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Marie Sutherland
View Marie Sutherland Profile
Marie Sutherland
2013-06-13 18:04
Thank you.
My name is Marie Sutherland. I'm known as Waseskwan Biyesiw Iskwew. That's my Cree name. I work for the Native Women's Transition Centre, and I also work for two different high-risk groups. I am here to voice, as an elder, the violence against aboriginal women and girls, and the missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, and to address the root causes of the violence against aboriginal women and girls. I have a few examples.
One is women who are leaving abusive relationships on the reserves and coming to the big city to start a new life. Some come with their children, while some have to fight to get their kids back from their ex-partners. These women are very vulnerable. Some come to the city without money when they're leaving abusive relationships. They're tired of getting beat up and abused, and the abuse is not stopping. Some become addicted to drugs and alcohol and are controlled. Women and girls are forced to prostitute themselves. They get raped and beaten. They go missing and they are murdered.
Every day, there is a woman or girl who has been raped and beaten. I hear those stories every day in the kind of work I do. As aboriginal women, we need help from the government to enforce more police services to protect aboriginal women and girls from violence and murder and from going missing.
Every day, I hear stories about girls being raped and girls being beaten—every day—and instead of the government spending millions of dollars in hearings over the next couple of years, we need your help now, today, to hear us as aboriginal people, and to put some money into the police forces to find who's responsible for the violence, for the missing and murdered women and girls.
We need funds and resources to develop awareness and education programs on the reserves and in schools, programs about violence and the missing and murdered women, because some of these women come from the reserves. They have really big dreams of starting school, but they get grabbed by a pimp and the next thing we see is that they're in the newspaper because they've been murdered.
What I'm asking for most is the protection from violence for the women and children and to find who's responsible for the violence and the murdered women. The government and the police services have the responsibility to provide justice for victims and end the violence.
[Witness speaks in Cree]
That's it: no more violence against aboriginal women.
That's all I have to say. I don't have all the documents because this was given to me as I was leaving from Winnipeg for a different meeting.
Thank you very much for paying attention to me.
Mary Teegee
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Mary Teegee
2013-06-13 18:16
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the committee for allowing me this time to speak to you.
My name is Mary Teegee. I am from the Takla Lake First Nation. I come from the Wolf Clan. I am the executive director of child and family services here at Carrier Sekani Family Services. What we do is provide child welfare and health services and preventive services to 11 first nation communities here in north central British Columbia. Also we're the host agency for the Highway of Tears initiative. Of course, the Highway of Tears initiative is to really look at all of the recommendations that came from the symposium we hosted a few years ago and to implement those recommendations so that there are no more missing and murdered women in northern British Columbia.
The reason I'm here to testify today is to speak for those who can't speak because they are no longer with us, and I'm here to speak for those who have lost their spirits, who have lost their voice because of violence. When we're talking about violence, we have to look at the context of where it comes from and we have to look at the root causes. I think sometimes when you're looking at some of the research or the recommendations, I really emphasize that it needs to be culturally specific—it cannot be a pan-Indian approach—and it has to meet the needs of the first nation communities, where they're at.
We know that there have been missing and murdered women. There's also the domestic violence issue we have to deal with within first nation communities. We have to somehow figure out how we're going to break the cycle. Just recently we lost a very beautiful young woman, 22 years old, who had a three-year-old child, in one of our first nation communities. That is no longer acceptable. We have to figure out how we're going to work together. I don't mean just aboriginal service agencies. I think it's all society in Canada. We have to look at how we can collaborate to ensure this doesn't occur again.
We've had enough here in northern British Columbia. I think for probably for most northern provinces the same issues are there: the lack of services, the lack of resources, the judicial system failing our people, failing our nations. I do believe that one of those issues is around the judicial system. It has to be a part of the healing and it has to be part of the solution. In the northern communities—and I can only speak for northern B.C. right now—that isn't always the case.
