No-one has mentioned the sad role that the media has played in all of this.  Many people thought that an inquiry would produce no information that had not already been collected and felt that the money could far better be spent on addressing some of the issues that are already known. Yet the G&M, the Star, CBC and CTV pounded away day after day, month after month, pressing Harper for an inquiry. The media did no balanced coverage whatever. Every time a FN representative was interviewed for any reason, they were asked if they supported an inquiry and of course (they are not paying for it) they answered yes. There were no difficult questions about what an inquiry would accomplish and no dissenting voices within the media (except IIRC Margaret Wente ). So when Trudeau decided to play the populist game (yes, both sides do it) he was praised to high heaven. 
The sad thing is that while this sideshow is being tacked together with duct tape, the recommendations of the BC inquiry gather dust.