Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all on the committee and my fellow speakers for sharing this opportunity with me.
I was a elected municipal official for 28 years. I'm the former rural chair of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. In fact, I was the founding chair just a few short years ago. I'm also a councillor with the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation and a commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
In fact, just a little over a week ago, I spoke to the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities against Racism and Discrimination, from a rural and an aboriginal lens. I'd like to share a few statistics from that presentation to highlight the circumstance that I'd like to outline in the few minutes that I have.
First I'll say, from a rural perspective, something you probably already know, which is that economic activity is hard to come by in rural Canada, for the most part, so the loss of a few jobs and a small amount of economic activity that may look minuscule on the grander scale can have a profound effect on our rural communities.
From an aboriginal perspective, some of the statistics that I shared are as follows: 87% of those incarcerated in Saskatchewan are aboriginal women. Across the country, the statistics show that 30% of the women are aboriginal. By the way, that 87% in Saskatchewan is 87% of the women, just for accuracy's sake, but these are startling statistics when you consider that the aboriginal population is actually 4% of the population of Canada. It is a hugely disproportionate share.
I should add that male and youth statistics don't get much better. We could talk at length about the factors behind this, but years of policy, residential schools, and other forms of discrimination are some of the things that have contributed to this disproportionate share that we find in our prisons.
I believe that the honour of the crown is at stake here. We need to look collectively at how we got to this point and collectively how we are going to solve this tragic problem.
If I may, I'm going to quote from a friend of mine, who offers that one aboriginal healing paradigm realizes that the real essence of creation lies in what is going on between things, not merely on individual incidents, because when society has focused its attention solely on incidents, like our present model of justice does, it reduces the wrongdoers' humanity to the level of their wrongdoing and not on restoring relationships, where the focus should be. Prison farm livestock and agriculture teach wrongdoers that they are mutually interdependent on each other. Both have value. Both have worth.
Let me now expand the circle to include all prisoners, regardless of background. My wife worked with prisoners in several federal penitentiaries, and her conclusion is emphatic: prison farms teach prisoners important life skills that prepare them for life as contributors to society.
There are statistics associated with work in similar circumstances, such as community gardens. The U.S. has been referred to. In the city of Los Angeles, the recidivism rate was improved by 50%--and this study is readily available--through the use of community gardens. In a hard-core place like Los Angeles, you hardly think of farming or even gardening, but it worked.
I want to conclude by offering my hope that Parliament will view this issue from what one elder says is our longest journey--from our heads to our hearts. I hope you'll look long and hard at this situation, because we know that the relationship on a farm with living things does something that academic solutions.... Some of the ideas we have for correction, some of the ideas we have for truly changing and preparing an individual to return to society, just simply don't stand up to the value of a prison farm and the impact that a prison farm can have on its people. Yes, I want to stress that this is important from an aboriginal perspective, but it's also important for all prisoners.
I thank you.
Merci. Meegwetch.