Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 24th, 2025

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

That's very impressive.

I was also impressed that—again, towards the end of your opening remarks—you talked about community safety officers and a need for CSO programming around Saskatchewan.

I'm curious as to whether, either through listening in on previous versions of this committee's meetings or directly, you know that Yukon has implemented CSO programs in a number of communities.

What is your networking like with other CSO programs around the country? What is the model? What are the important elements of CSO that you think are really important to reflect?

I'll ask you to be as brief as possible so that I can ask another couple of questions. Thanks.

[Lloyd Yew]

I know of two CSOs in northern Saskatchewan. Both of them lack.... They are hardly trained. They're intimidated because they're in their communities. They can't enforce bylaws there because they're all related and stuff.

When Métis Nation approached us.... We don't belong to that community. We're ex-police officers and we can teach our kids how to be a CSO. Not only that, if TIPI were to get that status, we would be able to have pepper spray. Right now, we only have a baton and handcuffs. There are times when my guys are assaulted and stuff like that. That would be a little something that we could have to protect ourselves.

The training we have already we are passing on to our other guys, just so they can be fully.... We want our guys to start thinking like police officers, just like us, because we're preparing a lot of these kids to get to the next level, which is joining the police forces.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you very much. I would love to go on, but I'm going to ask Ms. Anderson-Pyrz a couple of questions.

Part of the original motion for this study has a clause in it that says, “The study should also look at the obstacles and systemic racism within the justice system and examine what barriers exist that prevent Indigenous people from becoming law enforcement officers.” I think we've partly addressed that throughout the study, but perhaps not fulsomely enough.

You also mentioned calls for justice 9.1 to 9.11. Call 9.6 is for “all police services to establish an independent, special investigation unit for the investigation of incidents of failures to investigate, police misconduct, and all forms of discriminatory practices”, and it goes on. I want to get your reflections, particularly in the area of systemic racism, on how well we're addressing that and how much more we need to do.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

Coming from the lens of an indigenous woman and someone who is leading a lot of the work surrounding gender- and race-based violence against indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit and gender-diverse people, I think a lot of work needs to be done, considering that, as I sit here today, when indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit and gender-diverse people are seeking the support of policing, they're continuously being devalued and are treated with discrimination, disrespect and racist behaviours. It's critical to mention that they devalue the lives of indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit and gender-diverse people by not taking our complaints seriously, not searching for us but disregarding us, saying that we're out partying or are out on a hiatus and will come back later or will show up later.

The national inquiry report, when it was launched in 2019, clearly indicated and demonstrated the systemic issues related to policing. It was problematic from coast to coast to coast, and here we are in 2025. I have my ear to the ground, and I continuously hear that this is still very problematic and we need to address it. We need to ensure that the policy and legislation in place hold the systems, not individual police officers, accountable. When we hold the systems accountable, that's when we will see transformative change and when we as indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit and gender-diverse people in this country will feel safe accessing the resources that are supposed to protect us, not discriminate against us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lemire, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being with us.

In regions like mine, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, communities such as—

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

The translation is not working.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

The clerk will go over and help you. It might be the volume.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you for being with us, Mr. Yew.

In regions like mine, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, we observe that communities like Notre‑Dame‑du‑Nord are reporting an increase in the number of break‑ins, thefts and acts of vandalism. In the last week, we have heard numerous witnesses. They have told us that organized criminal groups are deliberately exploiting gaps in policing, particularly in rural areas and on indigenous reserves that do not have sufficient resources. This is true in Quebec, on the Côte‑Nord and in Ontario. I think it is also true in Manitoba.

Based on your experience in investigation, how does organized crime use these gaps in policing across provincial borders to their advantage?

What trend are you observing when it comes to the mobility of these groups between first nations and neighbouring non-indigenous communities?

[Lloyd Yew]

I'm sorry. There was no translation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

We'll suspend for a moment.

It's working now.

Go ahead, Monsieur Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you for being with us, Mr. Yew.

In regions like mine, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, we observe that communities like Notre‑Dame‑du‑Nord are reporting an increase in the number of break‑ins, thefts and acts of vandalism. In recent weeks, we have heard numerous witnesses. They have told us that organized criminal groups are deliberately exploiting gaps in policing, particularly in rural areas and on indigenous reserves that do not have sufficient resources.

Based on your experience in investigation, how does organized crime use these gaps in policing across provincial borders to their advantage?

What trend are you observing when it comes to the mobility of these groups between first nations and neighbouring non-indigenous communities?

[Lloyd Yew]

There's a lack of policing. Of course, the bad people recognize that. I believe that's one of the main reasons crime is escalating, at least where I'm working in northern Saskatchewan.

There's not enough policing and not enough police presence. Although the police are there at times, back in my day, we didn't have to feed the computer. Nowadays, the police have to feed a computer. They're removed from the streets to work on their computers in the office. Back in the day, we were out patrolling and writing everything. Our visibility was there. Now there's none.

Youth are also seeing this. It's easy to influence a young person. Drug dealers are using these young people because with the Youth Criminal Justice Act, they don't have to do time. The courts are very lenient on stuff like that. That's why the bad guys are using them to transport their drugs and do crimes. We see a lot of crimes happening. Break and enter is happening to support the addictions they have.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

In smaller local communities all across Canada, police services, whether municipal, provincial or federal, may not be capable of acting rapidly, one reason being geographic distances, something you did mention in your presentation.

Based on your experience, is it possible for an indigenous police service to be able to take action in a non-indigenous jurisdiction?

Would express expansion of indigenous police services' mandate enhance people's feeling of peace even outside indigenous communities?

