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Karen Pictou
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Karen Pictou
2021-06-22 11:14
Thank you, everybody, for inviting me to speak at this very important meeting today. I'm going to apologize up front because I was invited to this meeting late last week and I haven't had due time to prepare as thoroughly as I would normally like to. I've written some speaking notes, but I am going to kind of wing it a bit as well. Please feel free to ask all the questions you want at the end.
I am Karen Pictou. I am Mi'kmaq from Millbrook First Nation, Nova Scotia. I am the mother of four daughters. I have three grandsons. I am the daughter of Bill Pictou and Philippa Pictou. I am the executive director of the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association. I came to this role three years ago. I followed my heart. I left a well-established career I had made for myself in first nation employment and partnership development and took a leap of faith to enter this role because I felt it spoke to my heart, it spoke to my lived experience and it spoke to what makes me feel good about the work that I do. I feel that I bring a lot to this position, not only from what I've learned in school or what I've learned in my career but also from what I've learned through my life. I am a Mi'kmaq woman who lived off reserve for my childhood, moved back on reserve, was a teenage mother, was a victim of sexual violence, was a victim of domestic violence, and also, as at least one person here knows, was a victim of human trafficking.
I feel that my life experience has brought me full circle to be in this role and to feel that I'm making a positive impact, not only for my community and for our province of Nova Scotia but for all indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people across the country.
I take this role very seriously and I have given it my all. When I came into this role three years ago, I didn't know a whole lot about the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association. I knew the gist, that they were an entity that spoke up for the needs of indigenous women in our province and that they have a long history. Since entering, however, I've learned so much more.
The Nova Scotia Native Women's Association is actually the third-oldest Mi'kmaq organization in Nova Scotia. Following the release of the “1969 White Paper”, there was a large political uprising of the Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia. This led to the creation of our first Mi'kmaq organizations in 1969 and 1970, the Micmac News out of Membertou and then the Union of Nova Scotia Indians, which is now called the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq and is one of our two tribal councils in Nova Scotia.
During this time, the White Paper made it very clear that the Government of Canada wished to cause extinction of first nations people across Canada through policy. However, indigenous women across Canada were already facing this threat of extinction through government policy, through the Indian Act. This was not a new situation for the Mi'kmaq women of Nova Scotia, but it became a situation that impacted all Mi'kmaq people in Nova Scotia.
Even after the White Paper policy failed to go through, the political uprising continued, and so did the realization of our rights. However, during that time, indigenous women were still excluded from politics, whether within the province or on reserve. Shortly afterward, our first two female chiefs were elected in Nova Scotia. A community member from Membertou named Helen Martin travelled to each of our communities in 1970, gathered the women and talked about the issues of the day. All of the women agreed that something needed to be done to address these ongoing issues and the threat to indigenous women's survival, as well as their right to be Mi'kmaq, to be a part of our communities and to all that is held within that.
At that time, they agreed unanimously that they would create the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association. We were founded in 1972, so next year we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary.
However, despite the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association being one of the oldest and most highly recognizable Mi’kmaq organizations in the province, we continue to struggle and to be in survival mode.
About three years years ago, we finally received long-term provincial core funding and then, shortly after that, received a smaller amount of short-term federal core funds. The federal core funds have now been cut, to my understanding, despite the increase of capacity and the increase of work. The increase of work being asked of us by Canada is to assist with things like human trafficking, to assist with economic development for indigenous women and girls and to assist with healing our communities.
That valuation, however, has not translated into giving us core funding to take us out of survival mode and proposal-based funding. That needs to happen in order to address human trafficking. The Nova Scotia Native Women's Association is the only indigenous organization in Nova Scotia that is working to address human trafficking to provide support and services for those impacted by and currently in human trafficking, as well as for leaving it.
A number of issues cause us to be more vulnerable, including colonialism. That was the first one, right? That completely impacted the way our people lived and the way they viewed gender roles. Mi’kmaq people had very strict gender roles. That is not to say that women were less valued—certainly not. Women were highly valued, as were two-spirit people. However, colonialism changed that and flipped it on its head.
I'm sorry. I feel that I'm rambling a bit now. I'll get back on the topic.
In 2014, the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association opened the Jane Paul Indigenous Women's Resource Centre in response to a large number of indigenous women and girls who were involved in the street sex trade in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The population in Sydney is only around 25,000 people; however, there are at least 80 indigenous women and girls working on two city blocks in Sydney. This would amount to over 800 non-indigenous women on two city blocks.
