Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women Committee on Dec. 5th, 2013

[National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo]

Thank you.

Just to be clear, I think the action plan is absolutely in parallel with the call for the national public commission of inquiry, and I think that must be emphasized, because some may think the national public commission of inquiry is about what's happened over the course of history. This is something we're talking about that's happened in the past. What we're talking about are the two to three on a weekly basis who we learn about who've gone missing. We, like many agencies, including, I'm sure, the friendship centres and others, become involved in supporting families. For us it very often ends up being Charlene, and perhaps she can offer some additional reflections on your question.

I want to emphasize that as part of a response to your question. I think there's some sentiment that this is about what's happened in the past. This is absolutely about what's happening right now, and it's about pulling the veil back and having this country understand the depth of the crisis being faced, and for there to be a shared sense of obligation in this country about what's happening right now.

I know that goes only part way. Maybe I can ask Charlene to touch on the balance of what came out of the action plan, and help reflect the high-level priorities that would flow from it. They're all important.

[Charlene Belleau, Assembly of First Nations]

Thank you, National Chief.

Thank you for the invitation to be here tonight. In coming to the committee, I was thinking that we may be concerned about what's happened in the past, but the national chief is correct that we do respond on a weekly basis to cases of missing or murdered women across the country. We do receive regular reports from police agencies. Even if I were to reflect on the last 30 days, so that you have some sense that this is not a historical problem but a current problem, we have responded to at least two homicides—of a 21-year-old female and a 24-year-old female. One 17-year-old female committed suicide. When you think of the root causes of the suicide, was there violence before? There was one female 14-year-old. Another, a 15-year-old female, was, fortunately, found. One female, a 12-year-old child, has gone missing. Out of those six, one was found. They are from all regions of the country, just so you know they're not specifically from one province. They are from across the country.

Two males, one 16-year-old and one 21-year-old, were also murdered. I've included them, because, to me, our men are suffering as well.

This gives you an idea of the current cases. These are 30 days old, so it's not like these are from 10 or 15 years ago. We have those as well. To me it's important to outline what is so upsetting and shocking. It's that these women are dying very young and with very violent deaths, very violent. The alleged perpetrators in most cases are still out there, because police haven't been able to resolve those cases, so families continue to live in trauma from the loss of their daughters. There are children left behind. In Picton alone, there were 77 children left behind by mothers who were murdered. So the impact is huge across various jurisdictions, I think, when we look at the loss of a mother and the children left behind. I think there is a lot to say about what is going on, but even that snapshot that in 30 days this many women could be murdered, this many women could be missing, this many children are missing shows that our communities are in a crisis and they need the inquiry.

I think that's all I want to cover for now unless there's anything else to add.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Thank you for that, Ms. Belleau.

I think it's important to remind people that this is not historical; this is ongoing. Dr. Olsen Harper and Ms. Brazeau appeared before us, just in the previous hour, and they indicated that when it comes to violence against aboriginal women and girls, it's likely under-reported and that there are far more cases out there than have come forward. Do you think that reflects your experience as well?

[Charlene Belleau]

I come from a community where we've enjoyed at least 30 years of sobriety, and we know that the alcohol and drug abuse were just symptoms of deeper problems. We needed to get to the root causes of why our people were drugging and drinking in the first place.

We had the opportunity over the last 30 years to develop community-based programs that would allow us to create a safe space to deal with violence against women, the sexual abuse that happened in residential schools, and what we in turn perpetrated among each other within the community—the sexual abuse, the incest within our communities. We did those in conjunction with police agencies, with the full support of crown council, with the full support of judges. And we know from that experience that for any one victim, there are 20, 30 offenders. For any one offender, there are 20, 30 victims. So the whole community eventually is involved.

In the healing process that we've set up through our community to deal with that abuse and violence.... If we are to be successful in the work we need to do with violence against women, certainly it starts within our own communities, but also it requires working closely with the various provincial and federal jurisdictions. At the same time, for sure we need the inquiry so that we can uncover and know the full extent and truth of what is happening to our women and our children within our communities, not only in one region but also across the country. The cases I just referred you to—even over the last 30 days—are from every province across the country. It's extensive.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you so much. We appreciate that.

