Justice Committee on Feb. 18th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

My apologies, Ms. Greenwood, we're a little bit out of time.

We'll go to our next witnesses, and hopefully the remainder of your testimony can come out during questions.

From the National Association of Friendship Centres, we have Mr. Sheppard and Ms. Formsma. Please go ahead.

[Christopher Sheppard, President, National Association of Friendship Centres]

Thank you.

Atelihai, Christopher Sheppard, uvanga.

Good afternoon, committee. I'm Christopher Sheppard, president of the National Association of Friendship Centres. I want to recognize that I'm joining you today from Treaty No. 6 territory and the homeland of the Métis. I'm thankful for the welcome I've received while being a visitor on their land. I am joined by the NAFC executive director, Jocelyn Formsma, and we thank you for the invitation to appear before you today.

The NAFC represents over 100 local friendship centres and PTAs in every province and territory in Canada except Prince Edward Island. Friendship centres are urban indigenous community hubs that provide a wide range of programs and services for demographics of all indigenous people—first nations, Métis, Inuit, urban and 2SLGBTQ+—including programs for babies, families, children, youth, adults and seniors. We offer services in justice, health, violence prevention, housing, homelessness, economic development, employment and training, early learning and child care, education, indigenous languages and culture.

Collectively, we are the largest and most comprehensive urban indigenous service delivery network in Canada. In 2019, 93 friendship centres served approximately 1.4 million first nations, Inuit, Métis and indigenous people across over 1,200 programs in 238 buildings, and employed over 2,700 people.

Bill C-247 may be helpful in some situations for persons experiencing controlling and coercive behaviour. However, on our review of the bill, first nations, Inuit, Métis, urban indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ people will still be reliant on the justice system to provide solutions if they choose to engage with this new section of the Criminal Code, should this bill pass. Further reliance on justice systems potentially subjects indigenous people to existing and continued broader issues of systemic racism barriers. We have numerous examples where indigenous people experience harm from systems in cascading and sometimes deadly ways. The success or accessibility of this potential new section of the Criminal Code is similar to other sections and relies on reporting of incidents and high levels of trust in these systems, which currently does not exist.

Without further action that is targeted at systemic racism in justice, housing, education and health systems, it remains likely that urban indigenous people will not be able to access the benefits that this bill hopes to achieve.

In a recent report on urban indigenous people and public service accessibility in Quebec, a survey was conducted regarding urban indigenous interactions with public services. The report submits that the survey results show that violence is widespread, but that services are greatly under-utilized. It is clear that both an apprehension of the public service system and a lack of familiarity with its services hinder urban indigenous people's access to prevention and intervention services for sexual and domestic violence issues. One participant is quoted as saying, “My ex was beating me and the police didn't believe me.”

Although this study was completed in Quebec, these issues are widespread across Canada and rely on the kind of disaggregated data that we need but currently do not have in order to give a clear picture of the urban indigenous situation. How are indigenous people supposed to report non-overtly violent acts while systemic racism and overt violence against our people persist?

NAFC submits that adequate programming to support urban indigenous people in understanding their rights as well as accessing their rights is crucial. Friendship centres remain a safe place for all indigenous people to access cultural programming and ultimately foster community connection. Friendship centres across Canada are offering wraparound programming every day, which allows victims of abuse to feel safe in disclosing abuse and to feel supported in reporting it to the police.

For accessing legal services and navigating the health system, it is essential that indigenous-specific supports like friendship centres receive adequate funding in order to be able to continually run these programs.

We conducted a literature review of reports and recommendations that they make regarding indigenous justice. The key themes that emerged are these. One is the need to train and educate non-indigenous people on indigenous history, heritage, culture, identity, laws and current realities. However, when reviewing publicly available federal responses, we found little in the way of mandatory or ongoing training on indigenous matters for any national or federal law enforcement entity.

Two is to increase funding to indigenous communities for public programs and organizations that benefit indigenous people. There are few funds available for justice-related programming.

Finally, increase participation of elders within the justice system, increase education and training for indigenous people on the Canadian justice system, and increase and promote proper use of Gladue reports and courts. We found that these activities are very sparsely implemented across the country. Urban indigenous people are continually caught in jurisdictional matters between federal and provincial governments; law enforcement and justice are no different.

