Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 9th, 2017

[Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson]

Absolutely. All the social determinants of health have a root cause and effect on the minds and hearts of our young people. They feel it the most because the meagre resources that come to our communities have to go to the general upkeep of the community. Usually the young people are the last ones to feel those resources, only because of the lack of them. I know our chiefs and our leaders care about our young people and they're sometimes at a loss as to how to motivate and how to get them going.

The best hope is in fighting for change at the education and health level. But when you have poor quality food in our communities.... A basic human right is to have access to food. The food available in a lot of our communities, especially in the far north, is of low quality. How is a child supposed to function properly in school when they don't have proper nutrition? They don't have a proper house to wake up in and make a good go of life. If they're tired and hungry and malnourished, that plays a lot in that.

I think there are many practical things we can do to change all that and start to collaborate with our leaders and our people to make those positive impacts for our young people. We need to look at the death that happened in young teenagers. You really have to think as a parent. How can a 12- or 14-year-old girl feel hopeless? That's the time of great change for a girl. If we're not there with family support, and I know families are, but the lack of proper housing compounds that.

Girls need a lot of attention around that time as they are transitioning into women. If they don't have that care and privacy that everyone needs, it's compounded and they give up. I don't want to stress that too much because it's a private issue too with girls. I think we need to rethink how we operate.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

That's interesting. Again it reflects back to the veterans because one of the things that is difficult is for an active service person to admit they may be being affected by battlefield trauma or other institutional issues. Similarly with children who otherwise seem to be high functioning.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

You're going to have to conclude.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

They may not wish to speak with somebody about the problems they're feeling deep inside. Is that what I take from your comment?

[Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson]

Yes, and our community as well is always in a constant state of crisis and trauma. We never quite get over it. If their parents are feeling that constant state of crisis and trauma, then they pass it on to their children and then the next generation. At some point, we have to break that cycle.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you.

I think you can sense that all of us who have heard from you appreciate your commitment to come to us to share your story before going home and grieving with the rest of your family. Our hearts are with you. We want you to look after yourself and your communities.

To the other two chiefs, thank you so much for coming here to Ottawa to share with us. Our deepest respect.... Thank you for coming out.

This concludes this portion of the meeting.

We're going to take a five-minute break, and then we'll have to decide what to do with the coroner's report. We might have to put it at the end of the second panel.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I guess it's just the process, because it was defeated.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

All right. We'll take a short break.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

I'm going to ask everybody, please conclude your conversations here in the room. If you want to continue, they could be just outside of this chamber. We encourage you to do that.

We have additional panellists, so we would like to hear them. They've been informed that the committee will be hearing from them at 9:45, so I want to thank them for being patient.

Bernard Richard is a representative for children and youth, who is joining us by video conference from Victoria, B.C.

Carol Hopkins is the executive director of the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, who is joining us by teleconference from Bothwell, Ontario.

[Carol Hopkins, Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation]

Good morning.

[Bernard Richard, Representative, British Columbia, Representative for Children and Youth]

Good morning.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Good morning. Welcome.

The way the procedure works is that each of you will have 10 minutes to present to the committee. Then we'll have a question and answer period to conclude, and that ends the procedure.

We're going to start with Bernard Richard, the representative for children and youth, Victoria, B.C.

[Bernard Richard]

Thank you for having me.

Good morning from British Columbia.

A very early good morning from the west coast. I'm very pleased to contribute to the discussion of such an enormously important topic. I thank the committee for taking on this work. The sheer gravity of the situation of suicide among indigenous people demands whatever action can be taken to address this to restore the desire to embrace life, to strengthen communities. Those of us who are in a position to influence any change simply must do what must be done.

In B.C., the McCreary Centre Society conducted the B.C. adolescent health survey, a voluntary survey administered to students in grades 7 to 12 in public schools across the province. Statistics from 2013 showed, “In comparison to their non-Aboriginal peers, Aboriginal youth were more likely to report extreme stress or despair, self-harm, suicide ideation or attempts, and to have forgone needed mental health services.” This study showed that there were some changes in the disparities between aboriginal and non-aboriginal youth mental health over the past decade. Distressingly the gap between girls reporting extreme stress widened, as did the gap for considering suicide.

