Evidence of meeting #88 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 parole.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
Without that kind of input, I think we're trying to imagine what something is instead of getting a real opportunity to examine what something is like and what a particular individual has gone through. I think it's critical. I think the importance of hearing it first-hand would make all the difference.
I apologize if I'm not fully grasping what the question is, but I definitely agree that the importance of hearing from someone who has that first-hand experience is critical.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Second, I imagine that access to legal aid has a big impact on the work you're doing?
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Access to legal aid is something that your clinic deals with a lot, I would imagine.
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Okay.
I'm going to ask you some questions on recommendations that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women made for Canada in 2016. They recommended that Canada:
(a) Increase funding for civil legal aid, and specifically earmark funds for civil law legal aid in the Canada Social Transfer in order to ensure that women have access to...legal aid in all jurisdictions, in particular women victims of violence, indigenous women and women with disabilities; (b) Review criteria applied in income tests for eligibility to ensure access to civil legal aid, especially in areas of family law, to all women without sufficient means;
In your work since this 2016 report, have you seen any significant changes in funding or access to adequate legal aid? I'm thinking particularly of the federal jurisdiction, but it could be in any, and in particular for indigenous women.
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
I can only speak about my experience. I'm not more familiar than that. We have a sister clinic; we're co-located, that helps. It's a family law clinic, because family law is often an underfunded area of legal aid. Our sister clinic is now involved in providing services. I don't have statistics on how many women are accessing such services versus men's access to the services, but obviously enough resources going into legal aid for people in situations where they don't have the resources is incredibly important. I think legal aid struggles with which areas to fund, but obviously indigenous women, family-law-type matters, etc., are in need of funding for sure.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
In your experience, did it get better in the last three years? The last two years?
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
I don't feel qualified to answer that. I'm sorry.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
All right. This government has made a lot of commitments around implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Calls to Action. Quite a few of them apply directly to indigenous women's access to the justice system. Call to action number 32 is that the federal government amend the Criminal Code to allow trial judges, upon giving reasons, to depart from mandatory minimum sentences and restrictions on the use of conditional sentences. This is a 2015 call to action from the TRC. Have you seen that change in your experience?
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
Certainly I think the mandatory minimums have been looked at again. Exactly where that is in the status of those minimums, I'm not sure. I'm sorry, we don't practise criminal law, so I'm not....
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
In your work are you experiencing clients affected by fetal alcohol syndrome?
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
One of the other calls to action was undertaking reforms to better provide community resources and powers for courts to ensure that fetal alcohol syndrome is properly diagnosed, that community supports are in place for those with fetal alcohol syndrome, and that parole resources maximize the ability of people with FASD to live in the community. Have you seen improvements over the last three years in that regard?
Conservative
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
First, I would like to mention that we have two students in the room today, Charnpreet Saini and Alexandra Osman. They are in the women in House program at Brock University. Welcome.
Ms. Ferreira, I would also like to thank you for your presentation today before the committee.
You mentioned that the rate of 12% of indigenous women offenders who request parole is much lower compared to non-indigenous women. Could you please explain why this is?
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
Based on my experience, the lower rates and the materials out there are because many indigenous women are kept in maximum security, which limits their access to programming that would address risks for reoffence. This definitely impacts on whether or not they are deemed to be good candidates for parole. They don't have the resources in maximum security that might otherwise be available to them. When that happens, they are stuck in that situation if they're not able to access lower security.
Further, their release plans are not being investigated properly by Correctional Services, for example, if they wanted to access a section 84 parole release. The process to do that is outlined in Correctional Services policy statements, and it's very complicated. Risk and institutional progress and release planning are all factors in parole grants, and because of those circumstances, indigenous women would have much lower opportunities for parole.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Based on section 84, how could we increase the proportion of women offenders who have access to parole?
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
It is a mandatory section in the act. The act uses mandatory language. I think there needs to be oversight of the Correctional Service to ensure that those processes become much more straightforward, that they become much more emphasized, and that they are put into action.
It does involve resources. They're not putting the funds into the resources that are necessary to move these things forward. They're not doing it on their own. There has to be some sort of oversight of that process.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Do you think fewer women would be incarcerated if they had greater access to legal aid?
Director, Queen's Prison Law Clinic
I think access to legal representation is always important. I certainly won't dispute that, but I think it's a much bigger problem than that.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Could you also explain how your organization serves incarcerated indigenous women? How do you help these women?
