Honourable members of the committee, thank you for coming to this great province of Alberta.
I am a proud Plains Cree member of the Samson Cree Nation of Hobbema, a community rich in history, culture, ceremonies, and business development.
In the beginning of the year 2005, changes started to happen in our community, with graffiti and tagging of buildings and homes within our townsites. Gunfire became a nightly occurrence. Fear gripped our nation. The gangs had a foothold in our communities. At one point, we had 150 drive-by shootings within a period of six months.
Many of us became concerned about what was happening, about why relatives were threatening and assaulting innocent family members. In 2007, the RCMP estimated that there were between 225 and 250 gang members operating with 13 gang affiliations, with the majority being Indian Posse, Redd Alert, Alberta Warriors, and other local gangs.
In 2008, Asia Saddleback, a young child living in the Samson townsite, was almost killed by a drive-by shooting. This was a pivotal point of change. The Samson chief and council called for an open band meeting, where hundreds of people came to our community hall to hear many people express their anger and to make recommendations as to what should be done.
From there, the council created the Samson task force. They came up with 171 recommendations and then condensed them to 69 in their final report. I wish to table that “Working Together” report with the chair.
In the area of crime and victimization, aboriginal people experience rates of violence and victimization three times higher than those for the non-aboriginal population. During the years of 2005 and 2006, 7,500 aboriginal youth were admitted to custody or probation. For adults, aboriginal people represent 4% of the population in Canada, yet they accounted for 24% of admissions to provincial or territorial custody, 19% of admissions to remand, and 18% to federal custody. These statistics are available from Statistics Canada.
As part of our ongoing initiatives during the last three years, we've had gang experts make presentations to our community. We've heard from people like Michael Chettleburgh, author of the book Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs, and Serge LeClerc, an MLA from Saskatchewan, who was a former street gang member. We had biweekly meetings with the local RCMP detachment and with various stakeholders from the Four Nations and the surrounding community. We had an excellent gang suppression unit with the RCMP, who worked closely with community members to drive out the gang members and drug dealers.
Our group, the Maskwacis Consultative Group, working closely with the RCMP, has created victim services for the Hobbema Four Nations, a family violence unit, and risk and threat assessment for police officers assigned to various schools in Four Nations. We've now secured funding for the Hobbema cadet corps from NCPC. I would like to personally thank our member of Parliament, Blaine Calkins, for working with us in securing some funding for the Hobbema cadets.
We're also in the process of working on a proposal for a gang exit strategy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
In Hobbema, we didn't just report a drug house: we demolished the house. This was done to take action against the drug dealers and gang members, since these homes could not be repaired anyway. Altogether, 26 homes were completely demolished. Today, we've been out of the spotlight, but we continue to be vigilant in our aspirations to make our communities safe with the help of governments, our people, and the RCMP.
I also want to compliment Corrections Canada, under the leadership of Commissioner Don Head, who has supported our local correctional facility, the Pe Sakastew healing centre, in bringing partnerships and stakeholders together, not only to find solutions to the negative issues in our community, but to understand and be educated on the ways of our first nations community. A brochure about our minimum correctional facility is available. One example of this is hosting the RCMP in eight cross-cultural training sessions specific to our local Four Nations on history, language, colonialism, residential schools, the Indian Act, and the ceremonies of our area.
Thank you to Superintendent Darcey Davidson for his vision and initiatives, which have opened the doors to a healthy relationship with the RCMP in our community.
Finally, my humble recommendation is to have crime prevention in the school curriculum in all jurisdictions in Canada. This is the most effective long-term approach when dealing with gangs, drugs, and violence.
Thank you.