Marion Buller
Marion Buller

Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has tapped Hill+Knowlton for strategic communications duties for a program in the $230K range.

Rob Mariani, senior VP at H+K, told the Canandian Broadcasting Corp. that the WPP unit is still sorting out its communications role and scope of work for the Inquiry.

An official start date has not been set.

In its tender offer, Public Works and Government Services Canada called for PR, PA, crisis management, strategic guidance and social media support.

Established in 2016, the Inquiry is charged with examining the high level of homicides, violence and abuse directed against the country’s aboriginal and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer women and girls.

Indigenous people make up 4.3 percent of Canada’s overall population. They account for nearly a quarter of the country’s homicides and are 12x times more likely to go missing than other Canadian females.

Critics of the Inquiry fault it for a lack of communications directed at native women and grassroots organizations.

In its interim report issued Nov. 1, Marion Buller, chief commissioner of the Inquiry called for increased financial and counseling support for families and survivors.

"The National Inquiry will continue to focus on what matters most: providing a safe space and enough time for families and survivors to tell their truths. It is these truths that will inform our recommendations to address the widespread systemic violence that Indigenous woman, girls and two-spirited people face, every day in Canada," said Buller.