Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 15th, 2021

[Bryanna R. Brown]

I think it would be really important to ensure that consultants who are survivors of sexual abuse or human trafficking be consulted and paid for their work and for their traditional knowledge.

It would be very useful to have training programs or presentations to bring more awareness to indigenous peoples of what they are going through with regard to the history of residential schools and intergenerational trauma and how that relates to the sexual abuses and normalization of human trafficking in communities, how that develops within our communities and how we can prevent it.

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

Thank you.

Ms. Blaney.

[Fay Blaney]

I think it's a really long journey to come out of being sexually trafficked and being in prostitution. We really need a comprehensive and feminist exiting service for indigenous women.

Other forms of healing.... I mentioned earlier about women-only detox centres and addiction treatment facilities. I think those kinds of services are really critical for the large numbers of indigenous women who are in survival from prostitution or who are being trafficked.

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

Ms. Blaney, I only have about a minute left. Can you expand on what some of the best practices are around what you called “exiting” the trafficking?

What can we do as the government to set up a way to get people out of that in a safe and secure way and in a way that's respectful of indigenous people in Canada?

[Fay Blaney]

Definitely Manitoba is ahead of us on that. I'm sure Hilda could speak about the developments that are happening there.

In B.C. we have religious—like, Christian—services for women when they want to exit.

I'll defer to Hilda on that to talk a bit about what they're doing in Manitoba.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

I know that in Manitoba there's a huge reach-out to victims who have been trafficked and are survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation for their lived experience, expertise and agency to kind of guide that process and what the process looks like. I know they also focus on what safety means for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation—coming from that lens. We know that some Christian-based supports are not conducive to what safety means to victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation due to beliefs and barriers.

As an example, I can just say that you're forced to stay in a room. Many victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation have been violated in a room with a closed door. You need to have an open space concept where it's a safe haven for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and which is barrier-free, open 24-7 and has readily available resources that are culturally appropriate, such as grandmothers, counselling services and ceremonial practices.

We see that currently happening in Manitoba with the 24-7 safe space that is named after a grandmother who has been very instrumental in supporting many victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. It's Velma's House. It's run by victims who have been trafficked and who have been sexually exploited. They're bringing their lived experience, their expertise and their agency to providing those supports and resources.

Coming from a true place of understanding, removing those judgments and creating that safe space will truly give that individual who is seeking those supports and resources a space to reclaim their spirit and look at other referrals that can help them on their journey of healing. It is keeping them safe away from traffickers, protecting them and giving them dignity throughout the whole process.

It's so critical to ensure that dignity is provided to individuals who are seeking supports and resources, so they're not made to feel that they're a problem and that it is their fault because it is not their fault.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you so much for the response.

Members of the committee, we'll have time for one more intervention from each of the parties.

The Conservatives are first.

Since things have changed around a bit, will it be Gary Vidal? Who will speak next for the Conservatives? Mr. Melillo?

Would you like to go ahead for five minutes, please?

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that.

I appreciate all of our witnesses joining us today.

I'm not sure who to pose this question to, but perhaps to you, Hilda, if you're still on.

In our previous study, we were talking a lot about enforcement on reserves and some of the gaps, challenges and jurisdictional confusion that limit proper enforcement on reserves when it comes to police and even further down throughout the justice system. I'm wondering if you have any comments on how that may impact the prevalence of sex trafficking, if at all, and how working to address those gaps might potentially help address the issue that's at hand today.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

Yes, absolutely.

We have to look at interjurisdictional boundaries and remove those boundaries so that there are timely responses when we're looking at the protection and security of victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, because there are delays created in response times without having any type of interjurisdictional agreements for response, with people saying, “well, that happened in Manitoba so we have to do this”, or “that happened in Ontario and we need to do this”. Meanwhile, the victim continues to be victimized.

We need to have a collaborative approach that's responsive, acts in a very timely manner and is victim centred in order to ensure that the homicides of indigenous women and girls and the continued gender- and race-based violence does not continue. We really need to look at how Canada responds and ensure that those barriers are removed from responding.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you.

Did anybody else want to comment on that before I move on?

I don't see anybody, so now I'll pick up on this. I don't mean to repeat what has already been asked, but it's certainly a very important discussion and worthy of proper examination. We spoke a bit about the factors that are leading people to be in vulnerable situations. I'm wondering—perhaps Hilda or Bryanna or whoever wants to comment—if you could speak in a bit more detail. I know that we've touched on it already, but what are some of the ways that we can better prevent people from getting into the vulnerable situations to begin with?

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

I'll hand it off to Bryanna because I think it's an important space for her to share, based on her lived experience.

Thank you.

[Bryanna R. Brown]

I'm sorry. I'm nervous. Can you please repeat the question?

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

No problem. Thank you.

