Status of Women Committee on April 21st, 2010

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Okay.

This is from What Their Stories Tell Us. Essentially, it talks about the fact that in 88% of the cases of missing and murdered women, children and grandchildren were left behind. What kinds of culturally appropriate support systems are in place to help these vulnerable children? They're very young. Families are trying to cope with a devastating reality. What is there to help make sure these kids are okay? Or what needs to be there?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Does anyone want to take that on?

Ms. Rexe.

[Kate Rexe]

Quickly, I can just say that I don't think there are any supports there. We need to actually work together and have the advice of those who are working in communities and with families to say exactly what needs to be there to help.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Now I'll go into the second round. The second round is a five-minute round, so you have less time for questions and answers.

We'll begin with Ms. Simson from the Liberals.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for appearing today. I'd also like to reiterate what my colleague Ms. McLeod had to say. I don't come from B.C., but I share a sense of shame about an issue that is ongoing and on which we don't appear to be making much progress.

I'd like to address this to any of you who may know the answer. I was compiling some of my notes. Our briefing notes said it was 520 native women. It was actually reported--I had CTV News on in my office--that it was 582 native women, that it had in fact increased by 62 women, over the past ten years.

I'm trying to find out whether any of you has any statistics about the previous ten years, say from 1990 to 2000, to give me some perspective. Has there been an increase in the number of women who are missing or who have been murdered, or is there any progress being made in trying to have this end?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Rexe.

[Kate Rexe]

The numbers specifically refer to the number of new cases identified since the report last year, which was released in April 2009.

Of the 62 cases, 27 are cases from January 2009 to approximately February 2010. There are 27 new cases from the previous 13 or 14 months. The remaining cases of those 62 are actually from information collected that can be identified to relate to previous years, based on archival research and additional information that has been found as we searched through secondary sources, police reports, and so on and so forth.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Is there any statistical data that would indicate to you that there was progress being made or that in fact this issue was becoming a lot more serious?

[Kate Rexe]

For the years 2000 to 2008 we did a trend analysis relating the information on known cases of murdered aboriginal women to homicide rates for all women in Canada. We found that between 2000 and 2008, there was a very similar trend in terms of the homicide trends in Canada.

Essentially, it follows the same trend line over this decade. However, when we're looking at previous decades, what we have identified is that we have very little information, because there is no available information on ethnic identity. But if we were to look at it in terms of inferring what the previous trend might have been, we could probably say that we have underestimated the number of known cases of homicide, back to 1974, by approximately 600 cases.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

So with respect to all your organizations, data has been an issue. Now, in the case of the funding, are you required to produce any type of annual report, not just on what you did with the money but on the results you're seeing? Is there something concrete? It isn't a criticism; I think it's just a lot easier for governments, and I would argue any government, to simply eliminate something if there is no indication to them that it is making progress.

There's a lot of research into root causes. Okay, so now that we've identified them, we have to have a plan and sort of fund the plan to eliminate this, or at least show progress. I realize that it won't happen overnight.

Without that, I think part of the problem is that it's easy to say, well, your mandate has been fulfilled--as they did in the case of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Are you required to produce any reports like that?

[Kate Rexe]

Yes, and we do produce annual reports, often in excess of 300 pages, that are given back to Status of Women.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

But are they results oriented?

[Kate Rexe]

Absolutely.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

All right.

[Kate Rexe]

It's about outcomes, impact, action--

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I'm getting an education.

Would any of the other witnesses like to comment on that?

[Wenda Watteyne, Executive Director, Métis National Council]

I would just like to take the opportunity to address the issue of funding. It is a serious concern for the Métis National Council. Just for the record, currently there is no federal funding dedicated for Métis women.

We don't have the burden of producing reports. That is one good side of it. But it is a serious matter, and the Métis community feels very much that it has a lot of catching up to do.

We do support initiatives like the Sisters In Spirit campaign for raising awareness. This is just very broad awareness. There is still the issue of the lack of disaggregated data. That's very important. The Métis community, the Métis women and children, do not know precisely the extent or nature of violence against Métis women. That's a major issue. Once that is understood--we're even far from being at that place, unfortunately--there will be resources required to do something about it.

Certainly no action can be taken effectively without engaging Métis women and communities. We're a little bit far away from that, but there are some fundamental issues around accessing core funding, from the Métis National Council's perspective.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You've gone over your five minutes.

We'll go to Ms. Wong for the Conservatives.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, ladies, for coming here.

I used to live in Vancouver. Now, of course, I live in Richmond, which I represent. I also used to teach in downtown east side Vancouver. I used to teach adult ESL, so I personally have seen a lot of situations down there. Of course, the Coquitlam pig farm case was really the one that brought the attention of the whole nation to the missing aboriginal women and girls issue. It started to generate awareness in the whole nation.

These are just a few pieces of information. Again, I applaud what Sisters In Spirit has done. They have done an excellent job. Based on their findings, we now have another program called “Evidence to Action”. Based on the findings by Sisters In Spirit, we are going to have real actions following that.

I also maybe have some news about funding for Tracy--may I call you Tracy?--that the Aboriginal Healing support funding has now been transferred to the health ministry. The minister herself is actually from the territories, so that might be something you would like to have access to.

Also, the government is going to introduce a law for the rights of aboriginal women to properties. I think that will be a breakthrough. Economic independence and the economic situation of aboriginal women has been a root cause for that poverty. It has been the root cause for these mishaps.

Can you comment on that? If aboriginal women were given more rights by law, would that help?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Who would like to answer that?

Chief Cloud.

[Chief Elizabeth Cloud]

Thank you very much.

If you're referring to the matrimonial real property law, obviously the only communities that are far ahead with the matrimonial property law are the ones that are involved in land code development and some that already have their first nations land management. From the perspective of what the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is doing, there doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion with the community. The lack of consultation is still there.

In terms of the matrimonial real property law when it does enter into our communities, yes, in some cases it definitely will be giving aboriginal women the right to some of the matrimonial property. That's clear. But in our minds, it will more protect the rights of women who are not eligible for registration in that community. Whether that's a good thing or whether that's a bad thing, you have to take it with a grain of salt.

I know that in my community there would be a few people who would benefit if, let's say, the marriage broke up and then the property attained during the course of that relationship... There are some cases where it will cause a lot of internal family fighting, because in a first nation community anybody who is not a band member cannot ever own property or land in that community.

So there's some good and there's some bad. Definitely there will be a little bit of good in some instances, but it's all going to be individual cases.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Thank you.

My next question goes back to the urban situation. On the downtown east side, unfortunately, some of the missing women were identified as sex workers. Some, unfortunately, were also being affected by drugs there.

In terms of helping those women to get back to the situation where they would not be threatened during their work, I'm looking at prevention. We've said a lot of things about poverty in the territories. I met a couple of representatives from the national Teachers' Federation, and one of the teachers was from the Inuit community. He said that the children do not really want to go to school because of the poverty and also the housing situation. So I'm looking at the prevention side.

Do you have any suggestions regarding helping the downtown east side's missing women or the women who are actually still there but could be missing soon?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 15 seconds within which to answer that question, Ms. Rexe.

[Kate Rexe]

There are very few cases where we have actually collected information whether...women have been involved in the sex trade, but for those who have been, we do think there is a need for changing the discourse around the issue of sex trade work to look at it in terms of human trafficking and promote the rights of women, and particularly the safety of women who are working in street-level prostitution and other forms of trafficking, whether it be the drug trade or human trafficking. They're issues that need to be explored, not just through us but through all people who are working in this area who have a specific expertise.