Status of Women Committee on April 28th, 2010

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Order, please.

Good afternoon.

I want to thank the witnesses for coming today.

As you know, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we're studying violence against aboriginal women. We're looking at the causes, the extent, and the nature of violence against aboriginal women, both on reserve and off reserve. In consultation with aboriginal women, we're seeking to find recommendations and resolutions to deal with the issue.

We have three witnesses today: Michelle Mann, a lawyer and consultant, is here as an individual; Irene Compton is manager of the cultural program of Minwaashin Lodge; and from the National Association of Friendship Centres, we have Conrad Saulis, policy director.

Now, the rule is usually that each of you, because you're from different organizations, will have 10 minutes to present. I'll give you a two-minute warning like this so that you will know that it's going to be time to wrap up. Then we go to a question-and-answer session. When that time comes, I'll explain that to you a little bit differently.

We will start with Ms. Mann.

[Michelle Mann, Lawyer and Consultant, As an Individual]

Good afternoon.

As was mentioned, I am a lawyer. I was called to the Ontario bar in 1996. I practised aboriginal law with both the federal Department of Justice and the Indian Claims Commission of Canada. Since 2002, I have been a consultant and writer dedicated to aboriginal legal and policy issues. I have written many published reports, articles, and book chapters on aboriginal issues.

Today I am going to talk about a subject on which I was published this past fall, which is prostitution law reform as it might impact aboriginal women and girls. The premise of the paper was that despite the gross overrepresentation of aboriginal women among street-level sex trade workers and the murdered and disappeared, discussion of prostitution law reform rarely focuses on how to mitigate their sexual exploitation and their exposure to related routine violence.

Prostitution law reforms must address the situation of the most overrepresented and most vulnerable sex trade workers: aboriginal women.

I'm sure you've already heard quite a bit pertaining to aboriginal women's unequal status in Canadian society and about how that facilitates their increased vulnerability to exploitation and violence. Race and gender discrimination, combined with poverty, ill health, involvement in the sex trade, and other factors, compound that unequal status.

In addition to the extreme vulnerability of all women in the sex trade, women who solicit on the streets are particularly vulnerable. In one Vancouver study, one-third of the women reported that they had been attacked while working the streets.

Discrimination and aboriginal women's inequality in society also contribute to a perception that they are easy targets for violence and exploitation.

Social and economic marginalization, combined with addictions and other factors, have led to aboriginal women and girls being highly overrepresented as sex trade workers. I'll give you some statistics. In Winnipeg, between 70% of sexually exploited youth and 50% of adult sex workers are of aboriginal descent, and this is in a city in which aboriginal people make up approximately 10% of the population. Up to 40% of female and male sexually exploited youth and adults in Vancouver are aboriginal. And aboriginal women constitute at least one-third of the women who disappeared from Vancouver's downtown east side.

The increased risk of violence faced by all street sex workers is often particularly acute for aboriginal women, who are more likely to experience extreme poverty and to engage in substance abuse. Street-level sex workers are generally working for survival and are often drug addicted, sick, and likely to be unwanted in indoor venues. They may have mental health diagnoses, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and low education levels.

Colonization, residential schools, general community breakdown, social and economic marginalization, and a history of colonialist government policies--which I'm sure you've been hearing about--are all contributing factors to the overrepresentation of aboriginal women as sex trade workers. It is inextricably interconnected with the systemic and pervasive nature of aboriginal women's inequality in Canadian society.

Moving on to the legal issues, prostitution is technically legal in Canada, but certain Criminal Code prohibitions effectively create barriers. Communicating, operating a bawdy house, procurement, and living off the avails are all illegal. The result is that effectively the sex trade worker, the pimp, and the client are all criminalized. However, the law in Canada has led to unequal application. Essentially, a two-tiered sex trade has emerged. The more expensive off-street prostitutes operate pretty much with impunity, while those already most vulnerable and marginalized--street-level prostitutes, and often aboriginal women--are routinely arrested. Street prostitution makes up only 5% to 20% of all sex trade activities, yet it accounts for more than 90% of all prostitution-related incidents reported by the police.

