:
I call the meeting to order.
Good afternoon, and welcome to the 89th meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Today's meeting is in public.
As we continue our study of indigenous women in the federal justice and correctional systems, we are pleased to have joining us today, by video conference from Vancouver, Ms. Darlene Shackelly, Executive Director of the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia; by video conference from Edmonton, Ms. Audra Andrews, representing the Union of Safety and Justice Employees; and by video conference from Calgary, Mr. Lowell Carroll, Manager of the Calgary, Red Deer, and Siksika Legal Services Centres of Legal Aid Alberta.
As well, from Regroupement des centres d'amitié autochtones du Québec, we have Madame Claudie Paul, Services Director, and Madame Jacinthe Poulin, Health and Social Services Advisor. I'm very sorry for slaughtering any language so far today.
Thank you very much.
Each group will have seven minutes to speak, after which I will be cutting you off, because we do have shortened time.
We're going to start off with Ms. Darlene Shackelly. You have seven minutes.
:
Hello. My name is Darlene Shackelly. I'm the Executive Director of the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia.
Our organization was formed in 1973 because of the high numbers of indigenous people who were pleading guilty as they were going through the criminal justice system. We have 30 workers throughout the province of British Columbia
When we were asked to give a presentation to this committee, it was on the understanding that we are not workers within the federal corrections system, but rather the group that actually deals with the people who are coming into the criminal justice system charged with a criminal offence. It is our responsibility to ensure that they fully understand what they've been charged with and that they obtain the referrals necessary on the charge they're facing within the system.
We're on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish people: the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. That is where I'm streaming from.
I would also like to thank our board of directors for allowing me to come today to give a presentation.
I want to give some background, and you've probably heard it many times, of the residential school trauma as it affects indigenous women who are in the institutions. We know that high numbers of women who are in the centres are women who have children and women who are facing trauma-related health issues. It is our opinion that once you're disconnected from your culture, the chance of staying within the system is a likelihood.
What we're concerned about is the actual parenting of children. Since 2006, the aboriginal population has grown 42.5%. That's more than four times the growth rate of the non-indigenous population for the same period. I would point out that these are not the children who attended residential school; these are the next generation of children. Our caseload shows that indigenous women are actually being charged with more violent cases than occurred before. It is this generation that we need to focus on.
We also know that most of the women who are in the institutions ended up in systems of foster care, in group homes, or were adopted. It is our belief that it's time to take a look at supporting the women who are in the institutions, especially the ones who have children, around technology feeds.
In the community of Bella Bella-Bella Coola, we have technology for video court streaming into Vancouver, from a very isolated community. It's about time the federal government looked at streaming to support families and the children the inmate has and looked at how we can make sure that indigenous women have a connection to their families and their children.
The support system for children of parents who are incarcerated has been studied quite intensively, but we actually have to look more at the women who are in federal institutions and be able to stream in isolated communities where a lot of indigenous women are from and be able to access technology so that they have visits from their communities by their children and their family members. That would go a long way to keeping the connection in place, so that once they're released, the connection is there already.
Our final recommendation is to invest in an indigenous women's justice panel to develop a five-year plan and a federal investment strategy to address the issues that I have just mentioned.
Thank you for your time.
:
Good afternoon, and thank you for having me. I usually feel more comfortable in front of a room full of offenders, so I apologize if I stumble a little.
I would add that the Correctional Service of Canada does not look kindly on those staff members who would speak out, but I believe that your questions deserve a perspective from those of us working on the front line.
I want to stress the following areas for immediate action that I believe should be pursued for increased positive outcomes with federally incarcerated indigenous women.
One, increase supports for women with mental health issues. Two, review employment programs and look at funded community partnerships outside the current CSC program model. Three, revisit the role of elders to free them from paperwork, and hire elders to work in the community. Increase the numbers of indigenous staff and parole board members. Finally, have real and meaningful consultation with the staff who are doing the work.