Research has shown us time and again that there are a number of factors that contribute to elevated risks of suicide in first nation, Métis, and Inuit communities. These factors are no different from those found in other populations, but the prevalence and relationships among these factors differ for aboriginal communities as a direct result of the history of colonization, residential schools, and the resulting institutionalized racism and cultural marginalization. We have seen the devastation of deep-seated intergenerational trauma in Canada's indigenous peoples, and these facts cannot be ignored if we are to have any hope of addressing this difficult issue.

On the flip side, research also talks about protective factors that help to reduce the vulnerability of youth and potential for suicidal thoughts. These factors all point to cultural continuity as having the most influence in suicide prevention. These are issues such as attending a band-run school; whether they have access to cultural facilities; whether the band controls health services, police and fire services; and the local history of land claims. One important influential factor as well is the level of self-government. In other words, cultural continuity and identity are key.

In my position as acting representative for children and youth in British Columbia, I have an oversight rule regarding the child- and youth-serving system, and an interest in the welfare of all children and youth. My office makes recommendations that will improve service-delivery end results in the area of safety, health, education, and well-being for vulnerable children and youth.

I also review and investigate critical injuries and deaths of children and youth with an eye to help prevent similar injuries or deaths in the future. Just this week we released the report “Broken Promises: Alex's Story”, a heartbreaking story about an18-year-old Métis youth who took his own life by jumping through a window on the fourth floor of a hotel where he was being cared for. Alex endured a life of trauma. He was shuffled around the care system and had no permanent connection to his family or to his Métis culture, and no mental health supports that might have made a difference despite the fact that he was five times referred for mental health services.

Other reports from my office have also directly addressed the issue of indigenous youth suicide, including “Lost in the Shadows” in 2014, about the suicide of a 14-year-old girl living in a rural B.C. first nation community, and “A Tragedy in Waiting”, just last September, about the suicide of a 16-year-old boy in an urban B.C. area.

In addition, in 2012, we released “Trauma, Turmoil and Tragedy: Understanding the Needs of Children and Youth at Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm”. This report is an aggregate review that examines the life circumstances of 15 youth who died as a result of suicide and 74 youth who engaged in self-injury behaviours. The report revealed a significant overrepresentation of indigenous children within the group that was reviewed. Of the 89 lives examined, 58 were indigenous children or youth.

Chronic instability at home, mental health issues, and unaddressed trauma are among the common experiences of these youth. Despite domestic violence being a factor in more than half the files reviewed for this particular report, issues such as grief, loss, or recovery from violence were not primary considerations when these children first came into care or received child welfare services or assessments. This report had one and only one recommendation, that B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development take steps to address trauma experienced by these children, including conducting a thorough assessment whenever a child is taken into care in order to identify past trauma and to plan services to address its effects.

The good news here is that, in response to this report, the ministry has drafted trauma-informed practice guidelines, and an implementation plan is currently being developed four years later. But better late than never. That plan includes the training of guardianship social workers.

In conclusion, I see an urgent need to address the issue of trauma in indigenous communities and individuals, and in particular, intergenerational trauma. If there is to be an impact on addressing suicide of indigenous youth, all solutions must be community driven in order to have a chance to succeed. It's a tall and complicated order, but one we cannot shirk away from addressing. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, researchers, and indigenous leaders, including the ones you just heard from, are pointing the way, and we must follow.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you for your comments.

We're now moving on to the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Carol Hopkins.

Please, go ahead.

[Carol Hopkins]

[Witness speaks in Ojibwa]

I've introduced myself in my language, and what I've said to you is that I am from the Wolf Clan of the Delaware Nation. You know that I'm with the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, so I won't review that again.

Let me start by saying good morning again, and thank you for the opportunity to inform your study on indigenous suicide.

Many of my comments today are drawn from a paper that we recently commissioned that was authored by Dr. Chris Mushquash and Dr. Jennifer White. It's a paper on life promotion to address indigenous suicide. Why I speak to that is that it offers a strength-based perspective to life promotion, which is a term commonly used by indigenous youth to express their focus in the discourse on suicide prevention.

I'd like to also make a comment about the first nations mental wellness continuum framework, and the indigenous definition of mental wellness.

