Good morning. I'd like to say meegwetch for asking me to come and present today. I'm the voluntary chair for the Women's Memorial March.
Just so you have a little bit of information about the work we do, this is our fourth year. I myself am a grassroots person. I've been in the grassroots community for the past 20 years, and I've been working diligently at eliminating violence against women, and not just aboriginal women but all women.
For our march, the list of missing and murdered women goes back as far as 1968. The oldest woman we have had was 86 years old. To date we have 216, but as I said earlier, that includes all women, not just aboriginal women.
In my presentation I just want to talk a little bit about the root of violence against women. The way I see it, it's poverty. Poverty comes in many forms. Even when they have access to an income assistance program, there isn't sufficient funding for them. They're set up in lower-income housing in high-risk areas. They're not set up in safer places. So that's a big issue. They're not given sufficient funding.
Some mothers, when they go out and work for minimum wage, could actually get more money from staying at home and being on income assistance, because then things are taken care of. So that's a real gap.
Another thing is that because of a lack of money and because of poverty, many moms do want to support their families and their children, and they end up out on the streets. Being a sex-trade worker is not something you do by choice. Many people beg to differ, but I say they're not there by choice. When they were young, they didn't say, “Oh, someday I want to work on the street”. That's not what happened. They are there because of financial stuff. Yes, some of them are there because of addiction, because that's all part of it. It becomes part of it. People will say, “Oh, well, here's something.” It's a vicious cycle, so it goes on and on.
As for some of the gaps in the justice system, racism is one of the contributing factors with regard to justice in our communities. Because my ear is close to the ground, many people come to me, and they say, “This is what happened to me”, and it is racism. It's not everybody, of course, but it's still there.
It's the same thing with discrimination. We're discriminated against because we're women and because we're aboriginal women.
Here in Winnipeg, we have a task force, but we have noticed a gap. The task at hand is to paint the fence, but how is it going to be painted? Is it just going to be painted in certain spots? My goal is that the fence would be painted in a good way.
There are flaws in there. One of the big issues is communication. Jurisdiction and things like saying, “Oh, well, they're on this side of the road, so we can't deal with it” really need to be dealt with.
We had a case here. In St. Vital there was a man who robbed a 7-Eleven. He left the city of Winnipeg, and Winnipeg Police Service went in to apprehend him in a small community south of Winnipeg. So if they can go out of town to apprehend a criminal in action, why can they not cross that street or cross that road to go find a woman who has either been murdered or is missing? That would be one of my questions.
There are gaps in appropriate victims services. Many of our community members do not know how to access them. They don't know what those are. Yes, the Winnipeg Police Service does have a victims services branch, but they don't know how to access it.
In terms of healing in our families and communities, it starts with me, and it starts with me and my family. I work that way: my family, my community, and now the nation. So that's how healing really happens.
In terms of education, reserve to urban, there need to be supports for people when they move here.
The other thing is that we have programs here in Winnipeg, but they don't fit everybody. For example, if I was being assaulted by somebody and I wanted to go to a shelter, I wouldn't go because my children are over the age of 18, and I'm not going to leave my children at home at risk. So there's a gap right there.