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Results: 1 - 15 of 31
Trisha Baptie
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Trisha Baptie
2021-06-22 11:32
Thank you so much for having me.
I just found out I was going to do this late last week, so like the speaker before me, I have notes that are a little cobbled together. I hope you'll have patience.
Six minutes is not enough time, but I hope I have constructed something vaguely coherent here.
I am speaking to you from Vancouver on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
Traditionally, for the last 20 years or so, events have been started by acknowledging the traditional lands on which we stand, which I think is a good tradition to remind us of where we are, but as non-indigenous people speaking to those who look like me, this acknowledgement needs to drive us to look further into the history of where we are. Traditional territory acknowledgement is a not-so-subtle code for stolen land, and today especially, as we discuss indigenous women and girls, it is imperative for settlers to understand how stealing land equates with the complete destabilization of indigenous people, and particularly women and girls. We need to sit with these words, clearly identifying the issues and how it feeds into the topic we will be discussing.
I want to state clearly, for the record, that I am not an indigenous woman. The father of one of my sons is from a band in [Technical difficulty—Editor], but I cannot speak from an indigenous experience. I can, however, speak to what I have lived through with my friends and their families as they invited me into their lives, as well as about the amazing people I have met all over the country as I do this work. I can speak to the abuses I saw my friends suffer at the hands of police, social workers, and men and society at large.
I'm going to quickly explain who I am. I am a survivor of government care. I was apprehended just before my 13th birthday, which was also when I was exposed to the world of trafficking and prostitution. I would get out at 28, with a total 15 years of being exploited. Some of my friends are still being sexually exploited.
So many of my friends and I started being sexually exploited as minors. I find it infuriating that there are those who wish to draw an arbitrary line—say, at 18—for when girls and women choose prostitution. I would like them to tell me what we could have accessed and how we could have gotten out of that lifestyle. Being Caucasian, I had one or two extra options, but my aboriginal friends had few, if any, options that would have saved them from the violent ongoing sexual exploitation.
We lost loved ones to a serial killer and lived through horrors I will not go into. I was a citizen journalist at the Pickton trial, and my CV can go on for quite a while.
We have a question before us, although it is written like a statement. Why is sex trafficking among indigenous people so high, when they do not make up a high percentage of the population? What if we did not look at that question, actually? We know why. Women and girls are trafficked to meet the male-driven demand for paid sex. They are more vulnerable because on their territories, or in the case of the high numbers of youth who find themselves in foster care, life can be horrible, and they [Technical difficulty—Editor].
What if we flipped the whole question and conversation and asked why we think men should be able to pay for sex? Where is the legal binding policy or human right that states that men paying for sex is a protected act? How does allowing any Canadian man to pay for sex help create a safer society for indigenous women and girls—or anyone, for that matter?
We keep sex consensual by not commodifying it, and PCEPA helps us do this.
I am a big policy law person. I quite like the finite details, so I really want to talk about the challenge to Canada's prostitution laws that's happening right now in Ontario, because it would affect not only all women but particularly indigenous women and girls. In Ontario, they would like to strike down impeding traffic, which is section 213; public communication, which is subsection 213(1.1); purchasing, which is the buying of sex; materially benefiting, or making money off the prostitution of someone else; and recruiting. They want recruiting decriminalized.
Whose neighbourhood would we have street prostitution in? I live in a poor neighbourhood. That's where they go: my neighbourhood. Whose schools or job fairs will the recruitment tables be at? Where will the billboards be? Pretty much all of the prostitution provisions they're looking at are predatory, because they rely on a third party making money recruiting, selling and advertising—a third party. Also, it's all young women, right? We're not talking about educated 40-year-old women secure in their careers; we're talking about marginalized, vulnerable youth. We need to really be thinking about that.
Now prostitution is euphemistically called being a “sugar baby” or something like that, but the core of it is the same: men taking advantage of women. Pimps and traffickers would become businessmen. If the tearing down of the Criminal Code happens, all of this will be legitimate exploitation and abuse. All these laws stop the parasitical and predatory benefiting from another's abuse. PCEPA benefited women and anyone being sold, because it changed the way they were viewed. They were supposed to get assistance.