This issue is glaring. We see it. We see these women all the time. However, I don't know that most of Sydney really and truly sees these women. They see them as an obstacle and want to push them further out into the industrial areas, and this is going to cause more harm.
The Jane Paul Centre is one of a kind. I don't know of one that exists anywhere close by in the Atlantic region. We started off from one office space in this little office that I'm actually sitting in right now. It's about 500 square feet. That's where we started. Over the last few years, we were able to expand to take over the basement of this building, which offered us some workshop space and a private counselling room. This year, we're actually planning a grand opening. We've taken over occupancy of 95% of this building, so we're able to offer the services where there were still gaps.
Some of those things still need to come to fruition. For example, there's the need to have a Family Court lawyer accessible to our women. Many of the women who are accessing the centre on a daily basis are being impacted by poverty, by the child welfare system, by grief and loss, and by the Indian residential schools, as well as being descendants of Indian residential school survivors. The first language of many of our women is Mi’kmaq, and they prefer speaking in Mi’kmaq. Many of them have experienced violence. Many of them have been impacted by MMIWG cases here in Nova Scotia.
They come in here faced with huge barriers, but with a lot of hope still, and here at the centre we thrive on that hope. We try to build that hope and we try to give them the tools they need to survive, to flourish and to have options. I think that's the biggest thing when we're talking about how to address human trafficking. We can get someone out of the life, but what options will they have? What opportunities will they have to sustain themselves to not go back to that life, to be able to have a secure home, to be able to fight to have access to their children again, and all of those things? If they cannot do that, I guarantee that they'll slip back into that life, despite its atrocities.
Here at the Jane Paul centre, we have a full-time counsellor on staff. We have program coordinators. We actually just opened up a new space, called a makerspace, where women can come in and make a craft. They can sit with an elder or a cultural support person. They can talk. They can learn new skills. When they're done making that, we actually buy it from them and we'll put it into our Sisterness Trading Post, which is right next door. That grand opening is happening soon and it's online, so I'll plug that later.
They can get money in hand right then and there to go and get what they need. They can go have a meal downstairs collectively. They can go to our food bank. They can take in a workshop. They can get clean needles. They can get condoms or whatever it is that they need at that moment.
The main thing is that they're taking in a cultural activity. They have a supportive environment and they're leaving here with food in their bellies and money in their hands so that they may not have to go back onto the street that night.
There are a variety of ways that human trafficking looks. Yes, human trafficking happens in the classic way of a charming man who comes and grooms a young girl and convinces her of this dream in the big city, and takes her off. Sure, that happens. That happens every day here in Nova Scotia. We see that.
It also happens many times to our women here as a result of being vulnerable or grieving or maybe being a product of the child welfare system. Maybe they have parents with addiction issues. Maybe they have a vulnerability from poverty, lack of housing or lack of education. They become prey to various things and then get into drugs and that type of thing.
They don't see themselves as human trafficking victims most of the time. They say, “No, that's my boyfriend. He loves me.” Would your boyfriend still love you if you said no, you weren't going to work the streets that night? Would you boyfriend still love you if you weren't paying for his addiction as well? Chances are the answer would be no.
It's very difficult for a lot of these women to even view themselves as being a victim of human trafficking. They feel they're making the choice. They feel that they've made their bed, so they'll lie in it, and this is the only choice they have. It's simply not true.
What we hope to do here is to find hope through hopelessness, not to isolate them and tell them they have to leave their boyfriend because he's harmful. No. It's to give them the tools to make that choice on their own.
I could talk on and on—
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you, Chair, and I want to thank all of you for your testimony. I think the history of indigenous women being trafficked is Canadian history that goes so far back. I think of my granny, who was in residential school and at 16 got married off to a carpenter in the community who was significantly older than she was. I remember hearing that story and thinking, “That explains some things.”
I want to thank you all for telling that story, and for also understanding how systemic it is in our system.
My first question is going to come to you, Karen. You talked about the government cutting money while you're being asked to do even more. I heard testimony from everyone about the lack of resources and not knowing where to put people who are trying to escape trafficking.
I wonder if I could come to you first, Karen, and then I will come to you, Madame Gobert, because I haven't heard from you yet. I would love to have you answer that question, and then I'll continue on.
Karen Pictou
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Karen Pictou
2021-06-22 12:29
Certainly.
Shortly after I began this role just a little over three years ago, we received $100,000 per year for a three-year period through our national umbrella organization, NWAC, as federal core funding. However, leading up to the end of that agreement, there still is no decision being made, so now we are faced with the fact that if we do not get money into our bank account from federal core funding, we will lose a large portion of the capacity that we currently have at the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association.