While aboriginal women are particularly vulnerable, Canadian police have often failed to provide them with an adequate standard of protection. Police have been viewed as uncaring and inactive in the disappearances of both sex workers and aboriginal women. One significant barrier to improved relations between the police and sex trade workers is the ongoing criminalization of sex trade workers, who may be unwilling to turn to police or social services because they are engaging in criminal activity.

On decriminalization and legalization, both of these approaches are generally touted as a route to greater safety for the sex worker, allowing prostitutes to work indoors in protected environments. It would also increase their access to police, health, and social services. However, countries that have decriminalized and legalized prostitution—for example, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands--have also seen an increase in human trafficking.

In Canada, while the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act have trafficking provisions, the issue of domestic trafficking in aboriginal women and girls is a problem that has barely begun to emerge on the radar. Regardless of the approach taken, some sex workers will continue to be street-based, particularly those who are most disadvantaged. For this reason, New Zealand provides a very interesting example. In 2003, New Zealand decriminalized adult prostitution. In 2007, the Prostitution Law Review Committee carried out a study of the impacts of that 2003 decriminalization. They concluded that impoverished New Zealand aboriginals make up a disproportionate number of prostitutes working the streets. Street-based workers are more likely than indoor-managed or private sex workers to report having been physically assaulted by a client, threatened by a client, held against their will, or raped in the previous 12 months before the study. So this was after decriminalization.

They found that one-tenth of all sex workers worked the street, which was a number comparable to that prior to decriminalization. Of the sample population in the study, one half was New Zealand European, and a third was Maori. The 2007 government evaluation notes that Maori ethnicity among street workers was 64%, despite the fact that they represented only 31% of the total sex trade. They also noted their ongoing exposure to violence and ongoing trepidation in going to police.

So looking at those preliminary results from 2007, we can see that the decriminalization legislation appears to have benefited indoor-managed and private workers, predominantly of New Zealand European descent. I think these results are an important consideration for Canadian prostitution law reform.

Not all women will be marketable for indoor venues. Even under legalization or decriminalization there will be street workers. Given current statistics, we have every reason to believe that aboriginal women would be as vastly overrepresented in this group, as the Maori are.

In comparison, Sweden was the first country to criminalize only the pimps and buyers of sex, rather than sex workers, in 1999. Prostitution is officially seen as sexual abuse and an act of violence against women. Decriminalizing the prostitute facilitates the goal of making it more feasible for women to report bad dates and attacks to police, assuming of course that there is a police will to act and better police-sex worker relationships are forged. In Sweden, some individuals still selling sexual services indicated that they felt more comfortable reporting crimes to the police.

In conclusion, statistics indicate that Canada's prostitution laws and their enforcement may be fostering a sub-class of endangered and criminalized street sex trade workers, and their face is all too often aboriginal. While law alone cannot provide the answer, prostitution law reform discourse in Canada has often been carried out blind to who decriminalization of the trade might benefit and who it might leave behind.

Decriminalization of the prostitute would ostensibly benefit all sex trade workers and be of greatest assistance to the most vulnerable: those working the streets who are most in need of police services and most often convicted. In the end, we must question which legal reforms will service and protect the most disadvantaged in an already marginalized class.

As far as specific recommendations for action, I would clearly recommend decriminalizing the prostitute or sex trade worker; greater emphasis on aboriginal women in the sex trade when discussing law reform; and, although I didn't talk about it too much, police race and cultural sensitization training.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Ms. Mann.

Next is Irene Compton, manager of the cultural program at Minwaashin Lodge, for 10 minutes.

[Irene Compton, Manager, Cultural Program, Minwaashin Lodge]

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. It's an honour to be here as a representative of the aboriginal women and children who are served by Minwaashin Lodge and to give a voice to the countless urban first nations, Métis, and Inuit women who are living with the reality of violence in our community.