Let me start off by talking about four key themes that I think are necessary for understanding suicide among first nations people in Canada.

First of all, we have to understand that suicide is not an individual experience resulting from mental illness. Suicide is a direct result of colonization and social inequities, as was communicated by our previous speaker. Suicide among indigenous people in Canada has to be situated within that broad social, political, and historical context that calls attention to the legacy of colonial attempts at assimilation and the ongoing negative effects of social inequities.

Dr. Amy Bombay's research on intergenerational trauma clearly demonstrated that the more familiar history and experience one has with the residential school system, the higher risk there is for mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation and attempts.

Highlights from the current knowledge base of promising practices for preventing suicide and promoting life among indigenous people must focus on creating conditions for indigenous children and youth, families and communities to flourish. One of the examples I'd like to offer is an early intervention program that we have developed called buffalo riders. It's a school-based early intervention program.

Another example I'd like to offer is from indigenous knowledge keepers who say that life promotion begins before birth with cultural practices that secure the spirit to this physical world. They also say that when we no longer hear the cry of new birth in our communities, the fabric of our communities becomes burdened by the cry of death. It's this cry of death that creates imbalance in the lifespan, the life path, for first nations communities. Speaking of greater attention to the continuum of life and ensuring that there's opportunity for birthing in our own communities, many northern remote and isolated communities, as you may know, require women to leave their communities on their own, even as teens, to give birth in other locations without that support network that they require.

Contributions from published scholarly literature that are specific to indigenous people include things like, as was said, cultural continuity factors; self-government; active efforts to restore land claims; control over education, health care, culture, police, fire services, those types of things; indigenous language; creating a sense of belonging and connection to cultural identity and spirituality; cultural healing practices; connection to family and community; strengthening social capital and support; building infrastructure in our communities, material, human, and information infrastructure; and a reliance on indigenous knowledge to define wellness.

This leads me to the third point that I'd like to make, which is that we have to recognize that indigenous and non-indigenous peoples together, as well as provincial, federal, territorial, first nations, governments, and organizations, have to be actively engaged as part of the solution. But to do this requires a paradigm shift that makes space for indigenous knowledge as evidence, and moves us from a focus on creating solutions or programs and services for individuals to focus on outcomes for families and communities, because when we focus on outcomes, we're going to get to a place that facilitates that conversation on wellness rather than a conversation that's strictly focused on deficits.

Strengths-based, life-generating strategies that honour indigenous ways of knowing and reflect relational, familial, social, and spiritual dimensions of selfhood are more likely to be effective than those predicated on decontextualized, expert-driven, individualistic, biomedical understandings of distress. Even trauma-informed practice, for example, has to be within the context of cultural humility and cultural safety if it's to have long-lasting benefits to wellness.

The fourth point I'd like to make is that we have to emphasize the importance of long-term comprehensive strengths-based and life-promoting approaches that recognize the significance of land and ceremony, again honouring indigenous knowledge, values, spirituality, culture, and our lineage.

Land, lineage, and language are three key factors in identity and wellness. Through a CIHR research project we developed a definition of indigenous wellness defined from indigenous knowledge, and that definition of wellness was also defined with four key outcomes. If we use culture to promote life, to facilitate wellness from a whole-person perspective, the outcomes that we should expect are hope, belonging, meaning, and purpose. These four outcomes have 13 measurable indicators to get us to hope, belonging, meaning, and purpose.

To get to hope, we have to invest in values facilitating connection to belief in world view, identity, to get to the outcome of belonging. It's nurturing that connection to family, community, relationship with land and our ancestors, and having an attitude toward living life within that context of that natural support network. To get to having meaning in life, we have to balance what we know as rational knowledge with intuitive knowledge, which is spirit-driven, and that when we weave the two together, only then do we have a full understanding about the meaning of life. To get to the outcome of purpose, we have to invest in the unique ways of being and doing that are defined by culture and indigenous knowledge, and that create wholeness.

These four outcomes and these indicators are critical for strategic planning, program design, policy, constructing policies, informing service delivery, but most importantly, for ensuring quality in the way that we promote life specifically for young people. The use of the first nations mental wellness continuum framework, which has these four outcomes as its centre, gives us further understanding of a systems approach to life promotion that relies on indigenous knowledge and culture.

