The public commission on B.C.'s missing women will stop in Prince George on Friday.
Commissioner Wally Oppal, a former judge and the Attorney General of the province, is the commissioner.
"The main purpose of the community forums is to help me and the commission staff understand the full impact on communities of the tragedy of the murdered and missing women," said Oppal. "We will then be able to focus our work during the public hearings much more clearly on the most important issues."
The Prince George forum will be held Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Prince George Civic Centre.
While the forums are open to anyone, Oppal said he is particularly interested in hearing from family members of the murdered and missing women and other people who were directly impacted by the tragedy.
"We know that a disproportionate number of the missing and murdered women were from the Aboriginal community and we definitely want to hear from that community, but we would also appreciate representatives of other communities coming forward to tell us their stories," he said.
Oppal added that the community engagement forum would not take the place of formal hearings of the commission, which will begin in Vancouver later this year.
Twenty-one groups have applied for standing at those hearings, necessitating a couple of days [Jan. 31 and Feb. 1] to hear from those groups just to determine if standing will be given to each of them. The public interest in this inquiry is, clearly, large, said Oppal.
A list of the applicants has been posted on the commission's website [www.missingwomeninquiry.ca].