I'll be using the time allotted to me to address causes, prevalence, and solutions, as outlined in your mandate, with special emphasis on solutions that can be arrived at through collaboration with aboriginal women.

Violence against women in Canada was first reported in 1993, when Statistics Canada conducted the first dedicated survey on violence against women. It has become understood that violence against women is a complex issue that needs to be examined within the context of a woman's reality. In the case of violence against aboriginal women, the reality is one with deep historical roots that span across time.

An issue paper entitled “Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Girls”, written by the Native Women's Association of Canada, clearly reveals the answer to the questions being asked by this committee. The opening paragraph states, “Systemic violence against Aboriginal women...and girls, their communities and their nations is grounded in colonialism...”. The paper spells out the impact the Indian Act had on aboriginal women and girls. The colonialization and attempt at assimilation through the Indian Act in the residential school system all served to rip apart families, communities, and nations.

The follow-up from these events has been, and continues to be, devastating for all aboriginal people. It is the reason there is such a high incidence of violence perpetrated against aboriginal women.

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Irene, and I'm a first nations Saulteaux woman from the Keeseekoose band in Saskatchewan. I am of the Bear Clan. I'm also an intergenerational survivor of the residential school system. My mother went to residential school from 1926 to 1942. If she had lived a long life, she would be 89. My mother had nine children. Today, there are only two of us left. My youngest sister committed suicide at 20 years old in 1979. Recently two of my sisters died early due to alcoholism and mental illness. Another sibling was murdered on the Yellow Quill highway in Saskatchewan in 1968. How much can a family withstand?

Most of my siblings suffered from alcoholism and depression. My brother and I are the only survivors of our family today. The reason we are still here and healthy is because we were given a chance to go on our healing journeys. For many years I did not speak about my background because it was too painful. It was easier to deny anything ever happened to me. Besides, there was no safe place to share my story and get the help I needed.

I carried that pain until the Creator brought me to Ottawa and I was given the responsibility of co-founding the Aboriginal Women's Support Centre in 1993. It was through working at Minwaashin Lodge that I found my identity and purpose, courage to heal, and ability to give back to my community. All I can say is that it has been a journey of personal and professional growth.

Let's fast forward to today. It has taken 40 years to see that the government is starting to assist organizations like Minwaashin Lodge. I hope to see, in my lifetime, a substantial decrease of unresolved intergenerational trauma in aboriginal women.

My story is a lot like the stories we hear from the women accessing services from Minwaashin Lodge. Most of the women are intergenerational survivors of the residential school system. Some of them don't know their identity and culture because throughout the generations there was shame, so their mothers decided not to teach them their language and ways. Today a lot of those women are reclaiming their heritage and culture through Minwaashin Lodge's culture program.

Many of the women we see are suffering from the impacts of addiction, poverty, unresolved trauma, untreated mental health issues, and low self-esteem. Minwaashin provides programs and services to assist women and their families to determine a life that is free from violence.

We have been operating in Ottawa for 17 years, and we have seen many women go on journeys of healing, taking small steps of bravery and building their confidence to determine good things in their lives. We have a counselling team that supports a lot of women to deal with their unresolved trauma. Additionally, we have a grandmother on staff to help women with traditional support and ceremonies to heal.

We not only assist the women but also their children and teenagers. We have a shelter that took 10 years to achieve sustained funding. It is the only violence against women's shelter in the city of Ottawa that serves first nations, Inuit, and Métis women. We are seeing more women becoming survivors and thrivers. They are doing well. We are also teaching them to be advocates for the prevention of violence and education about it in homes, schools, communities, and workplaces. A lot of them are publicly advocating for change and are speaking out and being heard. We still have a long way to go, though, because there are still a lot of women suffering from the impacts of violence; and the men, especially, are lagging behind in their own healing.

One of the best ways of empowering women is to provide them with healing and cultural identity and then training and education. Many women are sole supporters of their families and need long-term sustainable livelihoods.