With recent current events in the justice system, I believe that the study you have undertaken is more important than ever to build relationships with indigenous people and renew their faith that they will be treated humanely and fairly. I agree completely with the testimony from previous witnesses about the reasons for the over-incarceration of indigenous women.
I struggled with what to say in this short statement, as I often feel as if I have a foot in two worlds: one in the world of the Correctional Service of Canada, with its policies and academics, and the other as an indigenous woman who has a similar background, in many ways, to the people I work with.
I am speaking with the blessing of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees, of which I am a member along with other parole officers, aboriginal liaison officers, program officers, and other support staff. I am a front-line community parole officer with 16 years of experience and I am currently working with an all-female caseload. I previously worked with women on conditional release, between 2002 and 2007.
I have also worked with the Parole Board of Canada in elder-assisted hearings, as well as at an urban indigenous organization, and also with at-risk youth.
I listened to the testimony of previous witnesses and I echo what they said: that indigenous women need help to heal from their trauma and reconnect with their families and their communities. I have witnessed first-hand the pain and trauma of these women and their struggles to reintegrate into the community, but I have also had the enormous privilege to witness them change their lives dramatically if they are provided appropriate support and guidance.
Many offenders say to me that being in the community is sometimes more difficult than being incarcerated, because in the community, for example, they must negotiate poor employment opportunities, lack of affordable housing, and child welfare issues, all the while dealing with their personal issues.
CSC needs to reinvest not only in institutional operations but also in the community if they wish to increase their results with this population. There has been some progress in community investments, as recently evidenced by expansions of section 81 facilities such as Buffalo Sage, but this model is not always viable in some centres with smaller numbers of indigenous offenders.
CSC should think about revisiting past programs that were cut, such as the private home placement program, which is a possible solution to the above problem and could accommodate low-risk, low-needs offenders in both urban and rural areas.
Other suggestions for improvement in the institution and community include offering realistic employment skills and training, as well as education programs and work releases, to increase the women's marketable employment skills and to give them the ability to support themselves and their children.
I would like to specifically highlight the increasing complexity of cases, including those of women with serious mental health issues, violence, complex health issues, and serious addictions, that challenge the capacity of staff and infrastructure in both the institution and the community. We need such resources as psychologists, mental health nurses, and bedspace in specialized mental health units to deal with these cases, as there are often wait-lists to access these and a very small number of beds available in regional psychiatric centres.
For other offenders, increased capacity in the Pathways units in the institutions should be looked at. The aboriginal intervention centres they have proposed for institutions need more development, however, and should include more meaningful consultation with staff before this initiative is finalized, to see what works and what does not.
CSC also needs to revisit the role of elders, as we dishonour them and undermine their role in tying them to paperwork. They need to be free to work with offenders to heal through ceremony and one-to-one work. A full-time or even part-time dedicated elder in the community for women who are residing on their own is also needed, as indigenous women's failures in the community are often tied to their inability to access these cultural interventions outside the institution or section 81 facility.
Recent and current events in the justice system this week illustrate the importance of having more indigenous staff members and parole board members if you have high numbers of incarcerated indigenous women. CSC clearly needs a radical approach, and all options should be considered, including re-engaging our community partners and supporting them to offer alternatives to the one-size-fits-all CSC program model. There is an overreliance on actuarial tools with regard to program referrals and a movement away from allowing parole officers to exercise professional discretion.
CSC should also focus not just on treating indigenous women as victims, but on empowering them and treating them as survivors. Treatment interventions noted above should reflect this.
The answer to the committee's question is, of course, to ensure that these women never reach the federal system, through better use of diversion programs, increasing education regarding indigenous issues among professionals in the justice system, making Gladue reports more available during sentencing, and working with the provinces on child welfare issues.
However, once these women are incarcerated, CSC must ensure that no further harm is done and that the women we work with are in a better position than when they first came to us. In many instances, staff are overwhelmed, under-resourced, afraid to speak out, and not confident that they will be listened to by the organization.
