Status of Women Committee on Jan. 21st, 2011

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Thank you, Suzanne.

The RCMP is next.

You have a lot of decorations. Do you have a rank?

[Chief Superintendent Mike Sekela, Criminal Operations Officer, "D" Division, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Yes, I do. I'm Chief Superintendent Mike Sekela. I am presently the criminal operations officer in Manitoba, but I believe I was invited because I am one of the co-founders and the team commander of Project KARE, as well as the team commander of the High Risk Missing Persons Project that was created in 2002. I also participate in the coordinating committee of senior officials for the missing and murdered women working group and with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police working group for the national missing persons program.

I've submitted a document to this committee that goes into great detail. However, in watching the committee involvement in Manitoba, I quickly realized that I wouldn't have enough time. I'll give a shorter version. The document is available in both official languages.

I'll explain what Project KARE is. It is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police-led initiative derived from a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional joint forces operation called the High Risk Missing Persons Project. Project KARE has the Edmonton Police Service as a full-time partner, while enjoying secondments from most other police agencies in Alberta.

Project KARE is the third phase of the High Risk Missing Persons Project. It was formed not only as a result of work completed in the preceding two phases, but as a proactive response to the climate that existed in Canada following several high-profile serial offender cases, such as those of Robert Pickton and Paul Bernardo.

Project KARE has four objectives. Interestingly enough, its first objective, which serves as a continued improvement to the community, is to formulate and implement strategies that would minimize the lethal risk to the high-risk individuals.

The second objective, which is also a service to the community, is to investigate, identify, and apprehend the person or persons responsible for the murders of high-risk individuals, consisting predominantly of sex trade workers located primarily in Edmonton.

The third objective, which serves to enhance communications within and cooperation among agencies, is to establish an integrated Alberta-based homicide unit that has the capacity to investigate high-risk missing persons, unsolved homicides, and serial offenders.

The fourth objective that was created relates directly to the development of creative and innovative approaches that promote quality and excellence in law enforcement and a template of best practices for other projects, locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally. Presentations on the Project KARE model and its operations have been provided to all major police agencies in Alberta and to many other non-police groups from across Canada and elsewhere.

The purpose of the High Risk Missing Persons Project was to identify, collect, collate, evaluate, and analyze high-risk missing persons and unsolved homicide cases in Alberta, and it was expanded to the region to determine if there were any potentially linked cases. It was divided into three phases.

Phase one was the collection and collation. Phase two was the analysis of the results to determine whether one or more serial offenders existed. This involved ViCLAS--the violent crime linkage analysis system--as well as conducting duplicate analyses on cases to determine the presence of any linkages.

A significant number of findings were documented, ranging from the acknowledgement that cases were positively linked, potentially linked, containing other entities or matches. As a result of phases one and two, there was a need for an investigational phase, which is phase three, or Project KARE.

Several creative and innovative approaches or best practices promoting quality and excellence in law enforcement in other areas have been created or used by Project KARE. Several existing partnerships with non-government agencies, police agencies, government agencies, aboriginal groups and persons, academic institutions, stakeholders, and clients were enhanced, while many more developed, in partnerships with agencies such as the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, with Ms. Muriel Stanley Venne, and the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton, with Ms. Kate Quinn and Ms. Kathy King. There was also a collaborative research project by Dr. Sandra Lambertus, “Project Lifeline: Addressing Violence Perpetrated Against Aboriginal Women in Alberta”.

These are just a few examples that Project KARE participated in. There are other innovative examples, such as the Pro Active team, which relates to goal number one: minimizing the risk of having more high-risk persons murdered.

There's an elaborate social agency fan-out system. There are victims' services, a family liaison plan, and a missing person unidentified human remains website. I also have two separate international best practice workshops. Improvements through the Alberta missing persons and unidentified human remains site and the Pro Active team are the ones that most relate to these hearings today. I believe we set a standard through enhanced communications within and among agencies.

In conclusion, I believe Project KARE is an excellent example of how services to the community have been continuously improved upon and continue to be improved upon when we are dealing with these very important issues.

Thank you again for the ability to speak to you today. I'll answer any questions you have as well as I can.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Thank you, Mike.

We will now go to Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk and Movement. You have seven minutes.

[April Wiberg, Founder, Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk and Movement]

Thank you.

Hello, everyone. My name is April Eve. My traditional name is Medicine Spear Dancer. I'm from the Mikisew Cree First Nation, which is about 1,000 kilometres north of Edmonton. I'm the mother of a beautiful nine-month-old baby girl. I'm also the founder of the Edmonton Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk.

I'll give you a bit of background. In 2007 a small group of concerned citizens emerged in response to the hundreds and hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous aboriginal women across Canada. We started a grassroots movement, and from that an annual walk was created, the Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk. We are not funded by government or business. We are strictly a grassroots community-based volunteer group of everyday people. Many of us, including myself, have family members who have been taken, who are missing, or who have been murdered.

