Much ink has been spilled and bytes transmitted over recent calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Both those for and against have raised the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) because the Liberal government failed to enact the changes it suggested, the logic that an inquiry would either be without substantive impact, or the RCAP’s failure requires another attempt. Today on Clio’s we look at the history of Royal Commissions in Canada as we explore their value and purpose.