Status of Women Committee on Jan. 21st, 2011

[April Wiberg]

I'll share a really quick story.

We've been doing our walk since 2007. We're not funded. We do it all ourselves. That's what makes it a beautiful thing. But a couple of years ago it was becoming very stressful trying to juggle family life and work and trying to organize this walk. We almost gave up. We almost said we couldn't do it because it was just too much. There were a lot of heavy things involved. People have loved ones who are still missing, and daughters murdered.

Anyway, one of our volunteers who's volunteered with us since 2007 shared with me that up until we started doing our walks in the community, she didn't feel that she had the trust to take part in something like this. When she heard that we were grassroots, she decided to volunteer. She actually hadn't dealt with the murder of her mother since her mother died when she was 10 years old. This gave her a chance to start her healing process, and she's in her forties. She's been to the federal women's institution; she's been through hell and back. The fact that we somehow played a part to help her in her healing process speaks volumes to how we try to help the community with their healing.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Thank you, April.

Okay. Now I get to ask a question.

Suzanne, you had a phrase there that I want to go back to. You said, “the acceptability of abuse”. Now, that really disturbs me. How can we get these women away and build their self-esteem? How can we get the police to stop treating them like second-class citizens?

[Suzanne Dzus]

It's a huge order. When I look at these pieces, a slap, a punch, and a hit is acceptable.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

No, it's not.

[Suzanne Dzus]

I understand it's not. I know it's not, but when you live in that and when you approach the police, and they say, “Well, you know, it's just....” That type of attitude helps to harvest even more of that. It gets to escalate. So if we can move toward zero tolerance, a true zero tolerance policy, because abuse is not just simply about the physical violence.... We know many, many women who have been beaten to where there is no spirit whatsoever left, and never have they been struck.

When we look at the physical abuse...we talk about domestic violence. When a man can threaten and insinuate, “Just go ahead, try and leave, I dare you”, and nothing is done, that perpetuates more of that cycle. It perpetuates an escalation of that cycle. If our women can have faith and go to the police and say, “This is what he said”, and there is a consequence to that action, that perpetrator feels a consequence to that action, that will help to eliminate that cycle. I know it's not the only thing, but that is a piece that we can work towards.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Mike, you heard her say that you, as the police, have to be a little more sensitive. When there is verbal abuse, how can you separate the two? There's no law on the books for just saying, “I'm going to kill you”.

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

Well, there are laws on the books for uttering threats of death or bodily harm.

When Suzanne says “the police”...I can't speak for all the police, but I'll speak on behalf of our police agency in relation to our policy. There is zero tolerance with domestic violence.

The definition provided by Suzanne would be a difficult one, from just listening, with no other circumstances surrounding it, but again, if someone—

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

So if she's not beaten and—

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

No, no, it depends on what the words are. If the words are uttering threats, which falls under our law or legislation, the Criminal Code of Canada, we can act. That doesn't mean we cannot still intervene in relation to guiding these troubled relationships to other social agencies, speaking with the victim of the verbal abuse and pointing them in the right direction.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

But do you do it?

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

Yes. Does it occur on every occasion? The word “police” is like saying the word “government”. You have to be more specific. Are you referring to the RCMP?

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Well, I would say whoever is involved, whatever police force is involved in this.

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

I don't know. I don't know what incident. I don't know who.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Well, no. I'm sure she was just doing a general thing.

But I think police should take a sensitivity course on aboriginal women and be a little more sensitive. There are differences between whites and aboriginals. They have a lot of history behind them, a lot of traditional things that have to be addressed. We cannot just let them go and fall between the cracks. They have to be at the forefront and we have to start addressing that.

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

Yes, understood. We do--

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

I'm sorry. My time's up.

[A voice]

You're fair.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

I would have gone on, but....

Nicole, please.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Fiske, in some of the places that our tour, our mission, has taken us, we have seen the most atrocious systemic racism on the part of government agencies, police services, doctors, even the entire population of a town. I cannot believe what I saw in Williams Lake. It is the most horrific place we had to visit. People there have not the slightest bit of respect for aboriginal communities.

You mentioned the mayor who said that a city had to take back its communities and parks. You would think we were in the southern United States in the 1960s. What is going on? What kind of country are we living in? Here we are telling the people who lived here before us, who welcomed us and allowed us to live on their land, that we have no use for them any more. We do not respect them, we do not give them what they are owed, we let them die, we let them be beaten, we let them go missing, and we do nothing. So what does that say about us? Whatever the members of this committee decide, whatever they recommend, what will it change?

Ms. Fiske, you have seen more than we have. Are we going to be able to change anything?

[Dr. Jo-Anne Fiske]

Canada has a very sad history, and Canada faces a huge challenge in our future. One of the biggest challenges we face is from those who would hear us today and deny the extent of the systemic racism.