Many of us have a common life experience that consists of various forms of abuse, exploitation, etc., but we are not victims. We are survivors. We recognize that all cases of missing and murdered women are important. But the fact is, in Canada, in our communities, there are predators among us who are preying specifically on our women and children.

The statistics speak for themselves. These are some of the current research findings by the Native Women's Association of Canada. Some of you are already aware, I'm sure, of these findings, but it's important to recognize the harsh reality of targeted violence against aboriginal women and children. Aboriginal women, aged 25 to 44, are five times more likely to die of violence than are other Canadian women of the same age group. We experience violence by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal offenders. Our women also report experiencing more severe and potentially life-threatening forms of family violence than do non-aboriginal women, such as being choked, beaten, having a gun or a knife used against them, or being sexually assaulted. Aboriginal women and girls are also at an increased risk for homelessness. We are more likely to be killed by a stranger than are non-aboriginal women and girls. The majority of reported cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women involve young women and girls. Many are mothers. Most occur in urban areas, and nearly half the cases remain unsolved. In our group, we believe there's a strong link between domestic human trafficking and the cases of these missing and murdered women and children.

The Native Women's Association of Canada's mission is to help empower women. They identify that changes are needed to increase safety and lessen vulnerability of aboriginal women and girls. They believe that the violence against women ends with restoring a sacred position of aboriginal women as teachers, healers, and givers of life, and we couldn't agree more. With the Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk, we are trying to do our part to help raise awareness and to give a voice to those women and children whose lives have been taken, to those who are being sexually exploited, and to those who are still missing. In my own way, I am trying to help break the cycle of family violence, racism, and addiction.

We have been saying for the last few years that we would like to be more proactive with these causes and unite other organizations and people doing similar initiatives, so I'm honoured to share this with you today, on behalf of the Aboriginal Women's Professional Association, the City of Edmonton and the City of Edmonton's naming committee, the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton, the Memorial March for all the Missing and Murdered Women of Edmonton, the Stolen Sisters Awareness Walk, the Boyle Street Community League, the Edmonton Community Foundation, Edmonton city councillors Karen Leibovici, Ben Henderson, Linda Sloan, Kim Krushell, Mayor of Edmonton Stephen Mandel, and last but not least, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister for the Status of Women.

We have all worked together and created our own committee to give a downtown avenue in Edmonton an honourary name to honour all missing and murdered women. The name chosen by the group is O Kisikow Way, o kisikow meaning “angel” in Cree. Syllabics for the Cree word o kisikow will be used in addition to the name to honour the past and present usage of the Cree language. The City of Edmonton's naming committee also supported the request to place a plaque along with the signage to educate and enhance the awareness of O Kisikow (Angel) Way.

The signage and christening for O Kisikow Way will be unveiled in May of 2011. This is in response to the request sent out from the City of Iqaluit, Nunavut, which was the first Canadian city to name a street Angel Street. Iqaluit is encouraging all capital cities in Canada to have a street named Angel Street to honour all the women who have been victims of violence. We are proud to say that Edmonton is now the second.

Thank you for the opportunity to be with all of you here today. We are hoping the federal government will do more research into the possible links between domestic human trafficking in these cases of missing and murdered women and children. We would also like to see a public service announcement that would be televised possibly across the nation to show and identify to the general public the dangers out there experienced by aboriginal women and girls.

Thank you.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Thank you, April. Well done.

Now we will have a seven-minute round. Try to keep your answers condensed. I will stop you if you go over.

First we have Anita from the Liberal Party. She will be asking you questions.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

And thank you all for coming.

We've been on the road at hearings, and we think we've heard it all or that we have the story, and we come to one more meeting and we learn more and there are different perspectives. So I thank you very much for coming and sharing with us.

My second question, which I'll come to after, is a question about the Native Women's Association and Sisters in Spirit. That will be my second question.

And I don't mean to pick on you, sir, but I am going to focus on the police, because it has been very much a recurring theme in what we've heard as we've travelled, and we heard it today, right now. It is the fear of many young and not-so-young aboriginal women to go to the police. As I said at the previous panel, I was in one community of probably 30,000, where the women gathered there said to me they don't bother anymore. They don't feel that there's any protection from the police. They don't feel protected.

So you're here and you've got a project and you've got a model on the missing women, and we've all been calling for an inquiry into the missing and murdered aboriginal women, but my real issue is this. What's going on in the RCMP, from your perspective, that women are afraid to come forward and report what they're experiencing? It's not confined to one community; it's almost like a disease.

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

In Project KARE we have the Pro Active team. I explained the first goal and objective, which is to minimize the risk of having further high-risk persons murdered, and that includes aboriginal women, but all high-risk persons.

