Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 15th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. DeLaronde, did you want to add something? I see your hand.

[Sandra DeLaronde]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to add that there is a real disparity in access to the Internet, to Wi-Fi. Even this week, as we were dealing with an individual in a situation of violence who did not have access, we had to speak through a third party in order to support her.

As Hilda noted, it becomes really challenging to meet with and support women in communities, whether the community be in a remote and rural area, or, as it is also the case in terms of accessibility, in an urban environment. That needs to be addressed, and it can be addressed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Mr. Battiste, you have less than one minute.

[Jaime Battiste, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

I just want to thank the people who are on right now for their important work.

As a last question regarding women's shelters, what type of relationship do they have? Do they have a collaborative effort where they have a national voice through NWAC, or through any type of institution or advocacy, where they can directly make recommendations to government?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We're beyond the five-minute mark right now. That will take a bit of an answer. Maybe we can come back to that.

We'll go to Mr. Zimmer now, for five minutes.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity.

I have a question for Ms. Omeniho. You brought up some really concerning problems that we had actually seen. I'm the northern affairs critic, so it's part of my responsibility to see what the PPE situation is for the territories and northern Canada. I was very alarmed to see that the national emergency strategic stockpile had somewhat seemed to evaporate.

The problem you brought up is that there was this assumption in many of our communities that there was this stockpile they could rely on, so if they made the request from the stockpile, the masks and the ventilators would arrive. Then, even one of our reserves just north of Fort St. John, where I live, was left scrambling to get hand sanitizer, masks and cleaning supplies from Canadian Tire, Walmart and all these other places, when we were all of the understanding that there was this equipment waiting for us.

You also brought up one thing that affected one of our reserves too. As you mentioned, many of these community members are caregivers for their elders, so not having this equipment really puts them at risk, and the elders as well. I'm really alarmed by that.

I just want you to speak to that, and I guess the next question after the response is, where do we go from here? We certainly don't want to see this happen again.

Go ahead, Ms. Omeniho.

[Melanie Omeniho]

Thank you.

Being Métis, we had a significant issue, because many of the resources that were available through Indigenous Services Canada actually went to the first nation treaty places. I have no idea how they were disbursed or if there were even that many, because there were also crises in the hospitals and things were being collected for there. But it did create a significant issue in our communities.

I know that many of our Métis women throughout western Canada have been busy making masks and sending them out to people, trying to prevent issues, but things like hand sanitizer.... To this day, actually, I don't think people can buy disinfectant wipes, even if they want to. Those things are causing serious issues.

In some of our communities, as you well know, the messages are mixed. We talked about communication earlier. There are mixed messages. Do we isolate or don't we isolate? Are we protected? Some of the northern communities thought that if they isolated and didn't let other people into their communities they would be okay, and we've had massive outbreaks in some of those communities. In fact, we've had young people dying, which is very traumatizing for us as well.

I do support and understand...but we need to be better prepared for anything, moving forward. We are still looking for resources, even thermometers. We can't get thermometers. For people who are at risk and need to take their temperatures to make sure they're okay, those resources are not even available.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

As a follow-up question to what you said, again, I think we are all alarmed by.... There's been some speculation that what was given to China was our complete national emergency strategic stockpile. It was all given away, essentially, and it left us with no supplies for our own people.

That said, we are looking forward and we need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

What would you suggest we do? We talk about the groups as being somewhat separate: the Métis who are not necessarily affiliated to a band and don't have that same sort of governance. We really need your solution to this, because we need to make sure it doesn't happen again. What would be some of the solutions?

I know you only have a few minutes left to say what you're going to say, but can you submit your ideas to my office or to this committee? Often the people who know how to fix it best are the ones who are in the trenches with the problems right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

That's a good suggestion. Thanks, Mr. Zimmer.

Melanie, I'll give you one minute for the response.

[Melanie Omeniho]

We absolutely can make some suggestions, because we have some ideas about how we need to make sure that going forward this never repeats itself again.

We will do a written submission to you to make sure that those things are addressed. We actually have a few other things that we'd like to bring forward, which we just haven't had the opportunity to do today.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I'm happy to help you do that and to be a part of that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much.