I've often said that parole officers and other members of the case management team work in the shadows where many people fear to tread, exposing ourselves as we are witness to unbelievable trauma and pain. Nevertheless, staff believe in the importance of the work we do. We simply need the tools, training, resources, and support from management to assist these women to reassert their roles as mothers, aunts, daughters, and healthy, productive, positive members of the community.
I believe there's a recognition by CSC that change is required; however, it will take time and a radical change in approach for this to occur.
My name is Lowell Carroll, and I'm the Manager for the Legal Services Centres in Calgary, Red Deer, and Siksika Nation. I'm a former member of the FASD network in Red Deer, Alberta, and I'm also a current member of the Justice Sector Constellation, which is a committee that's composed of various stakeholders in the community and in the province to work towards improving the justice system. Today I'm speaking just on behalf of myself about my individual experiences and observations working within the justice system.
I was asked to speak about specific issues regarding indigenous women's access to justice in Canada and to provide my feedback on specific issues around incarceration rates and penalties imposed on indigenous women in Canada.
While I acknowledge that it is absolutely important to discuss these topics, it's reasonable to assume that this committee knows the statistics regarding the incarceration rates for indigenous women and understands that they're extremely problematic. Hence the reason for this study today.
We know indigenous women are the fastest-growing prisoner population. We know they're overrepresented in nearly every facet of the justice system, so for me, it's much more valuable if we focus on the various interconnected social and legal issues that perpetuate this problem and focus on cause and prevention.
Before I start with my observations or any of my feedback, I'd like to start out by making a statement.
It is my contention that in order for us to make any sort of positive impact on these social and legal issues, there needs to be a drastic shift in how we think about justice. We need to figure out or decide whether the justice system exists as a conduit for punishment or retribution, or whether the focus of the justice system is on prevention, rehabilitation, and creating a society that is just for all. We need to acknowledge that in its current state, our justice system doesn't function to prevent crime, it doesn't rehabilitate inmates, and it doesn't create a just society. In fact, in my experience, I find the system in many ways perpetuates poverty and creates various social issues and social inequality.
It's important to acknowledge that historically there are systemic issues that have a negative impact on the way aboriginal women perceive the justice system. Many do not see the justice system as a place where they can get well or improve themselves. They see it largely as a system of punishment and a place where they get lost and forgotten.
This is why I'm a strong supporter of community courts, which is what I'd like to advocate for today. There is a pilot project in Vancouver, which is why I bring this up, and we are working on a pilot project in Calgary through the committee I'm working on. How that would work is basically by having a crown that's willing to work with the defence in order to come up with some sort of strategic plan and support system for the accused. To me, this is probably the most impactful system we could have. When the accused comes before the court, we often do not take a look at the reasons they ended up in court in the first place. The justice system functions by looking at what was done. When it looks at the “why” factor, it usually looks at it in relation to sentencing, not prevention.
Community courts aim to tackle these issues of poverty, domestic violence, homelessness, displacement, and historical issues by identifying the systemic issues that led to the accused being in court, and then setting them up with community supports that can assist them in resolving these issues.
Additionally, in theory the crown would hold the accused accountable throughout the process by not withdrawing the charges until these programs are completed. This helps not only aboriginal women, but every Albertan who's experiencing issues in the justice system. As I mentioned, there are programs similar to this that work very well. Actually, there's another family program in Siksika, which I'm a manager of, that is a family program dealing with domestic violence. It operates like a community court, and it's very successful.
One of the major issues I see in our justice system is a lack of holistic practices and insight into the interconnectedness of social and legal issues faced by aboriginal women and aboriginal people in general. I acknowledge that there are various programs in the correctional system that are intended to be aboriginal-focused, and they indeed try to focus on prevention and healing. The problem, however, is that many of these programs are only available once a person becomes a federal or provincial inmate in an institution. To me, these programs are available far too late to be as impactful as they need to be. There's also obviously an issue with these being less available to aboriginal women, which is also problematic and unfair.
