Status of Women Committee on Oct. 27th, 2011

[Marie Beaulieu]

I didn't understand the beginning of your question, but I see that you are getting me back to the topic of independence.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

I was talking about age-friendly cities.

[Marie Beaulieu]

I think it's complementary. Age-friendly cities are based on the principle of the social involvement of seniors and the information of seniors. The basic principle is that an age-friendly city provides a balance between the health, social involvement and safety of seniors. I think it's really fundamental. From that perspective, an age-friendly city is friendly for all ages. It is organized so that there are important ties and relationships between the generations.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Thank you very much, Ms. Beaulieu.

Ms. Sgro, you have the floor.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much. I'm watching the clock, so I'll try to be brief.

Dr. Straka, just listening to both of the witnesses doesn't give us a lot of hope for the future at the rate we're going. It sounds like a pretty depressing future when you think about the numbers of women who, as young women and as women of middle age, are vulnerable all the way through on financial issues, health issues, and so on. All of those just get worse.

How big a problem is it in comparison with what you found in the work you did for the WHO? Within our own country, in Canada, how big an issue is it? How much more support do we need to flag this issue? We need to know how big an issue it is.

As to the work you did through WHO, if it's a big issue in Canada, I can't help but feel that it's a big issue in many countries. How is it in Sweden in comparison with Canada? Did you talk to them in your research?

[Dr. Silvia Straka]

I can't speak to those prevalent statistics about abuse against older women because we really don't have them in a way that's comparable.

However, I agree with your concern about Canada and the need to continue to look at health issues and social issues with a gendered lens rather than just look at generic people. And it's not just a gendered lens: we also need to look at other dimensions of marginalization in our society. I can't speak to the numbers because they're really not available in a way that's comparable.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you.

The clock is at 4:30, Chair, and I don't want to put the rest of you out.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Okay.

Thank you very much, Ms. Sgro.

Thank you very much, Dr. Straka.

Thank you very much, Ms. Beaulieu. Thank you for being brief.

Thank you very much for being to the point.

Ms. Freeman.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

I have a really quick comment in the spirit of Ed Holder: could we get the speaking notes you had at the beginning published?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

We'll ask Dr. Straka and Madame Beaulieu, if they would, to send these notes to the clerk of our committee.

Thank you very much for joining us today.

We'll do a quick switch and ask the other witnesses to come in.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

I'd like to call everybody back to their seats. We can get started with our next round of witnesses, who seem to be ready to share their wisdom with us.

For this second panel, I would like to thank the two witnesses who are joining us this afternoon. From the Native Women's Association of Canada, we have Ms. Claudette Dumont-Smith, the executive director, and we also have with us Dr. Christine Walsh, associate professor at the University of Calgary.

On our list, we have Ms. Claudette Dumont-Smith first.

Each of you will have 10 minutes.

We'll start with Ms. Dumont-Smith.

[Claudette Dumont-Smith, Executive Director, Native Women's Association of Canada]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the invitation to offer testimony today towards your study on the abuse of older women and, in particular, your interest in the experience of older aboriginal women.

My name is Claudette Dumont-Smith, as Ms. Ashton just said. I'm Algonquin, from the Kitigan Zibi community, which is just 90 miles north of here on the Quebec side.

Welcome to Algonquin territory.

I'm a registered nurse by profession, but I've been in the management field for quite some time now.

I'd like to begin speaking on this issue by going back to 1993, when I was a member of the Aboriginal Circle on the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women. Through the work carried out by the panel, extensive research was carried out on the issue of violence against women, including the aboriginal female population. It was documented in the panel's final report in 1993 that there was a serious lack of research on aboriginal elderly women who are victims of violence and abuse.

Moving forward to 2002, I carried out research for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation on the issue of elder abuse in Canada. My research again indicated the lack of data on elder abuse in Canada in general, and even less data specific to the aboriginal population. In 2007, as the health director of the Native Women's Association of Canada, I prepared a proposal to examine elder abuse specific to aboriginal women and once again realized the scarceness of data in this area.

I would suggest that the findings of the research paper of 2002 would still hold true today, because there just isn't any research out there. That paper focused on domestic abuse, which is defined as “any of several forms of abuse or maltreatment of an older person by someone who has a special relationship with the elder”. The three most frequent forms of abuse towards the elderly are the physical, psychological, and financial forms, including neglect.

