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Results: 1 - 15 of 46
View Mylène Freeman Profile
NDP (QC)
Following from that, do off-reserve aboriginal women work, can they work, do they want to work in developing these plans? What supports and funding opportunities would be available to help them develop these initiatives?
Diane Redsky
View Diane Redsky Profile
Diane Redsky
2014-02-06 18:13
Already from our work in going across the country in our work specifically on trafficking, there are lots.... Almost in every large city in Canada, the women are starting to gather, starting at the grassroots level to come together to identify the solutions. I really think it's about all of us being the funding partners, and some decision-making and opportunity to provide support so that we step up as well in supporting those local coalitions, organizations, and women's organizations doing the work.
Part of what we've done through the national task force is as we've been going along fact-finding in the last year, we have also been grant-making. When we're grant-making, we're grant-making in partnership with government. There are natural synergies and opportunities for the private sector and for government to come together to really build a strong circle around the women who are working really hard at trying to raise awareness and address the systems and rebuild their families and communities from the inside out.
Jeffrey Cyr
View Jeffrey Cyr Profile
Jeffrey Cyr
2013-12-05 19:11
Madam Chair, distinguished members of the Status of Women special committee, thank you for the opportunity to present to you on this very serious issue.
I wish to acknowledge first the traditional lands of the Algonquin nation where we are meeting today.
My name is Jeff Cyr. I'm a Métis from Manitoba and the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres.
Just for your knowledge, the National Association of Friendship Centres is a national aboriginal organization comprised of 119 urban-based aboriginal service organizations and seven provincial and territorial associations located form coast to coast to coast in Canada.
We've been providing community-based services on the front line for over 60 years in Canada, and are part of the social fabric of this country. As to the topic of this committee this evening, it's all front-line work, from our perspective.
The work of this special committee is very important to the friendship centre movement. Many of the documented cases of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada have links to urban areas. Furthermore, these women and girls are members of our communities, so we are compelled to speak out. We are compelled to seek change.
What I really want to speak to you about today is action. I believe we should focus on making demonstrable change on the ground in the lives of aboriginal people on a societal level. This issue of murdered and missing women and violence against women and girls is fundamentally a Canadian problem. It is not an aboriginal problem. It has often been cast as such. These are the most vulnerable elements of our society.
I have long stated that complex issues are not solved in isolation, are not solved by one single actor—not my organization, nor police forces, nor the government can do this alone. It is through shared goals, collective action, and leadership that we can effect change. This is our challenge.
The Native Women's Association of Canada's Sisters In Spirit database shows that of the cases they documented to 2010, 70% disappeared from urban areas, and 60% of those who were murdered were murdered in urban areas. The National Association of Friendship Centres believes this is a broad societal problem, one that requires action on all levels to ensure that indigenous women and girls are safe.
Research into this complex issue has been undertaken by the Native Women's Association of Canada, Manitoba's aboriginal justice inquiry, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry in British Columbia, and others. The research has revealed the higher vulnerability of aboriginal women and girls to violence.
In 2009, as a response, at our annual general meeting of the National Association of Friendship Centres, the membership passed a resolution and conducted an organization-wide study on poverty and social exclusion. I'll draw the connection for you in a minute.
Some of the findings of the research are that 94% of respondents agreed that social exclusion is an issue with our clients: that's 94%. Of the respondents, 58% say that social exclusion is a major factor in creating poverty. The study identified that the main reasons for the social exclusion of urban aboriginal people include racism, prejudice, stereotyping, poor education and literacy, poverty and unemployment, lack of government policies and programs for urban aboriginal people, and an unwillingness of governments to include urban aboriginal people in their policies.
The key messages from this study that friendship centres want all governments to know are that poverty and social exclusion among the urban aboriginal population in Canada are very serious issues that impact many thousands of children, youth, and single families in their daily lives; and that the impacts of poverty and social exclusion are having devastating impacts on health, social education, economic well-being, and the future lives of Canadian urban aboriginal people. Furthermore, poverty and social exclusion are linked to violence in our communities.
Sadly, indigenous women and girls are among the most vulnerable in Canadian society. For those of us who provide services to them, we know that there are serious systemic barriers and challenges that our communities face. We know that historical trauma, social exclusion, and systemic racism only begin to paint a picture of vulnerable communities and the obstacles they face in achieving safety.
The NAFC has done some work in this area. Our New Journeys website is designed to provide information directly to aboriginal peoples, and particularly to first nations women, who need this information for their transitions from the reserve or remote communities to a city. The website lists thousands of service organizations and agencies. It also contains transitional planning guides for women, students, and families.
