Status of Women Committee on Oct. 26th, 2016

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

What do you think are the best practices that you could share with the committee, when you're trying to raise Inuit family awareness of domestic violence in order to eliminate that violence? What are some of the best practices that you could recommend?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I can't offer a best practice, because we haven't had evaluations over time, but we can offer some promising practice from our expertise. We are very good at communicating. Information has to be communicated in accessible Inuktitut or understandable and relevant English. We have great success, because people know our logo. We're credible. They'll pick up our publication—I mean no disrespect—far more quickly than they will a Justice Canada publication. We can certainly offer some promising practices around communicating, about how we try to communicate, and around partnerships.

I'd also like to say that we'd be happy to meet with the indigenous caucus at any time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's excellent.

We're going to go now to Ms. Vecchio, with five minutes for questions.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Like Sean, I could take you for about three or four days and just try to get all that information, but I want to start with really basic things, if you don't mind.

I think part of the issue is that we're dealing with a lot of urban and rural MPs. We have to recognize that we're talking about Nunavut.

First of all, what is the population of a place such as Baker Lake?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

Baker Lake is around 1,700.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I want to look at maybe one specific area, whatever area you may know the best, one of the best places where you can say that this is what we have.

What I'm trying to find out is how many schools there are within the community. Would there be one school? Would it be separated into secondary and primary? A lot of times we're talking about how we can educate people, but we have to recognize that education here in Ottawa is much different from what the children in that area are receiving.

I'm looking at key things, if you want to just go on this. I'm looking at things such as the geographical area. How large is the area that maybe one hospital would be serving, or one police unit? How many schools or hospitals would there be there?

You mentioned that there are no shelters. There are no shelters, but how many counselling services might be available to those populations?

Part of it is that we have to recognize it's not where we are. It's not southwestern Ontario, something that I know in my own backyard. It's very different.

As Garnett was talking about, you said we don't have high-speed Internet, fibre optics. For some of us, the challenge is that we don't realize how those simple things that we have in our own backyards are not what you have. Could you share some of those things with me?

On my other question, and then you can take the rest of my time, if you're looking at a person who is victimized, let's say a child, are most of the children victimized by their own relatives? Would you have a percentage on that, like 80%, 90%, 100%? I don't know if that would be the case. What would be the normal...? If someone were to report it, what is the normal process?

You have the floor.

[Tracy O'Hearn]

Thank you very much. I'll try my best.

It's really unfortunate that Rebecca Kudloo couldn't be here today. She works in education for the Government of Nunavut. She is primarily a voluntary president, and she would have great expertise.

There are four regions of Inuit Nunangat. There are four comprehensive land claims agreements. Nunavut is one.

In the western Arctic, there are five Inuit communities, Inuvik being the largest. They're now building a road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, which is great. There is the Inuvialuit region.

Nunavut is another region, the most well known and the largest. There are 26 communities in Nunavut. In Nunavik, Arctic Quebec, there are 14 northern villages—in the census definition, they are called “northern villages”—north of the 55th parallel.

In Nunatsiavut, we've all just been shaken into alertness around Muskrat Falls. On the northwest coast of Labrador, which is Nunatsiavut, there are five communities within that land claim region.

They're all different. Each has a regional centre. There's Inuvik in the west. In Nunavut, there are three regions: Kitikmeot, which is the western Arctic; Kivalliq, where our president lives, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, north of Manitoba; and Baffin, in Qikiqtani. There are 13 communities in Baffin.

I believe there's been a hospital in Rankin Inlet for the last few years. They're all very different. I don't trust my immediate recall. There's a hospital in Inuvik. There's one in Iqaluit. There are two in Nunavik. There's one on the Ungava coast and one on the Hudson Bay coast, and there are none in Nunatsiavut. The closest is in Happy Valley - Goose Bay.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

What's the distance between those?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

They are all fly-in, fly-out communities. There are no roads, with the exception of the one now being built between Inuvik and Tuk. They are all fly-in communities. If we think about violence resulting in physical injury that requires health care, it's medevacs to Iqaluit or often to Ottawa, from the Baffin region to a southern facility.

Every community has a health centre. A lot of them are only staffed by nurses. There are lots of issues around health human resources retention and recruitment.

With regard to schools, there's a school in every community. Some may go to grade 12.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry, that's your time.

We're going to move over to Ms. Vandenbeld for the last five minutes.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I want to thank you very much for coming here today, and especially for lighting the candle for Annie. I know that's really shaken our local community and nationally, as well. I really appreciate your honesty and everything you've brought forward today. I think you've given us a lot of food for thought.

One thing you mentioned, and you didn't get a chance to really go into the question about traditional justice, was that there's no child who is untouched in some way. This is very disturbing. I know we've heard in other areas that there are more indigenous children in care now than there were in the sixties scoop. To what extent would there be a reluctance to report, if there is sexual violence happening in the home, because of the fear of the breakup of the family?

How can we develop programs that would allow—as we've heard with campuses and other things, where there's an alternative justice—it to be more about the safety and the protection? How do you develop those kinds of programs? How could the federal government help to ensure that the children, if there is violence in the home, feel that it is safe, and that there is confidentiality and that there are mechanisms for them to report?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

There are experts far more knowledgeable than I am, and who I would encourage you to speak to.

