Evidence of meeting #9 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 services.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
4:35 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Again, I think that was the fourth impediment we identified, that having support at the local level is critical to being able to make sure that these services exist in a satisfactory manner.
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Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
Thank you both for that.
Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Berthelette, Mr. Martire, and Mr. Wheeler, thank you very much for your time today and for your great preparation and sharing your expertise. The information you have left with us will serve us well as we move forward.
Thank you very much.
We'll suspend for about two minutes while we shift around and come right back to work.
Thank you.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
If you take your seats, we'll resume our proceedings.
I thank the witnesses very much for joining us this afternoon.
We now have with us Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, and Ivan Zinger, the executive director and general counsel of that same office. Thank you both for agreeing to come here this afternoon. Please take 10 minutes to speak, and then we'll go into rounds of questioning. You'll see me with my cards as need be.
Thank you.
4:35 p.m.
Howard Sapers Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
Thank you very much, Chairman, and thank you, committee members, for inviting us to appear so early in the session. I really appreciate the opportunity to provide this briefing and answer your questions.
Of course, I am joined by Dr. Zinger, executive director of my office, who will make some remarks within mine. Feel free to direct questions to either of us.
We're going to give you a background briefing on our role, mandate, and priorities. Then, with respect to the specific concerns of this committee, I'll try to highlight some of the gaps and challenges facing indigenous people in federal corrections today and point to some directions for reform.
The Office of the Correctional Investigator was established in 1973 on the recommendation of a commission of inquiry that looked into the bloody five-day riot at Kingston Penitentiary back in 1971. A main finding of the inquiry centred on the lack of an effective and impartial outlet to redress inmate complaints and grievances.
In 1992, the office's mandate was entrenched into legislation—part III of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. It's interesting that the lack of an effective and expeditious grievance process continues to be a number one concern of the office.
Under part III of the CCRA, the office is mandated to conduct investigations into the problems of federal offenders related to decisions, recommendations, acts or omissions of the Correctional Service of Canada.
The office is an oversight, not an advocacy, body. Staff members don't take sides when resolving complaints against the Correctional Service. The office independently investigates legitimate complaints and ensures that federal offenders are treated fairly and in compliance with the legal and policy frameworks. We view corrections through a human rights lens and we make recommendations to the Correctional Service to ensure safe, lawful, and humane correctional practice.
My staff has complete and unfettered access to all federal facilities, CSC documents, staff, and offenders. I consider offender access to my office, including ensuring staff presence and visibility, to be a priority when fulfilling my mandate. Investigative staff regularly visit federal institutions to meet with both offenders and staff, and I can tell you they are a very busy group.
With respect to the issues and concerns of this committee, in January of this year, my office reported that the federal correctional system had sadly achieved an ignominious milestone, with 25% of the inmate population in federal penitentiaries now comprising indigenous people. That percentage rises to more than 35% for federally incarcerated women.
To put these numbers in some perspective, between 2005 and 2015, the federal inmate population grew by about 10%. Over the same period, the aboriginal inmate population increased by more than 50%, while the number of aboriginal women inmates almost doubled, being one of the fastest growing subpopulations in federal custody. My office estimates that indigenous people are incarcerated at a rate seven to ten times higher than the national average.
For young indigenous people, the criminal justice system has become what residential schools were for their parents and grandparents. In 2014-15, aboriginal youth between the ages of 12 and 17 accounted for 33% of all admissions to youth custody in Canada. Indigenous girls accounted for 44% of female youth admitted to custody last year. Unfortunately, many of these people find their way into the adult correctional system.
4:45 p.m.
Dr. Ivan Zinger Executive Director and General Counsel, Office of the Correctional Investigator
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members.
Over the last decade, the Prairies region has led growth in the incarcerated population in federal corrections. It is now the largest region, both in geography and offender population. It also has the largest concentration of the Aboriginal inmate population in federal corrections. Today, 47% of inmates in the Prairies are indigenous. Some institutions in the prairie provinces can be considered “indigenous prisons”.
A history of disadvantage follows indigenous peoples of Canada into prison and often defines their outcomes and experiences there. Indigenous inmates are more likely to be classified as maximum security, spend more time in segregation and serve more of their sentence behind bars compared to non-Aboriginal inmates. Indigenous offenders are far more likely to be detained to warrant expiry or returned to prison for a technical violation of their release conditions.
Aboriginal people under federal sentence tend to be younger, less educated and more likely to present a history of substance of abuse, addictions and mental health concerns. A recent file review of the social histories of indigenous women offenders indicates that over half of the women reporting having attended or having had a family member attend residential school. With respect to childhood events, two-thirds of their parents had substance abuse issues, and 48% of the file sample had been removed from the family home. Almost all of the women's files indicated the existence of previous traumatic experiences, including sexual and/or physical abuse, as well as substance abuse problems.
The latest year-end performance and accountability report for Aboriginal Corrections prepared by the Correctional Service indicates several areas that require improvement in reducing the gap in correctional results and outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders.