Over to you, Mr. Strahl.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the panellists for being here to share your testimony with us today. It's a difficult issue we're dealing with.

I'm thinking of my constituent, Ernie Crey, a Stó:lo elder who lost his sister in British Columbia in a very high-profile case. It was one of the cases that led to the B.C. Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.

As British Columbians, perhaps we followed that inquiry a little more closely than others. It was on the news all the time. It was a very high-profile commissioner. As I recall, it slowly disintegrated. Certain individuals didn't want to participate, certain groups didn't participate, others halfway through the process didn't find it satisfactory. As a commission of inquiry, that perhaps isn't exactly what was envisioned. There were very high hopes for it. It made its recommendations a year ago almost to the day, and I don't think anyone is any further along the road to reconciliation, to implementing the solutions. You said, “We know what the solutions are,” and perhaps that commission had some solutions revealed.

National Chief, to you as a fellow British Columbian, what did you take out of that inquiry? What was learned from it? I don't know that anyone would look at that process and say, “Boy, that's something we need to replicate at a national level.”

[National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo]

I thank you, Mr. Strahl, not just as a fellow British Columbian, but as one who had close relatives whose remains were found on that farm, I often found myself supporting family to try to find missing individuals from my community in the downtown eastside.

Mr. Cyr articulated the wide range of reasons, which I chose not to go into tonight because I think this committee knows them more than most. To understand the challenge to first nations in trusting the systems that are intended to serve them, be they police, be they government—the kinds of experiences we've had and the one that occurred in the provincial inquiry. I think the first piece is to recognize that we're supporting this on a national scale and it requires a national response and, in our opinion, a strong national lead.

Parliament accepted that and continued the work of this committee, which in many respects was welcome, but it is also a recognition that this is a major issue that needs national attention and national leadership.

The earlier question about the three or four things is extremely challenging. The purpose of the public inquiry is to engage in this on a national scale: the accountability aspect of it and having it led in a way that learns in some respects from other inquiries that have been felt to be less than satisfactory.

Indigenous peoples in this country have experience working in partnership with the federal government. There's every reason we can learn from the good experiences, as well as learn from experiences that have fallen short of what we would have hoped to come out of it.

To a certain extent I was involved in my former work as regional chief for British Columbia. I think the depth of involvement could be something to learn from, the meaningful involvement of the families that are directly impacted, having them help to forge an approach that feels right, that instills us with a sense of trust that we can have these conversations in this country and that there will not be a sense of a power imbalance in the way the work unfurls.

If that is up front and you have that, then I think you have a much better chance of success at sharing responsibility, because that's the theme of what you've heard from the presenters here tonight—a shared sense of responsibility. I think there are elements we can look at, not just the inquiry that happened in B.C., but other inquiries. We can learn from those experiences.

Very clearly, the context of this is tremendously different. We end up working in every region of the country. To pick up on the last question, I think this committee has the opportunity to call for a full national public commission of inquiry.

But the first on the short list of three is to support the development of a national public action plan, where indigenous communities, different organizations, come together to articulate national goals that this committee says is required at this time, to get on with that action, and get on with supporting a nationally developed action plan that brings the voices together.

Second, there needs to be an immediate response to the shelter needs. I think Charlene alluded to this in some respects, the fact that every woman and girl needs to be able to have access to services. Right now that does not exist. With emphasis on the rural, I join in calling for those in the urban program.

Third, to round it out, we need a coordinated focus on prevention. Charlene talked about when these instances come up what's happened in that family already to lead to an increased vulnerability? She has experience, as many do, supporting the healing work that's happening in the communities.

I understand the question, and there's a sense that there's some reticence, that because of what happened in one jurisdiction, it doesn't apply nationally. This absolutely applies nationally. We're looking to you as a committee to call for a full national public commission of inquiry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

We'll move over to you, Ms. Bennett, for seven minutes.

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

Thanks very much.

Thank you to all of you.

Congratulations, firstly, on the conference in Edmonton in April. I thought it was really, really important. Everybody came together, I think, in a united purpose.

Since that time, the action plan, “Updated draft—for full discussion and input”, which I think is before all members of the committee, was released in July 2013. Can you just tell me what the status is since the draft was released? Is there ongoing work? Looking at the ten points my colleague referred to in terms of direct implementation, a lot of it is very specific first nations. How close are we to an action plan if we actually...?