I want to finish with four key principles.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

You have one minute.

[Carol Hopkins]

Okay.

The first principle is indigenous ways of knowing. The second is land, lineage, and language. The third is the focus on strength. The fourth is decolonization and community self-detemination. Then finally, we have collective responsibility and reconciliation.

I'll finish there. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you so much.

We'll move on to the question and answer period.

We're going to start the round with MP Rémi Massé.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, I am going to give my time to Mr. Tootoo.

[Hunter Tootoo, Independent, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you, Mr. Massé, for allowing me the opportunity to participate and ask some questions.

My question may be to both of you. I know you've heard it all along, but.... Mr. Richard, you mentioned intergenerational trauma, and that's something I've heard about since attending these meetings. How big of a role do you see that playing in looking at the horrific statistics we have for suicides in indigenous communities, and what are some ideas on how to address it? We've heard a lot on the need for mental wellness, trauma counselling and treatment, and just better mental health services being offered in indigenous communities all across Canada, including Nunavut.

I want to get your views on that, both of you, please. Thanks.

[Bernard Richard]

I'm sure you've heard all of this before. First, I want to say that, in an earlier life, in New Brunswick, I was asked to review the overall health of first nations children after the death of a young girl by suicide. We had done fairly extensive research and comparisons between indigenous and non-indigenous children and, clearly, all of these issues related to trauma. The lack of a feeling of self-esteem, the lack of identity and knowledge of culture.... I'm an Acadian. The Acadian culture is absolutely fundamental to us and to our survival as a people, as is our language. I think the same is true for indigenous children.

When we looked at the root causes...and former grand chief Ed John talked about this in a recent report in B.C. He talked about the root causes leading to root solutions. He talked about poverty, overcrowding in houses, lack of housing, lack of water, and lack of cultural identity. I think the solutions have to respond to those root causes, addressing the issues of housing, abject poverty, the inequalities, and the feeling of low self-esteem.

Engaging elders in organizations like child and family services agencies so that they can practise more prevention is one example. One band councillor said the agencies are just baby snatchers because they are so focused on protection that they remove.... Combined with the archaic funding formula used by INAC, the incentive is to remove children rather than work with and support families. I think the solutions include engaging more elders, supporting families early on, taking fewer children out of their families and communities, and then building a strong identity, with the help of prevention services and cultural programs. Pride in who you are, in where you come from, is essential to self-esteem, and self-esteem is essential to embracing life.

Because it took generations to get us where we are, it will take some time to get to a much better place, but there is no time like now to start doing that.

[Hunter Tootoo, Independent, Nunavut, NU]

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Richards.

This is another thing we've heard. I think everyone can acknowledge the fact that a lot of our indigenous communities within southern Canada, and also in the north and in the far north in Nunavut and in the Northwest Territories basically live in third world conditions when you look at housing, education, and health care. The way these jurisdictions are funded is inadequate and it seems to be just the way it is, so this is how it's going to be.

There needs to be a shift in recognizing and ensuring that all these different jurisdictions and communities have the adequate resources to deliver the services required. Going back to the provision of services, we've heard a lot about culturally based, community-driven healing programs and the lack of addiction treatment centres, which are inhibitors. I'm going to get the view from both of you quickly on that. Thank you.

[Carol Hopkins]

I'd like to offer some examples about how culture makes a difference, if I may.

First of all, the post-mortem brain studies on suicide victims consistently show damage to the brain in the hippocampus, which is the centre of the brain that's responsible for memory. If we don't take care of the traumatic memories, it eventually leads to suicide. That's what the research shows us.

One of the consistent issues that is not being attended to is a history of sexual abuse. In the Hollow Water First Nation community in Manitoba, they implemented a community holistic circle healing process. It was studied and there was a cost-benefit analysis that was done by the Department of Justice. It showed significant change in outcomes between 1984 and 2000, where there were high rates of sexual abuse and violence in the community against children and among family and then, in 2000, they clearly indicated that children are safe now, parents are parenting more, and more families are getting together in the community without alcohol.

In their process—

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

I'd ask you to wrap up quickly.