We do provide some recommendations in our brief that touch on potential amendments. One of them would be that under “Definitions”, we'd recommend making a proposed section 85.1, where there would be a special definition for indigenous inmates. It would say, “For Indigenous inmates, health care also means mental health, cultural and spiritual care provided by Elders or Indigenous spiritual advisors, at the Indigenous inmate’s discretion.” That would be one example.
Under “Health care obligations”, for proposed section 86.1, we would add under proposed paragraph 86.1(a), which talks about “autonomy”, that health care shall be provided to inmates and this service shall “support the autonomy and the independence of Elders and Indigenous spiritual advisors and their freedom to exercise, without undue influence, their judgment in the care and treatment of Indigenous inmates”.
Those are two examples, and we would also propose a new paragraph (d) in proposed section 86.1, which would say something like, “following an Indigenous inmate’s disclosure of any factors in 79.1(a) to (d), provide the Indigenous inmate culturally appropriate, one-on-one counselling in their preferred language with either a registered mental health care professional, Elder or Indigenous spiritual leader, at the Indigenous inmate’s discretion.”