When I was on the board for the FASD network in Red Deer, we came across a report on the Edmonton Institution for Women, and we discovered that 100% of women in the institution were aboriginal, and we suspected that a large portion of them suffered from FASD. Aboriginal women make up the fastest-growing prison population, as I mentioned, and they're overrepresented in segregation. Actually, they're almost twice as likely to be overrepresented in maximum security units in segregation.
If you examine these numbers, you can see the abhorrent cycle of injustice. You have a population that suffers from poverty, domestic violence, mental health issues, and displacement, and because of these issues we end up seeing these people in the justice system. They become incarcerated, they are placed in segregation, they aren't treated for their brain injuries or mental health issues, their families become separated, and they get pushed further into poverty and isolation. To put it bluntly, there is no healing, and there is no focus on prevention that I can see.
I am running out of time, so I'm going to skip a little bit, but I mention in my notes that community courts are seen as ineffective because they are seen as a way for the accused to somehow avoid their prison sentences. When we look at victims, however—the ones I have interviewed and talked with—the perception of the public is that the justice system exists for retribution, yet no matter how long the sentence is, no matter how harsh the punishment, the victims often feel unsatisfied. They are unsatisfied with the justice system.
For me, it's because they recognize the perpetual failure of the system. They realize that longer sentences are not statistically linked to deterrence in crime. They also realize that the accused often leaves prison without being rehabilitated and in fact sometimes in a worse state than before going to prison.
To my mind, the best way for the victim to heal is to know that whatever happened to them and whatever harm the accused caused them will not happen to another person again. They need to be able to see that the justice system is actually fruitful and that some good will come out of it. Again I would say that community courts are the best way to administer this type of justice.
In closing, I'll just say that we really need to take a hard look at the justice system and decide what its purpose is, and we need to be accountable for that statement. If it's about rehabilitation, if it's about making a just society, these changes really need to be made.
Thank you.
:
Good afternoon, my name is Claudie Paul, an Innu from the Mashteuiatsh First Nation.
Today, we are representing the Regroupement des centres d'amitié autochtones du Québec, the provincial organization of friendship centres in this province. The friendship centre movement is active across Canada. There are about 120 friendship centres across the country and one provincial association in each province. All friendship centres have the same mission across Canada. It is the largest service infrastructure.
We advocate for indigenous rights and interests in cities. Associations support the development of services within friendship centres in cities. Quebec has nine friendship centres in the following cities: Chibougamau, La Tuque, Joliette, Maniwaki, Montréal, Roberval, Senneterre, Sept-Îles and Trois-Rivières.
Two new centres have been opened in the past two years. They are hubs for indigenous community services, living environments and cultural roots. That's sort of what urban centres represent. Naturally, democratic organizations emerge from communities. The efforts of the indigenous population in cities help centres emerge. We are talking about 50 integrated and interconnected services.
We work in the following areas: early childhood, family and youth, skills development, employability, justice, increasingly, educational success, health, social services, as well as social and economic development. We provide a continuum of services. People who arrive in the cities need support. Today, 53.2% of indigenous people in Quebec live in cities. This percentage is much higher than elsewhere in Canada. There are many reasons for moving to the cities, including housing, education, work and other reasons, including the desire to improve living conditions. We will soon look at how this relates to justice.
I will now give the floor to Ms. Poulin.
My name is Jacinthe Poulin and I am a Health and Social Services Advisor for the Regroupement des centres d'amitié autochtone du Québec. My background is in criminology. So I am very interested in the topic being studied today.
We have had various concerns about the directions suggested for today's discussion.
First, the Gladue reports are underused in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada, which we think may have an influence not only on the judicial process that leads indigenous women to serve sentences in a penitentiary, but also on sentencing.
We also want to share with you today one of our other concerns about the lack of understanding of the justice system and the processes. The result of this lack of understanding is that indigenous accused plead guilty more often.
The traditional way of settling First Nations and Inuit conflicts leads people to admit to committing criminal acts when it would sometimes be in their interest to plead not guilty. We think it is important to point this out.
