).
Judge Buller served as both a director and president of Canada’s Indigenous Bar
Association and has been a member of the B.C. Police Commission and the Law
Court Education Society. She was the Commission Counsel for the
Caribou-Chilcotin Justice Inquiry and published reports and articles dealing
with Aboriginal rights and legal services for First Nations in British
Columbia. Judge Buller was instrumental in starting the First Nations Court of
British Columbia in 2006.

Judge
Buller received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of
Victoria, and went on to study law there as well. Judge Buller is currently
resident in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where she sits on the Provincial
Court Bench, but maintains band membership with the Mistawasis First Nation in
Saskatchewan.

Commissioner Michèle Audette

Former
President of Femmes autochtones du Québec (Québec Native Women’s Association)

Mani Utenam, Québec

Born to a
French father and Innu mother, in the Innu community of Mani Utenam in Québec,
Michèle Audette is a native long-time Innu speaker. She began her political
career very early having been elected one of the youngest-ever Presidents of
the Québec Native Women’s Association (QNWA), a Native Women’s Association of
Canada member organization, where she has advocated actively to support women’s
issues. She was instrumental in helping Ecole Nationale D’Administration
Publique create an innovative program in the field of Aboriginal public policy.
Additionally, from 2004-2009, Ms. Audette served as Deputy Minister at the
provincial Secretariat of the Status of Women in Québec. She was the recipient
of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Commissioner Qajaq Robinson

Associate,
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Iqaluit, Nunavut

Qajaq
Robinson is a graduate of the Akitsiraq Law Program – a partnership between the
University of Victoria and Nunavut Arctic College. Born in Iqaluit and raised
in Igloolik, Ms. Robinson is a strong Northern advocate, who is fluent in
Inuktitut and English . She articled at Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik, clerked with
judges of the Nunavut Court of Justice under the Chief Justice  at the
time, Beverley Browne, and then became a Crown prosecutor who worked the
circuit court in Nunavut for four years.

Ms.
Robinson is presently an Associate with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Ottawa, Ontario,
where she works on Team North, a multi-disciplinary team of 70 lawyers who do a
variety of work for First Nation communities in the northern parts of central
and western provinces and the territories.  She has worked on a wide range
of issues affecting Indigenous rights. Most recently, Ms. Robinson worked as
legal counsel at the Specific Claims Tribunal, travelling to First Nations
communities across Canada. In addition, Ms. Robinson is the Vice President of
Tungasuvvingat Inuit, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing
cultural and wellness programs to Inuit in Ottawa.

Commissioner Marilyn Poitras

Assistant
Professor

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Marilyn
Poitras was appointed Assistant Professor in the College of Law, at University
of Saskatchewan in 2009. She obtained her L.L.M from Harvard and her L.L.B from
the University of Saskatchewan.

Prior to
being appointed Assistant Professor, her professional life was a fusion of law,
governance, community and institutional education. Her expertise and passion is
around constitutional/Aboriginal law with a life study of customary laws. Ms.
Poitras was a Native Court Worker and moved into the area of constitutional law
after articling with the Saskatchewan Department of Justice. She has developed
a number of legal education initiatives, including the precursor to the
Akitsiraq Law School in Nunavut, where she has been a professor, and the
Indigenous People’s Resource Management Program at the University of
Saskatchewan.

Ms.
Poitras has worked in private practice and litigated in every level of court in
Canada. She has significant experience in the development of self government
with the Beaufort Delta Agreement, treaty implementation with the Federation of
Saskatchewan Indian Nations Treaty Table Justice Portfolio as well as the
revisions to the Saskatchewan Métis Election Process. Ms. Poitras also works on
CIDA funded research on ancestral domain and land conflict in Central Mindanao.
Ms. Poitras is also the film producer of 7 Minutes, a film about an Indigenous
woman from Saskatchewan who was stalked and chased. She is also the editor of
numerous Elder’s books for various First Nations in Saskatchewan who tell their
own stories of life, residential school and traditional teachings.

Commissioner Brian Eyolfson

Acting
Deputy Director, Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Legal Services

Couchiching First Nation, Ontario

Brian
Eyolfson holds a B.Sc. in psychology, an L.L.B from Queen’s University and an
L.L.M, specializing in administrative law, from Osgoode Hall Law School.

Mr.
Eyolfson was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1994 and has served as a Senior
Staff Lawyer with Aboriginal Legal Services in Toronto and as Counsel to the
Ontario Human Rights Commission .  He was Counsel to Aboriginal Legal
Services of Toronto at the Ipperwash Inquiry, and practiced human rights,
Aboriginal and administrative law before a variety of tribunals and courts. He
is a Vice Chair with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, where he adjudicated
and mediated human rights applications, from 2007 to 2016. Mr. Eyolfson is
currently acting as the Deputy Director in the Legal Services Branch of the
Ontario Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.

Related:


NWAC welcomes launch of MMIW inquiry, cites some concerns