However, in order to address these issues, we believe that widespread systemic action and change are needed. We must focus on integrative approaches to collective action. Innovative approaches and widespread systemic action are needed in areas of policing, education, social services, public health, and others to ensure that we provide effective support for our most vulnerable populations.
An example that I find enlightening in providing hope on how we do things within our communities is the hub model that was developed in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, led by the chief of police there. This is an example of interlinking service providers to decrease crime rates—and there's evidence that it works. Using short-term case-work teams made up of a spectrum of human services personnel is a way of acknowledging that violence and crime prevention is a community responsibility. They have found success in ways that would not have been possible without an integrated approach. It was not about money but about an integrated approach.
Indigenous communities are recognizing the role they play and are taking action. Two friendship centre programs in particular address violence against aboriginal women. One is the moose hide campaign. This is where men wear a small patch of moose hide to symbolize their commitment to stand up against violence towards aboriginal women and children. I am wearing one tonight. To quote my colleague in British Columbia, Paul Lacerte:
We need to speak up and take positive action, and we need to support each other as Aboriginal men in our healing journey.
Another program is Taking Care of Each Other's Spirit. This is a campaign undertaken by the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres to address the abuse of women in aboriginal communities across Ontario. The tools provide communities with a road map for an action plan to end violence against aboriginal women, while providing resources for aboriginal women who may be experiencing violence or who are at risk.
I am amongst a distinguished panel here today, so I want to keep my remarks brief and allow the committee time to do its work. I wanted to leave with some parting thoughts on the way forward. First, I believe we need to articulate a set of shared goals at a community, regional, and national level.
Second, we need to set aside perceived areas of influence and jurisdiction—that's within cities, within provinces, and within communities—and build a model of collective action that empowers community action. The Prince Albert hub model may provide some key insights as to how we can do this. It isn't about the money; its about the effort.
Last, we need to show leadership. We need to use our collective clout, power, and influence to move communities, to move governments, and to allow for new forms of integrated action.
Thank you very much.
View Cathy McLeod Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think as we all come to these meetings we reflect on some of the reasons we're here. I certainly want to note that today is the one-year anniversary of the very tragic murder of 16-year-old CJ Fowler in Kamloops.
That murder has not been solved as of yet. I look at the pictures in the newspaper today of this beautiful girl with a pink hoodie, and know the very violent end she met. I think our hearts are all wanting to work towards solutions, and it's really coming up with the solutions of how we can get to where we need to be. It was December 5 one year ago, so today is a difficult day for her family especially. You look at the pictures, and it's very tragic.
This leads me to the fact that this was in an urban setting. It was a girl visiting from a more remote community. Mr. Cyr indicated that a lot of this is happening in the urban settings. One of the things I've noticed about friendship centres is their incredible ability to do so much with so little. Certainly when I look at the interior friendship centre I see the breadth of what they do.
As the friendship centre, as the person responsible, how do you see your organizations fitting into tackling this problem? You talked earlier about the different levels—the national level, the community level—at which we need to tackle it. Could you talk a little bit about your organization at these different levels?
Jeffrey Cyr
View Jeffrey Cyr Profile
Jeffrey Cyr
2013-12-05 19:53
Sure. I'll try to be brief, conscious of the time here.
Friendship centres, like first nations, operate on all three levels: a national body, regional bodies, and community-driven bodies. Communities actually create friendship centres. We don't create them. They're created by the communities they're in.
At the national level, while I can participate with my colleagues here at this table, and with you in Ottawa, and around the country, on national goal-setting and those issues that we discussed before, I think real action—a real interaction—will happen at the community level. That's where you find the heart and soul of friendship centres. They're in the communities.
They have partnerships. They know who the community players are. They know who the vulnerable people are and how they can be helped. It's an interaction between police forces, social services, other human services organizations, and education, as you heard in the panel before ours. They all have to come together collectively, which is why I described the Prince Albert hub model as a collective approach that looks at where interventions occur and how people can work together.
While our organization can have impact and effect at each level, real change is going to need the communities to be empowered to do that. National governments and provincial governments empower those communities.
Shawn A-in-chut Atleo
View Shawn A-in-chut Atleo Profile
Shawn A-in-chut Atleo
2013-12-05 19:56
Thank you.
We know that the family is going through a ceremony tonight. Charlene and I were with the family up home, where they come from, in the Gitanmaax area just outside of Terrace. This is the reason for the need for this to be such a coordinated effort: the ebb and flow of our peoples between communities, between the urban and the rural settings.
They had asked us a year ago today to be there. I want to acknowledge Matilda and Glen, who are going through that ceremony for their late daughter CJ. We were with them the day they went in to identify the body. It was a year ago today.
