Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Sept. 23rd, 2016

[Kimberly Masson]

Thanks, Sheila.

I'd like to add to that.

I know Ilisaqsivik isn't here to speak, but they're a great example of true Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit resiliency and creativity and being resourceful. They opened a hotel in order to support themselves financially. The Ilisaqsivik wellness centre in Clyde River is run by an executive director, and I believe they have over 50 staff at this point now. They run all those great kinds of programs. It's amazing. There's everything from youth programs to training counsellors in the territories.

We have a large group of Inuktitut-speaking counsellors in various communities around the territory. They're a crisis response team, certainly at least in the Baffins. Sometimes they go west as well. However, in order to do so, they had to open a hotel to support themselves financially, because the funding is not necessarily guaranteed every year, and they wanted to maintain their programs. They're very creative, with a brilliant executive director. They've done wonderful things.

The challenging part of all of that, though, is that we could all learn from Jakob Gearheard and his team who have done this, but we kind of operate in vacuums. It is partly because of isolation, which you're familiar with. That's where we want to take the expertise of someone like Jakob and his team and share it with other communities that might like to do the same thing but that don't really know how they did that—what steps they took, and what they would do next time to simplify it for the next people.

There is a lot of programming going on. There are possibilities.

The last thing I would add is that sometimes it's the way we have to apply for the funding that's the greatest challenge. It's not that the funding is not available necessarily, but that maybe you have to be registered with legal registries in Nunavut to apply for funding and you don't know how to do that. Sometimes it's just the hurdles of paperwork and red tape that really restrict what a community wants, or perhaps the funding is so narrowly focused that although what people want to apply for is what the community needs, they can't access it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thanks so much for that, and we're out of time.

David, the first question is from you.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for sharing today. It's valuable information for us to report back to our colleagues. I'd also like to thank David for what he shared last night from his law enforcement perspective. That gave a different twist to it. We don't always see the other side and we really appreciate the input.

During the past number of days, I've heard the term “decolonization” quite a bit. I know what it means, but not really, so what does it entail when someone has to go through the process of being decolonized? What does that really mean, and what's the process?

[Kimberly Masson]

I'll tell you only because I just completed my master's degree in indigenous studies and I feel as though I've been trained in it.

The way I look at decolonization is that it is changing the lens that I look at the world through, which is challenging. It's obviously part of who I am, and I'm not as decolonized as I would like to be. It's really looking at things through a different lens in order to see through another person's lens.

[David Lawson, President, Embrace Life Council]

Everyone's going to have a different perspective on it, but the way I look at it is that you have the residential school system, you have my grandparents' generation with the dog slaughter issue, and you have people being colonized and being forced to move into settlements, so when we talk about decolonization, you have a whole generation that's kind of lost in between two cultures.

I lived it. First, I grew up with my very cultural and traditional grandparents in Pang , and my dad was from Halifax. I lived both sides of the big stream.

To be decolonized is to kind of revitalize the culture, I guess. However, there are a lot of people lost in between the two right now, and that's one of the big issues we're having.

[Sheila Levy]

I will just add a little bit.

When I think of colonization, I think of issues such as power and control. When people went into settlements, they didn't really have a lot of power and control over their own lives, and certainly the residential school system reflects that as well. Decolonization is hopefully allowing people to feel that they have power and control over their own lives, and not only that they have the power and control but that it's respected and that everybody is on equal ground and that one group is not telling another group how to live, how to think, what to do, what language to speak. It's taking back what has been lost, but in a way that works for the realities of today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

There's still time.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you for that.

I'll just initiate it. Is it done in the schools? Are there workshops? How is it implemented? I guess that would be a good way to put it.

[Kimberly Masson]

I don't know that there is a set plan. There's a lot of talk about cultural competency training, and there's a lot of that developing. In fact, there's a program that ELC is looking at potentially diving into, because it's a real part of healing and trauma-informed practice and understanding what it is to come from a different time and place and to have experienced the impact that colonization had, but I don't see anything forming.

[David Lawson]

I'll add to that. I'm speaking to my generation and the folks I grew up with.