It looks like you've done a lot of the work, as have many others. But from the urban setting and friendship centres to native women to obviously the Inuit specific roles, how would you come together to get that national action plan where we could just get on with the things that you've outlined here?

[National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo]

First of all, there is ongoing work on the framework. A resolution was adopted at our annual general assembly this last summer.

To be clear, in responding to Jean Crowder earlier request that I choose three key steps, they essentially round up to four—the call for the public commission of inquiry. The first of the three is to look to you as a committee to call for a coordinated national action plan.

We did this work, the Assembly of First Nations. We worked with the Native Women's Association of Canada. There are many others, though. You just heard from the friendship centres. As you rightfully reflected, the Métis and the Inuit and many others, grassroots and other organizations, including political, at the regional and other levels, are concerned about this issue and are doing work on this issue.

I think the first piece is to talk about how this committee can call for the recommendation of national objectives, of national goals, and the plans that have been worked on.

In particular, maybe the regional chief wants to talk about that particular session that was held. As portfolio holder, he was responsible for that.

Maybe if it's okay with the chair, then, I'll ask the regional chief to pick up on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Please go ahead.

[Chief Cameron Alexis, Alberta Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you very much members of the committee. I'll be very brief, for the sake of time.

As a former police person, I co-chaired the forum, and the forum was excellent in that we allowed all people who were affected to speak openly about their experiences, historical, current, and ongoing. It was very painful to listen to a lot of the submissions.

I support the National Chief in that the inquiry, action, and programs have to begin immediately. Action has to happen because the situation is going on as we speak. All-inclusive programs have to be delivered from the ground up. In other words, the aboriginal people should be fully immersed and consulted on the situations, from their community right into the urban centres or the municipalities.

As a former police person, I can tell you there is a lot of work to do, and the word “racism” will come out, because I've observed it. I did work in B.C. As a matter of fact, I worked in Chilliwack. I think that's where Mr. Strahl comes from. There are about 15 first nation communities in the valley. A lot of times, you can't even tell which is the nation or which is the municipality.

There are issues of territorial jurisdiction, perhaps, by police services that have to come together in unison.

My elder—who is a former chief and my uncle—often reminded me that the first nation people, the aboriginal people have been studied to death. What we need is action. What we need are programs. I reiterate this as well because I've heard it several times now: it is a Canadian problem. This is not just a first nations or aboriginal problem. This is the responsibility of this country, and we are all included. There are no silos, no territories in terms of programs. It's all-inclusive: education, health, justice, policing. We are all impacted, and we have to work together to address this issue for the future of this country. In my observation, this country is still developing, and we have to develop it collectively.

With that, isniyés. In my language that means thank you. [Witness speaks in his native language] means good, good work. I hope your work has results.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

You have another minute if you would like to use it.

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

Go ahead, Jeff.

[Jeffrey Cyr]

I'll briefly add a few comments.

I very much share the comments of the National Chief and my fellow panellist, Cameron, on shared responsibility and the fundamental nature of this Canadian problem, which we have jointly created over time and can only jointly solve over time. It takes concerted action. It takes concerted leadership from those around this table and around your table.

It does take immediate action, and I would call on your committee to start that action immediately. It seems to me that your mandate is to deal with this issue from a national level. There is enough expertise. Enough people know what's going on.

I don't think the solutions are that far out of reach, but I really would strive towards a collective national goal-setting of some sort. I'm happy to work with the AFN on its action plan to set goals in the urban centres—we're almost always on the same page on these goals, about how to get there—and to give the full support of my organization across this country to help achieve those goals.

I believe it's going to take the empowerment of the communities at the local level, and that empowering can come from the national level.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you so much.

We'll go over to you, Ms. McLeod, for seven minutes.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think as we all come to these meetings we reflect on some of the reasons we're here. I certainly want to note that today is the one-year anniversary of the very tragic murder of 16-year-old CJ Fowler in Kamloops.

That murder has not been solved as of yet. I look at the pictures in the newspaper today of this beautiful girl with a pink hoodie, and know the very violent end she met. I think our hearts are all wanting to work towards solutions, and it's really coming up with the solutions of how we can get to where we need to be. It was December 5 one year ago, so today is a difficult day for her family especially. You look at the pictures, and it's very tragic.