[Lloyd Yew]

I'll give you an example. I'm a guy who was born and raised on a trapline. When I joined the force, it was called Canada's finest. Join the RCMP and see Canada. What would the attraction be if we had an aboriginal secondary police force? I keep asking myself that.

You asked about non-aboriginal communities. I don't see an issue with that if they were to police non-indigenous communities. We have those communities living close. They're side by side. At the same time, we need the police there. We need the federal RCMP to be in these communities.

Right now, I see the interference from politics already doing extra stuff. That's what worries me when it comes down to stuff like that.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Can you also address the importance of communication among the various police forces, whether indigenous or non-indigenous?

I am thinking particularly of communication between the RCMP and indigenous police forces and communication with the Sûreté du Québec and the Ontario Provincial Police.

How could we make actions taken in cases involving organized crime more effective, in both indigenous and non-indigenous communities?

I get the impression that communication needs to be maintained between the various police forces and the various communities.

What do you think?

[Lloyd Yew]

Communication has to go both ways, but at the end of the day, is it really working? We have the marshal program right now in Saskatchewan. I hear both sides...not accepting from both parties. I'm not talking about the whole...just small talk with one individual.

With regard to communication, when I was a police officer, communication about all that information with other city police forces was there. I can't see the whole problem in any of that with regard to an indigenous-led police force communicating and stuff like that. It would be something for all communities to enjoy.

When I first started TIPI, the police didn't know how to take us. We had to keep going until they finally felt comfortable with us. It would be the same thing with that, I guess.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you very much.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you. Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

We'll go to Billy for five minutes, please.

[Billy Morin, Conservative, Edmonton Northwest, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to our guests for coming to speak today.

I'll go to you, Ms. Anderson-Pyrz.

Currently, sentencing judges and parole boards are not required to consider an offender's refusal to disclose the location of their victims' remains in their decisions. Your organization serves a lot of families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and LGBTQ people, and currently, judges are not taking into account when sentencing the disclosure or non-disclosure of remains.

Recently, my colleague Dane Lloyd, the MP for Parkland, introduced Bill C-236, which seeks to support families and honour homicide victims by ensuring that they receive the justice and respect they deserve. It adds stronger penalties to offenders convicted of crimes resulting in death if they refuse to disclose the location of their victims' remains.

As the chair of the National Family and Survivors Circle Inc., do you see this as being beneficial in helping the families you serve?

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

Absolutely. You're looking at families who are impacted by the national crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people. If they know where their loved ones' remains are, they can bring them home and honour them in a ceremony, and they can heal and rebuild their lives around their tragic loss. It's critically important when you look at how it impacts the family and the community.

Giving a perpetrator that much power is also very harmful, considering the crimes they've committed. Their disclosing where the victims are is really important, especially when we know that the large number of indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people who die as a result of homicide in this country.... It's a really critical component of what we're seeking when we look at that journey of justice, because we know that journey of justice is very complex when it comes to indigenous women and girls and two-spirit and gender-diverse people.

We often do not seek or receive the justice within the justice system because we know it's continuously plagued by systemic failures.

[Billy Morin, Conservative, Edmonton Northwest, AB]

Thank you for your answer. I wholeheartedly agree about the closure and the ceremony aspects of having a loved one go back to the spirit world.

Chief Yellowback from Manitoba, there was a lot of talk about industry development up in Treaty 5. You have Manitoba Hydro and Churchill in that area. There's a lot of new contemplated industry and resource extraction going on up there, with economic development opportunities. With those opportunities come some bad characters and actors.

Can you talk about how your communities are still in crisis? You used the word “crisis”, but you're not seeing that meaningful engagement to take care of this crisis, and you're still being pressured to participate in large economic projects.

[Chief Michael Yellowback]

As a collective, we are a part of the Keewatin Tribal Council. The 11 communities declared a state of emergency in March 2023. It's been two and a half years since that declaration and nothing has been done to try to improve the plight of our people with what they're going through in terms of addictions, violence and the drug trafficking that's going on in our communities.

One of the things that's most prevalent in our communities is the lack of police resources. Our community of Manto Sipi has been involved in a pilot project whereby we enacted our intoxicants bylaw. We have the ability to search and give our first nation safety officers enhanced powers and authority as peace officers. However, that is not enough, as our first nation safety officers are not trained like the RCMP.

Recently, I was told that several weeks ago we had a 33-year-old young man who died from a vicious attack by four youths. He succumbed to his injuries four days later. We had another young woman two years ago who passed away due to homicide as well.

Those are the realities we face in our community and the systemic issues that we face when it comes to first nation policing in our communities. It's not acceptable. The nearest detachment that we have to our community is about 60 kilometres away, and sometimes it's very challenging when it's all they have. When the RCMP have to respond to serious matters, sometimes it takes three days to respond—three days. That's not acceptable in the land called Canada.

It's very disturbing, and yet in Canada, whether we have had Conservative governments of the past or the current and past Liberal governments, they throw money to foreign governments for their public safety. That's not right when they cannot, in their own backyard, address the systemic issues of first nation policing in our communities.

It's time that Parliament addresses this serious issue. That's why we need to have a permanent RCMP presence or even our own policing services in our communities. It's time to invest, train and adequately fund those, to help these issues in our community in terms of policing presence.

One thing I'd like to add is that I had one member of Parliament ask about law enforcement officers and why there's a lack of indigenous youth when it comes to law enforcement.

My own son, since he was a little child, dreamed of becoming an RCMP officer, but because of the tedious challenges he had to go through in the process he quit. He just quit. He went to the University of Winnipeg to take the criminal justice program. However, there were some tedious applications that he had to go through, so he just quit pursuing his dream of becoming an RCMP officer. It was too tedious for him.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you very much, Chief, for sharing that.

The time has expired.

Now we'll go to you, Ginette, for your questions for five minutes.