Real and lasting solutions to violence against women can and should be provided through aboriginal organizations run by the aboriginal people. Our organization may be a small piece of the puzzle we are trying to solve, but I can tell you that what we do works. That's because all of our work is grounded in the historical understanding of the impacts of colonialization, the Indian Act, and residential schools. We understand the women who come to us for help; we have lived their life experiences and they know and trust us. These women have an internalized shame about their identity and culture that leads them to live lives filled with violence, addiction, and mental illness. They have been lost, disconnected from their spirit, culture, language, family, and community.

When aboriginal women seek out support and ask to learn about themselves, they deserve to be received by women who are like them, who have lived that reality and who understand. It's not enough to send a woman in an airplane to a city far away from her home, to a government office that is foreign and bureaucratic. It is not enough to say, “We are sorry”. Each woman deserves to be welcomed home, and as I said before, I'm hopeful that aboriginal women can be given a chance in life. Aboriginal women need to be respected, loved, and valued in today's society.

We can start in the nation's capital, and here I thank Status of Women Canada for being leaders in the journey towards equality and justice for the grassroots women and their families, and I say meegwetch, and thank you for listening.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Meegwetch.

Now we go to the third witness, the National Association of Friendship Centres, and Conrad Saulis, for 10 minutes, please.

Mr. Saulis.

[Conrad Saulis, Policy Director, National Association of Friendship Centres]

Madam Chairperson and members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, woliwon. Thank you for this opportunity to present to you a briefing on behalf of the National Association of Friendship Centres.

Allow me to begin by acknowledging the Algonquin Nation who first inhabited this land that we are on today. Woliwon. Thank you for welcoming us to your territory.

My name is Conrad Saulis. I am the policy director with the National Association of Friendship Centres. I am a proud Maliseet First Nation citizen born and raised on the Tobique First Nation community in New Brunswick.

The National Association of Friendship Centres is a national, non-profit aboriginal organization that represents the views and concerns of 120 friendship centres and seven provincial-territorial associations across Canada. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for aboriginal peoples in the urban environment by supporting self-determined activities that encourage equal access to and participation in Canadian society and that respect and strengthen the increasing emphasis on aboriginal cultural distinctiveness.

Along with the Department of Canadian Heritage, the National Association of Friendship Centres delivers a cadre of priority federal programs to Canada's urban aboriginal population. From the core funding we receive from Canadian Heritage, our 120 friendship centres, located from coast to coast to coast, generate $114 million in programs and services to urban aboriginal people, in partnership with federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments. I've also provided a map of the locations of our friendship centres across the country.

Annually, we produce a report called “The State of the Friendship Centre Movement”. In our 2009 report we state that friendship centres continue to provide programs to urban aboriginal people in the following areas: culture, family, youth, sports and recreation, language, justice, housing, health, education, employment, economic development, and “other”, which includes services such as food banks. There are a combined total of 1,295 programs offered within friendship centres nationally. As of 2009, the friendship centre movement employs 2,338 people nationally, of which 74% are females. The friendship centre movement takes great pride in its mission to serve urban aboriginal clients, thus the friendship centres keep a record of the number of times this is done. Each time a client accesses a program or a service at a friendship centre, it is referred to as a point of contact. Across Canada, in 2009, there were nearly a million--about 977,000--points of contact.

In 2007, the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres and the Ontario Native Women's Association sponsored a summit. The summit resulted from the ongoing high rates of violence against aboriginal women and the lack of progress in ending this violence, The Ontario Native Women's Association and the OFIFC convened a strategy meeting in 2007, entitled “A Summit to End Violence Against Aboriginal Women”. The intent of the summit was to bring together community leaders to develop a framework for a strategy to end violence against aboriginal women. The summit was a follow-up to a national policy forum on aboriginal women and violence, which was held in Ottawa in March of 2006, hosted by Status of Women Canada.

I just want to read off some of the things that were noted in the final report of the gathering. They say the experience of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse in residential schools meant that large numbers of aboriginal people suffered long-lasting effects of abuse and were denied the opportunity to be exposed to the examples of positive parenting, which was reported in the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples of 1996. This may contribute to higher rates of violence in aboriginal communities across generations.

