MMIW inquiry: Meet the 5 commissioners

The federalgovernment is handing over the reins of its long-awaited inquiry into Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to five commissioners.

They'll have the power to decide who to call as witnesses andwhat the review will look like.

• Marion Buller, B.C. First Nations judge, to lead MMIW inquiry

The commission will also be able to refer cases to the authorities, like the attorney general or police, for more investigation. But they can't force police to reopen cases or lay charges.

The national inquiry will be launched Sept. 1 and last more thantwo years at a cost of atleast $53.8 million.

Here's what we know about the commissioners:

Marion Buller

Marion Buller,chief commissioner of the inquiry,has been a trailblazer in the legal community and, in 1994,becamethe first Indigenous woman appointed toB.C.'sprovincial court bench.Prior to theappointment, she worked as a civil and criminal lawyer, and served asboth a director and president of Canada's Indigenous Bar Association.

Her efforts also led to the creation of the First Nations Court of British Columbia in 2006. Thecourt focuses on restorative justice and rehabilitation through reconciliation with victims and the larger community.

Indigenous peoplein that provincecan now opt to have their bail and sentencing hearings held at the First Nations court, and judges must consideralternatives to prison.

"Judge Bulleris restorative justice personified," Pamela Shields, manager of Aboriginal services for the Legal Services Society, said in an interview with the Kamloops Daily News in 2012. "It's a path out of this endless cycle of Aboriginal people being caught up in the criminal justice system."

Buller lives in Port Coquitlam, B.C.,but maintainsband membership with the Mistawasis First Nation in Saskatchewan.

MichleAudette

Michle Audette, a longtime Quebec activistandformer president of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), was born toa Qubcois father and Innu motherin 1971in the Innu community of Mani Utenam.Audettegot involved inpolitical life at a young age.

"She was kicked out from her community," Audette said of her mother in an interview withWindspeaker. "We had to live outside.[It was then] I realized that the Indian Act was discriminating against women."

Audettethenfought against the now-repealed sections of thatlegislation, which stripped Indigenous women of their status if they married a non-Indigenous man.

She also served as deputy minister of Quebec's status of women before taking the top job at the NWAC, where she repeatedlypressed thenow former government to call a national inquiry to no avail.

Audette also ran unsuccessfully for the federalLiberals in the riding of Terrebonne in the2015 election, but lost toBloc QubcoisMPMichel Boudrias.

BrianEyolfson

BrianEyolfsonis a First Nations and human rights lawyer.

He was counsel to Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto at theIpperwash inquiry, which released its report in 2007, andpractisedlaw before a variety of tribunals and courts.

Eyolfsonserved asvice-chair ofthe Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, where he adjudicated and mediated human rights applications, from 2007 to 2016.

He'scurrently deputy director in the Legal Services Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.

MarilynPoitras

MarilynPoitrasis a constitutional and Aboriginal law expert at the University of Saskatchewan.

Poitras, a graduate of Harvard Law School, started her career as a native court worker and then articled at the Saskatchewan Department of Justice, focusing on constitutional law.

She helped develop Indigenous legal education initiatives across the countryand was aprofessor at theAkitsiraqLaw School inNunavut.

She sits on the board of the Canadian Journal of Poverty Law and served as vice-president of Indigenous governance at the University of New Brunswick's Institute on Governance.In addition to her roles in academia, she has worked in private practice and litigated at every level of court in Canada.

Poitras, who isMtis, was also a producer of7 Minutes, a film about an Indigenous woman from Saskatchewan who was stalked and chased. She has edited a number ofbooks fromvarious First Nations elders in Saskatchewan thatrecountstories of surviving theresidential school system and traditional teachings.

QajaqRobinson

Igloolik, Nunavut-born Robinson is a lawyer in Ottawa at the firmBorden, Ladner, Gervais. She came to local prominence for representingIan Campeau, alsoknown as DJ NDN, a member of the Indigenousrap group A Tribe Called Red, in his legal fight at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunalwith theNepean Redskins Football Club over its name and logo.

The club changed its nameto the Nepean Eagles threeweeks after Robinson filedCampeau'scase.

Robinson, who is fluent inInuktitut,graduated from the Akitsiraq law program in 2005a partnership between the University of Victoria and Nunavut Arctic College.

"I told theGlobe and Mailwhen I was graduating law school that one day I was going to prove to anyone who questioned the quality of Akitsiraq Law School and its graduates that I was going to swim with the sharks one day. I wasn't going to drown,"shesaid in aninterview withNunatsiaq.

She served as clerkwith judges of the Nunavut Court of Justice under thenChief JusticeBeverley Browne and laterworked as a Crown prosecutor in Nunavut.

"I liked to be in court. I like thinking on my feet. I like articulating my position. I like advocacy. I get a rush from it,I like competition," she said.