For example, in spite of faster entry into correctional programs and higher program completion rates, indigenous offenders are still being released later and revoked much more often than their counterparts.
The percentage of indigenous offenders receiving day or full parole on first release is declining, while the percentage of indigenous offenders released on statutory release is increasing. Last fiscal year, nearly 70% of all indigenous persons released from a federal penitentiary were by statutory release.
Parole hearings and decisions are much more likely to be withdrawn or waived for indigenous offenders.
Challenges continue to exist in the application of Aboriginal social history in significant decisions affecting indigenous offenders, including segregation, security classification, penitentiary placement and return to the community.
4:50 p.m.
Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
In September 2013, my office released an investigative report called “Risky Business”. It looked at the most prolific self-injuring women in federal custody. We found that aboriginal women who engage in chronic self-injury have a distressingly similar profile. Most were a victim of physical or sexual abuse. Most had spent their childhood in group homes and foster care. They were estranged from their families and had little, if any, existing social supports at the time of their incarceration. Many had spent time in a mental health or a psychiatric institution prior to their term in federal custody.
Reflecting the growing seriousness and urgency of the issues facing aboriginal people in federal corrections, in March 2013 my office released “Spirit Matters: Aboriginal People and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. It was tabled as a special report in Parliament, one of only two special reports in the more than 40-year history of my office. The report looked at specific aboriginal provisions of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which were designed to enhance aboriginal community involvement in federal corrections and address the overrepresentation of aboriginal people behind bars. At the time of that act, that overrepresentation was around 17%. It's now 25%.
I can't finish this in the time allotted, but I'll do my best.
More than 20 years after its enactment, we found some troubling gaps between the law and practice. For example, since 1992 only four agreements under this authority had been concluded between the government and aboriginal communities. There were no healing lodges operated by aboriginal communities in northern Canada, Ontario, Atlantic Canada, or British Columbia. We also found limited understanding of aboriginal people's culture and approaches to healing within federal corrections. There are also funding and contractual limitations that impede work and access to elders. Insufficient attention is paid to the urban realities and demographics of aboriginal people in conflict with the law.
The previous government's response to my report and its 10 recommendations was disappointing and not at all responsive to the findings and recommendations of “Spirit Matters”. Overall, while acknowledging the problem, the position taken was largely to defend the status quo. The history of the tabling of this special report and the nature of the response it generated are both quite interesting. I'd be happy to elaborate on its history during the question and answer period, if it's of interest to the members.
The problems I've discussed demand focus and sustained attention, and a real commitment to change and reform. This is why I continue to call for the appointment of a deputy commissioner for aboriginal offenders to ensure an indigenous perspective and presence in correctional decision-making. Movement on this issue, which goes to corporate focus and political direction for federal corrections, is simply long overdue.
Some very important calls to action are contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report that pertains to corrections. First is the call for the elimination of the overrepresentation of aboriginal people and youth in custody; second, the implementation of community sanctions that will provide realistic alternatives to imprisonment for aboriginal offenders; third, the elimination of barriers to the creation of aboriginal healing lodges within the federal correctional system; fourth, the enactment of statutory exemptions from mandatory minimum sentences of imprisonment for aboriginal offenders, particularly those affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; and fifth, reduction in the rate of criminal victimization of aboriginal people.
These are ambitious goals. We should be under no illusions. Confronting and repairing the harm visited upon aboriginal people as a result of colonialism and restoring a relationship among equals will not be easy. Ending the cycles of intergenerational violence and abuse and discrimination that bleed into our prisons will require deliberate and sustained action.
4:55 p.m.
Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
As the commission reminds us, we don't advance as a society by avoiding or ignoring uncomfortable truths about our collective past.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the invitation. I'm sorry this is rushed. There is a lot to say, and I look forward to your questions.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
Thank you for that, and I hope you'll agree to leave behind a copy of your notes for our records. That'll be wonderful. I'm sure what you didn't say will come out in the questioning.
The first round of questions is seven minutes, and the first question goes to Don Rusnak, please.
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Liberal
Don Rusnak Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
The issues in our correctional institutions across this country are just deplorable. It's really sad, the correlation between the last 10-year increase in the aboriginal prison population and the cuts to funding of indigenous programs by the previous government. This has been troubling to me.
In a number of your reports you made a number of recommendations. One of the recommendations was for a deputy commissioner of aboriginal corrections. Your reports have consistently called for culturally appropriate programming and staff training.
To your knowledge, what training is currently provided to the correctional service officers to assist with their interaction and dealings with indigenous offenders?
4:55 p.m.
Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
Of course, the Correctional Service of Canada is best placed to directly answer the question about their training. I can tell you that they do make training available.
If training were the answer in and of itself, it would be easy to tackle. It's sustained learnings from that training and applying them day-to-day operationally that really is the issue, and that gets to the question of cultural awareness and cultural competency. It's more than just what the training syllabus is. This leads directly to the recommendation for having a senior executive at the executive committee table making sure that there is sustained focus and direction and accountability for that happening.
