Status of Women Committee on Jan. 13th, 2011

[Melanie Nimmo]

Yes.

But also, they hold the purse, so to speak. I'm also a huge fan of public service announcements and media kits. We're finding that really successful in some of the anti-gang initiatives that I'm involved in, in terms of involving the community with real, doable best practices. It's building that awareness, because the community has to know about resources that may be available to them. We find that this is an issue, so I think reaching out and opening that to the community is important.

I don't know specific statistics. Maybe Ms. Kehler can attend to that, or my colleague Kelly Gorkoff can. With respect to children who are in foster care and what we do see, let's face it: if a child is being put into foster care, they're not living in an ideal living situation. Very likely, they're living in a situation where there's substance abuse, where there's neglect, and where there's violence. We see a number of issues in fragmented family systems.

As for what's happening in the foster care system, it's not like this child moves into a loving arrangement where they're cared for. They're being bounced from.... The number of placements that these sexually exploited girls go through is mind-boggling. So to think that they can have some sense of self-worth and self-respect, or that anybody gives a damn for them given the circumstances they're experiencing in their home life and their street life.... It's really disconcerting.

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

Thank you.

Anybody else...?

[Kelly Gorkoff]

I'll just add to that. There is no monolithic experience of people who are involved in the sex trade. Of the people I spoke with, some come from loving homes. Some of them come from the foster care system. Sixty-eight percent of my sample had some experience in foster care systems when they were younger, but not all individuals of foster care will definitely take that path. Is it a cause? It's probably one of many factors.

The women I did talk to said, again, that the defining characteristic--and it sounds hokey--is the development of a loving relationship with one or two people who they could trust. So foster care systems and their reinvention, perhaps, clearly.... I don't think that's news to anybody in this room. Clearly that's something that can be fostered.

[A voice]

Cathy, did you want to add anything?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds, Cathy.

[Cathy Denby]

It's estimated that there are about 400 youths being sexually exploited each year in Winnipeg and the majority of those are aboriginal youth in care. The average beginning age of involvement ranges from 11 to 16. Thirty-five percent started at the age of 14 years. Seventy percent to eighty percent of the adults started at the age of 18 or more. Forty-four percent of the youth remain involved for two years or more.

The average length of time in the trade was about 12 years. The range is from two years old to 22 years old exploited in the sex trade, and the youths are comprised of approximately 30% non-aboriginal and 75% aboriginal.

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

Where are those statistics from?

[Cathy Denby]

They're from the.... I'll think about it. The Manitoba strategy....

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

Okay.

[Cathy Denby]

There are a number of pieces that we put together for our presentation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

We've gone over the five minutes, but I just want to suggest that you've heard us asking for statistics and data, so if you have either a link or data, could you send it to the clerk, please? She could distribute it to the committee and we could read it and get some further information. Thank you very much.

Next is Ms. Glover for five.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Thank you.

I'd like to go back to our chiefs again. First of all, I'm always impressed with strong women in aboriginal communities, and we don't have enough of them, so you are here as role models, true role models, for our aboriginal women.

I know you touched on this very briefly, but there's a program being run by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs that is called “Prevent Human Trafficking: Stop the Sexual Exploitation of First Nations Women and Children”. We've focused a little bit on Cathy's program, but this is another program that's funded by the Government of Canada and is being run quite a bit by members of your communities.

I'd like you to share with us how that's helping to reduce aboriginal women's violence. As well, how can we improve it?

[Chief Francine Meeches]

I have not seen any numbers to prove that it has decreased, but the awareness campaign that the AMC provides.... When I got involved with that committee over a year ago, I was really unaware of this whole issue. I had heard about it years ago, but I just didn't know.

What we do as chiefs is we try to express the importance of this campaign at the assemblies. Some males will kind of frown upon that type of discussion. In our communities, it's kind of like that. We try to make them aware of how important this is and how they need to go back to their communities and speak to their membership.

In our community, we had the AMC staff come out and do a presentation. A lot of our people said, “You know what? I never knew this before. I never knew this happened.” So that's really important. If you continue with a program such as that, where you're continuously providing that campaign out there....

I was involved with the walk we had here in the city. It was unbelievable the amount of people who showed up for that. When you have that type of awareness out there, at least it educates people, especially the young people. Those are the ones you have to really target. They, in turn, kind of educate their parents and grandparents.