There is a reluctance to break up the family. Within the last two generations, but fairly recently, there was a reluctance because of the loss of a provider, as in a hunter, so absolutely there's concern about breaking up the family because of the loss of survival and the means to survive.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

You had mentioned that traditional justice was devalued. What did you mean by that? How do we bring some of that justice back into the child protection system?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

We're talking about, I would suggest, two very different worlds. Prior to living in settlements, people were nomadic and living in much smaller groups with much greater interdependence, and it has been said with greater equality between the sexes out of necessity. There were occurrences of violence, but they were handled. When we think, in 2016, about shaming as a means of social control, or gossip as a means of social control, or some form of justice, it seems completely irrelevant now, but those were very effective tools, because people had to depend on each other for survival. If you're being ridiculed, and possibly with the threat of banishment, that was pretty significant. No one would advocate returning to drum dancing as a means of settling disputes, but that is something that was used, and it was effective because there were respected leaders.

That's a very large area of study, and there are experts you could certainly meet with. There's a very well-known woman, who's our friend and colleague. Her name is Yvonne Niego. She's Inuk. She recently retired from the V detachment of the RCMP in Iqaluit and is now a senior official working with the Department of Justice at the Government of Nunavut. I spoke to Yvonne within the last year or so just to get an update on what is the status of an intervention or response protocol in the communities. Yvonne said, “In theory, there's a police officer, there's a social worker, and there's a nurse.” In theory, that should be the immediate response. Maybe those positions are filled, or maybe not. Maybe those people are getting along and talking to each other, or maybe not. There's the theory and then there's the practice, and it results in a whole lot of gaps.

You ask a very complicated question. I think I can best help you by referring you to experts like Yvonne Niego and many others.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I appreciate that.

You had also mentioned that, on the flip side, there are some previously isolated communities and that because of mining, because of cruise ships, and because of an outside economy there are transient populations that are now moving into these areas. Obviously, that puts some of the women and girls in more vulnerable situations.

Can you tell us, perhaps, if there are any things we can do to ensure the safety of women and girls in these communities where you might have a large influx of people who are coming from outside of the community?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I'll speak about Baker Lake as an example. The mine is outside the community, and I think it's about a two-hour trip by road from Baker Lake to the community. The workers don't even land in Iqaluit. They're flown directly into Mary River, Pond Inlet. They don't stay in Pond Inlet. They arrive at the mine, they come out of the mine directly to a southern centre, so I understand they're not even deplaning in Iqaluit.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry, that's your time.

We'll go to our last five-minute round with Ms. Vecchio.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

You're back to me. Thanks very much.

I want to go back to the line of questioning I had for you before. Anita had asked you similar questions regarding the protocol. You mentioned a police officer, a nurse, and things of that sort...if they're all working together and playing in the same sandbox well. But we have to recognize that might not always happen.

Let's go back to some of the stats. I know a lot of these are available, but in a situation you said every individual in your community is impacted by some sort of abuse. If we're looking at children, could you give us a percentage where it's a parent or somebody living in the house? Do you know those stats?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I'm sorry, we don't.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

That's probably part of the issue too. You just don't have that ability to do the data.

When it comes to outreach programs, I applaud you for working with what you've got when it comes to dealing with men and young boys. What sort of things are in the school systems to help children and young adults know what is right and what is wrong, what is sexual abuse, what is violence, how they have a voice in saying, this is what our options are and how they can stop it as well?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I'll give you an example from Nunavik. They have the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, which is mandated by the land claim. They have quite a complicated working arrangement with the Province of Quebec and the land claim, and I think the federal government. Somehow they do what they do extraordinarily well. They've developed their own form of a good touch, bad touch program that is delivered in schools by a number of people, including traditional Inuit counsellors, elders, and respected role models. They have developed their own resources, and I know they'd be happy to share them with you.

We have developed some resources. One resource is called The Hidden Face. We adapted two DVDs that were done in Greenland. They took our DVDs, provided training to their workers, and have integrated that into the range of tools they use. I can't tell you how it's used hands-on in the school, but I think that's a great example. Different regions are at different levels of activity, different levels of awareness, and have other priorities.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I think it's absolutely fascinating in a very difficult way, where you hear these stats, you have these discussions, and we realize how fortunate we are. Not everybody has the greatest opportunities that you're talking about.

When we talk about employment, what would the main employment in some of these areas be? You talked about mining.

Would you have an idea of average family income?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I couldn't give you that number right now. I have read the numbers.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Would there be a way that you could send this to the committee just so we can look at that?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

By all means. We can certainly follow up. I know it is readily available. There are community profiles that also look at Inuit average incomes. The general population average income can be skewed by high-income transient workers.

In Iqaluit, the economy is largely driven by government. The territorial government is there. The federal government has a presence there.

Certainly, on health care. Two communities that have very little...they have a hamlet office, a local town council, a nursing station, a store, often very little else, so there's a huge gulf and difference.