We have secured long-term provincial core funding. However, that only pays for our rent and the salary of our core staff, which would be three individuals. It certainly is by no means enough [Technical difficulty—Editor] this work.
I might also mention that the only other thing that is keeping us afloat at the moment is the short-term funding that we've received from WAGE for a couple of different projects. Part of the problem here is that although the project proposal-based funding continues to keep us in a state of survival, when we're in a state of survival, we cannot look at those long-term goals. How do we plan five to 10 years out if we don't even know if we'll have funding to exist then or if we'll have the programs and services that we need to support? We need 100%.
For the Jane Paul centre, we have received five years of funding from the Department of Justice, so we have three years left. That is in the amount of $150,000, which does not even pay salaries. It literally pays the rent, utilities and insurance to keep the doors open.
We need a commitment from Canada that these programs and services and the organizations delivering them are important and deserve an investment of sustainability, because we know this issue is not going to go away overnight. Simply put....
I guess I'll just leave it there. Thanks.
Janet Gobert
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Janet Gobert
2021-06-22 12:31
I can't speak from personal experience, but as a community initiatives coordinator in dealing with this group of women, housing was definitely an issue.
Approximately a year ago at the friendship centre, we opened a men's shelter. However, we've seen a transition happen with the client base that was accessing it. Right now, we're in the beginning steps of transitioning it into a women's shelter for those who have been affected by human trafficking.
As Karen said, funding is definitely an issue right now. We are using funds that we have received from head office for the fourth round of COVID funding. Yes, we do have short-term funding from WAGE as well, but I guess our issue is that when we look at transitioning this to a women's shelter, we're looking at little blocks of funding, so right now we would only be looking at operating for a one-year period.
Is it absolutely necessary that we have long-term funding? Yes, it is. We cannot offer service without keeping these women safe, so without having that shelter for these women, our work is pointless.
View Cathy McLeod Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to start with the words of Kúkpi7 Casimir, Chief Casimir, and what she said to the Prime Minister of Canada and all federal parties:
We acknowledge your gestures, but as a community who is burdened with the legacy of a federally mandated Indian residential school, Canada must face ownership and accountability to Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, as well as all communities and families.
I am going to go back. In 2015 this government committed to all 94 calls to action. It put dollars aside in 2019, of which very limited amounts have been spent, and both the government and the AFN report cards indicate limited to moderate progress on this particular issue.
I'm going to ask some very specific questions for the community I represent, and I have to hold them up. The leadership and the strength that they have shown have been incredible and we just appreciate so much, again, the leadership that has been shown.
On the calls to action, I'm going to start with number 73, and I am going to ask specifically what has happened in the community. I'll shorten it to TTS, as they often do. What have you done in terms of call to action 73? It reads as follows:
We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.
Again, specific to the community that I represent, where this horrific discovery of 215 children was made, what have you done on call to action 73 with them?
Daniel Quan-Watson
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Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:12
Mr. Chair, thank you for your ongoing work on this, which is particularly close to the community you represent.
On call to action 73, we have taken a number of steps. We have made some investments. Obviously, it's a national approach, dealing with all of the 131 sites that we know of, and certainly the 55 across the country where there are known burial sites, but it will be available specifically for Kamloops.
I'll have my colleague, Martin Reiher, speak to the specific investments that we have made in the online registry, which is—
View Cathy McLeod Profile
CPC (BC)
I'm talking about for Kamloops, specifically. Have you done anything in terms of their plots?
I know that Chief Casimir indicated that she hadn't seen any support come through on any of these calls to action. Maybe there is some national work going on, but after six years you would think the biggest residential school in the country would have had some direct conversations and direct engagement and some direct work. It's been six years, so, again, specific to this community, have dollars flowed? Have conversations been had? Have meetings been had?
Have you listened to their direction? I understand that it was a provincial grant that got them to where they were, so they had to struggle to get a provincial grant. It wasn't federal dollars.
Daniel Quan-Watson
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Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:14
I'm pleased to be able to report that it was in fact a federal grant. It came from Canadian Heritage. It was part of the celebration and commemoration fund. It was approximately $40,000. The grant is available online. You can find the details of it there. It was in fact the federal government, and it's the result of a direct engagement between a federal department and the band on that very specific site. It was, in fact, federal monies.