Right now you have the on-the-land program and the kamik-making programs for making sealskin boots, in which folks my age are just learning it because it was lost as we were growing up. Even when we had the summit back in May, a lot of people were saying we needed more land programs—and that was repeated over and over—not only just to revitalize our culture and our traditions but as healing. Being on the land is basically the best healing you can get. That was repeated over and over—the need for land programs and traditional....

[Sheila Levy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I retired from the school system a few years ago, but there was a program, or at least a course, that looked at the residential school legacy. Is there still?

Oh, good. Yes, that is still going. It wasn't started when I was there; it just started the year afterward, actually, and that was a beginning. I'd like to see that type of course given all over Canada, so that everybody understands and realizes. That's another piece of decolonization, I believe.

[Kimberly Masson]

To add to what Sheila said, there's a unit in grade 10 social studies. Both of those are grade 10 social studies courses—the residential schools unit and a unit called “staking a claim”. NWT also has that implemented in its system. It's about the land claim and its implementation.

I guess one more thing would be Nunavut Sivuniksavut, which is an incredible institution based in Ottawa that takes maybe 30 Inuit students 30 per year. It's an intensive training program. They can take a one- or two-year program, and that's part of the decolonization in addition to the land program and traditional programs. It's so empowering for these young people to really learn their history in depth, and they come back with such incredible.... Maatalii is a perfect example of a product of that program. It's so empowering to learn about who you are when you're lost in the middle.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thank you. We are out of time there, David.

The next question is from Gary Anandasangaree.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Decolonization is something that I've had to deal with for a very long time. Colonialism affected many people around the world in very different ways. It really is a much deeper process than just offering a course or some programs here and there. I think it has caused us to deeply look into the challenges and change in the structure of power and development and education that has led to intergenerational struggle, but the effects of colonization are almost similar in many aspects around the world. I wanted to mention that.

With respect to the Inuit context, I think a lot of the issues that we've learned about in the last two-and-a-half days—which have been quite remarkable—have come down to education at the core. It's a way of deconstructing many of the challenges that have occurred over the last couple of centuries and to rebuild the confidence, the cultural experience, the cultural connection, the connection to the land, and all of those things.

I'd like to ask David—because I think you made a very profound statement yesterday when you talked about suicide—what, in your opinion, needs to happen in order for this to take place in this community. I'm not only talking about Iqaluit, but about the different Inuit territories.

Second, I want to ask you a question about being a law enforcement officer. In your experience with respect to the criminal justice system, do you feel that those members of the community who are charged get treated differently from the rest of the population?

[David Lawson]

What I think needs to happen is for us to receive a strong commitment from the federal government to support us. When I was looking at the Resiliency Within action plan last year, I didn't feel any support outside Nunavut. I felt as though we were on our own.

Recently the federal government announced a bunch of money, but again, as I said last night, it didn't come to much. I'm not sure how it was broken up. I'm guessing it was per capita, so with our low population it wasn't really much at all.

We need a strong commitment from the federal government to bring our numbers down. It's such a vast land, so spread out, and everything is so expensive. When we brought those 100 people together last May, probably about 40% of them were from Iqaluit or from down south. It was $250,000 just to bring 60 people into town to hold that five-day summit. Everything is so expensive that it's hard to do on our own, so we need more support from the federal government on all the things that you heard today from the different panels to make those happen. We need more support.

When you look at the criminal justice system, I'm not sure—

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

I don't want to put you on the spot. I recognize your role as a member of the RCMP. I don't want to put you on the spot here, but I think if you have any suggestions as to how the justice system could be more responsive and reflective of the needs of the community, what would a couple of those suggestions be?

[David Lawson]

In regard to policing, I think—from my experience, anyway—that we've done a pretty good job in our limited capacity. We're probably one of the more overworked police divisions in the country, with one of the worst violent-crime rates I've seen at first hand. Not a lot of officers stay up here much longer than three years. With an increased capacity we could do more.