We would also like to talk about one of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which issued two calls for action on training lawyers and law students on indigenous realities and cultural competence development. That's an aspect we want to share with you today.
There is also the way the correctional system treats women. We also have concerns about the actuarial risk management tools used by the Correctional Service of Canada. Those tools are systematically discriminatory, since they take into account static risk factors, such as age and sex, but mainly dynamic risk factors, those related to economic living conditions, poverty, addiction and mental health problems. Other witnesses have mentioned all those aspects.
As you know, in the case of incarcerated indigenous people, using such dynamic factors to analyze the risk will often result in a higher security classification. As our colleagues have pointed out, indigenous people often end up with maximum or enhanced maximum security, which means that they are considered to be high-risk, high-needs offenders. Indigenous female offenders are more often placed in isolation than non-indigenous female offenders and they are released on parole less often. Those are concerns for us.
There has been a change in the tools being used. We have moved from the level of service or case management inventory (LS/CMI) to the security classification scale, but both are actuarial tools.
Furthermore, security classifications have an impact on the programs to which indigenous female inmates can have access. Clearly, when a female inmate has a maximum security or enhanced maximum security classification, it is difficult to access certain programs.
Quebec has a penitentiary for women that offers those programs, in Joliette. We were told that the small number of women and the fact that they are often assigned a high security classification means that they do not have access to correctional programs. There is only one indigenous healing centre for women in Canada, in Saskatchewan. Of course, women in Quebec do not have access to that healing centre. In addition, section 81 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act refers to those healing centres. The first criterion for going to those centres is that the offender is able to obtain a minimum security classification or, as the case may be, a medium security classification. This means that women do not have access to those healing centres.
Our experience on the ground shows that indigenous communities and indigenous people in urban areas are divided on traditional healing. Not all indigenous women adhere to traditional healing and may not be comfortable with programs for the general population. So there is a lack of services for those women. Cultural reappropriation is not the solution for all women.
Over time, various strategies have been put in place by the Correctional Service of Canada. It would be interesting to find out the outcome of the evaluation of those strategies. We are talking about hiring aboriginal staff—
:
Good afternoon, everybody.
I will make my remarks in French and English—in both languages.
Thank you very much for inviting the Canadian Human Rights Commission to take part in your study on indigenous women in the federal justice and correctional systems.
Allow me to introduce my colleague Fiona Keith, Senior Counsel for the Commission. She is here to answer some of your questions, as I am.
[Translation]
From 2009 to 2015, I sat as the first independent chair of disciplinary hearings (independent person chair disciplinary hearings) at federal correctional facilities in Quebec. In that capacity, I had to rule on institutional charges against inmates. That experience, coupled with my current role as Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, is the basis of my testimony today.
My experiences on the ground confirm what the commission has long recognized, including through the complaints it receives, that vulnerable groups are disproportionately subject to unfair treatment while in a correctional facility.
Indigenous women in prison have often been victims of a toxic combination of racism, violence, sexual assault and other forms of abuse. In addition, their troubled past often causes them to suffer both physically and psychologically, and this suffering frequently contributes to the reasons for their incarceration. However, once incarcerated and without support, they experience difficulties related to their past that manifest in difficult behaviours.
In response to those behaviours, correctional services can use nothing but isolation, yet many studies have confirmed its devastating effects. As a result, those indigenous women, many of whom are victims of abuse and suffer from depression, post-traumatic shock, and so on, find themselves isolated and deprived of all human contact. This triggers a destructive cycle that the correctional service seems unable to stop for the moment. This cycle often ends tragically and sometimes even has fatal consequences.
[English]
In 2003 the commission issued a report entitled “Protecting Their Rights: a Systemic Review of Human Rights in Correctional Services for Federally Sentenced Women”. The report made 19 recommendations and continues to be cited in recent court decisions.
The first recommendation I would like to bring to your attention is that the Correctional Service of Canada act immediately to address the issues concerning the disproportionate number of federally sentenced indigenous women classified as maximum security by, first, immediately reassessing the classification of all indigenous women currently classified as maximum security, using a gender-responsive classification tool, and second, by changing the blanket policy of not allowing maximum security women at the healing lodge.