The NAFC has offered and continues to offer its perspective, expertise and knowledge of urban indigenous communities and community members to inform the federal government and guide effective remedies, both now and as we continue on this journey.

We look forward to being a part of this conversation and to any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much, Mr. Sheppard.

We'll now go to The Redwood. You'll have five minutes combined.

Ms. Ajibolade and Ms. Dahya, please go ahead.

We can't hear you, Ms. Dahya. There is no sound.

Can you try unplugging your headphones and plugging them back in?

[Raheena Dahya, Lawyer and Family Law Mediator, The Redwood]

Is that [Technical difficulty—Editor]?

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

It's not working.

Maybe we can start with Ms. Ajibolade and then we'll have the IT call you, Ms. Dahya.

Please go ahead.

[Abimbola Ajibolade, Executive Director, The Redwood]

I'm going to switch roles with Raheena. The plan is for her to make the presentation today, and we'll go back and forth with questions that the panel might have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I've stopped your time, so you should be okay.

[Raheena Dahya]

Can everyone hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Yes, that's perfect.

Please go ahead.

[Raheena Dahya]

Thank you for inviting us to participate today.

We wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude to the indigenous peoples upon whose traditional lands we reside.

The Redwood provides programs and services, including shelter services, to support women and children to live and thrive without abuse, homelessness and poverty. We work for social change through learning, collaboration and advocacy.

We are deliberate with our language, which is informed by an anti-oppressive, feminist, trauma-informed and attachment-informed lens. It is compatible with a transformational justice framework. As opposed to the language of “perpetrator” or “abuser”, we refer to these people as people causing harm, or causers-of-harm. We recognize that harm manifests itself in a variety of ways, including torture and murder.

Our principal concern is rooted in ensuring the safety of our clients, their children and the community at large. We operate on a harm-reduction basis, in which we meet concerns by listening to, educating and respecting the wishes of survivors, as they are the experts in their own lives and their own needs.

Coercive control is a serious issue that contributes to the harm against and homicide of women and children. It also contributes to the causers-of-harm's own death by suicide. We are pleased to see the federal government taking this issue seriously, as evidenced by amendments to the Divorce Act and the bill being contemplated today.

Coercive control is the most lethal form of intimate partner violence. You've heard from our colleagues today about it in great detail. However, I wish to draw your attention to coercive control and violence's counterpart, violent resistance. For brevity, I will simply point out that violent resistance is a form of violence that responds to coercive control. It can therefore be seen where coercive control exists, but coercive control is the cause and any criminal measure should acknowledge this.

Criminalization of any form of family violence has its benefits and harms. Among the benefits we recognize that criminalization of any social ill sends a signal to society that the elected government as representatives of this society take the issue seriously and find the conduct morally reprehensible.

What we reportedly hear from our clients is that—

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

A point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Give me one second, Ms. Dahya.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

The interpretation—

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Monsieur Fortin, do you have a point of order?

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I am told that the interpretation is no longer working.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Please go ahead again, Mr. Fortin. Your voice chopped out for me again, and I didn't hear what you said.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

The interpretation was no longer working, but now it seems to be working.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you. I appreciate that, Monsieur Fortin.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Ms. Dahya, can you go ahead? You have two minutes remaining on the clock.

[Raheena Dahya]

What we repeatedly hear from our clients is that they want to see supports for people [Technical difficulty—Editor] who caused them harm so that they can overcome their harmful tendencies. We'll make submissions about this in a written form.

It is our experience that educational and social programs aimed at healthy relationships and safely leaving an unhealthy or violent—

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Madam Chair, it is still not working. There is a problem with the interpretation channel. The audio is constantly cutting in and out.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you for pointing that out, Monsieur Fortin.

Mr. Clerk, can you just double-check to see if the interpretation is coming through? It's coming through for me, so I know the French to English is working.

Are any other members having a similar challenge? I don't see anything.

Can I just get a confirmation from the clerk?

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I can hear now, but there were interruptions when the witness was speaking. We could hear only every other syllable.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

Madam Chair, the interpretation is functioning for me. It's working well.

We're told, though, that the Internet connection with our dear friends from The Redwood is not ideal. That might explain some issues that the interpreters are currently having with the interpretation.

Thank you.