To see the incredible array of challenges these people face, including the deep poverty, the issues with child welfare, with education, where we are making every effort to make shifts, changes, and improvements, and with the coordination between jurisdictions on things like policing, and yes, even the efforts in having coroners appreciate, recognize, and support the incredible challenges that first nations face, it's the full spectrum.
This is where we find ourselves and our organizations. In this case, it is Charlene in particular who I hold in such high regard, because she often is the first line of contact with these families on our behalf. Because the structures aren't necessarily there. The Native Women's Association and so many others are doing everything they can. This is where we can't compel you enough to understand the opportunity that you have to gravitate as forcefully, as respectfully, but as strongly as possible to this issue, knowing that we have another family going through ceremony tonight, reliving what happened a year ago.
That is but one of so many experiences that we can draw from—all the more reason why we want to see and encourage you to consider such a strong move.
We wanted to honour the memory of the late CJ. We were in the room with her parents when this moment occurred. We know that they are in ceremony, and we know that if the opportunity gave rise to it this evening, they wanted us to share it. You prompted it. I want to recognize and thank you for doing that.
We're talking about real people right across this entire country, and absolutely this is emotional, so we emote. This is not just an intellectual conversation that is happening, and it should be an emotional one for the country, to say that we have a shared obligation.... Then let's get into having these action plans developed that include questions such as shelters. I was at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection yesterday. I was so moved, impressed, and excited by that work about what's happening to children right now in families and communities. I want to see us move into the space where we talk about the protection of families and children immediately. This is the leadership role that you can play.
On the specific question of shelters, Charlene—
View Mylène Freeman Profile
NDP (QC)
With respect to “Working Together: Engaging Communities to End Violence Against Women and Girls”, could you tell us what percentage was attributed to ending violence for aboriginal women and girls, whether on or off reserve?
Linda Savoie
View Linda Savoie Profile
Linda Savoie
2013-05-23 18:50
That's the call that was closed in the fall, and under that call we had 3 of the 27 successful projects for aboriginal communities. In the same year, our girls call had 8 of the 35 projects that targeted aboriginal communities, so, yes, I do have statistics. The rural call, for instance, the results of which were announced a year ago, had 12 of the 55 projects that were with aboriginal communities.
Mary Eberts
View Mary Eberts Profile
Mary Eberts
2013-05-08 16:28
Thank you.
Members of the committee, I would like to draw your attention, in my four minutes, to two major things this legislation has totally overlooked.
The first is the history of the Indian Act. I agree with my friend that legislation like the Indian Act demeans and devalues the treaty relationship. The Indian Act has never acknowledged the treaties. There are nations now that have law-making power and can exercise that law-making power because of treaties and because of unceded land. Those nations do not need clause 7 of this legislation. It is a mistake for Canada to think that it is bestowing legislative jurisdiction on these nations.
The other part of the Indian Act that this legislation ignores is the way the Indian Act created vulnerability in aboriginal women. It took away their families. It took away their home places, and if they married and went to another community, they were stuck there. They were said to be of that community, and they had no family and no connections to help them out if things got tough and if violence was perpetrated. The Indian Act did that. It enhanced the vulnerability of indigenous women.
The other thing the Indian Act did was ensure that indigenous people subject to the Indian Act would remain in poverty perpetually. One of the reasons that the housing provisions of this act are so important is that there is not enough housing on Indian reserves. Never mind violence, there isn't enough housing. People who are separating fight over housing because there isn't enough for the families who aren't separated, never mind creating more and more units. We know that, and yet this government does nothing.
The second thing this legislation has ignored is the experience of non-indigenous women or women living off reserve with family violence. This legislation puts in place a whole lot of legal terms that try to be just like the legal terms that a woman living in Barrie or Thunder Bay or Saskatoon or Bamfield, B.C., would be able to use in a family violence situation. But what this legislation does not acknowledge is that women, because of the absence of legal aid in this country, do not have lawyers to help them access the legislation, and when and if they do get these protective awards, the police don't enforce them, and there's nothing the women can do about that. That is because there is an imperfect consciousness on the part of police that these orders have to be enforced and a drastically imperfect legal system when it comes to giving women access to justice. I totally agree with Madame Audette when she says that the situation of women living on reserve is, if anything, much worse in terms of access to justice and access to police protection than that of people living off reserve.
So please remember those two things when you consider this legislation.
View Cathy McLeod Profile
CPC (BC)
My next question is about some of the very disturbing statistics you presented. Is there any delineation between at least on and off reserve? You said you couldn't do micro areas, but....