We have a 90% compliance rate of registering with Project KARE, so that means there are over 900 high-risk persons who are voluntarily giving their information, coming to police, and interacting through places like PACE, the John Howard Society, Crossroads, and actually contacting us. That is why this project is a unique opportunity in the investigational world of policing, to build that trust. It's a trust issue, in my mind, and by being out there with the Pro Active team in its non-enforcement component of Project KARE, which is very interesting as well, we go out and talk to the high-risk persons, gather all their information, and they are part of the project.

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

I appreciate that, and that's Edmonton. We've been in communities. We were in Williams Lake a day or two ago and heard horror stories in terms of police response or non-response. We've heard it everywhere we've been, that women are afraid to go to the police.

What you are doing is good and it's proactive, but it's not being replicated across western Canada. Do we replicate KARE? What do we do to create an environment wherein women know that the police are there to support them, not to degrade them, not to minimize them, not to belittle their experience or belittle them as individuals? What do we do, or what do you do?

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

What I'm commenting on is what we're doing and what we can build upon, something like KARE. I am not saying replicate Project KARE across this country, but something of that nature, where the trust is being built with aboriginal women, with all persons, regardless of their ethnicity.

In this big country of ours, in the different policing agencies, each one should have a similar type of solution where they can build upon what they're doing to build the trust. You have to build that trust. You have to be able to show what you're doing and treat everyone with respect and dignity, regardless, again, of whether they are aboriginal women, Caucasian, or whatever, and education is a start, educating both police and the public as well.

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

You have a senior position.

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

Yes, I do.

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

What kinds of initiatives, direction, activity do you take to get the message out--you're in Manitoba, and I know Manitoba well--to a rural detachment in Manitoba with a high aboriginal population to create an environment where the women will come forward? I can name any one of a number of communities there.

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

In Manitoba we actually sit with all of what we call junior officers. We call it a fireside chat. We embark upon our message, the commanding officer and myself, as a criminal operations officer, that everyone needs to be treated with dignity and respect. I actually go out and work with them in the police car, talking with them one on one as well as addressing them at every opportunity, every training opportunity, every education opportunity, to get the message out that everyone needs to be treated with respect and dignity.

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

Are you having an impact?

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

I have to say yes. I have to go back to my days here in Alberta with Project KARE. Yes, we are. When we have a 90% compliance rate, with 60% being aboriginal, I am comfortable saying we are doing something and making an impact. Is it enough? I don't know. We have to keep continuing; we have to keep striving to be better.

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

All right. Thank you.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dona Cadman]

Okay. Now we go to Madame Demers.

Ms. Demers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being with us this morning.

Mr. Sekela, unfortunately, I have to get on your case as well. It looks like you are the only one in the group who thinks that things are going well. You are confident about the work you are doing, but Ms. Dzus, Ms. Wiberg and Ms. Fiske are telling us something very different.

In the 82 cases you studied, have there been any convictions? Have the proactive teams of investigators prevented any aboriginal women from going missing or being killed? Have they found those responsible in the cases of the women who have gone missing? Have the tools you have developed produced results any quicker? Ms. Fiske told us about an aboriginal woman who was found dead. Have your tools been able to find that woman's killer any faster?

[C/Supt Mike Sekela]

I can say yes, we have had success in our second goal and objective, which was to implement strategies to capture the person or persons responsible.

Thomas Svekla was convicted of murder and is now declared a dangerous offender. Another Project KARE-mandated case, involving Mr. Joseph Laboucan, who murdered a young lady, Nina Courtepatte, is presently before the courts. There is another charge in relation to homicide, so I can't speak in great detail in relation to that. But, yes, we have success in the second goal within Project KARE.

Back to the first goal, I can tell you that in June I asked the same question: are we making an impact? Is the Pro Active team actually doing something other than having a 90% compliance rate. The numbers gathered then indicated there were 43 registered high-risk persons located after having been reported missing to Project KARE. There were 39 individuals with mental health issues on the street who we have assisted to get off the street, and we have 54 individuals recorded as having left the street for a permanent extended time.

Again, we don't do this in isolation. This is multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency, and integrated. What we do with the 900-plus registered and the program.... The Project KARE Pro Active program has expanded to places like Red Deer, Fort McMurray, and Grande Prairie. Other agencies from out east have come out as well.... I'd have to go through this material. I know they have. I'm thinking it's the Peel Regional Police, from my memory. Toronto has a similar program now.

Is there more we can do? I'm not going to sit here and say no. There is always more we can do. If we stop striving, there is no sense being here, but this is the measurable impact we have had.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you.

Ms. Dzus, can you confirm what Mr. Sekela is saying?

[Suzanne Dzus]

No.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

No? You have not seen any impact on the street?

[Suzanne Dzus]

In the Calgary area, I can't say that we're actually seeing the impact of Project KARE. The number of women I have been in contact with, who are willing to approach police, has not increased in any way, shape or form.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Is the project running in Calgary as well?

[Suzanne Dzus]

No, it's not.