Evidence of meeting #25 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
Yes, I would, of course.
I've just listened to a young girl say she was broken, and I take great offence at that. I take great offence that this young girl or any of our children feel like they are broken. As a people, we are not broken. The systems are broken and the policies are broken, and that's what needs to change. In our community, whether you're on reserve or in an urban context, we are not broken. The systems are broken. They've been broken. They've been designed to fail us time and time again. I've seen it happen over and over again.
I believe in my heart of hearts that there is a way forward. We talk about reconciliation—everybody throws that word around now—and it's where we need to go. I actually believe that it can be done. I believe that it will take a long time to be done. I believe that it will take us doing things together, not having government do things to our community, but with us, beside us, not in front of us, and not behind us. I believe that those policies need to be joint and they need to be done together.
I believe in my heart that our community can get better. I believe that when society as a whole recognizes.... I heard Richard say it: we need to have understanding of why things are the way they are. Don't hold it against us that our families were put into residential schools or that there was the sixties scoop, or the past and all of those things that created this, like the Indian Act. They've all been created to assimilate and to eradicate the Indian problem, and those are real things.
Those are very real. I believe that when I look at the mental health issues. I am going to go to the friendship centre now, because we know when people come through our door.... Somebody may come in for employment, housing, education, or addiction services. They're all intertwined. It's a social cocktail mix. I don't know what you want to call it, but usually, nine times out of ten—and I'm going to say 99.9% of the time—there are mental health issues, and they all need to be treated together.
People need to be treated with respect. It breaks my heart knowing that out of everything we do, we couldn't even help my own nephew. I questioned what I do because of that. However, I also believe that what happened to Cody, for me, is the changing point even in my life. I believe that something good will come from Cody's passing.
For me, I believe that in the organization, the friendship centre, and our community, we have to start doing things together, not in silos, not separately, and not in Ottawa, but together. We talk about a national strategy. We talk about all these things. The reality is that we have to start doing things together. I don't mean at each other. I mean together. We need to have that honest truthful conversation, and humility has to play a role in that.
I actually love Canada. I don't like some of the history that has happened to our people at all, but I do believe that, moving forward, if we do things together, it can be very different. In our programs at the friendship centre, we try to take mainstream services and incorporate them in our community. I think there's some validity in some of those systems if they can incorporate our systems, our needs, and our wants.
My brother and I have had the conversation. Is medication the answer? Are cultural competencies the answer? I believe things have to be done together. Is it just medication? No. I've had conversations where it's medication, medication, medication. I've seen my other nephew, Matthew's other son, who carries Cody's bundle, take part in those monthly sweats for Cody. Those are healing for him. That is no different from going to the doctor for a bandage, to be quite honest.
As an Individual
Speaking about that, Christopher was the last one to see Cody alive that night. He bore a lot of weight and a lot of bearing on the outcome. He felt that he was responsible. Through the sweats, and through the cultural aspect of it, it's lifted that weight off of his shoulders. I see a different young man now. He's a different person. He's more confident. He's more at peace. I guess with the medication...I just wish we would have had the opportunity—our community is not big into our language or even into our old ways—and that Cody would have had that experience of the sweat combined with medication and with the counselling. You can only guess at what might have been, but it would have been better than what he had, because he had nothing.
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
When we talk about policies, I always laugh, because we have community members who go to doctors for different things, but it always has to happen on Monday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. You know, the reality is that when something big is going on in somebody's life, it's usually in the evenings or Christmastime, or holidays, or weekends. Those are huge crisis points. I don't care if you are aboriginal or non-aboriginal—those times are your worst times, and yet the doctors only want to work from nine to five. I'm not holding that against them. I believe that's policy. I believe that's how the systems are set up. I think we need to re-examine those systems and those policies. That's where you're going to get change. That's where you're going to see a difference for our communities and Canada as a whole, to be honest. Suicide has no boundaries. It affects our communities tremendously. It is the loss of the language, the loss of the cultural pieces, the isolation, the not belonging, the not fitting in, the bullying, and the racism that is experienced. All of those are key components and what our people are faced with.
Many of our people come from first nations communities into the urban context. It's isolation again. Halifax is fortunate enough to have, I think, a pretty strong friendship centre. We're able to provide over 28 programs and services for people, but there are still gaps, especially around mental health, which is probably one of the largest gaps. We've done research on mental health, on justice systems, and on homelessness, and all of them come back to the need for additional resources around mental health. It's not the traditional—and when I say traditional, I mean mainstream traditional—services. It has to be incorporated. It has to respect our teachings, and I believe that can be done. I truly believe that can be done, and I believe it is a way forward. I guess I have to believe that. I believe there are really good people in this world who want to make a difference, and sometimes we just don't know how to do that.
