Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 15th, 2020

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. This is the only meeting that's dedicated to indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. I hope the Conservatives choose not to, once again, waste their time with their own personal agenda and go astray from what this committee has agreed to do.

I did have a follow-up question; I did not have the time. I would ask him to respect the witnesses and the women here who are sharing their stories of violence and not use this as a time for a political platform.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you.

We'll now move on to a five-minute round. We have Mr. Schmale up first.

Mr. Schmale, please go ahead.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for all your contributions here with us today.

I'll ask my first question, and I'll open it up to whoever wants to respond.

As we all know, health authorities in all three levels of government are encouraging people to stay at home, self-isolate, keep to their immediate family and not intermingle. I think we all agree that this is sound advice, particularly in the opening stages of this outbreak. But as many of you mentioned in your testimony, it didn't take into account the women and children who face domestic abuse. There has been some recognition of this by the federal government. Some of you, in your comments and your testimony, said that more needs to be done.

While money is available, can you tell the committee how exactly this money has translated into safe places for indigenous women and children? Again, I open this up to whoever wants to speak first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Who would like to reply?

Go ahead, Ms. DeLaronde.

[Sandra DeLaronde]

Money has not been made available directly to women and women-led organizations, indigenous-led women's organizations. I think that needs to happen. It hasn't happened yet, but it needs to happen now.

Thank you.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Anyone else before I...?

[Lorraine Whitman]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. Whitman, please go ahead.

[Lorraine Whitman]

I would also like to stress, with this.... I mentioned the children, the women and the elder abuse.

Yes, the funding is so important, and we did sign an accord in 2019 in which the government, under the Crown, said that we would be at the same tables as those of our indigenous men leaders. That has not materialized. When we have gone for funding and have spoken to the ministers, we then have to go to a proposal base, and we still didn't receive any proposal-based funding. We are very resilient women and organizations.

Has a gender-based analysis been done on the funding that is going out to the different organizations? I believe that one should be done on the indigenous women for the funding that's going out.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Mr. Schmale, Ms. Omeniho would like to respond as well.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Okay, and then I have another question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Go ahead, Ms. Omeniho.

[Melanie Omeniho]

One of the issues I'd like to raise is that there has been funding going out to indigenous communities, and I recognize and acknowledge that. Within the Métis nation, there has been a tremendous amount of work done by our Métis nation governing people to try to address some of the issues of COVID-19. I mentioned before the issues of the flooding in our northern communities and the outbreak of COVID-19 in La Loche, in Saskatchewan, where there has been a great deal done.

However, you will note that none of the funding in relation to indigenous people has actually gone towards violence against indigenous women or the protection and safety of women and children.

Therefore, I do support my other indigenous sisters who are on these calls to state that there have been no resources brought forward that are specific to indigenous women in relation to violence, with the exception of a small amount of money that has been given to shelters on reserve, and I think that's very shortsighted in many ways.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Mr. Schmale, you have just about one minute.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Okay, so I'll pivot off.

There was someone who was speaking in answer to the question of my friend from the NDP. I don't know who it was. I was trying to get my camera on. It was my fault.

Whoever that was, would they like to finish their thought?

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

On a point of order, that was Hilda.

Thank you, Jamie.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

You're welcome.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We're right at time now. I'm sorry about that. Perhaps we'll come back to it again.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

I did have one minute. My preamble wasn't that long, was it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Well, I was being generous. Sorry about that. We'll move on. I'm sure we'll have an opportunity to get back to it.

Mr. Battiste, you have five minutes. Please go ahead.

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

Thank you.

First of all, Lorraine, you didn't get a chance to finish your overall comment. Before I start my question, I want to give you the opportunity to finish your statement at the front. I'm sure you were coming to the conclusion, with some recommendations for the government. Would you like to finish that?

[Lorraine Whitman]

Thank you.

I just want to make sure that when we're working within funding and whatever, we're inclusive, as indigenous women, Métis and Inuit. Because we work with those women, we know where we're going, and we need to have that inclusivity with the government.

We're also urging members to put pressure on the government to listen to us and keep its commitment to release the action plan. We are asking the members of this committee to pressure the government to respond to the needs of indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people, and with urgency, as it has been responding to the plight of other Canadians who have also been affected by COVID-19. We have gone through this for hundreds of years. We need that respect, and we need to be able to work and be inclusive with the funding mechanism and a GBA.

Wela'lin, Jaime.

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

I'm from a Mi'kmaw reserve. One of the things I often wonder about is whether the communication is getting to the people who need it, the most vulnerable, when you talk about indigenous women on reserve and indigenous women in the municipalities.

How are we communicating with the people who are the most vulnerable about the options they have in terms of safe places they can go to? Would you be able to give me a sense of how that is communicated? What is the strategy for communicating with those people who are the most vulnerable, whether it be urban or on reserve?

Anyone can answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Go ahead, Hilda.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

I would like to answer that.

Infrastructure for communication in many of our remote, isolated communities is very difficult, when we think of the Internet, cellular service and telephone lines, so it makes it extra difficult to get messaging out there. We have to be creative in how we're able to get messaging out. You build community contacts on the ground that you're dialoguing with in any way you can, because many times, even if there are telephone services, they're interrupted.

You also build meaningful relationships with individuals who have experienced violence. There's a trusting relationship, so there's an open line. Many times, once you have that established relationship, they share with other women and girls, and other individuals who are experiencing violence, that you're a safe place to come to. It's the same in many urban environments, too.

Right now, what's really impacting communication out there is that many services are impacted by COVID-19, with the physical distancing, working remotely and such things. That has created a real challenge, and we need to try to look at how we can deliver the services better.

As an essential worker myself, I'm still out there and I'm still connecting with communities and doing what I can to help support indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people who are experiencing violence or losing a loved one through a homicide. It's very challenging.