A study by the Ontario Native Women's Association, entitled “Breaking Free”, found that eight out of ten aboriginal women in Ontario had personally experienced family violence. It is important to note that while not all violence directed at aboriginal women comes from the aboriginal community, violence against aboriginal women must stop, regardless of the type of violence or the origin of the offence. Participants concluded that in order to achieve this, a comprehensive strategy must be developed, supported, advanced, and resourced immediately. Action on this issue is long overdue by all organizations, governments, and society as a whole.

The framework is proposed on a medicine wheel design to provide a continuum of approaches to address the issue, and it will require strategies at many different levels and around different issues to successfully deal with violence. Each aspect may be developed separately but must be integrated and consistent with the overall approach. In order to be successful in this initiative, a community-based, cultural, and holistic healing approach focused on ending violence will have to be established. This cannot be done if all levels of government do not provide supportive policies, legislation, resources, and approaches for it to occur.

The recently released report by the Native Women's Association of Canada, entitled, “What Their Stories Tell Us”, states that not only did aboriginal women report the highest rates of spousal violence in 2004, but they were also significantly more likely than non-aboriginal women to report the most severe and potentially life-threatening forms of violence, including being beaten or choked, having had a gun or a knife used against them, or being sexually assaulted. This happened to 54% of aboriginal women, as compared to 37% of non-aboriginal women.

The percentages for aboriginal women remain unchanged since 1999, as reported in the general social survey of 2004. For non-aboriginal women, at the same time, the percentage who experienced the most serious forms of violence declined from 43% in 1999 to 37% in 2004.

The Native Women's Association report also states that it has been found that mobility among aboriginal women, particularly as they move from small communities to large urban centres, makes them vulnerable to violence. Many young people from the rural communities relocate to urban centres to attend school. Family and community members, as well as other key informants, have shared stories that women and girls raised in rural and isolated communities are often unprepared for the transition to the urban environment.

The evidence collected indicates that the majority of cases occur in urban areas. Of the cases where this information is known, almost 60% of women and girls were murdered in an urban area, 28% of cases occurred in rural areas, and 13% on reserve.

This distribution is even more striking in terms of missing cases. Taking a broad look at the different locations where women and girls have disappeared, it was found that over 70% of women and girls went missing from an urban area, 22% were last seen in a rural area, and 7% disappeared from a reserve.

Going back to the OFIFC, the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, and--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one and a half minutes, Mr. Saulis.

[Conrad Saulis]

Okay.

In 2007 the report states that aboriginal communities and organizations, as well as mainstream organizations and service providers, have long asserted that aboriginal women experience significantly greater rates of violence than non-aboriginal women in Ontario, and that many intersecting factors related to these levels of violence are unique for aboriginal women because they are directly related to such ongoing historical factors as colonialism, the impacts of residential schools, discriminatory provisions under the Indian Act, lack of recognition of Métis identity, and the residual effects of related community trauma, such as mental illness and poverty.

I'll skip forward because I have a few more pages. I'll just jump to my conclusions.

While we can continue to exchange data on the alarming statistics of violence against aboriginal women and girls across Canada, at some point in time we need to stop talking and put things into place, get things done, and seriously work to significantly reduce all forms of violence against aboriginal women and girls.

The NAFC fully supports the ongoing work of the Native Women's Association of Canada and in particular the Sisters in Spirit initiative.

I hope that serious attention will be given to the proposed framework that resulted from the 2007 Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres and Ontario Native Women's Association summit.

The friendship centre movement remains a willing and competent partner in all efforts to combat, prevent, and reduce violence against Canadian aboriginal women and girls.

Thank you. Woliwon.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

My goodness, that was timed to the second. Thank you very much.

We're now going to begin questions and answers. The first round is a seven-minute round for both questions and answers.

We will begin the round with Michelle Simson for the Liberals.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses for taking the time to appear today. Your presentations were extremely interesting and sad.

I'd like to direct my first few questions to Ms. Mann.