When we look at some of the root causes of the violence, we think about, of course, the residential schools. It's interesting to note that while Prime Minister Harper did apologize for the atrocities that occurred at residential schools, I don't believe there has been enough action with that apology, so the apology rings hollow, especially when it comes to the issue of violence against women. I believe we have to look at what residential schools took away from our communities and our nations. That's what we must rebuild, and that is what's going to keep our young women safe, and that is around the culturally appropriate servicing.
I think when we're looking at the violence against women in indigenous communities, too many times we're just looking at the one case. We're not looking at it in its whole context. We understand the cycle of the abuse, the trauma, all of the mental health issues, but when we're looking at that, we also have to look at how we are going to overcome that. We're not giving enough credence to the traditional roles. Many times we're looking at dealing with just the women. We're not looking at the men's programming we need. Traditionally, everybody had a role in our society: the men had a role, the women had a role, elders had a role, and the youth had a role. Because of residential schools, that has been fractured; that has been broken. So when we're looking at services, definitely a key piece is to ensure that not only are we empowering our families and our women but also we're looking at what we can do to assist men who have also been victims of abuse, especially when it comes to residential schools. Sometimes that is overlooked.
I believe that when we're looking at the recommendations—and I do absolutely agree with the previous speaker, my sister Bridget Tolley, who talked about so many recommendations—we need to look at how we are going to implement those recommendations. Those implementations have to be community-specific, culturally specific. They have to meet the needs of where the women and families are at.
They have to be holistic types of services. We can't just look at one phase of life. As indigenous people, we are holistic. We also follow a life-cycle model. Any preventative service that we develop and implement has to take that into consideration.
We're looking at some of the issues that have occurred here in B.C. over the last few years and at some of the report recommendations that we've provided in British Columbia to deal with the issues. We also had, just recently, a Human Rights Watch report entitled “Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada”.
We also have the case in northern British Columbia of Judge Ramsay. Judge Ramsay was a predator who beat and sexually assaulted young girls who'd been in front of him at court. Yet, to date, we still do not have any assurance that this will never happen again. There have been no changes to the judicial system or to any system to ensure that we are going to keep our young women safe.
In Manitoba in 1991 there was an aboriginal justice inquiry, the Sinclair inquiry, that talked about the failings of the judicial system. There was also an implementation committee or an implementation body that was tasked to oversee that those recommendations were brought to fruition. To this date, that still hasn't occurred.
There should be the same thing in British Columbia—some type of an inquiry into northern British Columbia, into the treatment of our young women, into the missing and murdered young women, into the Highway of Tears. We need to ensure that there are changes within the judicial system to ensure that nothing happens again to our young women and to our families.
We have other recommendations. I do believe we're supportive of a national commission or an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of indigenous women and girls. I definitely think that has to happen. We need to ensure that there are independent civilian investigations of reported incidents of serious police misconduct, including incidents of rape and other sexual assault, in all jurisdictions. If you have a young woman who is afraid and is running away, in northern British Columbia there's very little trust right now in the RCMP or in the judicial system, given the history we've had to date. That has to be changed. We also recommend that a public inquiry has to take place into the violence experienced by indigenous women and girls in northern British Columbia. This inquiry could be part of the national commission of inquiry or a stand-alone inquiry from the province.
From these inquiries, we could really see where the gaps in service are and what needs to occur immediately and in the long term. I believe it has to happen in a specific way. One of the things that happened within northern British Columbia, and I'm sure across the province, was that there was more concentration in the bigger urban settings. Everybody hears about eastside Vancouver, yet all of the violence and everything that's taking place in the north has not really been concentrated on. There hasn't been enough concentration on that.
When we're looking at funding, we need money to provide prevention programs to make sure our girls are safe, to have community awareness. Look at something as simple as the AANDC funding, the aboriginal affairs dollars. They have family violence dollars of, like, a couple of thousand dollars—if you're lucky—for first nation communities. That needs to be looked at. We need to ensure that first nation communities have enough dollars so that they can figure out what they need to do in their communities to keep their women safe. Right now the family violence program that is federally funded—I don't believe it will be helpful when it's so minimal.