I know that my time is done and I don't want to go over. I know there are a lot of other people. I'm just going to say two last things.
There was never a time in my friendships, which I have to this day with my friends who are indigenous, that I wasn't aware that we were treated differently because of the way we look. That's a really bad feeling, but I learned really early in life how to try to interject myself into situations, if I could, to benefit from the way I looked. Women and girls who are being exploited, who are at risk for trafficking and who live around man camps and resource extraction sites and live with that very real threat every day need intervention that benefits them, not anyone else. That's my last little item.
I know that my time here is done, but there's so much to say, so I'm going to end with this. Indigenous people—women, girls, my friends and loved ones—deserve a million times better than the way they live today. I mean, no clean water? How can we fight human trafficking if we're still fighting for water?
I want to live the rest of my life without burying one more friend. Now we are burying daughters, unfortunately.
If things don't drastically change, if indigenous people aren't given what they need to recover from the trauma that haunts them daily and given what is rightfully theirs, and if Canada does not bend to the ways of its original keepers rather than demanding adherence to colonial ways, things won't change, and I will bury more friends. That rips my heart out.
Thank you.
View Jamie Schmale Profile
CPC (ON)
I most certainly am. Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. It is a difficult study, but we appreciate your contributions.
I wanted to talk more about some of the content that was mentioned earlier. I'm going to direct my first batch of questions to Ms. Skye and Ms. Smiley, if I could. I'll let you two decide who would like to go first.
A lot of the conversation that both of you mentioned was in regard to the universal basic income or guaranteed income or whatever you want to call it. To my knowledge, the only country in the world to have that is Iran and that's paid for through subsidies and sales of oil and gas.
Have either of you looked at other potential solutions, such as economic activity and opportunity in some of these communities, rather than a direct payment?
Courtney Skye
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Courtney Skye
2021-06-17 12:11
I can start with that.
It's become a misnomer that economic development actually leads to liberation. It actually doesn't. What makes the biggest difference in mobilizing and creating lasting or systemic change for people, and women generally, is political mobilization. That's the catalyst social change draws from in communities, especially within indigenous communities.
Making small investments, the “teaching someone how to fish” kind of examples, don't actually address any of the systemic issues that create multiple barriers to allowing people to work or be self-reliant. We're talking about broad, systemic changes and making space for women and their decision-making, leadership and governance. That is what actually creates lasting social change and creates safety for people. That's what works if you're trying to advance that.
It can't just be limited to socio-economic investments. It has to go much beyond that. Otherwise, it's just solving a small problem perhaps with one family or however many people you can get into a program with small service numbers or one worker limited to so many clients.
Without broader systemic changes, we're not actually going to be able to meet many people's needs and that's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to talk about lifting and supporting all people, which is why something like guaranteed minimum incomes and that kind of thing—providing a safety net—is really important. As a society, we're a very wealthy country where we believe in the value of every person. Every person is valuable and every person deserves dignity regardless of their circumstances.
Courtney Skye
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Courtney Skye
2021-06-17 12:13
You can't just look at it from today moving forward. It has to be contextualized historically.
I'll give you another example from my territory. We had funds as a nation—investments and Indian trust dollars—which is in the Yellowhead report “Cash Back”. Our community had around $12 million in 1840. The federal government redirected that fund into a trust for us. Trustees appointed by the Crown misspent about 40% of that trust fund.
By the early 1900s, that entire trust fund was almost depleted to do things like build Osgoode Hall, Toronto City Hall or bridges and infrastructure. It didn't actually go to our community for our investment and our prosperity. It was exploited from the Crown.
We have many generations of people who were not able to have control of their financial resources, who now exist in a state of chronic poverty because Canada used our money to build infrastructure that serves the settler population and doesn't benefit the indigenous population.
Now we have people experiencing poverty who have not been able to participate in the economy and were never able to get the economic prosperity that comes from all of the wealth that was generated over the past years in the industrial era. That's why we need to move forward with thinking about that.
View Jamie Schmale Profile
CPC (ON)
I get that government is the problem. I believe that “Ottawa knows best” is causing a lot of these problems. I understand that.