As an Individual
I have one last thing I would like to say. I know our time is getting down there. Cody didn't come from a broken home. My wife and I have been married for 22 years. My parents were married for over 40 years. My in-laws have been married for over 30 years. Cody did not come from a home where there was alcohol abuse or drug abuse. He didn't come from a home where there was physical abuse or sexual abuse. It just goes to show that regardless of your upbringing, this poison can get you, and if the help is not there, then unfortunately it can be very tragic.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
Thank you both for that.
We'll make the most of our time and move right into the questions. The first seven-minute question is from Don Rusnak.
September 28th, 2016 / 4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Don Rusnak Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Thank you for coming and sharing your story with us. I know it must be very difficult to share the story.
I come from the community of Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario. I'm Ontario's only first nation member of Parliament, and I often see institutional racism across government agencies, in police forces, in city councils, and in municipalities, all across institutions.
I'll give you an example. The friendship centre in Thunder Bay was attempting to have a youth centre built. Unfortunately, because it was a first nation or Indian friendship centre that was proposing the youth centre, there was a lot of vocal opposition. They never said that the reason they were vocal was that the Indian Friendship Centre was the proponent, but many people felt that was the reason there was vocal opposition. Then the city ultimately defeated or didn't approve the centre, so it was a lost opportunity in my community to help out first nation youth and indeed all youth in our community.
It's now a chicken wing spot. It's not that I don't like chicken wings, but I think a better use of that facility could have been as a youth centre.
One of the great things that we've heard about—and I've heard this from my colleagues—is the work that friendship centres do across the country. I'm not that familiar with your friendship centre in Halifax, and although, the chair and I have a friend from the Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation named Jaime Batiste, I'm not that familiar with his community or the communities on the east coast.
Could you let us know about anything that your friendship centre does specifically with youth or has been planning to do with youth in a preventive way to help youth avoid these situations, or just to help our youth generally?
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
Our centre has a youth group. It is a drop-in centre. We also do programming around employment and training with our youth.
We have a mental health project as well. Actually, our funding runs out on the 30th of this month. It's short-term funding. We also usually apply for the urban partnership youth funds. Of course, there are lots of challenges around applying for short-term funding. There are usually gaps. Our friendship centre is large enough that I can carry some of that when those gaps happen, but the reality is that there's still not enough being done. There's still not that dedicated stream that allows us to do what needs to be done.
I know that most friendship centres have a youth component. Each friendship centre is unique and different, but we are fortunate enough to work within the HRM school system as well. We go into the schools and work with students in high school and junior high. That leaves us challenges as well, because we're spread throughout HRM, which is very large.
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
Yes, I'm sorry.
It's large, and when you're trying to get youth in, there are challenges around that. There is mental health. We do employment. Of course, we do an addictions piece not just for our youth but for our community as a whole. We also do food security with many of our youth.
We do moose hunting too, trying to get our kids back on traditional grounds. Part of the food security that we do involves trying to bring that cultural piece back in.
Liberal
Don Rusnak Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I've said before at this committee—and it's my view alone, but perhaps some committee members share my view—that we need a two-pronged approach to this crisis in our communities. One would deal with the immediate problem by funding programs like yours and other innovative programs, to make sure the youth have some hope and have the services they need when they need them. The other would build up our communities. That's the long-term solution, so we won't be facing this crisis over and over and over again, and committees years from now will not be studying the same problem.
As I said, I wasn't that familiar with Eskasoni or some of the other communities on the east coast. Can you give us a little bit of information regarding the state of the communities, culturally and economically, and any positives that are happening in the communities?
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
Are you talking about the first nations community or the community that I provide programs and services for?
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
Okay.
There are 13 first nations in Nova Scotia, and some of them have subcommunities. Some of them are quite strong and some of them need some help. Some of them are strong financially; some of them are not. Culturally they are very different. Eskasoni is very rich in its language. Then, if you go to Millbrook, where we're from, it doesn't seem to be as strong. It's not that the community doesn't want it; it's that colonization happened first where we are, and then it spread, so we've had the longest contact, which affects our language and our cultural pieces.
It's always a challenge, even for us in the urban context. We have to pull from our community, the 13 first nations, many times to get that cultural component in the urban context. We do it and we are seeing it more and more as a transition, as the migration from the first nations community into the urban context. You're seeing more and more traditional people come into the urban context.
There are wide ranges. No two communities are the same. I do see our indigenous community in Halifax, HRM, as a community. It's not recognized as a community, but we're very much a community. We provided programs and services to 4,800 clients last year, and I suspect we are actually missing more than that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
Thank you both for the question and answer.
The next question is from Cathy McLeod.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
When you started your testimony, you said you wanted to put a face to this issue. I can tell you, with all certainty, that you've put a very powerful face to this issue. I think there's a heaviness in all of our hearts. This is not only because of what you've gone through but also because of the task that we have ahead, to try to come up with something that we're going to recommend to the government, some steps forward that are at least going to start making a dent in this tragedy.