Although there is a lack of statistical evidence to indicate that the rate of abuse and neglect of aboriginal female seniors is greater than that for the mainstream population, it is highly unlikely or even implausible to think that the rates would be similar or even less in light of their living conditions. Every indicator of violence, or known contributing factors, raises the risk of violence for aboriginal women, and makes the rate greater.

For example, aboriginal people experience higher rates of domestic violence overall. Drugs and alcohol dependency are serious issues. Overcrowding is common with the extended family, that is, the older members living with younger families. The loss of a role in the aboriginal society due to the impacts of the Indian residential school system, along with poorer socio-economic conditions, indicate that they live in very high-risk conditions in regard to violence and neglect.

I would like to inform the members of this standing committee that the Native Women's Association of Canada has been addressing this issue since 2007, but first I would like tell you about the Native Women's Association of Canada. It has served aboriginal women in Canada for 37 years, with the goal of enhancing, promoting, and fostering the social, economic, cultural, and political well-being of aboriginal women of all ages.

As mentioned above, a proposal was submitted to the new horizons for seniors program to examine this issue. Through the funding that was received, NWAC was able to carry out its very successful 22-month project entitled "Grandmother Spirit." I'd like to speak on that project now.

The Grandmother Spirit project was undertaken to raise awareness of senior abuse, safety, and well-being for senior aboriginal women in Canada. The project was based on the belief that grandmothers, senior aboriginal women, hold tremendous life experience and wisdom, and that they should guide work carried out on the issues of senior abuse, as well as identify what needs to be done to help ensure that senior aboriginal women are safe and well in their communities.

This honours the spirit of our grandmothers, of the roles our grandmothers held prior to colonization, and also the need to restore recognition and respect of these roles in our communities and Canadian society today.

The project was guided by an advisory committee composed of elders, community members, service providers, and academics--and it even included youth. The advisory committee served to ensure that this project was carried out in a good way, by helping to develop the approach to research and consulting on issues of ethics, sampling, and how to share the knowledge that was gathered.

The Grandmother Spirit project used an aboriginal approach to research, gathering together grandmothers from across the country in research circles to collect their stories and learn from their life experiences and wisdom. The grandmothers were asked to share what they knew or were taught about the care of seniors/grandmothers, what they felt impacted safety and well-being, including issues of senior abuse, what was happening or already existing in their communities that helped to address issues of safety and well-being, and what they felt was needed, but more importantly, their visions for moving forward.

The grandmothers shared that there was a general lack of respect toward grandmothers and grandfathers, which contributes to the invisibility or acceptability of senior abuse in our communities. Actively revitalizing respect for our seniors and elders and for all our community members is an important action towards preventing the mistreatment and abuse of seniors and elders from becoming normalized.

The grandmothers were able to describe many factors, which also came out in the 2002 study, that they see as contributing to or holding senior abuse in place, including: fear, silence, isolation, poverty, the need for more engagement of seniors and elders by political leadership, and the challenges of addressing issues of abuse in smaller communities. Further, they described a range of abuse they had witnessed or experienced in their own communities, including: neglect; emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and material abuse; and abuse relating to medication.

The abuse relating to medication was very commonly discussed and included a range of abuses, from the theft of a grandmother's medication for use or sale by a family member, to the abuse of medications to have grandmothers sedated such that family members could more easily access their home, their belongings, or their money.

Institutional abuse is an emerging category that was identified through the Grandmother Spirit project and it should be further explored in future research exploring issues of senior abuse. Here, institutional abuse refers to harm to seniors or violation of their rights resulting from institutional or government policies or practices.

One of the key examples would be the barriers for many aboriginal seniors to age in place--that is, to remain in their own communities--due to lack of services, resources, or facilities. Many reserve-based communities have complained of the difficulties of trying to secure funding to build, maintain, and offer long-term care and/or assisted living centres.

For some seniors, accessing needed care means they are moved several hundred or more kilometres away from their home communities, their family members, and land. The resulting isolation, often paired with care provided in English instead of their own language, and care that is not culturally sensitive, was directly linked by the grandmothers to the experience of being ripped away and placed in residential schools. The category of institutional abuse underlines the need to address systemic issues that can re-enact trauma or compound the social exclusion experienced by aboriginal peoples in Canada.

