Evidence of meeting #83 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was métis.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Vicki Chartrand  Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Bishop's University, As an Individual
Véronique Picard  Justice Coordinator, Quebec Native Women Inc.
Jonathan Rudin  Program Director, Aboriginal Legal Services
Melanie Omeniho  President, Women of the Métis Nation
Felice Yuen  Associate Professor, Concordia University, As an Individual

12:45 p.m.

Associate Professor, Concordia University, As an Individual

12:45 p.m.

Program Director, Aboriginal Legal Services

Jonathan Rudin

I'll make that unanimous.

12:45 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

All three say no.

Thank you very much for your work. We're going to draw on a lot of it in our report writing.

Thanks, Chair.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We're now going to continue with Bernadette Jordan.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Bernadette Jordan Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS

Thank you, Chair. I'm going to turn my time over to Terry Duguid, and I'll take his five minutes, if it's still available.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

Thank you, Ms. Jordan.

Thank you, Chair.

Welcome to our special guests today. Your excellent testimony is going to be very helpful as we chart a path forward, so thank you so much.

My first few questions will be for Ms. Omeniho. I represent a fairly sizable Métis community, and as you know, Manitoba is home to the largest Métis community in the country. In fact, I represent part of Louis Riel's riding of Provencher. It's not called Provencher anymore—it's Winnipeg South—but it's the historic community of St. Norbert.

I'm aware of the great work that you do, and particularly Infinity Women, in Manitoba.

Do you have a number or a proportion of the prison population that is Métis? Do we have a roundabout figure for the indigenous folks who are in our penal system? What proportion would be Métis?

12:45 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

I would have to tell you at this point that any of us would only be guessing what the number is. That's actually one of the issues I meant to raise earlier. When women become incarcerated, and not only under the process of the sentencing, how often does anybody ask the question so that they can self-identify?

I think that is part of the issue even with the pan-aboriginal approach. People need to start asking who these people are when they get to a correctional institution. They need to be asked the question, “Are you an indigenous person, and how do you identify?” That's the only way the system is ever really going to know: by tracking this.

There are no statistics or research specific to Métis.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

You've already answered my follow-up question, which was getting to that exact point, so thank you very much.

Are you aware of any culturally appropriate supports, both in the prison system and in the transition out of the prison system for Métis specifically?

12:45 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

There have been some programs that I know have been done within some of the institutions. For instance, I've met with some groups, such as Native Counselling Services—I've met with Mr. Benson—to talk about this. A program such as the blanket program, which was mentioned earlier, is not a Métis program. It becomes problematic because it's actually first nations-based.

There aren't, then, many of them. It isn't that the blanket program is not a good program or that we don't like that program, but if there were some amendments even to how the program is implemented, it would be beneficial to Métis as well as to first nations. That work needs to be done, however, with Métis elders and Métis knowledge keepers to help do those things.

As for programs when coming out of the institutions, I don't know of one, to be honest with you.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

I'm not aware of one either.

Just for our members, we have a Métis government in Manitoba. Is there a Métis government in Canada as well?

12:45 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

We have the Métis National Council, which is the national representative body.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

We have a national council, but we actually have a Métis government.

12:45 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

I do not think there has been any interaction between either the federal or the provincial correctional systems and that government. Would you agree that it would be a good idea for the two governments—or frankly, three governments—to sit down and design something that is quite specific for what is a very large proportion of our community? It's in the 100,000 range. It's 10% of our population in Manitoba, so it's extremely significant.

12:50 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

We're the largest indigenous community in North America, to put that in perspective as to the number of Métis.

When you're talking about the institutions and the number, for instance, of indigenous women who are incarcerated who may be Métis, we suspect that it's probably close to 50%. I know that's been the story when we've been dealing in child welfare statistics, that close to 50% of the indigenous children in care are actually Métis. When you put the numbers together as to what a large group the Métis are, it's not that I want 50% of the women incarcerated to be Métis, but there's a good chance that would probably be an indicator.

December 7th, 2017 / 12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

This question could be put to any of our guests today, and you just mentioned the child welfare system. Again, I'm very familiar with the child welfare crisis in my home province. Our Minister of Indigenous Services is convening a national meeting to see what we can do as a federal government in terms of coordinating and just doing better for this very difficult situation across our country.

One member of Parliament referred to our child welfare system as a superhighway to homelessness and a superhighway to the correctional system. When our kids turn 18, after being in 10, 12, or 30 foster homes, they're often on the streets. There are no supports.

This is in line with Ms. Malcolmson's question on prevention. Is there something we can do on this in your communities? Métis have child and family services. Would you have some recommendations on that front for dealing with the issue at the root-cause level?

12:50 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

From my perspective, healing needs to start with our children, but it is intergenerational. Our families are not nuclear families. Our families consist of aunties, uncles, cousins, grandmas, and everybody, but the healing needs to start with our children.

Child welfare is only the next generation of kids who are going to be part of the residential school story. We need to stop doing that by some mechanism. I know there's no quick solution, but we need to start building healing and connectivity back into our communities.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We're now going to move back to Martin Shields for five minutes.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Let's go with the Métis in the sense that you've talked about the invisibleness. Part of what I read and what I see is that the identification is the challenge in our country. Would you like to comment on how we can deal with that?

12:50 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

People need to start asking. I'm going to be frank. I've been an advocate for over 30 years. When it comes to even dealing with the issue of homelessness, people don't want to ask the question, and I've been fighting that issue for many years. They say it's because it's racist. Well, if I ask you if you're Italian, do you feel that I have some racial motivation to ask you that question?

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB

I might object if you called me Italian.

12:50 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

No, but I mean, I'm just using that—

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB

I knew I'd get a rise out of her.

12:50 p.m.

President, Women of the Métis Nation

Melanie Omeniho

But it is true. Why can't you ask the question? Why can't people identify? It would put us on a train towards understanding the differences and distinctness of each of our communities.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB

Isn't there a larger, country-wide issue, in the sense of recognizing as a defined group?