When we're looking at isolated communities in the north, there are no services where we are. There are maybe two or three safe houses in the small rural communities. I'm not talking just first nation communities here. I'm talking about northern British Columbia. I'm sure some of the other provinces share the same thing. There are hardly any safe houses, so where do young women go? I don't care if they're aboriginal or non-aboriginal, where do they go? It's no longer acceptable that we have no place to keep them safe. I do believe this is across northern Canada.
My isolated community is about six hours from the closest urban setting where they have a safe house. In Fort St. James, for example, they have one little safe house, and they serve quite a large area. So those are the issues that we're talking about in the north, never mind the lack of mental health therapists, or the lack of any kind of preventative programming.
We also have to look at safe, reliable transportation. Some of our young girls have gone missing because of hitchhiking, or they have been on the highway. Yet there still is nothing concrete that says here is the transportation system that we have worked together to fix. I believe in a simple fix. We have many recommendations in the Highway of Tears recommendation report. We now have the Oppal commission and their recommendations. I agree with the previous speaker that we need to ensure we have an implementation plan that is absolutely funded.
There is another thing that I strongly believe we need to do, and I look to our southern neighbour. The United States has the Violence Against Women Act, and that's for all women. But specifically, they have a new section that meets the needs of native women in the United States. Obama recently reauthorized this act, which came into being in 1994. Within that act, there are specific policies and things that we need to be a part of. I believe that Canada needs an act like that to show that it is doing something. Right now in the broader sense—the UN, the international human rights cases, all of these issues that are going on in Canada—we are all failing our families and our children, especially our women. Our young women are the most vulnerable and the most marginalized in our nation.
I think Stephen Harper could learn something from Obama and look at developing that act. If we had an act, ministers of the provinces and federal ministers alike would have to designate dollars to deal with violence against women.
My closing comment is that this is not just an aboriginal issue, and I think that's what needs to be mentioned. It's not an aboriginal issue; it's a Canadian society issue. That is the only way we are going to deal with it, by coming together and collaborating in every aspect of our society.
With that, I would just like to thank you for your time. Thank you. Meegwetch. Mahsi.
View Cathy McLeod Profile
CPC (BC)
If you were going to say to us, as a committee, that there are many recommendations.... I think you were feeling that resources for support for moving from rural to urban were important, and also support for the police to do the work that they need to do. Could you talk a little more about why you feel that's important?
Marie Sutherland
View Marie Sutherland Profile
Marie Sutherland
2013-06-13 18:59
In the first hour when somebody hasn't come home, some child or woman hasn't come home, or if some daughter hasn't come home, if the police reacted within that hour...because the first hour is the one that counts. If they were to support us, if we were able to trust them—remember, the police have broken our trust in many ways—and let them do the work, let them help us to find our sisters, our daughters, our mothers, our grandmothers, and the list goes on.... We need the police to work with us. We need them now, today, not tomorrow. We need help today.
Kevin Brosseau
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Kevin Brosseau
2013-06-13 19:21
That's right, Madam Chairperson, I will be sharing the time with Superintendent Cuillierrier.
Good evening, Madam Chair and honourable members of the committee. My name is Assistant Commissioner Kevin Brosseau, and I'm the commanding officer of the RCMP in the province of Manitoba.
I'm joined this evening by my colleagues, Superintendent Shirley Cuillierrier, the director of partnerships and external relations for the federal policing sector of the RCMP, and Superintendent Tyler Bates, the director of national aboriginal policing and crime prevention services. Both are currently based in Ottawa, but as you'll find out, have had long, esteemed careers working in a number of communities throughout the country.
I thank you for inviting the RCMP to discuss the critical issue of violence against indigenous women.
The safety and security of aboriginal communities is one of the RCMP's five strategic priorities; the primary goal of which is to contribute to healthier and safer aboriginal communities. The RCMP strives to deliver culturally competent police services, providing the foundation necessary for our officers to build relationships with the more than 600 aboriginal communities we serve. Fostering mutual trust and respect within these communities is critical to advancing our common objectives of increasing personal and community safety. Through consultation and collaborative initiatives, we develop policing approaches to address local priorities, and we tailor our services to meet the distinctive needs of each community.
