Special Committee on Indigenous Women Committee on May 23rd, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to meeting number 5 of the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

I have a point of order. I was wondering, Madam Chair, if we could have a minute of silence for the women who have been missing and murdered since we last met. That would be Cheyenne Fox, Terra Gardner, and Melissa Payne, whose body was found yesterday in the Northwest Territories.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

I thank you for bringing that up, Ms. Bennett. That is a great idea.

We'll proceed to a minute of silence for the women who have gone missing this week.

[A moment of silence observed]

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you.

Welcome to our guests today from Status of Women Canada. Thank you both, Mr. Goupil and Ms. Savoie, for attending our meeting. We're looking forward to your comments.

Please begin.

[Linda Savoie, Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada]

Thank you.

My name is Linda Savoie.

I am the Director General of the Women's Program and Regional Operations at Status of Women Canada. I am joined today by my colleague Sébastien Goupil, Director General, Policy and External Relations. It will be my pleasure to describe to you the work that Status of Women Canada does to end violence against aboriginal women.

Status of Women Canada works to promote and advance equality for women and girls through its focus in three priority areas: ending violence against women and girls; increasing women's economic security and prosperity; and encouraging increased representation of women in leadership and decision-making roles. These three priorities allow Status of Women Canada to take a comprehensive approach to promoting gender equality between men and women across the country, including the needs of diverse groups of women such as aboriginal women and girls.

I would like to speak to three aspects of the work that SWC carries out to help end violence against aboriginal women and girls: first, collaboration with other government departments and levels of government, then the work of the Women's Program, and finally, our support of the Native Women's Association of Canada for the Sisters in Spirit initiative and other projects.

First, as you know, the Government of Canada's approach to the very serious issue of violence against aboriginal women and girls has been to work horizontally across departments, including Justice Canada, Public Safety Canada, and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, along with other federal departments — several of whom have appeared before your committee.

That said, this shared responsibility for addressing violence against aboriginal women and girls also involves other levels of government, aboriginal people, civil society and other stakeholders.

For Status of Women Canada, a collaborative approach is a key strategy. It is the method to resolve the issues facing women and girls in Canada. That is why we work with other federal organizations and with the provinces and territories, on a regular basis.

For example, we collaborate with our colleagues to support the implementation of gender-based analysis or GBA. GBA is a practical tool to facilitate inclusion of gender and other factors in the development of policies and programs in government.

For instance, Status of Women works with the RCMP, looking at their national police training on human trafficking. Our role was to ensure that the vulnerabilities of aboriginal women and girls as well as their perspectives were highlighted in the police course.

SWC also works with partners to develop and exchange knowledge on issues impacting women and girls. For example, we recently developed a publication entitled “Measuring violence against women: statistical trends” with Statistics Canada and our federal, provincial and territorial partners.

This report will be used by stakeholders in many sectors to inform their work. It includes current data on the nature and extent of violence against women in Canada, with a strong focus on aboriginal women. It also addresses violence against women in Canada's territories, where we know rates of violence are high.

The second aspect of our work in addressing violence against aboriginal women and girls takes place through the activities of the women's program. The women's program extends the reach of the work of Status of Women Canada beyond government. It is a $19-million-per-year grants and contributions program that works primarily with non-profit organizations across the country. It funds community-level projects that advance equality between women and men in the economic, social, and democratic life of Canada.

The community-based organizations funded by the women's program bring essential ingredients to the table. They understand their communities and the population they work with, as well as which approaches or strategies will work best locally. For instance, since 2007, some $19 million in funding has been dedicated to projects that help aboriginal women and girls build economic security, gain leadership skills, and address the issues of violence they face. These include a number of projects to help communities plan and implement approaches that address violence against aboriginal women and girls. These projects vary in their location and scope. They address issues that include working with service providers to provide culturally appropriate services to aboriginal women and girls, and supporting communities to develop action plans to address the issue of violence.

The women's program also works collaboratively with other federal departments to fund projects of mutual interest. A number of projects have been co-funded by Status of Women and other federal departments, including Justice and Aboriginal Affairs.

The third aspect of our work in addressing violence against aboriginal women and girls is in an area that this committee has expressed interest in—the Sisters In Spirit initiative. I can provide some information on our financial support to the Native Women's Association of Canada for this and other initiatives.