We have a five-minute round once again, with Ms. Zann. Go ahead, please.

You're on mute.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Sorry, it takes a while to get that mute thing off.

Hello, everybody. Hello, ladies. It's really good to see all of you. Thank you so much.

Wela'lin, from the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq here in Truro, Nova Scotia, close to Millbrook First Nation.

As you know, we've been going through a terrible time here with a recent awful shooting that, bit by bit, we are finding out had very much to do with somebody who had violent tendencies—domestic violence—on many occasions and was not reported. In the end, it led to a massive shooting where 22 innocent people were killed.

Many of the women I'm working with and speaking with here in the province are very concerned about domestic violence. Many of us have experienced abuse ourselves, and we are well aware and well experienced, unfortunately, with domestic abuse. We feel that for generations now, society has not looked at this issue as an important one. They feel that whatever happens inside the domicile, the house, is the land of the king of the house and the women are part of the chattel.

I would say that it goes right across this country, and to other countries as well.

So, I think it's time that we all worked together on the issue of feminicide. Missing and murdered indigenous women and others is a huge problem. To be honest, I believe that feminicide is a huge problem here in Canada. I think it's time we all worked together on coming up with a solution.

I know that the minister for the status of women, Miryam Monsef, is very keen to help with this, as am I, as is Carolyn Bennett as the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Anything we can do to try to put an end to this other pandemic, as you called it, we're only too willing to do and to listen on if it will make things better and change the way things are done here in Canada.

One thing I noticed in my particular area, Millbrook First Nation, is that they are having trouble accessing funding for women who are escaping violence on reserve. They can tap into the funds for off reserve quite easily, but because the council is actually closed, and the council members are not in council right now, they're having difficulty trying to access that funding.

Lorraine, are you finding that as well across Canada? Is that part of the problem? How can we fix it?

[Lorraine Whitman]

That is a problem. We're finding that the resources and the services that are normally available in our first nations communities aren't available due to the closures. The women are feeling like, “Where do we go from here?” Because of the social distancing, they're not able to....

We have been working at our national level to try to have resiliency centres. We need support there for our resiliency centres for our women.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Right. You've got it.

[Lorraine Whitman]

We would like to have one in every province and territory, because of the importance of the vulnerable women, girls and two-spirited people. That's another area we certainly need to look into, to be able to give the support and the services to the women.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

That's a very good point. Thank you.

If you would like to take a meeting by Zoom or something at some point maybe next week, with me and with the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association, I would be really happy to talk to you about that one here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. Zann, Ms. DeLaronde had her hand up.

We have a minute left. Would you allow Ms. DeLaronde to respond to you?

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Please.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Go ahead.

[Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

On a point of order, Chair, my apologies, but can I just confirm that we're at five-minute times?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

My five minutes shows 3:18, which is within—

[Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

It's been very wonky today. Some people have been under and you're cutting them off. Some people have been way over and have not been cut off.

My thing says five minutes, and I just wanted to bring that to the attention of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I'm sorry about that, but it's very difficult to coordinate everyone while looking at a digital clock, looking at the raised hands, and not wanting to interrupt some answers that are very important. I'm doing the best I can. I would appreciate your tolerance of my ineptitude.

The time is up on this round.

Our next round is two and half minutes, with Ms. Michaud and Ms. Qaqqaq.

Ms. Michaud, from the Bloc, you have two and half minutes.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Good afternoon.

I want to thank the witnesses for joining us.

My question is for you, Ms. Whitman.

At this time, we aren't yet able to properly document the impact of the pandemic. However, based on our experience, we know that this type of crisis increases the level of violence, particularly violence against women. We saw that the Fédération des maisons d'hébergement pour femmes in Quebec is expecting the worst. The number of calls to the SOS domestic violence line has increased by 15% in recent weeks. My constituency is home to two Mi'kmaq communities, Listuguj and Gesgapegiag. In the past 30 years, four indigenous women have been murdered in these communities. We know that violence occurs in these communities, particularly in times of crisis.

Earlier, my Bloc Québécois colleague, Ms. Bérubé, asked what more we could do in this time of crisis, what more could the government do. You also spoke about an immediate investment and a national action plan. You said that you had suggestions for the government, and I'd like to hear them.