The RCMP is engaged in prevention and investigative initiatives that are ever-mindful of the prevalence of violence against aboriginal women, and it has instituted training for our officers and a number of policies that focus on this very important issue.
Recognizing that education and prevention are key to eliminating and dealing with many of the root causes that lead to violence in our communities, the RCMP has national policy and procedures that provide the overarching framework and direct our units to participate in multi-agency, community-based initiatives or programs. This policy also directs actions to be taken when violence happens. If evidence exists, charges are pursued. Further, and very importantly, victims must be kept informed of the progress of the investigation. Officers are required to take a proactive and collaborative approach to promoting and managing victim safety. All reports of missing persons, regardless of their background, are given investigative priority and oversight at a number of levels throughout the organization.
Starting at our training academy, training is provided in cultural sensitivity, aboriginal awareness, and in investigating and handling domestic violence situations, and is provided to our members throughout their careers. Very importantly, as we've talked about with my colleagues, is the training that happens on the ground in a community, in conversations with elders, on the trapline, in kitchens, and around kitchen tables. That's very important for our officers as well.
As a partner to the federal government's family violence initiative, the RCMP funds a number of RCMP detachments and community-based organizations to support, last year, 29 projects that respond to relationship and family violence, victim issues, and training for sexual assault investigators.
One of those projects took place last year in Paulatuk, Northwest Territories. Under that funding initiative, 10 workshops provided a forum for women to safely and openly share their experiences with domestic violence. The workshops focused on identifying risk factors, early intervention, and healthy relationships. The women were given the tools and information to work on self-esteem and exercises to strengthen self-confidence. This wasn't an RCMP-led initiative at all. We were a participant.
The RCMP's approach to violence against aboriginal women also includes a clear focus on missing and murdered aboriginal women. The RCMP continues to improve the quality of our investigations by committing personnel, resources, and tools to investigate and analyze these incidents when they happen. Dedicated teams of investigators continue to investigate these cases in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and in Manitoba, the province I represent.
To address the absence of reliable statistics on the exact number of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, the RCMP recently conducted, across the RCMP, a file review of missing and murdered women and girls. The Commissioner of the RCMP has also engaged other Canadian police services and police chiefs across the country to conduct similar file reviews. Superintendent Tyler Bates can give you further details about that.
In furtherance of a collaborative approach, the RCMP regularly liaises with aboriginal leadership, and aboriginal and grassroots organizations, and have a member dedicated in fact to communication and integrated prevention initiatives with the Native Women’s Association of Canada, NWAC. This partnership has led to the development of a community education tool kit called “Navigating the Missing Persons Process”. It's actually on NWAC's community resource guide on their website. Recently as well we created a hitchhiking poster addressing hitchhiking and trying to give some information and be an advisory, if you will, aimed at reducing incidents of missing, and in some instances, murdered aboriginal women and girls.
In addition, the RCMP and the Assembly of First Nations signed a joint agreement, a work plan, that aligns the two organizations to work collaboratively on issues related to missing and murdered aboriginal persons across the country. These two important national initiatives and the extensive more localized work being carried out every day are key as the RCMP of course values the collaborative approach, and is intent on doing all it can to ensure the safety and well-being of aboriginal women and girls in all of our communities.
I look forward to answering your questions, but I will turn it over now to Superintendent Cuillierrier.
View Bob Rae Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much to our guest who's joining us by video conference.
Previously you described the position of the Government of Canada as only moderately enforcing the existing law. As I understand it, there are different categories that you've described—active, moderate, little, or no.
We're not at the top of the heap in terms of actively enforcing the law, is that right?
Janet Keeping
View Janet Keeping Profile
Janet Keeping
2013-06-13 12:27
Well, historically that's certainly been correct, and that's been noted by the OECD and the other organizations that monitor these things. Of course, the OECD is particularly interested in how we do vis-à-vis the OECD's anti-corruption convention, but yes, in the past, quite frankly, we've been seen as a laggard. There's nothing sensational in saying that. It has been well documented.
