On Monday, the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will give its final report, and judging from the leaked copy, there will be some consternation with the conclusions, particularly that it considers the deaths as the victims of a “Canadian genocide.” While previous inquiries and even statements by the former Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice, Beverley McLachlin, have used the term cultural genocide, this report allegedly drops the qualifier. That will likely be a hurdle because there would seem to be an implication that a genocide implies an organised effort – which there was on the cultural side (because it was inconceivable to think that they shouldn’t be converted to Christianity and “civilised” because that was the dominant cultural framework), but I think it will be hard to stretch that to deaths that are more attributable to poverty and intergenerational violence – we can’t forget that the vast majority of perpetrators of these deaths were Indigenous men (and that there are even larger numbers of Indigenous men who have are missing and murdered).

As for recommendations, the headline one also appears to be problematic – that instances of domestic violence against Indigenous women that result in death be regarded as first-degree murder – and that the use of “Gladue principles” be reviewed with cases of deaths of Indigenous women. That again will be problematic because the Supreme Court ruled on those principles as a way of addressing intergenerational violence that leads to higher rates of incarceration for Indigenous people, and again, if the majority of perpetrators of violence against Indigenous women are Indigenous men, does this recommendation then not demand that more Indigenous men be incarcerated? While the recommendation is rooted in the principles of denunciation and deterrence, I’m not sure that’s sufficient given the broader implications. As well, some of the recommendations like making Indigenous languages official and on par with English and French don’t seem to grasp the practical considerations of ensuring that there be federal services provided in 60 different Indigenous languages.

It also sounds like the government isn’t going to readily accept all of these recommendations Carolyn Bennett has been pre-consulting on what she’s been hearing out of the Inquiry, and she’s not in favour of harsher sentences because it goes against evidenced-based policy as to what is effective. She also noted that their bill on changing child welfare systems for Indigenous communities will do more to prevent the intergenerational violence that the current broken system does. We’ll see what the formal report and its apparent 230 recommendations entail, and what the government’s response will be, but this leak and Bennett’s response sounds like they won’t be endorsing the whole thing.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau says he’ll work with municipalities directly if provinces won’t, which has Ontario’s government all upset.
• Donald Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on Mexico is being treated by Chrystia Freeland as a bilateral issue, but it is affecting Canadian markets.
• Ahmed Hussen says that new rules for temporary foreign workers will come into effect next week to give workers more protections to leave abusive employment.
• That big Coast Guard renewal plan touted by the government doesn’t include any new icebreakers, which we are in dire need of.
• The Commissioner of Competition is looking for more powers to take on tech giants.
• A Commissionaire who works at Rideau Hall and the prime minister’s residence has had his security clearance revoked by the RCMP for association with extremists.
• Here’s the strange case of the RCMP not talking about a major marijuana bust because they were afraid that it might impact stock prices and regulation roll-outs.
• Here’s a debunking of another Facebook meme going around claiming the Liberals want to give immigrants CPP after only being in Canada for three years.
• Andrew Scheer says that the government should hold China accountable for the illicit fentanyl fuelling the opioid crisis .
• Jagmeet Singh’s climate plans include electrification, free transit and home retrofits to create jobs, to be paid for by wealth taxes and cutting fossil fuel subsidies.
• Members of the Vancouver–Granville Liberal riding association are quitting to organise Jody Wilson-Raybould’s campaign (which shouldn’t be unexpected).
• The premier of the Northwest Territories has some fairly grand (and expensive) visions about how Canada could better assert Arctic sovereignty.
• Jason Kenney says that carbon taxes won’t stop forest fires, and I can’t even.
• Stephen Maher is waiting to see what kind of actions Andrew Scheer takes against Michael Cooper’s outbursts at committee, berating a Muslim witness.
• Matt Gurney sees the government’s gun control bill as a tacit admission that there’s not much more they can do – just as they start talking about bans.
• Chris Selley takes note of the fact that as much as the government wants social media companies to take a firmer hand, they’re still talking about free speech.
• Chantal Hébert sees the ongoing troubles on the Canada-US file as an electoral gift to Trudeau, who has been managing them adeptly.
• Heather Scoffield warns that Trump’s latest tariff threats could do more damage to Canada (because of supply chains) than anything over the past year.
• Kevin Carmichael walks us through the Bank of Canada’s thinking on the state of the economy (and it’s better than most people think).
• My weekend column looks at the state of the Order Paper crisis in the Senate, and looks to the likelihood that MPs will have to come back in July because of it.

Odds and ends:

Spoiler alert: Canadian queen Brooke Lynn Hytes came in second in this week’s RuPaul’s Drag Race finale, which was well deserved.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.