At the same time, the grandmothers also identified things they saw in their communities that were helping to raise awareness of, to stop, or to prevent senior abuse. For example, one grandmother had started a local radio show to raise awareness and talk about issues of senior abuse. In one on-reserve community, we learned about an innovative program in which local RCMP officers visit and have tea with elders who the community or community health staff have identified as vulnerable or who they think may be experiencing abuse but not reporting it.

Another example of a positive approach to promoting the safety and well-being of grandmothers is embodied in the work of the Aboriginal Senior Resource Centre of Winnipeg. The centre offers a broad range of programs and services that continue to evolve in response to the needs of the seniors served by the centre. It provides assisted living units for aboriginal seniors and opportunities for seniors to socialize, speak their own language, share their knowledge, develop new skills, volunteer, and participate in the local community, all of which can be understood from a holistic approach as contributing toward safety and well-being.

We asked the grandmothers who participated in our project to share what they feel is needed to keep grandmothers safe and well in their communities. This includes emphasizing the importance of cultural values and family and community relations, as well as addressing broader structural issues of chronic underfunding for aboriginal community services. Reflecting on the knowledge of the grandmothers' efforts to address issues of senior abuse, safety, and well-being requires a culturally driven, long-term, holistic view that engages all members of our communities from young to old.

NWAC will continue to pursue funding to develop meaningful resources, programming, and policy analysis to support aboriginal women, their families, and communities in addressing senior abuse, safety, and well-being, based on the recommendations of the grandmothers who participated in our project. This includes a heavy emphasis on fostering cultural connections, including relationships between the youth and the seniors, developing educational and workshop materials for the community, assisting aboriginal women, and advocating for needed change in policies related to inadequate funding support for on-reserve or aboriginal-specific long-term care, home and respite care, and home improvement programs to help grandmothers modify their homes so they can age in place in their homes.

It should be noted that NWAC has held a seat on the advisory committee for the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly, NICE, a project that is developing a national definition and measurements of the abuse of older adults. NWAC continues to advocate for attention to issues of cultural relevance and sensitivity in how these definitions and measurements may be used.

We look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders in the field of senior abuse to ensure that the unique needs, concerns, and circumstances of senior aboriginal women are addressed.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Thank you, Ms. Dumont-Smith.

We'll now move to Dr. Walsh.

[Dr. Christine Walsh, Associate Professor, As an Individual]

Thank you. I'm very pleased to present to the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

In my remarks today, I will examine some of the background information relevant to a study of violence against older women. I will also prioritize the voices of marginalized older women by sharing the experiences of two women, Mei and Darlene, both of whom have experienced elder abuse. Their names and some other critical information have been changed.

I will close with some key messages.

Violence against girls and women is ubiquitous. For females, exposure to violence occurs across the lifespan, beginning in childhood and extending into adulthood and, indeed, old age. Young girls in Canada are at the greatest risk for all forms of child abuse and neglect compared to boys, according to the best available evidence. The gender difference is particularly dramatic in the incidence of child sexual abuse, with a three-fold difference observed. This gender difference is also noted globally.

The General Social Survey of Canada reports similar rates of victimization between men and women in adulthood. These studies, however, fail to account for the context or the outcome of violence. DeKeseredy and Dragiewicz argue that the characterization of violence as sex-symmetrical is unwarranted, because of the magnitude of men's violence against intimates as well as the gendered cultural environment that propagates violence against women.

Despite the limitation in existing statistical evidence, there is much to say that in Canada women are more likely than men to be victims of the most severe forms of spousal assault, as well as spousal homicide, sexual assault, and criminal harassment. Women are five times more likely to be killed by intimates than are men, whose greatest risk of homicide is from strangers or acquaintances.

The disproportionate rates of violence against women are also reported internationally. A World Health Organization study concluded that one of the most common forms of violence against women is that performed by a husband or a male partner.

Canada's population is rapidly aging. Consequently, issues related to older adults, such as violence against older women, must be a priority. The importance of elder abuse research is justified by the serious psychological, physical, and economic consequences of elder abuse, which have been estimated at more than $500 million a year.