But ever since we signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the RCMP was mandated to create specialized teams to enforce the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, we've been doing a lot better. I've heard RCMP officers speak several times over the last few years on their involvement in enforcing the CFPOA. They're working hard at it. It's very convincing. I think they're very committed to the objectives.
I'm glad to be asked this question, because I did want to have an opportunity to say that good law on the books is really important and essential, and Transparency International Canada is behind the adoption of Bill S-14. But just as in any other country of the world, legislation is only as good as it is enforced, especially in the criminal law area.
I know that's not the mandate of this committee today—you're looking at a piece of legislation—but keep in mind that we must have the RCMP and the prosecution services adequately resourced to enforce the legislation.
Alan H. Kessel
View Alan H. Kessel Profile
Alan H. Kessel
2013-06-11 11:05
Thank you.
Honourable members, Mr. Chair, it's my pleasure to be here with you today to discuss legislative amendments to the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, CFPOA.
Since its introduction on February 5, Bill S-14 has progressed quickly and has received widespread support from both parliamentarians and stakeholders. It's our hope that members of this committee, and indeed all parties, will recognize its importance and move expeditiously to ensure that Bill S-14 is enacted as soon as possible.
Canada has long played a prominent role on the international stage in combatting corruption, and it takes allegations of corruption involving Canadian companies seriously. We have seen an increasing amount of international attention being paid to global corruption, and indeed the Canadian media have taken note of a number of recent high-profile cases in our courts.
The global fight against foreign bribery is intended to create a level playing field for international business so that Canadian companies can compete and win fairly in the pursuit of freer markets and expanded global trade. Canada has been an active partner and has played a prominent role in international efforts to combat corruption and bribery. The CFPOA was first introduced to implement our international obligations under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development anti-bribery convention, as well as two more anti-corruption conventions through the OAS and the UN.
Needless to say, Canada takes its international obligations extremely seriously, and we are pleased that at its meeting in March 2013, the OECD working group on bribery praised the government for its amendments as measures that will implement the working group's recommendations to a very high degree, if passed as tabled within one year of tabling.
Mr. Chair, Bill S-14 signals our government's continued commitments to further deter and prevent Canadian companies from bribing foreign public officials in international business transactions. These are important amendments that will strengthen our anti-corruption laws and place Canada at the leading edge of countries taking strong action against corruption, action that will benefit Canadian companies both at home and abroad. These amendments will help ensure that Canadian companies continue to act in good faith. With this bill, Canada is sending a loud and clear signal to the world that we will not tolerate corruption.
I'll now take a minute to briefly explain the six technical amendments that are being proposed in Bill S-14.
First is the introduction of nationality jurisdiction to allow Canada to prosecute Canadians or Canadian companies on the basis of their nationality. Currently we can only do so after proving a substantial link between the offence and Canada.
Second, provide the RCMP with exclusive authority to lay charges under the act.
Third, remove the for-profit requirement so that bribery applies to all bribes and not just those paid by businesses that make a profit.
Fourth, increase the maximum imprisonment from five years to 14 years.
Fifth, introduce a new books and records offence specific to foreign bribery. Although there are already offences under the Criminal Code that criminalize falsification of books and records, they are not specific to foreign bribery. The penalties for the new offence would mirror those for the foreign bribery offence, that is, a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment and unlimited fines.
Finally, eliminate the facilitation payments exception under the CFPOA. You will note that the bill provides for a delay for the coming into force of the elimination of the facilitation payment defense. This delay will provide Canadian companies time to adjust their own practices and internal policies, if they have not already done so, to ban the use of facilitation payments in their day-to-day operations.
Honourable members, Mr. Chair, as I previously stated, the proposed changes have given Canada tentatively good marks with domestic stakeholders and at the OECD working group on bribery. We are pleased with the OECD working group on bribery's strong, positive endorsement of the significant progress made on investigations and prosecutions of the foreign bribery offence, the awareness-raising efforts undertaken by numerous government departments, and the proposed amendments to the CFPOA included in Bill S-14. It's important to note that these positive comments from the OECD working group on bribery were given with the strong caveat that the proposed amendments be adopted. Canada has invested a lot of credibility in getting this bill tabled, and we must report back to the OECD in the near future regarding its adoption.