This leads me to the fact that this was in an urban setting. It was a girl visiting from a more remote community. Mr. Cyr indicated that a lot of this is happening in the urban settings. One of the things I've noticed about friendship centres is their incredible ability to do so much with so little. Certainly when I look at the interior friendship centre I see the breadth of what they do.

As the friendship centre, as the person responsible, how do you see your organizations fitting into tackling this problem? You talked earlier about the different levels—the national level, the community level—at which we need to tackle it. Could you talk a little bit about your organization at these different levels?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

Sure. I'll try to be brief, conscious of the time here.

Friendship centres, like first nations, operate on all three levels: a national body, regional bodies, and community-driven bodies. Communities actually create friendship centres. We don't create them. They're created by the communities they're in.

At the national level, while I can participate with my colleagues here at this table, and with you in Ottawa, and around the country, on national goal-setting and those issues that we discussed before, I think real action—a real interaction—will happen at the community level. That's where you find the heart and soul of friendship centres. They're in the communities.

They have partnerships. They know who the community players are. They know who the vulnerable people are and how they can be helped. It's an interaction between police forces, social services, other human services organizations, and education, as you heard in the panel before ours. They all have to come together collectively, which is why I described the Prince Albert hub model as a collective approach that looks at where interventions occur and how people can work together.

While our organization can have impact and effect at each level, real change is going to need the communities to be empowered to do that. National governments and provincial governments empower those communities.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Ms. Belleau, we talked about rural and remote shelters. I have a background in health care and I've worked in rural and remote communities. We always had a struggle with the whole concept of shelters. In urban settings, they're very careful in terms of the anonymity, even in smaller communities of 90,000. I always have worried about shelters, and the role of shelters in small communities, where of course everyone knows where the shelters are, and the necessary safeguards.

Can you talk a little bit about that? I really struggle to think that those are sort of successful support models. Maybe you can share with me why they are a successful support model in a remote community.

[Charlene Belleau]

Good. Thank you.

I want to ask the national chief to respond to the issue on CJ Fowler first, and then I'll follow up with a response on the urban and the first nation community shelters.

[National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo]

Thank you.

We know that the family is going through a ceremony tonight. Charlene and I were with the family up home, where they come from, in the Gitanmaax area just outside of Terrace. This is the reason for the need for this to be such a coordinated effort: the ebb and flow of our peoples between communities, between the urban and the rural settings.

They had asked us a year ago today to be there. I want to acknowledge Matilda and Glen, who are going through that ceremony for their late daughter CJ. We were with them the day they went in to identify the body. It was a year ago today.

To see the incredible array of challenges these people face, including the deep poverty, the issues with child welfare, with education, where we are making every effort to make shifts, changes, and improvements, and with the coordination between jurisdictions on things like policing, and yes, even the efforts in having coroners appreciate, recognize, and support the incredible challenges that first nations face, it's the full spectrum.

This is where we find ourselves and our organizations. In this case, it is Charlene in particular who I hold in such high regard, because she often is the first line of contact with these families on our behalf. Because the structures aren't necessarily there. The Native Women's Association and so many others are doing everything they can. This is where we can't compel you enough to understand the opportunity that you have to gravitate as forcefully, as respectfully, but as strongly as possible to this issue, knowing that we have another family going through ceremony tonight, reliving what happened a year ago.

That is but one of so many experiences that we can draw from—all the more reason why we want to see and encourage you to consider such a strong move.

We wanted to honour the memory of the late CJ. We were in the room with her parents when this moment occurred. We know that they are in ceremony, and we know that if the opportunity gave rise to it this evening, they wanted us to share it. You prompted it. I want to recognize and thank you for doing that.

We're talking about real people right across this entire country, and absolutely this is emotional, so we emote. This is not just an intellectual conversation that is happening, and it should be an emotional one for the country, to say that we have a shared obligation.... Then let's get into having these action plans developed that include questions such as shelters. I was at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection yesterday. I was so moved, impressed, and excited by that work about what's happening to children right now in families and communities. I want to see us move into the space where we talk about the protection of families and children immediately. This is the leadership role that you can play.

On the specific question of shelters, Charlene—

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

I'm going to interrupt you there for a minute, because we are well past Ms. McLeod's time.