You mentioned Williams Lake, and it brings tears to my eyes, because my husband and I moved our stepson from Williams Lake because of the racism against aboriginal children. We raised him away from there so he would be safe. So it's close to my heart.

I would say that this committee has the opportunity to make a difference. That difference will not be abrupt--it will be glacial--but it will be significant. I firmly believe, when I look at all of the research from around the world, when I look at the plight of the aborigine women of New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Latin America--and in December I was in Asia, looking at issues in Asian countries--that the most important thing this committee can do is go back to the Conservative government and tell them we need funding for the leading organizations of aboriginal women across the country. NWAC is, of course, with Sisters in Spirit, the most dramatic and best-known example. I could name many other aboriginal organizations here in Alberta.

We need to put them out front on this issue. By our actions we need to show that we trust them, recognize their rights, and have faith in their ability to take leadership and represent the women as their citizens. We need to hear them and respond to them.

We cannot continue to go on, as Caucasians who are part of this sordid history, berating ourselves, as I do, and expecting to still take the leading voice on it. We must show by every action where the leadership is, where the power is, and where the dignity is, because until we as a society put those women forward, we cannot protect them or value them.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Thank you, Jo-Anne.

Now we will go to Ms. Crowder.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Thank you.

I have just a quick comment before I go to Gloria.

Ms. Dzus raised something that I think gets neglected. People talk about residential schools, and that's not the end of the legacy around children. There were the residential schools. There was the sixties scoop, where children were removed from their homes and put in non-aboriginal homes. Now we have the ongoing 27,000-some first nations, Métis, and Inuit kids in foster care. So that has continued. I just want to put that on the record.

I also want to acknowledge a number of people who have spoken and said it's enough, no more reports. We want to see some concrete action that will make a difference in the lives of aboriginal women, their children and families, and non-aboriginal Canadians, because I don't think we can collectively heal until this happens.

Ms. Neapetung, you haven't had an opportunity to speak, so I would like to use my time to turn it over to you.

[Gloria Neapetung, Representative, Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk and Movement]

My name is Gloria Neapetung. I come from Yellow Quill, Saskatchewan. I'm an activist artist. I'm also a street survivor. I was drug-addicted, alcohol-addicted, and abused from the age of one or two. I worked on the street from the age of 13 until I was 34, dealing with violence, prostitution, and drug addiction. I did a lot of things when I was young. I also had six children.

I put my children in care because I knew I wasn't healthy. My children needed to grow up knowing they didn't have to deal with a drug-addicted mom and a father who was as well. I stayed with my husband for 18 years.

In 1992 I had an encounter with a serial killer in Saskatoon. In 1993 the RCMP came to see me in Regina. I took a lot of risks with my life when I stepped into vehicles. But in 1993, that's when I felt the RCMP didn't hear me or believe what I was saying to them. In 2004 I was arrested for accessory after the fact to murder. My co-accused murdered two men that year, and I was sent to the Edmonton Institution for Women.

I learned to manage who I am today and grow as a person, but I think back to working on the streets, getting into those vehicles, and not knowing who I could go to for help. There is SWAP in Regina, EGADZ in Saskatoon, and PAAFE here in Edmonton. There is Sage House in Winnipeg. I know about all these organizations because I wanted to work with them with the institution here. A lot of the women come from those places, and I wanted to let them know they are not all about condoms and needles, because that's why those women go to those organizations.

They don't know that they have programs or things to help them get off the street. I lived there, and that was the ugliest place I ever lived. I was numb through those years of not knowing who I was. Today I'm a beautiful artist. I lived through damage, and the Creator walks with me today.

Going back to Saskatoon, until I started doing these walks with different organizations and working with homeless people and being homeless myself, I never realized that my life was important. With these organizations I work with, I feel devastated for the families, because my family would have been devastated if I had gone missing in 1992.

People who work with the sex trade workers or alcohol or drug addiction...when they talk about the family, the government should be working with the children and the family, because the children are addicted as well as the parents. To keep them off the streets is why I brought those organizations into the institution, and I'm doing it again this year. This is something I do on my own, because these women in the institution need to know there is help out there and we can stay clean.

It took me a long time to get this far, but thank you for listening.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Thank you, Gloria, for sharing your story. It must have been very hard. You're a very brave woman.

We've got time, so I'd like to give you each one minute to give maybe a solution, an answer to something, or give us something that we can take back to Ottawa. What would you want? What's your wish?

[Dr. Jo-Anne Fiske]

In addition to the things I mentioned before, I would like the government and the RCMP to create a national database of people who've been violent against street workers. I would like them to be tracked more thoroughly and carefully. I feel there's a lot of oversight at that level of violence.