Honourable members, Mr. Chair, Canada is positioning itself as a reliable supplier of the resources that emerging markets need to grow. We must create the conditions for Canadian businesses to succeed in the pursuit of its pro-trade agenda. Corruption does the opposite. It hinders economic growth and long-term prosperity. It fosters only an environment conducive to allowing other crimes to flourish. We expect our companies to abide by the laws of the countries they operate in, as well as to act in accordance with applicable Canadian laws and ethical standards and practices. We believe they can compete with the best and win fairly.
As the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated on February 5, when announcing these new measures:
Canada is a trading nation. Our economy and future prosperity depend upon expanding our trade ties with the world. This, we hope, is a good faith sign that Canada's good name retains its currency.
With that, my colleagues and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
View Ève Péclet Profile
NDP (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be sharing my time with Ms. Laverdière.
Mr. Kessel, at the beginning of your presentation, you mentioned having held consultations with private corporations. There are some questions to be asked about this.
The RCMP will have exclusive authority for the enforcement of the bill. Have you consulted the RCMP to find out whether it has the necessary resources? Since there have been only three convictions over the course of about 10 years, do you know whether the RCMP will have the resources it needs to implement this bill?
Marcus Davies
View Marcus Davies Profile
Marcus Davies
2013-06-11 11:42
I can assure the committee that we work very closely with the RCMP. We have a trilateral approach. We work with the Department of Justice, the RCMP, and Finance. We're consulting with Transparency International.
The RCMP has set up international anti-corruption units. They have one based in Calgary. They had one based here in Ottawa, but they've recently been changing that into more of a proceeds of crime.... The reason they've done that is to coordinate it with their drug enforcement and to identify other areas of transnational crimes, so they can pick up corruption in addition to other crimes. So they're very active in it.
They have expert people. I was on the phone talking with them yesterday. We serve as a focal point for enforcement under the CFPOA. They have the team behind it, but most importantly from our perspective, they have the expertise behind it, and they participate in our meetings before the OECD, but they also, as we table our annual report to Parliament.... Our 13th annual report to Parliament extensively lists what the RCMP is doing; they're doing events in education with enterprises, in particular the day of dialogue, which was mentioned by Member of Parliament Bob Dechert. They are there consistently; they have good resources. They have expert people behind it, and they're committed to doing that.
That's why we have the 35 investigations, and they're proceeding with their investigations. The resources are there, and they are supportive and behind us, and they were part of the stakeholder consultations and encouraged this to happen.
Thank you.
View Dave Van Kesteren Profile
CPC (ON)
I'm sorry to interrupt, but what I meant is, for instance, if you're hearing things, you would then go to the Canadian company and say, “Listen, we're hearing such and such. We just want to remind you about the laws and what your obligations are.”
Is it a pre-emptive...?
Alan H. Kessel
View Alan H. Kessel Profile
Alan H. Kessel
2013-06-11 11:51
If we do hear that there's something going on, we have an obligation, one, to inform the RCMP.... Any investigation is done by the RCMP. We are not investigators. We merely pass on that kind of information.
Clearly, if a company is under investigation in a foreign jurisdiction, we would pass that on to the RCMP. But usually they'll know about it and tell us. If we hear there is a possibility, even within the company, we would.... We deal with companies on a daily basis. They know what our job is. Our job is to ensure that Canadian law is taken into account. For instance, any number of us at this table go off to conferences where private companies and other groups, Transparency or NGOs, are attending because they're talking about corruption. Our job at that point is to say to them, “These are the laws that Canada applies. This is how you should be aware. Govern yourself accordingly.”
That's the degree to which we deal with it. We're on the policy level. The RCMP is on the investigation level and the prosecution service is on the prosecution level.
Tracy Porteous
View Tracy Porteous Profile
Tracy Porteous
2013-06-06 18:05
Thank you very much. My name is Tracy Porteous and I am the executive director of the Ending Violence Association of B.C.