I'm just wondering if you're able to touch a bit on what the government could do better to help ensure that we are more preventative, more proactive, in ensuring that people do not find themselves in the vulnerable situations that have led to human trafficking, to sex trafficking. What can we do in terms of programming and supports? Where can we fix those gaps to intervene [Technical difficulty—Editor]

[Bryanna R. Brown]

I think it's really important to have indigenous-led direction when creating healing programs for survivors of human trafficking or having anti-human trafficking programs.

I am also on the Indigenous Climate Action National Steering Committee, and I have noticed climate change, the extraction and exploitation of land and natural resources. I have been thinking of how that relates to the exploitation of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women, and environmental injustice and environmental racism and how that causes displacement of indigenous peoples from their communities, and how that causes further culture shock when having to be removed from their indigenous communities to a more non-indigenous community, and being in that culture shock and not having access to traditional food, their traditional territory.

I think having access to land is extremely important. I notice that it seems to be more effective when we have more culturally relevant resources available to clients that are provided by indigenous peoples and Black people, and people of colour as well.

I have created programs and workshops and presentations to bring awareness to the issue of human trafficking, and provided consultation to hospitals and anti-human trafficking organizations to provide input on the survivor leadership and healing programs. I have noticed that there's a large demand for these presentations and bringing more awareness to these issues.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much.

Before I go to Ms. Zann, I see that we've been joined by Diane Redsky.

Diane, we have three more interventions. If there's a moment or two at the end, I will have you make some comments.

Mr. Clerk, would we be able to add a few extra moments at the end to allow Ms. Redsky to give her presentation? Would that be okay?

[The Clerk]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Okay, so we will do that.

Hang on and listen to the conversation.

Now we will go to Ms. Zann for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

First of all, Ms. Brown, what a great job you have done. It seems like you are really on your way.

Education is key. I believe learning how to have our own self-worth, and to get our self-worth back again after we have been through terrible situations of abuse and neglect and violence, is the key. It takes so much out of women, but we need to be there to support each other.

I hope you are getting all the supports that you need. You're very inspiring, and I want to thank you so much for being here today.

I would like to go back to the issue of the $2.2 billion the government is going to be giving for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the next couple of years.

Here in Nova Scotia, we are discussing a resiliency centre. That's what the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association is working on along with me. They feel that this would be a very good way of having a safe space for women who have had intergenerational trauma, residential school trauma, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, LGBTQQIA+. It would be a great safe space for people to heal.

Are any of you also working on these kinds of projects across Canada?

Ms. Blaney, perhaps I will go to you first.

[Fay Blaney]

Yes.

We don't have a resiliency centre; we're participating in the coalition on the murdered and missing. That coalition arose out of the Oppal inquiry, and it's an important voice for us to have to try to articulate our concerns at the national level.

In terms of the dollars that you mentioned, I would agree with Hilda. A guaranteed livable income is really important, because it would allow for individual autonomy and self-sufficiency for indigenous women. The levels of poverty are quite high, and the urban centres are becoming unlivable. Housing is through the roof.

Here in Campbell River, there's so much development and rents are so expensive, they are inaccessible. I think the guaranteed livable income would be one way of addressing indigenous women's inequality.

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

Thank you very much.

You said earlier that “incest is the boot camp for prostitution”. Here in Nova Scotia as well, I've been working with a number of people, including Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarsen, who've gone to the UN and spoken about trafficking. They are working with women who are survivors of being trafficked. I've met a number of them. They say that, yes, in fact there are families where the children have been trained into this terrible industry and then shipped all over the place.

What would you like to say here? How can we deal with this terrible issue?

[Fay Blaney]

The issue of incest is definitely a learned behaviour. We acquired that through our blessed residential schools, which also killed us. I think the behaviour has to be unlearned. We can't say enough how much the residential schools have impacted us. I am a survivor, and there are four generations before me who are all survivors.

Actually, my generation is the first to raise our own children. This whole thing about having a family—deep breath here—is something that we've been denied, denied, denied, denied throughout history. It's very difficult to now suddenly be concerned about protecting our girls, after all we've been through. It's a really complex problem.

I was listening to what the other man was asking about, about what we can do to address this, and I was kind of laughing nervously, because at the beginning I was talking about the poverty, the racism, the misogyny, the child welfare system, the justice system and the health care system. All of those institutions are complicit in oppressing us.

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

It's overwhelming, isn't it? It's almost overwhelming when you....

[Fay Blaney]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Okay. Thank you—

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

I'm sorry to interrupt, Chair. I just have to say that Nora Bernard was a friend of my father's. He started the first nations Mi'kmaq teaching program in Nova Scotia to train Mi'Kmaq students to be teachers, and he was very close to Nora. She did some amazing work for survivors of the residential schools.

My heart goes out to you and to every survivor of that terrible system. It was a terrible system. We need to do everything we can to deal with the trauma associated with that for all the families and the intergenerational families. Please stay in touch.