Cathy Connors
View Cathy Connors Profile
Cathy Connors
2013-05-02 19:10
For the self-reported data that we have on victimization, we are not able to separate the information for on and off reserve because the sample sizes get really small. We have to remember that this is a survey of the general population. Basically, we're surveying everybody in Canada, and we're trying to produce estimates for everybody in Canada.
The aboriginal population, as you know, is about 4% of the Canadian population, so you could expect approximately 4% of the sample of that survey to be aboriginal people. The smaller the numbers get of records that we have, the less able we are to produce detailed information.
View Libby Davies Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you very much.
I would like to follow up on a few questions.
We heard a little about the community capacity, and you spoke about how communities have to be ready and have to want to take on particular projects, whether it's a safety plan.... I don't know if you were speaking more about on reserve, but I want to get an idea of the capacity on the government side as well.
I know, for example, in the community that I represent, Vancouver East, which includes the downtown eastside, many organizations spend a huge amount of time chasing down various programs to try to get any money to do anything at the community level. I wonder if both Public Safety and Aboriginal Affairs can tell us, or if you have information, about the level of application and how you are able to meet that demand, particularly off reserve, because I think we have huge problems in the urban environment.
There are organizations that have the capacity. They know what needs to be done, but the sense I have is that they can't get the resources to do it. It's a different picture from what we hear about, that maybe the capacity isn't there. Maybe the capacity isn't there more on this side to meet the demand. I wonder if you have that information, and if you do, can you share it with us, in terms of the number of applications you might get for any of the programs you run and what percentage of those get funding?
Françoise Ducros
View Françoise Ducros Profile
Françoise Ducros
2013-05-02 19:34
Just on the programmatic side, on all of the programs that we've talked about, they are generally, as a matter of policy, to provide the programming on reserve that isn't provided on reserve by the provinces in their general program delivery.
On the urban aboriginal issue, which of course is growing and is significant off reserve, we do have the urban aboriginal strategy, which is designed to work with aboriginal leaders off reserve in the urban centres. I actually can provide you with what we're doing to that effect, the way in which it's approached, the projects and the numbers of projects that are funded, and how they are funded—
Jeffrey Cyr
View Jeffrey Cyr Profile
Jeffrey Cyr
2013-05-02 12:44
Thank you. I'll try to be as succinct and brief as I can so that everyone gets their time.
Colleagues on the video conference, Madam Chair, distinguished members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, thank you for the opportunity to present on what we consider to be a very serious issue.
I wish to also acknowledge the traditional lands of the Algonquin nation where we are meeting today.
For your edification, my name is Jeff Cyr. I'm a Métis from Manitoba and the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres. This is my first appearance in front of your committee. As such, I'll provide some background as to who we are as an organization, what we do, and why that's relevant to the issue at hand.
The National Association of Friendship Centres is a national aboriginal organization comprised of 119 friendship centres across the country, from coast to coast to coast. That includes seven provincial and territorial organizations.
The early history of the friendship centre movement in Canada is found in the cities of Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. It was started in the 1950s, by aboriginal people, for aboriginal people. The history and evolution of the friendship centre movement is reflective of the modern history of aboriginal people in Canada. Our history is one of continual growth and continual expansion as we seek to meet the health, social, economic, safety, educational, and transitional needs of first nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples in the urban centres of this country.
For over 60 years we've been front and centre in assisting aboriginal people to become fully acquainted with urban life, maintain their culture as an anchor, and utilize services available to them as they adjust to life in the city.
Friendship centres not only provide invaluable services to urban aboriginal people who utilize these programs; the movement also provides employment. There are currently 2,600 people employed through friendship centres, and 72% of them are women. We are also community anchors and we're hubs for social innovation in urban centres.
In my notes I have a list of programs and services that we provide. I'm going to be very brief with this: prenatal, healthy babies, head start, youth care, housing, mental health and wellness, diabetes, drug and alcohol, youth programs, employment services, and on and on. Issues of violence and youth at risk for sexual exploitation and crimes are also areas of high priority for our movement, along with protecting women and children from harm and family violence.
While friendship centres have had long-term success in offering and delivering these vital services, there are many challenges that we confront. Some are forced by demographic realities while others pertain to organizational capacities. As you know, the urban aboriginal population in Canada continues to increase. In 1996 it was 47%. In 2006 it was 54%. Today it is over 60%. In some metropolitan areas, over 80% of the population lives in urban areas. Of course, that population is overwhelmingly young, under the age of 25.
These demographic realities place strong pressures on the human and fiscal capacities of our centres. We can talk later about how our centres are funded, if it comes up in questions. I'm going to move on so that we can get to the point. Throughout our history, friendship centres have been places that aboriginal peoples seek out as they move to urban areas for a variety of reasons.