Specifically, between 2005 and 2010, $5 million was provided through Status of Women Canada to the Native Women's Association to carry out the Sisters In Spirit initiative. This five-year funding relationship aimed to raise awareness of the complex origins and impacts of violence against aboriginal women, to increase understanding of the root causes of this violence, and to identify the measures that will increase the safety of aboriginal women and girls. This work culminated in the release of the report entitled “What Their Stories Tell Us”, which documented the results of the research.

Following the conclusion of this initiative in 2010, funding of over $2.3 million has been approved through the women's program in support of the Native Women's Association's projects, Evidence to Action and Evidence to Action II. These two projects build on the knowledge developed through the Sisters In Spirit initiative by developing tools to strengthen the ability of aboriginal women and girls and their communities to break the cycle of violence.

I hope, Madam Chair, that this information has provided a useful outline of the contribution of Status of Women Canada to the government-wide efforts to reduce and prevent violence against aboriginal women and girls.

I will gladly take your questions at this point.

Merci.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you, Ms. Savoie.

We'll begin our questioning with Ms. Davies for seven minutes.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Chairperson, and my thanks to our two witnesses today from Status of Women Canada.

I'd like to begin by saying that many of the people we've met with informally—family members, activists in the aboriginal community, people who have for decades been involved in this issue of missing and murdered women—tell us that there have already been so many reports, so many recommendations, and that what we really need to focus on is a plan of action. We need to figure out how to move forward. We need to figure out what's going to be done to provide solutions. I'd like to begin with that.

In April of this year, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a draft report of what's called the Universal Periodic Review. In that report, a number of countries called on Canada to develop a national action plan to address the question of violence against indigenous women.

If you go back to 2009, which was the report before this one, you find similar recommendations. In fact, there are recommendations calling on Canada to systematically investigate and collect data on violence against women and to disseminate information. Recommendation 38 talks about a national strategy, comprehensive reporting, and statistical analysis to address root causes of violence, particularly against aboriginal women.

So where is the national action plan? Is there one? If it lies within your department, within Status of Women Canada, who is the lead?

You talked about collaboration, and we certainly heard that at our last meeting, where we had Public Safety, the justice department, and Status of Women Canada as well. We heard a lot about this term “collaboration”. But surely somebody has to be in the lead. Who takes that lead? Where is the national action plan? Is it something we can get hold of to see what these recommendations actually are? Is there a plan for implementing all of the work, all of the studies, all of the recommendations that have been done?

[Linda Savoie]

A national action plan would not be within our purview. Political decisions would have to be taken on whether there should be a national action plan and where it should go. I'm not sure I can offer much more on this issue.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

At the last meeting we heard there was a secretariat—I think that was the word used. We had a number of questions on the work of that secretariat, and it was difficult to determine exactly what work was being undertaken.

I would think that Status of Women Canada would be keenly involved, even if it was not the lead department. Has there been discussion about the need for a national action plan, following up on the work from the UN's Universal Periodic Review?

This is not something that's just jumping out at us now in April. This is something that's been around for years. I think it's time we got on and did it. I think anything you can tell us about the work you engage in or who's looking at this issue as part of your collaboration would be helpful. That's what we're here to try to find out.

[Linda Savoie]

I'm sorry. I misunderstood your question.

We could certainly tell you about our involvement in the family violence initiative, which is what I believe you are referring to. This has been mentioned as the secretariat that is trying to coordinate this issue. We could speak to that point specifically.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

In that case, I want to know if that's a national action plan. These are the recommendations from the universal review. Has anybody talked about a national action plan? Is that part of the secretariat's work?

[Sébastien Goupil, Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada]

The family violence initiative brings together 15 federal partners to discuss how we can jointly advance issues of common interest. I think you've heard that through other witnesses. The family violence initiative's lead department is the Public Health Agency of Canada. We're an active contributor in that forum.

With respect to our role in particular—and you were referring to recommendation 38 of the UPR—we've been playing a very strong role over the past year in helping collect sex-disaggregated data. You may have heard or seen that we launched the publication Women in Canada, for which we get support from 18 departments. It's a very comprehensive compendium of sex-disaggregated data, and we have a chapter specifically to address the issue of aboriginal women. We also more recently completed—through Statistics Canada, some of our federal partners, and the provinces and territories—the update of the publication called Measuring violence against women: statistical trends. The goal of this contribution, if I can speak this way, is really to help inform the work that is taking place in government.

One of the key roles we have as a department is to ensure the government-wide implementation of gender-based analysis, which allows us in a range of fields across our mandate to look specifically at how we can better integrate gender and diversity considerations. We put a lot of focus, in advancing this work, on the specific issues affecting aboriginal women. This is what I would single out as one of the most important contributions from Status of Women Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you.

