MMIW INQUIRY PUSH FOR STIFFER PENALTIES

   Chief Commissioner of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, Marion Buller, is standing by the recommendations she made to a parliamentary committee earlier this month, insisting that “stiffer penalties” are needed “so that Indigenous women and girls aren’t considered as expendable.”
   Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, however, seemed doubtful that a more punitive approach is the way forward, saying that “deterrents are quite often deemed to be ineffective” when it comes to preventing violence. Indigenous men, often the offenders in domestic violence cases involving Indigenous women, are already over-represented in Canadian prisons. “It is about evidence-based practice and what actually works,” she said. “I think that’s the way we always need to take decisions — is this something that actually will work?”