This is a provincial non-profit NGO that works on behalf of 240 anti-violence programs in the province of B.C. What they all have in common is that they respond to sexual and domestic violence, child abuse, and criminal harassment. I have been working in the field of response to violence against women for 31 years.
I'm here not to speak for aboriginal women but more as an ally to them in what I've seen happen to aboriginal women during at least the three decades I've been working in the field. I've had the great privilege of working with many aboriginal women leaders for many years—chiefs; local, provincial, and national leaders and healers; academics; and lawyers—all in the context of ending violence against women, increasing safety, supporting families, and helping people and women move forward with their lives. I've also worked quite a lot with a lot of aboriginal women to look at policies with police and crown counsel and child protection.
There is no doubt that you are aware of the disproportionate levels of violence experienced by aboriginal women in Canada, so I will not go over any of those statistics with you today. You also probably know that in B.C. we have the most murdered and missing aboriginal women of anywhere in Canada, a profoundly troubling reality that we must move forward on.
I'm not going to take the time today to articulate the great volumes of research that have been created about what needs to be done on this subject. In fact I want to caution you about concluding these meetings with recommendations for more studies or more reports. Throughout the first decade of 2000, EVA BC—which is the short form for my organization—working in partnership with the Pacific Association of First Nation's Women, and BC Women's Hospital, held a number of meetings with aboriginal women across the province, all looking at and having discussions about the issue of violence against women, and what aboriginal women felt needed to be done.
We studied the issues very carefully over number of years and we produced two reports, the latter of which is called “Researched To Death”. I think that report alone speaks to what many of our aboriginal sisters believe today: that many governments are willing to fund studies and reports but very few are willing to stand up and fund and support the long-term infrastructural solutions to the problem at hand. In this case it's violence against aboriginal women and girls.
The three organizations concluded, based on the findings of all the reports we could put our hands on, that, alarmingly, aboriginal women experience the highest levels of violence of any women in Canada but to this day, in 2013, very little has been done.
We need programs designed by aboriginal women for aboriginal women, and we believe nothing short of those will do. In fact, across the province and in every territory in Canada right now there are networks of services that are there to respond to sexual and domestic violence. Not all jurisdictions have all the services they need, but all the provinces and territories have these services. They're mostly what I would call mainstream services; that is, services set up by non-aboriginal social services or women's groups.
While many of these services have aboriginal women on staff and many of them reach out to women on reserve, there are many women who live on reserve who can't make it to town or who choose not to go to a mainstream service who would feel more comfortable going to an appropriate culturally based service themselves.
I won't get into the history of colonization as to what might be behind that. There's also a population of aboriginal women who might want the security of going to a mainstream service, who might want to go to town for reasons of confidentiality or because of relations in the local community.
For this reason we believe that of all the things you might consider, there are two that you might consider, and one of them is to make sure the existing anti-violence services across the country have aboriginal women on staff, and that they have appropriate cross-cultural competency training so that they can provide an appropriate respectful response to aboriginal women seeking a service who have been victims of violence.
In addition to adding onto the existing services, we believe there should be a service co-connected to reserves and friendship centres that is run by aboriginal women for aboriginal women in every one of these communities. I believe, after 31 years of working in the field, this is probably one of the most significant things that could be done. This is something that's been done for the last 30 years for non-aboriginal mainstream women: the process of breaking the multi-generational cycle of violence.
Everyone needs help; nobody can do it by themselves. The roots and causes and current attachments and harmful ways that we survivors can think about ourselves all need to be unravelled. One needs a counsellor to help create the new internal foundations and the new internal world frameworks.
This is how self-esteem and empowerment are created. This is how women get to the place where they say, “I've had enough of this violence. I don't deserve what's happening to me. I'm going to make this stop. I'm not going to put up with it any more.”
As for the supports and services that have been put in place by the mainstream, while violence is still at epidemic levels, at least those mainstream women have had those supports, and aboriginal women have made it to those services.