Now we come to the issue at hand: matrimonial real property and its effects. It is abundantly clear that MRP is a serious issue, a serious human rights issue, and it needs to be dealt with. When women and children leave their community as a result of these issues, where do they go? Where do you think they go? On the whole, they end up in cities. They look for services, and they end up at the friendship centre door.
As the National Association of Friendship Centres, we need there to be awareness of the social complexities of these issues that have been wrought in the off-reserve environment. The presentation earlier today by AFN and the other presenter spoke to some of those social complexities.
I want to commend, first of all, the lands modernization unit of Aboriginal Affairs, who approached us to discuss this issue well over a year ago—not on a legal basis but on a service basis, because what we're talking about is people's lives—on who helps those affected while the legal realm gets sorted out.
With very limited funding, we as an organization created a searchable online database that provides information on over 6,000 service agencies, aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike, where our friendship centres are located. It includes contact information on programs and services related to health, housing, education, justice, culture, child care, community support, and government support.
We created this database as a means of providing information directly into the hands of aboriginal people, and in particular first nation women, who need this information for their transition from reserve to a city. This website, which will be launched later this month, is called New Journeys, and other than the thousands of service organizations and agencies it lists, the site also contains transitional planning guides for women, students, and families. There are safety features on the site that include an erasable search history to safeguard women who may be experiencing domestic violence and are making plans to relocate to a city.
This project began in 2011 when we did an environmental scan and some research. There are a few things we learned during that process. Aboriginal people are likely to face multiple barriers when they first arrive in the city, including poverty, lack of education, unemployment, lack of adequate housing, racism, and a sense of social exclusion.
Many will face difficulties navigating multiple systems in jurisdictions while attempting to locate programs and services. Easy access to services upon arrival in the city is essential to ensuring a good transition, however some aboriginal people are unaware of available programs and services. Moreover, agencies are also often unaware of available services.
There was a need for a system to address the immediate transition issues of newcomers to ensure that their adjustment to city life is a positive one. There are only a handful of organizations that offer services that are specific to supporting aboriginal people who are newcomers to the city. There was a need for collaboration between first nations and urban aboriginal organizations in program delivery, and such cooperation will result in a more seamless transition to city life.
I want to draw the attention of the members of this committee to the reality of how socially complex issues such as MRP play out on the ground, and to who supports those who need help. I believe we need to engage and support organizations such as ours, and friendship centres, in a more robust manner to be that bridge between emerging issues and innovative solutions. It serves Canada better to do so.
Right now we have created a set of tools. We have taken a nickel and stretched it to make a dollar, which is really what we're good at actually. But eventually we'll need to look behind the veil and we'll ask: how are we supporting aboriginal women in Canada in the long term?
Changes to matrimonial real property and the legal infrastructure in Canada are, in my opinion, long overdue. As Canada's largest aboriginal service infrastructure, the friendship centre movement will continue to be central in addressing issues related to MRP and be that vital resource to women and children relocating to urban areas.
But it goes beyond legislation. We need your assistance, we need your deep engagement, we need your recognition of our services and our partnerships, and we need to move beyond project-driven funding and build real capacity in our organizations.
This is an added comment to my notes. This is incredibly important. When we bring in pieces of legislation, they have far-reaching implications. That won't be done within one year. When people are seeking services, they're going to seek them in the urban environment and they'll be at our door, and we won't necessarily have the resources to answer all those questions. We can't do it on a project-driven basis, it's too difficult.
I'm going to cut my comments short.
Thank you, meegwetch, to all of you for your attention. I look forward to more dialogue on issues affecting urban aboriginal life.
View Niki Ashton Profile
NDP (MB)
View Niki Ashton Profile
2013-05-02 13:11
Thank you very much, from our side, Ms. van der Woerd. It's unfortunate that we didn't have the time to ask you questions, and so many important points were raised.
Mr. Cyr, there's no question that the friendship centres do really critical work with aboriginal women, men, and youth in many communities. I'm very proud for the chance I've had to work with friendship centres in the area that I represent. However, I've been concerned at times when the government hasn't been there to support the critical work, particularly with young people, for example.
Recognizing that this legislation is about on-reserve first nations, I think has somehow been lost in the fray. We've spent quite a bit of time hearing from the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, who don't represent on-reserve first nations. We've heard a lot of rhetoric. The reality is that we have to be clear about who this pertains to.
Now I'm wondering, in your experience in working with the friendship centres, in terms of bringing an on-the-ground perspective, could you speak to us about some of the reasons why people leave first nations, whether it's in Manitoba or across the country?
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