A growing body of evidence suggests that different types of violence, from childhood to older age, share similar etiologies, risk, and protective factors. Victims of one form of violence are at greater risk of experiencing another form. Different forms of violence may occur simultaneously in the same family or in the same person. The presence of one form of violence may be a strong predictor of the existence of other forms in that setting.

Many definitions of elder abuse have been offered, none of which have been accepted universally. Recent definitions have taken more of a human rights approach in looking at the violence against older adults. A recent analysis of the prevalence rates of spousal abuse for older adults using the General Social Survey data found no difference based on gender. However, once again, these studies suffer from flaws, as previously outlined.

The World Health Organization identified populations of older adults at increased risk for abuse. These include women, those living in poverty, the very old, and individuals with limited functional capacity. Race and ethnicity have also been implicated.

In this next section, I will provide some information on two of these populations, with an illustrative case for each.

The first is immigrant women. As the Canadian population ages, it is also becoming increasingly ethnoculturally diverse. Presently, immigrants represent a considerably large group among older adults in Canada, with women comprising the greater proportion of older immigrants.

Despite this demographic trend, little is known about the key issues facing older immigrant women. A key concern for women across their lifespans is violence against women. While considerable research is emerging on violence against women and on abuse of older adults, a dearth of Canadian research exists on older immigrants' experience of violence.

Now I'm going to talk about Mei. After she was widowed at age 68, Mei emigrated from Hong Kong to Calgary as a family class sponsored immigrant. Sponsored by her son, she was initially happy to be reunited with him, his wife, and their two young children.

She soon realized that her role as esteemed elder and head of the household was not recognized in this new setting. Instead, her role was to cook, clean, and care for her grandchildren. She also turned over her substantial assets to help her family. She was often chastised for her inability to care for her grandchildren. They didn't listen to her and she could not communicate with them. She spoke only Mandarin; they spoke only English.

The relationship between her and her daughter-in-law deteriorated. It seemed as if Mei could never do enough or do it right. Her son did not want to take sides, and she was reluctant to speak to him about these issues. Her son decided to invest her money in a condo in Chinatown. Initially Mei was supportive of this, as she thought it would be a good investment. When the tension between Mei and her daughter-in-law continued to escalate, her son moved her into the condo. The condo was without furniture; she had a mattress to sleep on.

Mei found out that she was not on the lease, which was solely in her son's name, and all of her assets had been used by her son. She thought of returning to Hong Kong, but had no means of doing so. She had no one to turn to. Despite her shame and despair, she sought help from an immigrant-serving agency. There was little they could do. She was not a landed immigrant and thus fell through the cracks in terms of service.

The settlement worker had been helping her with gift certificates to buy food. When the worker offered to speak to her son, Mei refused. She did not want to bring dishonour to her family. He was not to know that she had told anyone.

The second population is aboriginal women. In 2009, 13% of all aboriginal women aged 15 and older had been violently victimized. This is almost three times the rate for non-aboriginal women. Less is known about the violence against older aboriginal women specifically.

The high rates of violence experienced by aboriginal women must be put in the context of the legacy of marginalization and oppression due to colonialism, patriarchy, and the effects of Euro-Canadian governance on their lives. Residential schools have also left a permanent mark on survivors. Aboriginal persons who attended residential schools were unable to learn and model healthy gender roles, and frequently experienced all forms of abuse.

Currently, aboriginal women in Canada are disadvantaged by social factors and structural inequities that pose barriers to their optimum wellness. Overcrowding and inadequate housing, under- and unemployment, poverty, addictions, violence of all forms, and limited supports are characteristics of the lives of aboriginal women.

Now I'm going to share the story of Darlene. Darlene is a 65-year-old Cree woman who lives on a small reserve in northern Ontario. She describes herself as a traditional woman who took a long time to find her path. She says the residential school beat it out of her. She currently lives alone in a small house that she describes as just held together by a couple of nails. But it is her home and she is proud of it. She lives on a pension. Darlene says she doesn't have much, but she gets by.