I'll let you know, Ms. Ashton, that there are about two minutes left in the meeting, so please go ahead.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Just quickly, I want to thank you very much, and thank you for sharing your emotion on behalf of the families.

Last night I got notice that a young woman, Robin Anne Redhead, 19 years old, from Shamattawa First Nation, one of the most impoverished first nations in Manitoba, went missing in my hometown of Thompson. I think of her family and the community that is hurting. In an urban centre where we struggle to come together to try to offer the support to try to find this family....each one of our communities is affected, and we share that pain with you.

National Chief, I want to ask you to share some final thoughts with us before the time wraps up. Thank you.

[National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo]

Both of my colleagues were just reflecting on the question about shelters and the sense that there aren't enough services that are there and that we need the communities to design the approaches that are going to work. We need an action plan that brings together thoughtful consideration, and the very best knowledgeable people in the area supporting the safety and security of those most vulnerable in any society.

This should be the measure by which we reflect on ourselves as a country. The fact is this is absolute reality. This is a human rights crisis, as groups like Amnesty have called it. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in part of his reflections after he spent some time speaking with communities across the country, has called for a full national public commission of inquiry.

Absolutely, it links to the wide array of challenges we face, whether it's the acknowledgement of our treaties.... We also recognize that it's been a year since Idle No More really captured the attention of the country. First nations on and off reserve, status and non status, Inuit, and Métis stood shoulder to shoulder with average Canadians who joined our people and said this has to change.

We have unprecedented engagement by our peoples from across the country. We have an unprecedented engagement of young people, and they're incredibly inspiring. They want to see us construct a better present, and a better future.

I do believe that the Idle No More movement was led largely by young people.

In the 1960s and 1970s we had only a dozen or so people in post-secondary education. We now have 30,000 educated indigenous people with post-secondary levels of education.

I do believe that Canada is beginning...through the good work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and their work will continue for another year.

We heard from Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of the late Martin Luther King, when she spoke at a rally of 70,000 people marching in Vancouver, standing shoulder to shoulder, side by side with residential school survivors, compelling the country to understand that this is not the time for lip service; this is the time for life service.

This is a moment at which in my view, as I said at the outset, you as a committee hold in this room incredible responsibilities and opportunities to gravitate to the centre of this, to say to Canada, “We are going to be open an accountable”. We're a first-world country, the third-wealthiest recognized country in the world, and we have a tragedy of just incomprehensible levels that has flowed from decades of oppression and policies like that on residential schools. It's time that, as a country, we just acknowledge this, accept shared responsibility for it, and develop an approach that is rightfully led by the federal government. You, as a national committee, have the opportunity to step directly in and take on that leadership.

We will join you with the work we've been doing. In Winnipeg recently the Aboriginal Affairs ministers' working group along with groups like the Inuit and the Métis agreed that we would work on this. You've just heard the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres say they'll do the work.

What we're looking for is leadership from you as a committee.

We see this as also flowing, importantly, from the apology from 2008 by the Prime Minister to my late grandmother and the residential school survivor generations who are still struggling with sharing the stories.

I know this is a struggle for Canada to really reflect on, but it's a moment at which Canada can demonstrate leadership. Indigenous rights are human rights, and for us to shine as a champion of human rights around the world, this work has to happen right here and right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Stella Ambler]

Thank you.

On that note, I'm going to bring the meeting to an end.

Before I do that let me just bring up a little piece of housekeeping for the committee members here at the table with regard to our meeting on Monday with the families. I'd just like to tell you that the agenda for the morning will be as follows. The next time we see each other will be Monday morning, so I invite you to an informal pre-meeting gathering at 10 a.m. in the ante room to the Aboriginal Peoples room.

The meeting itself with families will be held at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Aboriginal Peoples room. That's on the Senate side of Centre Block on Parliament Hill in the House of Commons.

We will have lunch from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. with the families. It will be just an informal, casual lunch where we can continue the conversation over some good food, and then we'll see you all in question period.

I would like to say thank you to the witnesses for being here, for giving us your expertise and your viewpoint, and for adding so much to our study. We really appreciate that you are here and have spent this time with us on a Thursday evening. Thank you so much.

The meeting is adjourned.