I'm the community policing coordinator for the division, for the territory, and that's only one person. Half my job is dealing with the media, which I spend about 60% of my time doing. As the one person coordinating all of the programming from the RCMP side of this, from the policing side, I'm strictly reactive right now, because I simply don't have the capacity or the time to do anything proactive. There's so much that I want to do, but I just can't do it, and I spend a good portion of my time working for suicide prevention, along with Embrace Life and our partners with the implementation committee.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

I have a question for Sheila. I know parts of the territory have cellular phone service and some parts just have land lines. In a world that's increasingly changing, how does that affect the work you do? Are you available on Twitter, on Facebook, and other forms of media to kind of evolve as crisis help lines?

[Sheila Levy]

One of our issues is all the changes in the way we communicate. Right now we are only able to do actual phone calls, and they can be from cellphones or regular phones. So many people, especially young people, like to communicate via chats or emails or whatever. My daughter only communicates with me by text, and she lives across town. I get many texts a day.

It has changed. Right through Canada, it has changed the number of calls that people get on the phone. Many centres are able to change and add texting or add other services to what they do, but we don't even have enough money to pay an ED or office staff or anything. I mean, we don't even get enough to pay for our phone lines and our rent, and we fundraise for everything else.

Again, that's another piece of support that is needed. We would certainly like to add to the services and we have a lot of young people who are very familiar with different forms of communication who are ready to help get this going. I'm a dinosaur, so I would rely on them.

It's really important that we offer services—and I've said this before—that people need and want, and we need the resources to be able to do that. We're ready and waiting to do so, but getting the resources is what's critical.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Okay, thanks.

We move now to five-minute questions. We have time for two of those. The first one is from Arnold Viersen, please.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you all for being here today.

What's really come through in our travels here up in Nunavik and Nunavut is that there are already lot of people working on this issue. It's been interesting to see where there might be some coordination and things like that. We can definitely give some support where that's needed.

Natan Obed came and presented to us. He gave us a report, and it was a very new, fresh report. Page 12 of the report laid out the black side and the light side—the protective factors, the risk factors, and that kind of thing. I think we know why it's happening; it's just that now we have to respond to that.

Is there anything that you would say about the ITK with regard to the report? What one thing would there be if you had to rank it, or is there something that they missed? Which would you place the highest priority on, and is there possibly something that they missed? Whenever witness groups come, I just keep that page in front of me and my questions are usually based around that.

For me, family strength is the main thing. I think that if we can get that right, if we can renew the family strength that's in the community, a lot of the other things would start to fall into place, because cultural continuity ties into family strength. Social equality ties into family strength, as does health development.

I'd like your comments on the ITK report, maybe the ranking of the things that they've identified, and if there's one thing that they forgot, what would that be?

[David Lawson]

It's not an easy question. I guess I'll just touch on family strength and cultural strength. Again, it comes from my experience.

I think my traditional ties to my grandparents were what saved me when I was a kid. All my family grew up on welfare, but family ties—I agree with you—are what can save us and improve our quality of life up here.

When I look at our homes and a lot of my family members back home, I see they're all on welfare. There are a lot of systems that work against them. Look at the welfare system and what happens every time someone gets a job. If you get a job and you're making $1,000 a month, 40% of that...your rent increases. Everything kind of works against you.

That's just one of the things that I want to mention to bring that quality of life up. You want to encourage everyone to get an education and work, but once they do find a part-time job and make a bit of money, their rent increases.

I agree with you that it's a matter of how we do that, but I have to think about that more.

[Sheila Levy]

The protective factors around family are really important. Even in families that some people might think are not functioning well or are dysfunctional, there are still strong ties, and that's why we need to work on the family issues and the family strengths.

When I've done interventions with young people, I use the family love, because love is always there. I use that as part of my intervention, because I know that within families, even though they might be upset with parents or with what is happening within the family, there is love there. You help them come to the conclusion that they really don't want to hurt these people they love—often it's a grandparent or a baby sister or whatever—and you talk about how their death would impact them for life. That, I can tell you, has made many of my interventions quite successful.

I think that working on making families and communities stronger and healthier and more economically solvent would definitely help.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you. I think that's my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

It is. Your phone should buzz any moment.

The final five-minute question is from Gary, please.