Mr. Glode, please tell us parliamentarians what would be most important for us to consider having as part of where we ultimately go with this report.
As an Individual
I believe we need front-line mental health workers in the communities. That's a given—no ifs, ands, or buts about it. We need to have those people there. We need to have them available so that when a crisis like Cody's happens at 1 a.m., we have a mobile crisis team or somebody who can react. We don't have that. We have nothing. We have the health care system in our area 8 to 4, Monday to Friday.
My daughter attempted to take her life five years ago. She's with a therapist. When Cody took his life, she was really bad. We tried to get her in immediately, but she had a two-week wait even though they knew what she was going through.
I work for the federal government. I've worked for the federal government for 17 years. If my supervisor came to me tomorrow and told me we had no money but he needed me to do something, I would do it, because I feel in my heart that it's important or I wouldn't be doing the job I'm doing.
I'm not “dissing” the health care workers—I know your home life is more important than your job. At the same time, if I'd been a therapist, I would have told my daughter I was booked for the next two weeks but she could come see me during my lunch hour. I would have made sure there was a way to help that person immediately. Having front-line health care workers who understand the culture and the people is a must. They have to be able to relate to the people and understand where they're coming from.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
You talked about having sweats and support culturally for your son who was the last one with Cody. Is that something you were able to use to make contact after Cody passed?
As an Individual
After Cody passed, a younger member of council came to my house. He brought a smudge bowl and an eagle feather, and he reached out to us and said they were going to have a sweat that night for the family. That was the day of Cody's death.
We had another individual come into the house. I'll be honest: I've been in law enforcement for quite a few years, and I was skeptical when he came to the house with tattoos on his neck and he was a rough-looking character. He came in and sat with my children. The kids from the community were there and he drummed with them. He stayed there for 18 hours a day to drum and pray with the kids. He got nothing; he didn't get paid. He didn't do anything other than put his time into those children.
I really believe that without him we would have had more suicides as a result of Cody's. A lot of kids in the community looked up to Cody. He was a role model, a firefighter, and an MMA fighter. He was a tough guy, and everybody loved him. He was a great kid and a great young man. I guess I'll always call him a kid, but he was a great young man.
This man who came to our house is the type of person you need. You need people who have their heart and soul in this stuff. Unfortunately, he was running a program there and because he has a criminal record, and it has taken a long time for him to get a pardon, he's been asked to step away from that. This man was sent to our family by God. He's done so much for my oldest son. He's done so much for us. I can't say enough.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
It was him reaching out to you and that sort of culturally—
As an Individual
That's what started the sweats. It was one of the elders in the community who put on the sweats, and we sweat every day for two weeks. It was the first time in many years that I went into a sweat, but I sweat regularly now. In my opinion, to relieve the stress and to clear your mind, there's no better therapy.
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
I think it's really important for these front-line workers to be in the community and part of the community. I can't stress that enough. It's so important to have somebody there who takes part in activities and becomes part of the community.
I look at mainstream services, and I know that's probably not the nicest context in which to put them, but that's how I see them. The mainstream services are part of a very cold system. It's not welcoming. As an indigenous person, I don't see myself in that system. With their programs and services, the friendship centres become part of the community, and that's what makes them successful. They are intertwined with the community, and I think that is the biggest piece here, that things have to be done in the community. There's no sense in us telling people they have to go to Halifax or Eskasoni when we know they're not going to stay. It has to be in their own community. They have to see the services in their communities. That's probably the biggest key, because then that cultural piece can be intertwined. It's very key for that to be put in there. It has to be put in there.
Liberal
NDP
Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Pamela and Matthew, thank you very much, as Cathy said, for coming here today and putting a human face on a very difficult issue. I think sometimes when we're discussing policies and general statistics we forget the human factor, so thank you for coming and sharing that story with me today.
Pamela, I think I'll start with you. As I said to our previous witnesses, part of my riding lies on the traditional territories of the Cowichan people. The Cowichan tribes form the largest first nations band in British Columbia. I've been privileged to have a very deep relationship with them over the past few years.
I've lived there for 27 years, and for much of my life, in my youth growing up, it was like the two solitudes. I went through my entire childhood and teenage years without ever finding out or learning about people I saw every day, my neighbours. We hosted the North American Indigenous Games in 2008, and that acted as a real catalyst for the community. Ever since then we've been trying to build bridges. We've had the Walk of the Nations. There's not an event that goes by that doesn't acknowledge the territory it stands on.
A lot of work still needs to be done, but I see the beginnings of something really positive. We have a friendship centre in the Cowichan Valley, and one of its main goals is to provide the cultural bridge between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal population.
I'm just wondering if you could tell the committee a bit about some of the programs that exist in your area, or something that can be used as a template in that regard.
Executive Director , Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society
You're asking me about the types of programs that our friendship centre runs?