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Results: 1 - 15 of 48
Elmer St. Pierre
View Elmer St. Pierre Profile
Elmer St. Pierre
2021-06-15 11:11
Mr. Chair, members of the committee and fellow witnesses, thank you for the opportunity to speak on the issue of trafficking of indigenous people.
As you are well aware, my name is Elmer St. Pierre, and I am the national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
I acknowledge my presence on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mohawk people. At this time, I would like to offer a virtual tobacco tie to each and every one of you for the information that we are going to be exchanging. Thank you.
CAP represents the off-reserve status and non-status Indians, Métis and southern Inuit peoples. Today, 80% of those indigenous people live off reserve. Forty-four per cent are in urban centres across the country.
The biggest human trafficking operation in Canada's history was the residential school system. Off-reserve and non-status people are survivors of this tragic system. Residential schools never ended.
Indigenous people are 5% of the population in Canada. Fifty-two per cent of the children in foster care are indigenous. Indigenous girls face more sexual exploitation in foster care than any other group. Forty-six per cent of our youth in prison are indigenous. In some provinces, over 90% of the youth in prisons are indigenous. Forty per cent of incarcerated women are indigenous, and that number is rising. Fifty per cent of the victims of human trafficking are indigenous women. Of those, nearly one-quarter are under the age of 18.
There are pathways among foster care, prison, sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Youth are ripped from their homes, more because of poverty than any other factor. They are abused in foster care. They wind up vulnerable on the streets, living with trauma and struggling to survive. They are denied education and employment. They cycle between homelessness, prison, abusive situations and trafficking and exploitation. Too often it only ends in a road of death. We need to help the boys and girls from starting on that road. We need to make sure that everyone caught in that cycle can escape it and find the healing and community they need.
The government has taken steps to work with some aboriginal organizations, but has shut out others at the same time.
Off-reserve and non-status communities are sidelined. They are denied housing funds to help give vulnerable women shelter. They are denied access to education funding to give kids a future. They are denied justice programs to open healing lodges and use alternative sentences. They are denied status as rights bearers under the indigenous child welfare legislation.
CAP's provincial-territorial organizations work to provide services in spite of being sidelined. Programs like “looking out for each other” partner with shelters in communities to give help to those at risk of going missing. They offer housing, shelter programs, homeless outreach, parenting support and health care support, but they cannot reach out to the need when they don't have the services. I would just add that these programs are run on the east coast. The “looking out for each other” program is in New Brunswick.
We offer the following calls to action. End the exclusion of off-reserve organizations from programs like housing, child welfare and justice. Support capacity building to address the multifaceted issues of the MMIWG. Support affordable, safe public transportation options to replace lost inner city bus routes. End the overrepresentation of indigenous women in corrections and prioritize treatment and community care in an indigenous-led process. Accelerate funding under the MMIWG action plan. Ensure that our off-reserve organizations can access funding for cultural, language and justice services, community safety and other essential services to keep women and girls safe.
Meegwetch. Thank you.
View Gary Vidal Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you.
I have probably one final question. COVID-19 magnified the realities of some of the jurisdictional quagmires around indigenous people in urban settings. You and I have had the conversation many times about friendship centres and the funding. It took some time to kind of make it through the community support funding process for the urban indigenous folks. Friendship centres offer a variety of services that are as diverse as the communities they serve. I know that friendship centres are looking for a longer-term commitment so that they can plan for their future, invest in infrastructure, make sure they have commitments to programs that are ongoing, and make good, efficient decisions.
Is there anything going on with any of the budget work or the estimate work that would provide that long-term commitment for friendship centres that serve urban indigenous people?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Yes, certainly, MP Vidal, in budget 2021 there is a large pot of funding for infrastructure that we are currently parsing out, working with community members to see how that would fold out based on need and based on shovel-ready projects. There is a lot of light and hope at the end of the tunnel.
