Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and my indigenous colleagues. Thank you for being here today.
My name is Marlene Orr and I'm speaking to you from Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, the Cree name for Edmonton, Alberta, in Treaty No. 6 territory.
I'm here to share what I've learned about gangs from my many years of working with indigenous offenders in the federal and provincial correctional systems, working in indigenous communities with individuals trying to exit gang life, as well as dealing with challenging behaviours, from gang members who were incarcerated to helping gang members exit that lifestyle. These are some of the examples of the work I've done with indigenous gang members.
I was invited to participate in the Alberta gangs and guns network to link with government, police and practitioners. The first question I asked was why the Edmonton police and the RCMP were not part of the initiative. There was no one who could answer that question.
When I met with a member of the Edmonton Police Service lead team and asked the question, I was told that police are tired of the ineffectiveness of networks like this in the past that failed to make a change, and that these initiatives start up every couple of years but go nowhere. How do you have a guns and gang network without police involvement? This individual was someone I respect highly for really doing a lot of work in understanding indigenous criminality and gang involvement, and for the research he's done in linking historic trauma and victimization to criminality.
How does historic trauma feed into gang activity? The means by which Indian residential school survivors parented children are directly related to how they were conditioned with violence and abuse in the schools. Prior to Indian residential school involvement, parenting and raising children involved many others in the community, who taught the values embedded in natural law: the values of kindness, respect, humility, sharing and self-determination. Indian residential school replaced the nurturing of community with control, violence, abuse, identity shame and loss of connection to family, community and nation. Survivors of Indian residential school parented their children in the only way they were taught—with violence and abuse.
This intergenerational violence, combined with other colonial impacts like community poverty, loss of cultural identity, blatant racism and the lack of opportunity for education and employment, has left indigenous youth powerless and hopeless. Involvement in child welfare systems that separate families, punish children and parents for historic trauma behaviours and continue to traumatize our people leads youth directly from foster care to the prison system.
Normalization of violence through learned behaviour, poverty, whitewashing indigenous history, racism, systemic racism and trauma leave indigenous youth disconnected and feeling oppressed. Gangs prey on this and exploit trauma-based behaviours like alcohol and drug addiction, as well as exploiting the deep longing for cultural identity and a place to belong. Gangs take concepts of historical identity, like warriors, and twist them to their advantage.
In the Prairies, indigenous gangs control the institutions. Even gang members with international links and might know that their status doesn't get them protection in federal institutions in Canada. Paying indigenous gangs to protect them is a usual practice. The overrepresentation of indigenous people in justice and corrections has resulted in a lot of power being centralized in the hands of indigenous gangs in the institutions. The power of sheer numbers of indigenous gang members means strength in the institutions, so as we continue with high incarceration rates of indigenous people, we are contributing to the gang problems in this country.
Young indigenous offenders serving their first federal sentence in penitentiaries are vulnerable to the pressure. They are targeted for membership and are taught how to be more violent and more dangerous. They're taught to expand their criminal skills during incarceration.
Although direct penitentiary placement into indigenous healing lodges run by the indigenous communities is possible, the ratings at first incarceration during remand make that impossible. Therefore, the opportunity to address the impact of historic trauma, build pride in cultural identity, and replace perverted versions of indigenous values proposed by gang members with true teachings—