Status of Women Committee on June 17th, 2022

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

It has become a little bit more personal. I absolutely respect—

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Fair enough, Madam Chair. I withdraw the question. I'm moving on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Leah, I'm not going to take any time away from you. Don't worry. Rather than direct it to Ms. Moran, let's direct it more to the whole. I do understand you're coming from the heart.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I will for sure to withdraw that question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Okay.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I've given a couple of examples. I know I was very pointed in my questions, but I've heard a lot of discourse today, but when I look at the news and the behaviour on the ground, it's certainly not consistent with what's being shared today. I think it's important to point out to this committee that indigenous women are currently being targeted and surveilled. For example, police services that are supposed to be put in place to actually protect people are actually creating harm.

I want to move on to Senator Audette.

I want to lift you up for all the work you've done in this area. We both know that indigenous women are often too traumatized and afraid to press charges on the violence they experience in “man camps” or at the hands of police.

You noted in an interview with Al Jazeera that you are personally aware of at least three indigenous women who have been raped in a “man camp” in Quebec. My question to you is, what must be done to ensure that we not only address the root of violence and address violence but also ensure that there are safe, accessible, transparent and accountable processes that protect women and support them to share their experiences and heal?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

My dog, of course, is barking.

Leah, I really respect all of this. We won't have time for that full answer, but there will be lots of time going forward.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Sure. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

To our last witness, I as the chair apologize for not just jumping in immediately. We usually, as I said, have more of an informal setting. I do recognize that this is a very, very sensitive issue, especially for those who have been impacted. I do apologize to our last witness for not jumping in sooner.

Let's just continue getting right on track. I really respect that. We'll have time to have Ms. Audette answer that question on Leah's next turn. I'm going to pass it over to Shelby Kramp for five minutes.

[Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think we can all, certainly, acknowledge that there's a lot of content that is disturbing but 100% very necessary to speak to.

My first question will be posed to the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. I believe it's Madam Moran.

One initiative of the national strategy to combat human trafficking from 2019 to 2024—and I'll just recap it quickly—was to develop multi-sectoral training tools that are culturally relevant and gender-responsive for frontline service providers and targeted groups from a variety of different sectors, such as hospitality and transportation, to increase awareness of the indicators and signs of human trafficking and enable employees to effectively identify victims.

The first part of my question is what progress has Public Safety made with regard to developing these tools that are spoken about in that?

[Christine Moran]

Thank you for the question. I'm going to ask Ms. Van De Bogart to respond.

[Michelle Van De Bogart, Director General, Law Enforcement and Border Strategies, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Thank you very much for the question.

I can tell you that this is one activity we are currently working on. A contract has been awarded and we are working on the guidelines themselves.

You mentioned it's to train people who are in industry or in business. We are focusing on four key areas. In hospitality, we're focusing on people like front-desk workers or those who are cleaning hotel rooms. In the health centres, we're focusing on nurses, because we know that many people who are victims of human trafficking enter the health care system through the ERs. From a transportation perspective, we're focusing on the aviation sector. The last area we're targeting is foreign workers. As we know, while many of the victims of human trafficking are for sexual exploitation, human trafficking does exploit those who are working as well.

What I can tell you is that work is well under way.

Just one last thing I want to add is that the materials for the tools will be informed by survivors of both sexual and labour exploitation in Canada.

[Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Okay. Thank you for that.

Just to supplement that question, how, if at all, do or will these training tools take into account the actual unique experiences of indigenous women and girls with human trafficking? What we're really trying to find and what we need to see is some data-driven material. Where are the unique experiences coming into the report?

[Michelle Van De Bogart]

I'd like to take us back to before the action plan or the strategy was created. Prior to that, we did extensive stakeholder engagement, which involved engagement with indigenous individuals, those with lived experiences, a lot of NGOs, academia and FPTs.

Also, as we've been launching different parts of our action plan or the strategy, we've been continuing to reach out to engage with those with lived experiences, including indigenous peoples. Once again, as we are developing these tools, as I mentioned, they will be informed by the survivors of sexual and labour exploitation. We know that these survivors, at a disproportionate rate, tend to be indigenous people.