Certainly, the amounts that we've announced through the indigenous community support fund through COVID, for which there will be four or five waves—the latest one went out last week—has a rubric, an envelope, that is dedicated to the work the friendship centres are doing, serving indigenous communities off reserve, and also with room for tribal councils serving their people who live outside their communities. That's an important element and aspect to it. What we—
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Well, yes, I guess what I was trying to say was that there has been some immense work done under COVID that has been transformative in the work we will be doing going forward in highlighting that relationship. It is a different one from a nation-to-nation relationship, obviously, with friendship centres that have a different form of governance and others that serve community members. It's one that we want to work toward. Knowing the number of indigenous folks who live outside their home communities, it is so key. In budget 2021, although it was not specifically earmarked, there will be some funding for urban indigenous initiatives.
View Randall Garrison Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I too want to thank the witnesses for being with us, especially during National Nursing Week and also Indigenous Nurses Day. I want to thank them, obviously, for the work their members have done over the last 15 months, but also for the work I know they'll do when the rest of our society moves on from the immediate COVID crisis and the impacts are left to their members to deal with.
I want to start with a question, Ms. Nowgesic, about services and supports available to indigenous seniors who live off reserve. In my riding, more than half the indigenous population is urban and off reserve. Certainly, I've heard a great deal, especially during Covid, about the lack of services for those seniors.
Marilee Nowgesic
View Marilee Nowgesic Profile
Marilee Nowgesic
2021-05-13 12:38
That becomes the jurisdictional issue—and, again, we're trying to get it to stop—between the health care provider having certain powers available to them and...why is there no indigenous health care access centre within those areas? Why is there no outreach being defined for that?
That's something we need to address. It is one of those socio-economic and societal factors that the federal government along with their provincial and territorial partners need to provide some recognition of.
Just because they moved off the reserve for a better quality of life, or for whatever reasons, that's their choice, it shouldn't lessen the availability of what they have coming to them as far as benefits and services are concerned. We have them come forward to participate in ceremony, then their old age security is clawed back, and so on, and so forth. It's an exhausting cycle. You can imagine what it's like for a senior who doesn't understand why these...are being placed on them.
Marie-Hélène Guay
View Marie-Hélène Guay Profile
Marie-Hélène Guay
2021-05-11 12:25
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee today.
I am Captain Marie-Hélène Guay, the officer in charge of the Municipal and Indigenous Community Relations Services, at the Sûreté du Québec.
I will introduce the police services offered by the Sûreté du Québec in indigenous communities. I will also tell you about our good practices.
Quebec has 55 indigenous communities, 44 of which are served by the 22 indigenous police forces. The Sûreté du Québec provides services to 11 indigenous communities. Indigenous communities receive the same services as other municipalities and communities served by the Sûreté du Québec. The services provided to indigenous communities are based on the principles of community policing.
It is important to note that seven communities have a public safety committee. The committees help identify issues and determine public safety priorities. They also make recommendations to the band councils in the communities.
As a national police force, the Sûreté du Québec has a role to play in communities that have their own police forces. Its role is essentially to assist the indigenous police forces in a number of ways, such as operations, investigations, specialized services, and administrative or management support.
On average, the Sûreté du Québec receives more than 500 requests for assistance per year. It is important to note that the Sûreté du Québec and the indigenous police forces regularly co-operate on the various operations under way in terms of road safety, investigations, intelligence and surveillance activities.
As for the sharing of responsibilities within the Sûreté du Québec, strategic coordination and partnerships are the responsibility of the indigenous community relations division. The division is composed of 12 indigenous liaison officers, deployed across Quebec by nations. Some of the indigenous liaison officers also work in urban areas. Their role is to develop and maintain ties with elected and non-elected members of the communities, to identify the public safety needs of the communities and to respond to them with tailored solutions or programs, to advise the managers of the Sûreté du Québec and to focus their actions in the indigenous environment and, of course, to act as facilitators during events or operations.
Operational coordination is the responsibility of another unit, the emergency measures unit. This type of coordination takes place during the deployment of special operations, situations or conflicts, and in the assistance provided to indigenous police forces.
It is important to note that services for the 11 indigenous communities we police are provided by the local police stations.
Let me now tell you about the services provided to indigenous people outside communities. As you know, from a cultural safety perspective, many cities have a strong indigenous presence and many of them are served by the Sûreté du Québec. These cities have the services of urban indigenous liaison officers who, along with other members of the Sûreté du Québec, co-operate on a regular basis with the indigenous friendship centres in those cities. The Sûreté also sits on the local urban service accessibility tables for indigenous people.
