Thank you very much.
Thank you both for your really clear message around the bottom-up and the need for natural healers and helpers to actually be identified as a way forward.
I've been asked by the previous panel to ask about the Human Rights Watch report, “Those Who Take Us Away”. I assume you thought that was coming.
Of the five recommendations in the report to the Government of Canada, three actually relate to policing. First was around the historical relationship between police and indigenous women and girls, the problems with incidents of police misconduct, and the socio-economic marginalization of indigenous women and girls that predispose. The second was around the accountability and the coordination of government bodies charged with preventing and responding to violence; and the third was the need for independent civilian investigations of reported incidents.
I think what we're hearing is that there has been a breakdown of trust. If people don't feel they can come to the police with a situation, then things get worse. If it's not a trusting relationship.... I think we've seen that, even within the status of women committee in terms of harassment. If even women within the force don't feel they can report things or else they will become a target, then how can you expect a young indigenous woman to think it's a safe place to go and tell her story?
We are hearing time and time again about sexism and racism within policing as being a root cause, that it's not a safe place. You've seen this report. There were people who asked why these individuals didn't come forward. Well, we know why they didn't come forward. I guess I'd like to know where you think this committee should go in terms of finding out what the next step should be, and how we get this fixed.
There are people who think the force is 20 years behind the Canadian Forces in terms of sexism and racism. How do we deal with this so we can get the respect back, so that people can feel that at the earliest situation they can report it fairly to the police and have something done about it, instead of saying, “What did you expect?" because it's an indigenous girl or woman?