Status of Women Committee on April 21st, 2010

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Especially in a status of women committee that is dealing with issues of women, the sense that, if a woman becomes passionate about something, it is hormonal is something that we as women do not accept.

Ms. Boucher, I will allow you to retract and apologize.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Out of respect for Ms. Demers, whom I like and for whom I have an enormous amount of respect, I withdraw my remarks.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

I accept her apology.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Madame Boucher.

Now we will begin again.

Ms. Rexe, we have two minutes for the answer to the question.

[Kate Rexe]

I'd like to make just a very quick comment.

You asked about why you don't have the evidence, why the standing committee has not been provided with the evidence. I think it has been very clear, and it has been acknowledged by others, even by other groups here at the table, that the Native Women's Association of Canada has been providing the evidence. What's more important is having people start to listen and having government start to listen to what aboriginal women are saying.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Is—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Is there anyone else who wanted to answer that?

I think I saw Ms. Watteyne's hand up.

[Wenda Watteyne]

Maybe I'll just quickly add, in regard to one of our recommendations, that resourcing is one issue, but political will must accompany that. The upcoming aboriginal affairs working group meeting provides an opportunity where violence against women is on the agenda. So we encourage federal representation in that meeting and support for it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The reality of aboriginal women is far from my little village, in Quebec City, but I have met a lot of women's groups. When there are disappearances, murders of aboriginal women, the image projected of aboriginal women is never positive. They are associated with trouble. I think it's also a matter of education.

What can we do, as a committee, to change the image of the population of aboriginal women? We've been hearing about violence against aboriginal women for only a few years now. I think it's very important for the committee to know what the best tools are in order to help you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you. I will take that as a statement, Madame Boucher.

We have time for a third round, but it's going to be a three-minute round. I'm going to have to ensure that everyone is very crisp, otherwise the whole piece will just be a question and the witnesses will not have the opportunity to answer. Really, it's about getting the witnesses to give us the information we're seeking as opposed to us making little speeches.

I would like to start with Ms. Neville, for the Liberals, again.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

I can't do it in three minutes.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Come on, give it a try. You can make an S.O. 31.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you.

There have been so many questions and so many issues raised here today.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation report, which I commend to those of you who have not looked at it, talks about the community determinants of family violence and abuse and it identifies twelve.

I was struck by your comment, Ms. O'Hearn, about the rumours that the $10 million is going into policing and justice. I look at the twelve determinants of family violence and abuse as identified by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and I don't think the justice piece is here, or it is a very small part of it.

So my concern, and I welcome your comments, is in terms of what kind of resources and what kind of supports are needed to address some of the root causes and the root issues that deal with violence against aboriginal women, be it domestic violence or any other form of violence.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

You have about two and a half minutes to answer.

[Tracy O'Hearn]

Thank you.

I appreciate your question. We have to acknowledge racism, institutional racism and racism in our daily lives. There are no nice and neat finite steps that can be taken, but there is a lot that can be done.

For Inuit women, I think it also has to be acknowledged that it was only in the 1950s, really, that people were moved into communities. So in two generations, there have been almost unprecedented changes to lifestyle, parenting, and the imposition of foreign institutions. It takes a long time to undo that and to restore empowerment and self-control.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who wanted to take that question?

Chief Cloud.

[Chief Elizabeth Cloud]

I'll just add that in our community, the Head Start program really does help, working with parents to teach them how to be good parents. We have a very successful Head Start program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

There you go; you did it, Ms. Neville.

Ms. Brown.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, ladies, for being here. It's been quite an education for me. I do have an urban riding, not an aboriginal community in my area. Much of what you have said to me today is new information to me in many ways.

I have a concern about this lack of national data that's being collected. I wonder if there is some way we can address this with our police forces. How can we work with them to gather this data so that it's available? How would that help you in your process going forward?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Watteyne.

[Wenda Watteyne]

I thank you for that question, because I think that's really critical. I don't have a quick answer to that, but I do want to point to some of the challenges we see in identification within the child welfare system, for example, when the system is coming into encounter with Métis children.

I myself did some research within the children's aid societies in Ontario, interviewing them and asking how they are dealing with Métis children and families. The problem is that often they do not know who Métis children are. If they happen to look brown, then they get treated a certain way. If they happen to look white, they probably aren't counted at all as a statistic. So there's no distinction being made when they are coming into contact with that service. I suspect challenges with police forces across Canada have encountered the same thing, which I'm assuming at least partly explains the lack of Métis-specific data in terms of missing women and children.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Would you want the police forces asking the question about origin? Is that counterproductive, or is that something you would want the police to note in their report? I guess my question is this: have many of these things gone unidentified because the police don't know to ask that question? Is it too sensitive a question, or is it something that we want them to be asking?

Again, I put that to all of you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Well, they cannot all answer, because we only have 30 seconds.

Ms. Rexe.