When it comes to aboriginal-specific programming, I can tell you again that the Correctional Service of Canada has developed some absolutely excellent, culturally appropriate aboriginal correctional intervention programs.
The problem is that 70% of aboriginal offenders who took any programs last year didn't take those programs. They took the general programs. Only about 30%, generally speaking, of the programs undertaken by aboriginal men and women are those culturally appropriate programs, and even that's being undermined to some extent by a new program delivery model that has been rolling out over the last number of years.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Don Rusnak Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
As a follow-up to that, why aren't they taking the culturally appropriate programming? Is it because of a push by correctional staff to make sure they don't get it, or is it something else?
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Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
There are a number of reasons. One has to do with the availability of programs and competent program delivery staff to deliver those programs within the time frame of sentence, so that the offender is given access to those prescribed programs.
This new, integrated correctional program model that I spoke about is an attempt to address some of those roadblocks and issues. Part of it also has to do with where the offender is housed. What we saw over the last number of years with all the construction projects at the CSC sites were a lot of involuntary transfers across the country, with people's periods of custody being disrupted.
It could be that over the next five years those numbers will be less dramatic in terms of the misalignment of program need and program capacity. I have some degree of optimism about that, but certainly if we simply look at the past, if we look backwards, you'd question that.
5 p.m.
Executive Director and General Counsel, Office of the Correctional Investigator
If I can just add to Mr. Sapers' comments, part of the issue is also where the programs are being delivered. The best programs that are the most relevant for aboriginal people are being delivered in minimum security institutions. Only 10% of the aboriginal inmate population resides in minimum security institutions.
The healing lodges, which are very good environments to deliver an effective program, are only capturing 10% of the aboriginal population.
Maximum security prisons, unfortunately, do not the capacity to deliver aboriginal-specific programming.
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Liberal
Don Rusnak Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I have a little bit of experience with aboriginal offenders. I was a former prosecutor and defence lawyer in Thunder Bay, and a prosecutor in Alberta. I know that you can't disconnect the issues.
We have huge problems in indigenous communities, and you touched on some of them: the legacy of the residential school program, the lack of or low funding of education, and isolation all across this country.
Getting back to the culturally appropriate program and staff training, in your view, are the current training measures adequate within the penitentiaries and federal institutions?
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Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
The most simple answer is no, which is why, even though training in and of itself won't solve the problem, training is part of cultural change. The provision of training is an expression of leadership and commitment.
As I say, the training has to be sustained. It can't just be during correctional officer intake. It can't just be an online refresher course. It's not enough to simply say, “Well, we have aboriginal cultural awareness.” That would be like saying, “We have European cultural awareness.” There are lots of indigenous cultural practices that people would need to become familiar with in different regions of the country, as coastal, northern, prairie, and central first nations have different traditions that need to be respected.
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Executive Director and General Counsel, Office of the Correctional Investigator
If I can add another element to this, the Correctional Service Canada exceeds the aboriginal employment equity requirement. About 10% of the CSC's workforce is aboriginal. Unfortunately, we have penitentiaries where the inmate population is 50% or 60% aboriginal, and there's an issue about how to connect with aboriginal people if your workforce isn't as representative as possible.
The other issue we have made note of is that the aboriginal people within Correctional Service Canada are not equally represented at all levels of the organization in positions of leadership and management. That also, I think, is something that should be addressed.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Yurdiga Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
This is a very important topic, and we have to do better. We're all here and want our correctional system to be a lot more efficient and a lot more sensitive to our indigenous people's needs.
I understand that your office acts or serves an ombudsman role. Does your department also deal with provincial issues, provincial prisons, or are you just mandated for federal correctional institutes?
5:05 p.m.
Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
It's for federal corrections only. Thank you for the question.
Provincial ombudsman offices typically handle a fairly high volume of complaints from federal and territorial jails, and remand centres.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Yurdiga Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
Obviously you report to some level of government. Is it multi-reporting, or is it just reports to the government, or to the justice minister? How does that work?
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Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
We're mandated under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to produce an annual report that's given to the Minister of Public Safety in June of every year. The minister is then required by law to table it within 30 sitting days of Parliament. All members of Parliament and senators receive our report. We also have the ability to issue special reports when, in my opinion, the issue is so urgent that it cannot wait for an annual report, which is why we tabled “Spirit Matters” in Parliament. We also issue public interest reports, typically based on our systemic or thematic investigations. You will see reports that will be dealt with in public that won't necessarily be tabled in Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Yurdiga Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
How are the cultural and traditional beliefs incorporated into the Office of the Correctional Investigator's mandate? Is there a document? Does it migrate into programming in the jails or prisons?
5:05 p.m.
Correctional Investigator of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator
I think I may have missed a key word in your question. Did you talk about indigenous policing?