She worries a lot about the people in her community, especially her grandchildren. When she gets her pension cheque each month, she knows that her grandchildren and their friends will come to visit. Sometimes this is okay; she feeds them and talks to them and they have a good time.

Most times, it's not okay. Sometimes they demand money, especially when they have been drinking. If she says no, sometimes they push her and take her purse anyway. Darlene worries a lot about money. Will she have enough to last until the end of month? Will she be able to get her medication? She doesn't really blame her grandchildren. She says that she wasn't always a very good mother. How could she be? She never saw her own parents after she was six years of age.

Darlene thinks sometimes that if she just tries to help her grandchildren and the other kids in the community, things will be better. She talked to the community health representative about the situation. When the representative talked about calling the police, Darlene got scared. Now she doesn't want to talk to anyone. She doesn't want her grandchildren to have to go through what she did.

The family violence literature is replete with examples of failure to recognize, detect, and appropriately intervene in cases of abuse. Problems in recognition and reporting of elder abuse have been noted in the literature, as well as the fear of retaliation, loss of family relationships, shame and embarrassment, and a lack of knowledge about or access to services. This may be higher in some ethnocultural communities.

The key recommendation to the Canadian government for research directions in support of elder abuse policy work was the need to collect data on the prevalence and incidence of elder abuse through large-scale and small-scale surveys of older adults residing in the community and in institutional settings. This data is necessary because, as Johnson argues, “decision-makers require clear understanding of the nature and severity of the social problems in order to develop effective responses”.

I have four key messages.

Older adults in Canada have the right to live in safe and secure environments that optimize their ability to have maximum control in making decisions about their lives. In Canada, there exists a critical need for data on the prevalence of violence against older adults; this knowledge is necessary to inform policy and programming initiatives aimed at reducing violence and ameliorating the associated harms. Research is currently under way with the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly to clarify definitions and measurement issues concerning elder abuse and neglect. This work provides the foundational knowledge to conduct rigorous and methodologically sound prevalence and incidence studies.

Attention to the accurate assessment of violence against older adults should also attend to populations defined as “heightened risk”, including the old, very old women, the disabled, aboriginal persons, and immigrants. Researchers across Canada have done some of the preliminary work required to develop a program of research on the prevention of abuse and neglect among older immigrant women. This work could be useful in developing measures and tools that are culturally appropriate.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Thank you very much, Dr. Walsh. We'll go to our first question.

Ms. Truppe.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to be splitting my time with my colleague, Madam O'Neill, so if you can let me know when I'm at three and a half minutes, I'd appreciate it.

This question is for Madam Dumont-Smith.

In your opening statement, you mentioned the new horizons for seniors program. It's a great program that many people have received money from. On October 14, the Minister for State for Seniors announced that the government is seeking applications for elder-abuse prevention projects under this particular program. Would you agree that this initiative will be helpful in curbing elder abuse? If so, why?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

I think anywhere we can get funds to develop our own projects or proposals we know will help to raise that issue amongst our women. The work that we will do, of course, will be to prevent the abuse of aboriginal female seniors. I would agree that all these kinds of programs are good.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

That's great. Thank you.

I know that your organization is a really active organization. Of all the projects that you've received funding for, including Evidence to Action II, for example, with the announcement of $1.8 million over three years, I was wondering if that money is also used for seniors or how else you reach seniors through these projects.

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

Evidence to Action is specifically about missing and murdered women, all of the over 500 missing or murdered women found through our research under the SIS initiative, which was the precursor of Evidence to Action. There were no older women. I'm not saying that older women are not missing or murdered, but we didn't find any. Evidence to Action is focused on that population; it's not at all focused on senior aboriginal women.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Do you work with other aboriginal organizations in regard to the elder abused?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

Well, we have our 13 provincial and territorial member associations that belong, so to speak, to NWAC. They're cognizant of the work we're doing, so in that sense we do work with them. We all work individually, but we try to work in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations, for example. We all do our specific things because we have our own different constituents, so to speak.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Tilly.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

First of all, I want to welcome both of you here this afternoon and thank you for taking time to be with us.

In our recent studies, we have certainly seen that women face many challenges, and we have spoken about the challenges that are different from those faced by the ladies on the reserve in comparison to what would be expected in a regular community. I'm wondering if you'd elaborate on that, please.