Fifteen years later, many of our 19 recommendations have not been implemented. The same can be said for recommendations in numerous other reports.
Three years ago, the commission held a series of round table discussions with indigenous women from across Canada. We have copies of this report; it's going to be available in both languages for all of you.
These round tables helped us learn about the difficulties that indigenous women face in the justice system. The participants identified 21 barriers to accessing justice, including the complexity of legal processes, language barriers, lack of awareness, lack of support, and lack of legal aid and other resources.
They also expressed a profound distrust of police and the judicial process. When they are the victims of crime, they don't feel safe going to the police for help. This could explain why only a small fraction of the commission's discrimination complaints come from female indigenous inmates in the federal corrections system.
Let's be honest: to be an indigenous woman in prison is to be invisible, to be ignored, to be denied their humanity, to be forgotten. We have forgotten them, because the findings from 10, 15, 20 years ago continue to hold true. Nothing has been done. These women continue to be ignored.
Indigenous women continue to be classified at higher security levels, based on classification tools and processes that do not reflect their unique characteristics. They continue to be placed in segregation and other forms of isolation at disproportionate rates, despite their histories of trauma and violence. They fail to have proper access to appropriate mental health services and cultural and spiritual supports. They continue to experience—even more, actually, within prison walls—the harassment, violence, misogyny, that marked their lives prior to their incarceration. Indigenous women have higher rates of recidivism because the corrections system fails to rehabilitate and reintegrate them, which is compounded by the lack of support they receive after release.
As very few recommendations have been implemented, litigation has proven to be the only way to make change—court-ordered change. In the case of indigenous women, this creates a double disadvantage. The court system is intimidating for most individuals, and even more so for indigenous women who have little to no support to navigate what can be a lengthy, costly, and very stressful process.
Despite all this, I remain optimistic that there is a genuine desire at the political level to make improvements, to do better. I hope that this government will start implementing the many recommendations that have been made over the years.
With that said, based on what indigenous women told us, here is what needs to happen to improve indigenous women's experience within the federal and correctional systems.
First, build trust. Indigenous women who have been victims of crime must feel that it's safe to come forward.
Second, provide support and assistance wherever indigenous women are. Services must find them: in their community or urban centre, at the police station, before a judge, in a remand centre, in a federal institution, and on release.
[Witness speaks in Mi'kmaq]
I just said that my name is Teresa Edwards, I'm Mi'kmaq First Nation, and my traditional name is Young Fire Woman.
I want to acknowledge the Algonquin people on whose territory we're gathered and of whom I'm a guest today. I also want to thank the committee for the opportunity to present on the topic of improving indigenous women's experience with the federal justice and correctional systems.
Today I'm presenting as a board member on behalf of the Indigenous Bar Association. The IBA is a national not-for-profit organization incorporated in 1994, made up of lawyers, academics, and law students from across Canada. The objectives at the IBA are to advance issues and concerns that indigenous people have with the justice system and to be a national voice for indigenous peoples generally. The IBA has also been recognized by governments, courts, and tribunals in many instances. I hope that you'll take our recommendations into account today.
I also have to acknowledge that my other hat here is as legal counsel and executive director for the Legacy of Hope Foundation. It's a national indigenous organization aimed at educating Canadians about the ongoing impacts of residential schools upon survivors, their families, and their communities.
With the last school having closed in 1996, we as a society are faced with generations of indigenous peoples who have been subjected to racism within policy, within legislation, and within the justice and correctional systems. Survivors have experienced all forms of violence—physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse—and have often not been given proper education or life skills to thrive as adults or as parents. These experiences have significantly contributed to the many social and economic conditions that they are facing today, including the strong links to poverty and to conflict with the federal justice and correctional systems.
I brought a research report for the committee today. There are only copies in English. I do have copies in French and I'll be giving them to the committee as well; tomorrow I'll have someone from my office bring them over.