I'm saying that if we're creating opportunity for all and the ability to climb the ladder no matter where you are or where you're from, it's ensuring a foundation that allows people to do that. That is kind of the cause of poverty—the fact that in some of these communities “Ottawa knows best”—but we want to ensure that there is equal opportunity for all and that these opportunities are available.
View Adam van Koeverden Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Ms. Skye.
Perhaps I could get a quick reflection on a universal basic income from whoever would like to do that.
Cherry Smiley
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Cherry Smiley
2021-06-17 12:20
I hear what you're saying about how it has been successful in other places. I know there have been studies done and experiments with universal basic income in Manitoba. There have been some recently in the States.
If we think about what I heard a man refer to as economic opportunity maximization, he was talking about prostitution, that indigenous women should be maximizing their economic opportunities by selling their bodies. That's where we end up if we're like, well, everybody should just be able to go and make the most money they can. If we're looking at that in a very narrow way, it just doesn't reflect our reality.
Either way, women are the ones who end up paying the price for that, so universal basic income does really provide a way to address that unlevel playing field. Even if we think about the gender pay gap that we currently still have, the universal basic income provides a way to help alleviate that.
View Niki Ashton Profile
NDP (MB)
Yes. Thank you very much. I think in the second hour my colleague Richard Cannings will take over.
There's a lot of focus on poverty reduction, which is absolutely critical. I also very much appreciate the federal government initiatives that many are pointing to, which were very impactful during this crisis. I want to acknowledge the work of the federal government, and the way they responded to many of our calls in the NDP as well, to get at poverty reduction across the country, but specifically, obviously, in the north.
I think it's really critical that we acknowledge that many across the north are in a constant state of crisis when it comes to poverty and food insecurity. COVID exacerbated it, but this is ongoing. We need, then, to see measures, including direct financial supports and the creative measures that have been developed, such as the harvesters food program. From it, for example, here in Manitoba many received fish through the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. This was brought together by northern fishers. This was a really critical program, and of course there are other programs to point to as well.
In terms of poverty reduction, we know that co-op models and community food centres are very important models to get at both meeting the needs and bringing back revenue into communities, job creation, etc.
I'm wondering whether, perhaps from the co-op, you could speak to how important the co-op model is in terms of poverty reduction.
Mr. Wilson...?
Duane Wilson
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Duane Wilson
2021-05-04 12:08
Thank you for the question.
Obviously, I've drunk, swished and swallowed the kool-aid about the co-op model, because I believe firmly that small isolated communities, which many would consider a captive market, are the types of communities that, if they're best served by a monopoly, are at risk of that monopoly's power being abused.
To me, it's only natural that you get the best of both worlds when the owners and the consumers—the users of the business—are the same people. That's how these things can operate in harmony.
Anything that represents allowing for direct orders or other distractions takes away from that critical mass. It represents economic leakage and is ultimately bad for the community.
Through the co-op model, which is autonomous local ownership and member democratic-control based on its seven principles, you are now returning control—influence on pricing strategies, what to do with surpluses and investments in local infrastructure—back to the community level and not to an office in Winnipeg like ours.
I think that's very important. Thank you.
Beth Symes
View Beth Symes Profile
Beth Symes
2021-04-15 13:58
Absolutely. We were at the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry and called evidence to show that the lack of housing, the lack of health care, the lack of policing all increase, significantly, the risk of missing and murdered Inuit women and girls, who are 14 times more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women and girls.
Yes, absolutely, all the social determinants of health are key to keeping indigenous women, Inuit women, safe, secure and healthy.
View Gary Vidal Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to first of all thank all of our witnesses for taking the time to be here with us. I realize that some of this is happening at the last minute, as Mr. Calla spoke of, so we appreciate your accommodating us and being here on short notice in some cases. That was excellent testimony by all.
I want to start with President Swampy and then get to the others, if the chair will grant me enough time to do that. We seem to run into issues with that sometimes.
Mr. Swampy, you spoke in your opening comments about many of the benefits and some of the very good elements of this legislation. I think we would all agree that there are very good components to this. You also spoke of some concerns around the legislation. I did a little research yesterday, and I looked at the mandate of your organization. It states very clearly that the National Coalition of Chiefs is committed to defeating “on-reserve poverty”. That's the reason your organization exists.