We are also in the process of creating joint teams called ÉMIPIC, or joint response teams of police officers and community workers. Two of those teams are already in place in our territory.
In the next three years, we also plan to create four other teams. The teams of police officers and community workers are the avenue of choice for responses to people in vulnerable situations.
We also have the joint indigenous community police station (PPCMA) in Val-d'Or. My colleague Captain Durant will tell you about this great initiative.
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you, Chair.
Minister, I also have some serious concerns around indigenous housing and the fact that we still don't have a comprehensive indigenous housing strategy for Canada. We know that the member for Nunavut did a housing tour in her riding. It was absolutely horrifying to see the reality—people living in substandard housing, mould, overcrowding—and the many, many challenges that those communities are facing. The NDP is calling for an urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy that is governed and led by indigenous peoples and housing providers. This is different and unique from the distinction-based indigenous housing strategy that this government likes to talk about.
How long will these communities have to wait to see housing that is actually reasonable, where we don't see the overcrowding that's across Canada, and that is really led by those communities? That includes rural and urban communities on reserve and off reserve, and of course the northern communities. How long will they have to wait?
When will there be a comprehensive strategy that starts to actually deal with this profound challenge that these communities are facing? It's absolutely horrific.
I'm wondering if you could talk about that.
View Brad Vis Profile
CPC (BC)
You mentioned earlier the challenges that band members had in accessing housing off reserve. Generally, where do band members from Sts'ailes go when they're not living on your traditional territory? What are some of the first-hand challenges you've heard about?
Ralph Leon Jr.
View Ralph Leon Jr. Profile
Ralph Leon Jr.
2020-12-03 18:15
Right now we know of a lot of our people being in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, and a lot of our people live as far away as California or England. They're just everywhere. Wherever a job is created, a lot of them go there. There's no opportunity here; then they'll go elsewhere.
Christopher Sheppard
View Christopher Sheppard Profile
Christopher Sheppard
2020-12-01 12:26
Thank you, committee. Good afternoon, or good morning in Saskatchewan.
I'm Christopher Sheppard, the president of the National Association of Friendship Centres. I want to recognize that I'm joining you today from Treaty 6 and the homeland of the Métis. I am so thankful for the welcome I've received while being a visitor in their territories.
As is customary, I'm here with Jocelyn Formsma, who is our executive director, We'll field questions jointly and try to answer as many of them as we can.
I want to thank you for the invitation once again to appear before you today on the timely topic of support for indigenous communities, businesses and individuals during COVID-19.
From our previous testimony to this committee, you are already aware that the NAFC represents more than a hundred local friendship centres and PTs—provincial and territorial associations—in every province and territory in Canada, except Prince Edward Island.
Friendship centres are urban indigenous community hubs that are owned and operated by indigenous people and provide a wide range of programs and services for every age and demographic of people. We offer services in justice, health, violence prevention, housing, homelessness, economic development, entrepreneurship, employment and training, children and youth programming, education, languages, culture, sports and recreation. Collectively, we are one of the largest and most comprehensive service delivery networks in Canada, and not just among indigenous organizations.
When the pandemic was declared, friendship centres rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Having to pivot quickly, we moved to collect items—food, supplies, protective equipment—and began delivering kits to community members. We had friendship centre staff cooking food in their own homes to package and deliver and had staff and volunteers going out to pick traditional medicines to include in deliveries.
Delivery of these items also allowed friendship centres to check in on community members to see how they were dealing with the pandemic. In one instance, a friendship centre discovered that a family had a broken stove. The friendship centre arranged for a new one to be delivered to the family so that they could cook their own food.
Friendship centres rented handwashing stations and portable toilets to ensure that people had access to sanitation, especially those who were unsheltered. Friendship centre outreach workers have been ensuring that unsheltered or homeless members of the community know what indigenous specific supports are available.
Friendship centres have spearheaded or joined COVID-19 joint task forces and worked with numerous other community organizations to ensure a joint response in collaboration.
We have secured and delivered more than 400 tablets and distributed them across the country. These tablets went to children and young people for school, families for work, seniors to reduce isolation and foster connections, and to friendship centre staff to transition to providing online support. We are so proud of the way our members network has stepped up and stepped forward in these times.