The LHF fulfills its mandate by providing curricula and educational resources to schools across Canada. We've secured curricula for the three territories, and now we're working on an agreement with the Government of Alberta and concurrently with the Government of Ontario to do the curriculum from K to 12 so that it will actually include the appropriate history of indigenous peoples in Canada, including that concerning residential schools, the sixties scoop, and ongoing child welfare.
The reason for this is that we will expose the links that exist with social ailments today and build a stronger empathy and acknowledgement, just as we honour veterans in teaching histories of wars or teaching the history of Auschwitz and other issues. We need to do the same for Canada's dark history.
We make use of art and a series of exhibitions to uncover historical wrongdoings to understand where society went wrong in its treatment of indigenous peoples.
I will go on to speak of the effects that are affecting women, that are connecting them to conflict with the justice system.
It still has to be said that there's another side of the story for Canadians and justice officials whereby racism has to be addressed.
We have incidents of contact with the police. From the first instance, if the person is non-indigenous or not a racialized person, they're often given five or 10 warnings. I know this from personal experience in 25 years as a lawyer, in travelling to more than 110 communities and working as a legal counsel at NWAC—the Native Women's Association of Canada—and the AFN. In story after story, I hear of children, a group of five, who are apprehended by police together. Non-indigenous children are brought home to their parents and given a slap on the hand; the others are brought to the station and immediately charged, and their career begins.
You have this whole link of survivors of residential school with children who are survivors of a residential school or else are second generation. They may have been in contact with the state, being removed from the home largely because of poverty. These kids then come into contact with the justice system, and so starts the cycle.
You have racism at every impact. I really want the committee to be conscious of that point, inasmuch as we have to look at all the impacts of residential schools on indigenous people. When we look at the solution, we need to address that context.
I love the anecdote of “Bob hit Mary”, which becomes “Mary is an abused woman”. We look at solutions for Mary the abused woman, and Bob is gone from the equation.
We need to look at the fact that there is racism within the justice system from all angles before we can address the solutions.
I really concur with the comments that were made before mine. I would just add that for several generations indigenous communities have had to struggle with the impacts of residential schools and the imposition of foreign systems, policies, and laws that have disrupted our nations and have contributed to the social and economic hardships I spoke about.
We've had human rights violations and continuous colonization of indigenous women, and their children have been affected the most by these violations. We've had dispossession of traditional lands, of traditional roles and responsibilities, of our participation in political and social decisions. All are contributing factors that harmed our families, cultures, traditions, and languages. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has consistently recognized that indigenous women in particular face these multiple forms of discrimination that I've spoken about.
In Canada, indigenous women are more likely to be involuntarily segregated and to endure longer segregations than non-indigenous women. They are prisoners who are younger than their non-indigenous counterparts, with an average age of 29, as compared with 32 for non-indigenous women. We know that they make up 5% of the female population in Canada, but 39% of the female prison population, and they make up 50% of federal segregation placements.
As well, I have heard people speak about the mother-daughter programs. In reality, I've seen on paper what they're supposed to look like and how their implementation is supposed to work, but I've also met with women who spoke of having a half hour a week to visit their newborn child.
There are so many instances that I could give you. I know you are all going to receive the report that I already submitted, so I'll go straight to my recommendations.
One—eliminating legal provisions that discriminate against indigenous women—has been mentioned. Next is compulsory training for all law enforcement, judges, and Correctional Service of Canada staff regarding indigenous peoples, particularly on the specific circumstances of indigenous women.
I've been trying to do culturally sensitive training with the police for 13 years. I'm happy to report that I met with a body of police officers at Deerhurst two weeks ago, and that was a breakthrough. Change is happening, but it really needs to happen on a larger scale.
Next, ensure enforcement and application of Gladue principles. I can't stress that enough. People are checking off the box, but there are no Gladue principles being articulated by lawyers who are representing indigenous clients.
Next is facilitation and implementation of sections 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act for the benefit of criminalized indigenous women prisoners.