There are many anti-violence workers doing this work. They've existed, as I said, for many years—20, 30, sometimes 35 years for many of them. If you are considering funding aboriginal women's services to exist in a collocated perspective, on reserve or in friendship centres, an enormous sisterhood can be tapped into. We don't need to have services created from scratch. There's a whole 35-year history of the provision of advocacy and empowerment services that anti-violence feminists have created.
Obviously a cultural translation would need to take place. These services aren't for aboriginal women; if you're setting up services by aboriginal women, for aboriginal women, at least some sharing of knowledge could take place. In B.C. alone we have 202 distinct first nations communities with distinct cultural practices that would need to be respected.
As well, aboriginal women, more than other mainstream women, have made it very clear for the last 25 years of us working together in B.C. that any response needs to be more holistic. It can't just be for aboriginal women. It needs to be for men and youth as well.
If we get time a little bit later, I'd like to tell you the story of the development of Canada's first and only sexual assault centre for women, called The Women of Our People, which I had the privilege of helping start on Vancouver Island many years ago.
I think the solutions we need will only come with aboriginal women being at the centre. We need to empower them, I believe, and provide them with the resources to heal their communities.
I won't take up time today talking about the need to change systems, because I'm sure that has formed the basis of a lot of your conversation. I will say, though, that racism is still an active toxin in our society. It remains as a deadly ingredient, responsible for much of the inaction that I think we're all facing right now.
I think we stand on a legacy of violence and racism left by colonization and residential schools, but that's not in the past: those attitudes exist today. I can testify, as a front-line worker and as an advocate for over three decades, that I can still see my first nations sisters being treated differently and being treated with less respect than they deserve.
Each system, therefore, also needs cultural competency training. We must attend to that.
We also need transparency from our systems. We need our systems, including the police and prosecutors, to document who they're providing responses to. I know that at least in the province of B.C. the RCMP does not make a note of who the victims or who the offenders are in terms of race, ethnicity, or cultural heritage. If we don't know who we're providing services to, we don't know who's not getting served.
The attachment and the connection and the release of statistics is something that's all been lost, at least in the province of B.C. I think we need to have that information if we're going to be developing appropriate and useful public policy.
If I have time later and you'd like to ask me about some research we're doing on women who are victims of domestic violence and who are being arrested by the police, I'd be very happy to talk to you about that. It relates to statistics, cultural heritage, and being able to figure out how people are being disproportionately provided with service.
I want to touch on a concept that we believe is possibly a great idea and best practice. The concept we have arrived at is the idea that the demographic of most anti-violence programs across the country is largely non-aboriginal. With regard to these services that I talked about a bit earlier—these mainstream, largely women's, services that are responding to sexual and domestic violence—though many of them have aboriginal women on staff, they need to have more of them on staff.
We would like to suggest that you support the development of a college and/or a university diploma course that would train violence against women workers. George Brown College has something like this in Toronto, but it doesn't exist anywhere else in Canada.
We believe that in a very short time, from the development of this diploma course—
Tracy O'Hearn
View Tracy O'Hearn Profile
Tracy O'Hearn
2013-06-06 18:29
We participate at many levels. We work with the provinces and territories on a subcommittee of the aboriginal affairs working group. We participated last November in the National Aboriginal Women's Summit III and collaboratively developed a number of recommendations. One in particular is that there must be the capacity for representative organizations to participate as equals. We're here. We have the expertise. We just need the capacity to participate.
We put forward a recommendation about the creation of an ombudsman to oversee law enforcement and justice workers, and to report to the public about issues and concerns related to racism and other systemic issues. There's an urgent need to raise awareness among Inuit: family violence continues to be the most significant issue in Inuit communities.
We do need research. I know in many areas there has been a tremendous amount of work done, but we need more Inuit-specific research.
As Kat was saying, human trafficking is an emerging issue that is really frightening to us.
We would be more than happy to provide a written submission. Just with the time of year and the life of a not-for-profit organization, we haven't been able to do it yet. This is absolutely a priority for us.
We very much appreciate your time. Thank you.
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