It seems in our political world that those who champion poverty reduction through economic development often get labelled as not having compassion for the people. I would argue that it's exactly the opposite of that. We do have that compassion. I would like you to speak for a couple of minutes about how in that spirit of compassion, in that spirit of wanting to reduce on-reserve poverty or defeat on-reserve poverty, responsible participation in economic development is key to that, in your experience.
Dale Swampy
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Dale Swampy
2021-03-23 11:35
We believe the natural resource industry is the strongest industy in Canada. We have focused our means to our goal to partner with natural resource industries in order to bring us out of poverty. We believe poverty is the cause of all our social ills. Teenage suicide, domestic violence, lack of education—everything you can think of that we have been struggling with for the last 150 years has come because we do not participate fully in this economy. In order to participate fully in this economy, we need to grasp the natural resource industry as an ally. We need to work with the natural resource industry fully and to participate in, and in some cases lead, the natural resource industry. We've seen that happen in northern British Columbia with TMX, and the desire for first nations to go out there and become part of this natural resource industry.
We believe the government has the duty and the right to recognize this problem that exists and that continues to fester within our communities. If we cannot excel in our ability to participate in natural resource industries—through legislation that will stifle investments—then we will be subject to abject poverty for many generations to come.
Gérard Duhaime
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Gérard Duhaime
2021-02-25 19:27
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am a professor of sociology at Laval University. I directed an ambitious multi-year research project on food security in the Arctic, the Canadian north, Alaska, Greenland, Scandinavian countries and the Russian Federation.
We used the same definition for our study that your committees are using now for their work. I will refer to this definition when I give the main conclusions on the factors behind food insecurity in the north. Obviously, these conclusions are based on my observations in Canada's north.
There are three main factors. They are not to be considered individually, but rather cumulatively.
The first factor is access to resources.
As my colleague Laurie Chan and his team pointed out, climate change and pollution are threatening people's ability to access food resources on the land, and sometimes even the stores' ability to restock.
Food security and safety are threatened by pollution brought by air and ocean currents to the north, which our team was able to prove for the first time.
Furthermore, competition with other land uses is another big problem in terms of access to resources. For example, in most northern regions, there is recreational and commercial hunting and fishing by non-indigenous people, and these sporting and recreational activities can sometimes limit indigenous peoples' access to their resources, which very often brings about hardship.
Extractive industries such as hydroelectricity production, mining and other resource extraction also greatly hamper the ability of indigenous households to hunt and produce their own food. These problems are extremely widespread and we see them almost everywhere.
The second major factor is the market.
We saw that the market up there is not working, despite the fact that we make out that it is functioning normally. There is indeed competition, the information is flowing, and so on, but things are not working.
First of all, the market is limited in many communities by the absence of roads. Even in communities when there is road access, the market does not function any better because of the limited number of businesses and especially because these stores are there to make money.
Marine transportation along the Canadian northern coast is unreliable, whereas everywhere else, even in Alaska and in Greenland, every small village has a deepwater port.
Finally, all these communities count on air links to replenish their supplies for a good part of the year. These communities are living dangerously because very often, they depend on a single company and it takes just one major breakdown for their supplies to be threatened.
The third major factor, which comes on top of all the others, is economic access to food resources. This factor is directly linked to poverty and to the average salary in all of the regions.
In the Canadian north, we have established a poverty rate that takes into account the cost of food. We calculated this for indigenous regions, i.e., Nunavut and the Inuit regions of the Northwest Territories, Nunatsiavut, Labrador and Nunavik, in Quebec.
Official statistics indicate a poverty rate of 15 to 20% which doesn't take into account the cost of food. When the cost of food is factored in, however, the rate jumps to 30 to 40%, even hitting 45%.
At the time of our study, the census average was 37.5% for Inuit households living below the low-income cut-off.
This widespread poverty obviously creates major difficulties for households when it comes to purchasing food. For example, store food prices are sometimes 150 or even 200% times higher, as stated by Mr. Chan and his team.
Finally, this makes food self-sufficiency in terms of hunting and fishing very difficult.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
Can you tell us more about the extent and depth of poverty?
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