Evidence of meeting #49 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.
January 18th, 2011 / 1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Dona Cadman Conservative Surrey North, BC
Thank you very much.
I would like to know who is the main abuser of aboriginal women. Is it aboriginal men? Is it white men? Is it aboriginal women? Who?
Conservative
Dona Cadman Conservative Surrey North, BC
I think you also have to get over it a bit, in a way. Yes, you were wronged, very wronged. People have apologized. What more do you want?
Co-manager, Aboriginal Women's Program, Battered Women's Support Services
A change in legislation, justice--
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm sorry, Lisa. I'll come to you in a minute. We have to let Dona finish.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Please put up your hand, because the person with the fastest voice gets in and we have to try to let everyone have an answer. I know we haven't heard from Leslie and Nancy for a long time.
Lisa, go ahead, and then Darla.
Co-manager, Aboriginal Women's Program, Battered Women's Support Services
I apologize for my fast voice.
We're not victims. We just know the truth. These systems are still in place. Canada still has legislation from way back still in place. We still live under the Indian Act, which dictates a lot of our lives. It dictates who is going to dictate in future generations.
We live and function within those parameters. We're not victims. We're not victims of it. We exist, and we exist and we live within it. We live in poverty. We live in marginalization. We live to be able to sit here and talk about the issue. The issue is that Canada marginalizes aboriginal women. Colonization is violence upon our mother, the earth, violence on all our nations, and violence on us.
As I just said a little while ago, we had to.... The settlers at that time had to remove us from our positions in our communities in order for them to be able to step in. It was done in many ways.
We're not victims. I just want you to know that when we talk about the Canadian government being the main perpetrator, it's not that we are standing here talking like we can't get over it.
Conservative
Dona Cadman Conservative Surrey North, BC
Okay, yes, but every time a government changes, it's that government's fault; it's the next government's fault. So where are you starting from? Are you starting from the beginning, or are you blaming us now?
Aboriginal Outreach Coordinator and Youth Counsellor, Women Against Violence Against Women
First of all, what I'd like to say is that I haven't gotten over it yet because it's continuing on from government to government. What I'd like to see is some attitudinal change from people who tell me to just get over it. It's not over. There has not been change. People are not getting what they need in order to heal, and that's why we're here today. We're here to talk about what it is that we as aboriginal women need.
We need a government.... There have been many governments before you and before your government. We need a government that is willing to stand up and say enough is enough. We need a government to stand up and say it's not all right to sell aboriginal women and to see them missing and murdered. It's not all right for us to take their children away from them. It's not all right for us to continue running our government on the backs of their resources and not help. This is what we're here to do today.
We're not saying that we're blaming your government. We are blaming the governments in general of this country for not standing up before 2011 to take notice of a 500-year-old problem, for women who have been murdered and missing for over two decades, for families who are in the middle of a breakdown, for ministries who do not support women to live in a position where they're not forced into poverty, for the children of these women in rural communities. We have reserves in this country that don't have schools for children, that don't have clean drinking water for their children to drink, for nursing mothers to drink.
These are the issues we're talking about. This is what's important for this committee to understand. It is not okay to say get over it, because we're not over it.
Collective Member, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter
Yes, I think men are committing violence against women. White men, men from all kinds of races, aboriginal men--they are killing, raping, and beating aboriginal women. But the government is colluding. As long as the government is providing women with impoverishing welfare rates, it's handing women on a platter to abusive men. As long as the government is not demanding from the criminal justice system that it hold men accountable, that it stop the violence through thorough investigations and through convictions, it's colluding in male violence against women.
We cannot remove the responsibility from each individual man who commits violence, or from the community for tolerating it, but the government plays a huge role by enabling it.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I was wondering about something. Out of all the countries in the world where members of first nations live, is there one where they have succeeded in living together in harmony, in recognizing first nations and in granting them the status they deserve?
Have your brothers and sisters in the United States succeeded in having their rights recognized? If so, how did they achieve that? Could we find inspiration in what has been done by other peoples, other nations, and do the same?
Do you have an answer to this question?
Co-manager, Aboriginal Women's Program, Battered Women's Support Services
No, I don't have an example. But we can be the first.
Collective Member, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter
Of course, my country, Israel, is doing the same, through its occupation, to the Palestinian people. The problem is that the colonialist force still has the power, and there is no international accountability, because of the alliances between the strong, powerful countries, to stop it.
So it will only come from the people, from the elected people in a democracy, to force their nation to stop having their alliances--between Canada and Israel, between Canada and the United States--and to stop all forms of occupation and colonialism.
Aboriginal Outreach Coordinator and Youth Counsellor, Women Against Violence Against Women
I think we're in a place in the world right now where we're coming out of a place of oppression and colonization throughout the world.
Although I think Lisa's absolutely right--Canada being first would really be something--I think we're a long way away from being in a nation that is healed from years of oppression. But I think there is a really good opportunity at present for that work to really have a great start and a solid foundation as long as the people are listened to.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
In Canada, women account for 52% of the population. Could we begin by convincing them that all women must stand together? Could we begin to build bridges?
What do you think about this, Lisa?
Program Manager, Crabtree Corner Community Program, YWCA of Vancouver
I think we have been doing that. We have been doing that. My grandmother did that. My grandmother was a close friend of Nellie McClung's. I think we've been doing that for centuries, getting women to come together and build those bridges. We're still dealing with the issue of women and violence, or women and abuse.
Again, I go back to the historical.... Your question earlier was about why that's still happening. And it still is. For me, anyway, it's not just....
Yes, women have been coming together. Grassroots organizations have been doing the work. Women around the world have been doing it. But there has to be work done at other levels, at the government level, with education, with advocacy, with changes in policies--on all levels, from the ground up.