Now we have Ms. Truppe for seven minutes.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you both for being here.

I know Status of Women Canada does great work in funding projects to end violence against women and girls. You mentioned the $9 million that went to projects that targeted aboriginal women, I believe. I think it was since 2011. Can you give me some examples of what some of these projects were, under the $9 million in spending? What were the projects for, and how did they help aboriginal girls?

[Linda Savoie]

We tend to approach projects in a thematic manner. For instance, we launched a call for proposals for projects specifically addressing the issues in rural and remote communities. As a result of that, we funded a dozen projects within aboriginal communities that are focusing on getting the communities to identify their specific challenges and needs, to bring the stakeholders to the table who need to be part of the solution, to develop an action plan to address either violence or economic challenges of women and girls, and to implement a part of that plan and pilot it. We are giving them opportunities to share what has been learned as a result. That's an example of the types of projects we've been doing.

We have also funded some projects specifically for girls, where aboriginal girls are given leadership training and mentorship opportunities to become more engaged in their communities. Considering the demographics in the aboriginal communities, engaging young girls has become quite a focus for us because they need to be able to identify the barriers to their advancement, or their vulnerabilities in terms of violence.

So those are the types of projects we've been funding, many of them, in the last two years. Over the last six years, it's been an investment of $19 million.

I hope that's helpful.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

In 2012, Status of Women had a call for proposals called “Working Together: Engaging Communities to End Violence Against Women and Girls”. Given the levels of violence faced by aboriginal women, how did we reach the aboriginal communities to let them know about these proposals?

[Linda Savoie]

We work closely with our partners in the federal government, the provincial governments, and the communities to try to make people aware of the funding opportunities that are available. We take advantage particularly of the networks at Aboriginal Affairs to point out where we should be marketing our funding opportunities. We work closely with a number of regional associations that are connected to the aboriginal communities. In that way, we try to provide information as to what funding is available.

Clearly, we are one of many funders, and it's a challenge for communities to sort their way through that.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

You mentioned just a few minutes ago the young age of some of the aboriginal population. I was hoping you could discuss the relevance of the age of an individual and their likelihood of experiencing violence.

[Sébastien Goupil]

If we look at the most recent statistics, for example, if I refer back to Measuring violence against women, there is a clear indication that younger segments of the Canadian population are much more vulnerable to violence. There are limitations with some of the instruments. Right now we don't have information per se for people below I think the age of 15; you can get more detail on that from Statistics Canada.

But exposure to violence, and in particular sexual violence, is very high for the youngest segment of the population. We know from data as well that the aboriginal population is more vulnerable than any other segment in the general population, and that this rate is high in the territories and some of the western provinces.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

With the Stats Canada information you were just talking about, 16 was the youngest age. Is that correct? Is it 15 or 16?

[Sébastien Goupil]

It's 15.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

It was all we had information on. Okay.

Some of the projects that Status of Women funded relating to aboriginal women in the past focused on developing partnerships with communities, organizations, those involved in service delivery, and the police.

Could you just describe the benefits that are gained through the strategy of partnerships?

[Linda Savoie]

Absolutely. The women's program is very focused on working with and supporting collaborations and partnerships. For us, it's a key ingredient of sustainability. It allows communities to take into consideration their own circumstances, identify the recipes that will work for them, and identify and take advantage of the assets they have available to them. For the most part, projects under the women's program are required to have partnerships or bring collaborations to the table to create an action plan that the community can then own and continue to work on once we are no longer there as a funder.

The specific aspects in terms of benefits very much relate to sustainability. We have learned that when it comes to aboriginal communities, it's particularly important, because the communities need to be able to tackle their issues in a culturally appropriate manner. They are the best judges of what will work. So yes, we're very much into collaborations and partnerships.

On another level, in terms of partnerships outside the specific project, when we have projects submitted to us or when we're approached by a community for a project, we usually involve partners such as Aboriginal Affairs, the Department of Justice, Public Safety—those who have maybe more intimate knowledge of that specific community or could be bringing an ingredient to the table in addition to what we're looking at funding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you, Ms. Savoie.

Thank you, Ms. Truppe.

Now for seven minutes we'll go to Madam Bennett.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Thanks very much.

I'll just follow up on my colleague's comment around the call of the UN Human Rights Council for Canada to develop a national action plan to address violence against indigenous women. If there were to be a plan, who would be the lead minister?