I had an opportunity to read the 2005 report that was prepared for the Status of Women Canada, Aboriginal Women: An Issues Backgrounder. This isn't specific to the prostitution issue at this point, but I was very interested in your commentary under the “Matrimonial Real Property on Reserve” section. I would tend to agree that when there's family violence, of course, there is no option. If a marriage breaks down or a relationship breaks down, in a lot of cases, there's no provision for the sharing of the matrimonial home. In a lot of cases, this is an issue that leaves women in very violent situations because of a lack of any alternate housing.

I hope you can shed some light on this. The matrimonial property rights bill, Bill S-4, is working its way through the Senate. On the surface, while it's rather lengthy, it would appear to address this issue. But interestingly, when speaking with colleagues and some aboriginal people, it doesn't seem to enjoy the level of support from the aboriginal community, or at least not all of them, that I would have assumed it would.

Have you had any feedback or is there any information or insight you can offer the committee on what this particular bill lacks? Why does it not do what the aboriginal communities would perhaps like it to do?

[Michelle Mann]

I have looked at the bill. I would be hazarding a guess, but if I recall correctly, as an interim measure, the bill basically provides for provincial legislation in that area to now apply on reserve pending the determination of laws by communities. I think the case is that some communities would probably prefer not to have the provincial laws apply and would rather have time to move to governing that area for themselves. They look at it as a governance issue.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Okay. If that's the case, is ongoing work being done in the communities on the reserves to address this issue in terms of self-government and putting something forward, or is it something that's been lying dormant?

[Michelle Mann]

I don't know about that. In a previous incarnation, I was a “table” lawyer for self-government negotiations. I did administration of justice, aboriginal courts, etc. It's certainly a long process, whether you're looking at a broad self-government agreement or a type of sectoral agreement that deals with certain areas. I don't know where various communities across the country might be in that process.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Is it possible that on some of the reserves, because the governance is primarily male, there could be some resistance to bringing this issue forward to work on in terms of self-governance, as opposed to the government getting involved? Do you think that could be an issue?

[Michelle Mann]

Obviously, I'm aware of it because I work in the field, but it's not really an area in which I've specifically worked. I would say there are probably things in a lot of communities that are pending in terms of urgency and that need to be dealt with. Those things could be prioritized.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Okay. With respect to your actual presentation on decriminalizing prostitution, I was curious about this. In the same 2005 report, you wrote that both on and off the reserve, aboriginal women remain fearful of reporting violence to the police because there's a perception that complaints may not be taken seriously. Based on the testimony of witnesses we've had thus far, I would take it that's still the case.

[Michelle Mann]

As I understand, that's definitely still the case. There are a few projects that I cited in my article on prostitution law reform. There are a few initiatives that have been undertaken by police forces. I think there's Project KARE. I think that's in Edmonton, but I'd have to check. So there are some promising initiatives on the part of police forces, but I think overall it's still the case that a lack of trust exists.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

If, for instance, prostitution were decriminalized, you mentioned in your presentation they'd be more likely to make contact with health care workers, live a healthier lifestyle, and they would have increased police protection. But if that fear is there, will decriminalizing prostitution address that fear in any way? So while strides are being made, it isn't there yet.

[Michelle Mann]

First of all, what I'm advocating is decriminalizing the prostitute, not decriminalizing prostitution.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Okay, right. Sorry.

[Michelle Mann]

But definitely, if you think about a woman, say, having a bad date or a bad experience with someone who should be reported as potentially dangerous, it's hard to go to the police when you're committing a criminal act. You're basically turning yourself in. If you're going to the police after performing an act of prostitution and you want to report violence that occurred in that act, well, you're committing a criminal act. So that's a real barrier to going and making that report.

Yes, of course, it would have to be accompanied by the kinds of measures that we're seeing by some police forces to open up those lines of communication, and, as I said, we are seeing cultural sensitivity training so they can understand how to interact with the aboriginal women.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Well, I can barely hiccup in 30 seconds, so I'll pass the time on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Monsieur Desnoyers.