I'm hearing about the Buffalo Sage facility and other instances in which beds are given away to non-indigenous women. We have such high rates of incarceration for indigenous women, but because of their high classification, they're not making it into those healing lodges. I agree with looking at classification and at transferring, where there are medical needs, because there is an extreme amount of mental health difficulty and PTSD for these women.
Make sure that they have access to culturally based programs and spiritual services while in prison, and take all necessary measures to address the issue of separation of indigenous children from their parents.
Provide adequate supports and counselling with respect to mental health and well-being while inside and ensure healing and coping strategies to deal with matters on the outside.
Here is a huge issue: supporting indigenous women in their pursuit of education, as has been said. Indigenous women have low completion rates while incarcerated. This would include providing life skills and other training that will help with their successful integration.
We now know statistically that in Canada indigenous women have higher education than indigenous men, but it's not translating into income. We need to shift that. We need support programs that will help indigenous women to be able to participate in the workforce and to access employment upon release. In particular, trades is a great avenue for our women to follow, so that their first job will bring a sustainable income with which they can support themselves and their children.
Another need is helping indigenous women to secure safe and affordable housing for themselves and their children upon release. We have stories of women who are given four bus tickets. They get on a bus, they take it as far as it will go, and they go and commit a crime so that they'll get back and have a place to live. There's no plan in place.
We need to have those plans for women, as well as safety plans for women and children who are escaping violent situations, with proper transitional supports and programs that support their physical and psychological well-being upon release.
Thank you for that opportunity.
:
If I may, I'll quickly give an answer to that. The majority of indigenous people live off reserve, so in talking about communities, you're talking about communities in Canada, in the provinces and territories. That's the reality. Indigenous people live in urban settings. A very low percentage live on reserve, so to say that if we had programs in communities....
I take your point. Indigenous communities that already have trust can help women to empower themselves. That's great. I'm a huge believer. I volunteer with indigenous women who are living in a homeless shelter to help them have financial literacy, to encourage them to go back to school, and to help them to secure housing and get an education, but most of all, the number one factor is to help them gain employment, because the reality is that they can have all the education, as a lot of indigenous women do.... I have six degrees, and I am blessed that I have a successful career as a lawyer, but many indigenous women have multiple degrees and are living on assistance because they don't have the economic transition to get the jobs that are out there.
We need to support women in getting jobs. They could have education, yet be living in a violent situation. They could go to a safe house or a transition house, but after a month they don't have any money, so they have to return to that violent situation. If you give a woman a job, if you help her to gain employment, even in a violent situation she can put money away, have a plan, and escape the violent situation. That's one little aspect, but you still need the holistic supports that support all the abuse that has happened, the sexual violence and everything that a woman has lived.
The last residential school closed in 1996. That's not a hundred years ago. That's 20 years ago.
:
No, I'm not saying.... I'm sorry. It's just because I'm trying to address the point. What I'm saying is to give supports—
Ms. Rachael Harder: Yes.
Ms. Teresa Edwards: —for the abuse they've experienced, such as having counselling available.
A perfect example is the child welfare situation. Families are losing children primarily because of poverty. They cannot support their child, or they can't have a house that has a bedroom for a girl and one for a boy; after they're five years old, they need to have two bedrooms. Child welfare comes in and says, “Sorry, you can't support your child adequately, so they're going to the state.” The child goes into state care, and then we give a family $2,000 a month to raise someone else's child, whereas if the state were providing supports.... That's what I'm referring to. If supports had been provided for that person beforehand, they wouldn't have lost custody of their child in the first place.
It's similar to other supports for indigenous women. They need to be receiving a holistic approach of counselling, well-being, getting financial literacy training, support and encouragement for education, and the means and opportunity for child care, which is huge. It's number one. Eighty per cent of indigenous women are single mothers, so you can have all the programs you want, but if you don't have child care, they can't make it there because they're taking care of their children.
Also, in our culture, we take care of our parents, so they are responsible for both, and they're doing it alone.