Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank the chair, the co-chairs, and committee members for inviting us to appear today.
I'm very grateful for Mr. Kennedy's words. I'll be speaking to similar issues.
For members who may not be familiar with Pauktuutit, the organization has just celebrated its 30th anniversary. It represents all Inuit women across Canada. There are approximately 55,000 Inuit in Canada. It's a very small number of the total first nations, Inuit, and Métis population in this country, but Inuit are very unique. I'll touch upon that a little bit later.
With regard to the victims bill of rights, we participated in a couple of discussions about the draft legislation at the time. I'm still not aware of any aboriginal-specific outreach or engagement strategy. We participated in broad discussions with individuals and various representative groups, so we have had some input. I don't see a lot of our specific recommendations included in the bill. I don't see anything about population-specific approaches. I don't see anything about remote and isolated communities. There are some where there may be reference to language; I'll speak a little bit more about that.
I think on the surface, a lot of the rights that are included in the bill would only benefit Inuit women and all victims of crime. But in 2011 we did a project with Justice Canada. Culminating our year-long project, we held a workshop. Every year we have an annual general meeting. We bring together Inuit women from across 53 communities in Arctic Canada, so we know that every year we'll have one national in-depth consultation. Sue O'Sullivan joined us at that workshop. It was a very powerful time.
We structured the day; we had a day to talk about issues related to victims and the justice system. Three primary recommendations came from our discussion. Most people are not aware of what information is available, what the rights of victims may be, and the processes around the administration of justice. First, a lot of people do not have basic awareness of their rights and legal proceedings. There is a lot of misunderstanding, such as the crown representing the victim. Fundamentally, there is a need for culturally and geographically relevant information that's in plain language and the necessary dialects of Inuktitut. So I would bring that forward.
We have to be mindful that Inuit communities, like many other northern communities, are served by a circuit courts system. There are all kinds of issues. A lot of harm is caused to victims. You can have a victim and an offender remaining in the same very small community for extended periods of time until the next time the court returns. There are issues around protection. There are issues around privacy and confidentiality. There's a lack of services. I listened to Mr. Kennedy's description of what happens in Calgary; that would be a dream.
Many, if not most, Inuit communities are served by a nursing station. There might be a two-member RCMP detachment. There are sociological issues, such as overcrowded and inadequate housing. Our board of directors had a teleconference last week, and they did discuss our appearance before the committee.
I bring greetings—forgive me—from Rebecca Kudloo, our president. Rebecca lives in Baker Lake, Nunavut, and was not able to be with you today.
When the board met last week, we had just returned from the fourth national aboriginal women's summit. Among other things, there was a meeting with the provinces and territories to talk about the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women. Our board considered that, and with regard to this issue, the Pauktuutit board has put an emphasis on the need to focus on prevention and an action plan to address what we consider to be emergency and crisis conditions in the communities.
I want to bring up the issue of child sexual abuse. The Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut, the north coast of Labrador, have the highest rates of violence in this country. We know that first nations, Inuit, and Métis women experience disproportionately high rates of violence and victimization. For Inuit women, most violence occurs in people's homes. It is family violence. It is abuse by family members.
We've been told anecdotally that there is not a child who has not been touched by child sexual abuse in one form or another. We don't have evidence. It is very difficult to get those numbers. But anecdotally, there's not a child untouched. There is a virtual absence of services—general services in the communities, specialist services, intervention, and postvention. Supports are generally available, a plane ride away or by using some form of telehealth.
I wanted to bring these forward. Last week the board asked that we focus our presentation on the issue of violence against women and all of the related issues around victims of violence.
I know that our time is short today.
Alyssa Flaherty-Spence is a youth board member who is in law school. I know that Alyssa wants to speak to Gladue around sentencing and the housing issue. We've tried to be strategic in bringing forward some key points for consideration. We're available at your convenience—we're a few blocks away—for further discussion.
Thank you.
Alyssa.