Our work has not come without challenges. As urban indigenous organizations, we experienced what continues to be an ongoing jurisdictional wrangling that has been noticed since the beginning. Neither the federal nor the provincial governments stepped up early to provide supports specific to urban indigenous organizations, with each inquiring of us what contributions the other level of government was making.
Once friendship centres did receive funding, there were misunderstandings about what the funding was for. While friendship centres applied for and received funds to provide community-wide supports, we received many calls for individual or family financial support.
Despite these challenges, friendship centres' responses have been quite incredible. While we do not expect the level of service to decline any time soon—in fact, we expect it to increase over the next four to six weeks, as the holidays are close—we are also looking to the future.
Current funding is set to end on March 31, 2021, and we are gravely concerned that the community supports that people are now relying on will not be able to continue into the new fiscal year. We forecast that the current levels of support, eventual vaccine distribution and then the “building back better” phase will require heavy engagement with urban indigenous people, organizations and communities.
Indigenous people are a priority population in this pandemic, and we need to ensure that urban indigenous people are not left behind.
The NAFC has offered and continues to offer its perspectives, expertise and knowledge of urban indigenous communities and community members to the federal government to help inform them and to guide effective remedies both now and as we continue on this journey. We look forward to being part of the ongoing conversation and continued investment in this work.
Thank you so much.
View Gary Vidal Profile
CPC (SK)
Thanks, Cathy.
I have a couple of questions, and we'll see if we can get to two. I'll get to the first one first. It's for the National Association of Friendship Centres folks, Christopher and Jocelyn, if you would.
I was in Ottawa last week and I raised with Minister Miller the concern about a lack of data, especially as it relates to urban indigenous people. This is also something I raised at this committee way back in April, and Christopher, you talked about even the jurisdictional wrangling that goes on with the people you folks represent.
Our suggestion is that it's time for a coordinated effort, especially as it relates to the rollout of a vaccine strategy. I also raised the point that I think vulnerable people and communities must be a priority as we consider how this happens. My question for you is actually quite simple. Has your organization or have you, in your engagement with the government, been able to be involved in discussions around the lack of data or the rollout of a vaccination strategy as it effects urban indigenous folks?
Christopher Sheppard
View Christopher Sheppard Profile
Christopher Sheppard
2020-12-01 12:35
Thank you, Mr. Vidal.
If you've seen Jocelyn and me present at any federal committee, the lack of urban indigenous health data and other sources of disaggregated urban indigenous data in Canada is, I guess at minimum, shocking, because what you don't know, you don't know. What we do know is that urban indigenous people make up the majority of indigenous people in this country, so you actually don't know how to connect with them, how to support them or what things you need to be doing in health policy.
We've been working specifically with Well Living House on data and maybe a health data strategy nationally, because no one is doing it. If the governments can't figure out the jurisdictional issues and figure out a way to collect that data, then someone else is going to have to. For us, while we wait for the governments to figure out whose jurisdiction it is to count people, we're going to work with our indigenous physician partners and health centres to figure that out in the meantime. When you're on the ground in urban communities, it's shocking that people aren't paying attention to the basic idea that this is where most of us are.
For the vaccines specifically, Jocelyn can answer that, so I'll toss it to her to finish.
Jocelyn Formsma
View Jocelyn Formsma Profile
Jocelyn Formsma
2020-12-01 12:36
Quickly on the vaccine rollout, we've been in conversation with Indigenous Services' first nations and Inuit health branch as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada, just to get in early with some of those conversations. Now it's the same issue in that the rollout of the vaccine will happen provincially. In some of the guidelines that the Public Health Agency of Canada is developing, we're just trying to ensure that they are inclusive of urban indigenous when doing their planning to get the vaccine out to indigenous people.
We're especially concerned about some of those more vulnerable folks who may not feel comfortable accessing mainstream health services, as President Wieman mentioned in her opening remarks. We're experiencing the same thing. We're trying to see if there's a way to see if they would like to utilize the friendship centre network. We just need to know as soon as possible so that we can be clear about the kinds of resources and the capacity we would need to be able to support that kind of rollout. We have halls, gyms, parking lots that community members may feel a bit safer coming to than a mainstream health clinic. All we're asking them is to just be up front in keeping us engaged sooner rather than later.
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