That program was established as part of the overall response of the government to the TRC recommendations, and it was done specifically to ensure that this particular site in Kamloops, at that school, was found. The work that has been done was in fact the result of those conversations with the federal department and based on federal investments.
View Cathy McLeod Profile
CPC (BC)
I know my time is going to run out too quickly, but perhaps we could have a summary to this committee in terms of calls to action 73 to 76, on what direct engagement, what direct dollars have flowed.
As we are speaking, my next question is actually from Chief Casimir. She's asked if you commit and promise to respect the policies, laws and protocols of this community as you move forward—unreservedly.
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:15
I can say that unreservedly.
In fact, the consultation about how the money should be spent got exactly that reaction across the country, from every single indigenous group we had. We were frequently told that it was the Crown's fault that those children were there, and that we needed to respect, now, the fact that it was the indigenous community's role to decide what to do with what was found.
So yes, unreservedly, I can commit to what you have suggested.
View Adam van Koeverden Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you so much to the officials who have joined us here today to share their insight and perspectives with us. It's so important that Canadians know and hear from you as we are navigating this together.
All Canadians from coast to coast to coast are shaken, upset and distraught by this discovery of the remains of 215 children, and the loss to the families who have these memories. It's reverberating, certainly in British Columbia and Kamloops, but across the country as well, and it's absolutely heartbreaking.
Yesterday we heard that $27 million was made available, which was first allocated in 2019, to support this ongoing work from call to action 74. As my colleague mentioned, it calls on the federal government to work with churches and indigenous community leaders to inform families of children, and to respond to families with appropriate commemoration ceremonies. This is heartbreaking work. This is tragic work.
I'm also glad to hear that there was some federal funding utilized in this discovery. Thank you for highlighting that.
My question is for whoever would like to take it.
Can you explain to the committee why the funding for this very important initiative was delayed, and do you believe that $27 million will be enough to support hurting communities across the country in continuing this important work?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:18
I'd be happy to take that, Mr. Chair.
In budget 2019, as was noted, this money was made available. One thing that was very important and we knew at the time was that something as sensitive as this issue should not be something that the federal government simply decides in its own office spaces as to exactly what to do.
There will be many different approaches that indigenous communities want in order to deal with this. It's important to remember that, while the Kamloops school is situated in Kamloops, those children were taken, sometimes, from hundreds of kilometres away. One thing that many indigenous communities have reminded us of again and again is that they will not disturb other communities' ancestors' remains without engaging properly with them.
How to deal with these issues is very sensitive. We know that some communities have told us already that they intend simply to memorialize the location and not do further work. There will be other instances where people want to do deep forensic work, or at least work that resembles forensic work, for different reasons. We knew it was our job to listen to what they had to say. We knew it was our job not to repeat the mistakes that had been made in the past, which, in fact, led to many of these situations in which government simply made its own decisions about what it thought was best. Therefore, we conducted a consultation process.
As you can imagine, many of the people we most needed to speak to were those with living memory of the schools. Many of those are elders. Many of those consultations do not work well in the format we're using today. There were delays as a result of COVID-19, because many of the people you talk to don't have either the technical ability or, frankly, the Internet access to do this type of work. However, we conducted that consultation, and we came up with the approach that was announced yesterday.
The core of that is very much along the lines of what your colleague just asked about in the final question, which is whether we will respect the wishes of indigenous groups, what they want to do and want not to do. We got a universal message that it's what they were asking us, and we will do that.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I represent the constituency of Abitibi—Baie‑James—Nunavik—Eeyou, in which Cree and Anishnabe people live. We're all saddened by this terrible discovery last weekend. My thoughts are with the families and communities who are deeply affected by this tragedy. Today, we simply want to understand what happened. Meegwetch.
In the 2019 budget, the government announced an investment of $33.8 million over three years to implement calls to action 72 to 76 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
However, it seems that, in reality, most of the money announced hasn't been spent. I'm just trying to understand why. Is the process stalled at the Treasury Board of Canada, or have other projects not been developed?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:25
Thank you for the question.
I wouldn't say that the money was blocked. It's just that there was no question of spending the money without knowing what the communities involved wanted done.
The communities told us that the government was making unilateral decisions during the residential school era and that this was the source of the issue. While the discussions concerned the children who died, there was no question of going back to that era of unilateral decision‑making by the federal government.
We conducted consultations to find out how the communities wanted to proceed. We listened to them. The response announced yesterday is based on what we heard.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
The Toronto Star also reported that the research that led to the appalling discovery in Kamloops was funded by provincial, not federal, dollars. Why is this the case?
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