For a long time in this country, government policy, government practices and government laws have dictated to first nation communities on every level of human life, and the results have been catastrophic. Those have been driven by political interests, political agendas, not community interests and not human needs.
The problem is that today, as I see it, we have a shift to the other extreme, whereby the government has vacated the field when it comes to the rule of law and its application at a community level vis-à-vis fundamental human rights and freedoms. There's a balance that needs to be struck, and I believe that what government should be doing is supporting all communities, because indigenous communities are the miners' canaries that mark the shift from fresh air to poisonous gas.
I am a widow; I was widowed in 1997. What I heard the other witnesses speak to was that older women need the support of our healthy, functioning communities. In a first nation context, it's highly politicized, highly legalized, because Ottawa's policies are having a direct impact on the rule of law. You see that with respect to the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, because in 2015 we were not going to enforce that law. There's Charmaine Stick, who went to court and got a court order. It was upheld by the court of appeal, and she's still today being denied access to those finances.
What type of environment does that create within a community if there's no accountability and transparency of the leadership to the people they serve? It all turns on trust and affection, without which you don't have healthy, functioning communities. Communities, I would say, are essential to the raising of children, to the care of the elderly, to the support of the environment, to the protection of nature.