To me, with AMC coordinating this it's really great, because it goes out to all the 63 first nations in Manitoba.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Thank you.

Do you, Chief Kennedy, have some knowledge of the program and how it's working?

I just want to say welcome to Ms. Simson, who's arrived from out of town. She's another member of Parliament. I just want to welcome her to Winnipeg.

Go ahead, Chief Kennedy.

[Chief Betsy Kennedy]

In terms of the importance of this program, as Chief Meeches was saying, there has to be an awareness program out there. Our children in the communities up north come here, or in many of the urban communities or centres, to go to school. We don't give them information on what could happen out there. All we say is “Be careful”, just “Be careful”.

With this campaign that we've done, this really has made a lot of parents think about what to tell their children, and also to have this done in the schools before they leave. I think that's very important. I know when we do it in our communities, we try to have the parents talk to their children; either that or...because it's very scary out there. Many of the children lost in the north were going to school here, and they're still missing.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Yes.

Thank you.

Do I have a bit more time, Ms. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Excellent.

Thank you so much for the statistic you provided about exploited children. I visited the ICE unit at Winnipeg Police Service about a week ago and I looked at their computer system. It actually showed that people were accessing child pornography within the last 24 hours. I couldn't believe the hits in Winnipeg alone; you could also look at it bigger and bigger.

There's a lack of being able to proactively look at those. Are the statistics you shared with us the actual ones that have been followed up? Because, I'll tell you, on that one screen, I'm sure I saw over 100 to 200 hits just in Winnipeg during one day. Some of those are children who are being exploited and we haven't even started investigations.

So I want you to clarify that about the statistic. Do you know if it's...?

[Cathy Denby]

The stats on this are only for the visible sexual exploitation trade. We're talking straight trade, so we're talking outdoor trade, not indoor. That would be considered indoor trade.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

So this is much bigger--

[Cathy Denby]

Yes--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to move on to Madame Demers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you for allowing me to speak in my own language.

I would like to continue along the same lines as Ms. Shelly Glover, who talked about role models. In my view, that's a very important issue. I also think that aboriginal women play a very important role in putting an end to the violence they are subjected to. You, who are strong accomplished women, have shown strength and courage. You have succeeded in becoming chiefs in your communities. You are living proof of how much today's aboriginal women can accomplish and of how they can share their experiences with others, as it used to be the case, when aboriginal communities followed a matriarchal model.

I wonder whether it is possible to have a mentorship program by calling on aboriginal women who are successful to pass on this power to women so that they can put it to good use and escape the grinding poverty in which they still live today. No one should have to experience such poverty. It is not normal, especially for aboriginal women.

Chief Meeches and Chief Kennedy, what do you think about that?

[Chief Francine Meeches]

I was just thinking of this on the way into Winnipeg this morning. We really need to empower our women. It's really important.

I was talking to Chief Kennedy in the restaurant earlier. We were talking about how strong we have to be as a person, especially the female of the family, because you're the one always worrying about your family. The man doesn't have to worry about the kids, because you're going to take care of them, right? That's just the way it is. We have to be strong regardless of what it is. We have to be the ones to wipe those tears away and we have to be the ones to send that child off to school.

There are males out there who do that; I really have a lot of respect for men who take care of their children, men who are single parents. That's important. The child needs at least one parent, for sure. If you can't have both parents, that one person has to be there.

But to me, there are not enough of these programs and services out there to empower our women. In my community, I try to speak to them, whether it's a cousin or a niece. I try to take them with me when I go somewhere, or to an assembly, for them to see what is actually out there. They need to see that.

Sometimes in our communities, we confine ourselves to that little line that's in our communities. A lot of our people are so comfortable in our communities that they don't see what's outside that. They're so happy to be in their own homes. They're so happy to come home to that house and so happy to wake up in their own home that what's out there is not as important as what's at home. But they also need to see what's out there.

I had the opportunity to leave. I struggled when leaving the reserve. I did. It took me a while. Even as a child, I never saw myself leaving the reserve; I thought I was going to live there forever. That was my dream. But when I did leave, I finally realized that there is more out there.

That's what we need to do in our communities. We need to show that there's more out there and that you can come home afterward and share whatever experiences and education you have and help your community. That's the way I've always seen it.

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

There are 30 seconds left.