It's very key for us, under the empowerment pillar, that we ensure that the voices of those who have been victims and survivors of human trafficking be taken into consideration at each and every step of the implementation of our national strategy.

[Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's excellent. Thank you.

With the Honourable Michèle Audette in the room, perhaps I'll pose the next question to her.

Thank you very much for all that you do and continue to do. Honourable Michèle Audette, the national inquiry cited several factors that contribute to violence against indigenous women and girls, such as substance abuse, addictions and economic insecurity. What can the federal government do to help increase indigenous women's economic security and to support those who are facing substance abuse problems? It seems as though there's a tremendous amount of conversation, concern and talk, and study after study, but where are we at and where are we going in terms of giving some substantive solutions to a significant problem?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's a very long question, so Honourable Michèle Audette, I'll give you about 20 extra seconds there.

Shelby, I'll give you some extra time there.

Go ahead.

[Michèle Audette]

I'm sorry, I'm not a minister. I'm happy to be a senator.

What I can say in 20 seconds is that we must remember that drug addiction is the result of intergenerational and multigenerational colonial violence. That is where it has its roots. We need to collectively address this colonial violence, and women and girls need to be at the centre of the initiatives. This is what I think is most important. We also need to give the indigenous women's organizations that are on the ground long-term, core funding rather than project-based funding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Emmanuella, I'm going to pass it over to you now for five minutes.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to begin by thanking all of the witnesses for being here for this great testimony today.

My first questions are for Ms. Moran and Ms. Zinck. We can have the answers in that order.

I've heard that a lot of different programs you mentioned are being put in place to protect indigenous women and girls. We are also hearing that on the ground it's not necessarily being shown that a difference is actually being made. What are your ways of measuring the success of the programs that are being implemented? Do you have any data in front of you that can show us that kind of a difference that's been made during the time you've been practising these activities or these practices?

[Christine Moran]

Thank you.

With respect to at least first nations and Inuit policing programs, we do collect data. Part of that data is correlated with external data. What I can say is that we know from our own data collection that community members who have a self-administered police force in their community feel far more secure and they more comfortable interacting with the police.

The national indigenous centre on information and governance has cited that more than 30% of community members with the self-administered police force report feeling safe, whereas fewer than 10% who do not have a self-administered force report feeling safe. That is an important factor. That's a really important figure for us.

We do know through our own tracking that we are also seeing that when we make investments in community policing in first nations communities, we're seeing better outcomes.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Zinck.

[Kimberley Zinck]

While I don't have data to share with you today, I can absolutely get that information on the performance measures and indicators with respect to our programming dedicated towards these issues and share it with the committee.

What I can tell you, however, is that in particular the socio-economic subcommittee of the Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee for TMX has been working in partnership with indigenous communities and those who are impacted by the Trans Mountain expansion project. They have identified access to traditional harvesting and hunting sites, addressing incidents of racism that occur on and off construction sites, among other things as their top priorities.

I do believe we have some metrics from the work of that committee, which we'll be able to share with you. I understand they have provided a brief to this committee for the purpose of this study.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much.

Senator, you have already given a partial answer to the question I wanted to ask you. You said that, at present, funding was only granted when projects were submitted and that this did not necessarily work for aboriginal communities. I would like you to add some details to what you said. We're trying to get some concrete recommendations in the context of this study, so if you have a specific recommendation to make, we'd appreciate it.

[Michèle Audette]

Thank you very much for the question. It allows me to address one of the aspects that I was unable to explain.

Often the federal government goes through national organizations like the Assembly of Chiefs or the Native Women's Association of Canada, which may not be the ones on the ground. I would encourage us to put on moccasins and step into the shoes of the people in the communities of Pakua Shipu, Obedjiwan or Pikogan, for example, who live far from urban centres and who do not necessarily have an immediate relationship with these national organizations. It is rare to see long-term funding that is grassroots driven and contributes to wellness. The government needs to innovate and establish this kind of dialogue. Actually, I wouldn't call it innovative; it's a legal imperative. We need to go to where there are humanitarian crises, to communities far from Montreal and Quebec City, where I come from, that don't have the same means or the same capacity to benefit from the billions of dollars that have been announced.