That's perfect.
Evidence of meeting #102 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was indigenous.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #102 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was indigenous.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Noon
President and Chief, Native Council of Nova Scotia
That's who I think it should be.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much.
We're now going for two and a half minutes, and I'll pass the floor over to Andréanne.
Noon
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Ms. Étienne, in the last round we talked about the make-up of a future round table and that it should be as diverse as possible and include as many concerned parties as possible.
I would also like you to talk about the continuum of services. In fighting human trafficking, certain steps have to be followed. The first is prevention and education work. Of course, we all want to do that. Then the missing or murdered indigenous women have to be identified and located, and we need the tools to do that. So considerable work has to be done to put the necessary legislation and legal tools in place in order to respond. Finally, assistance must be provided to men and women for their rehabilitation.
Aside from the diversity of the round table, what are your thoughts on the continuum of services?
12:05 p.m.
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
As I said earlier, it is everyone's business. By working together and raising awareness collectively, we will be able to provide a continuum of services for women from various nations.
I will not rehash past experiences, because I think we know now what indigenous women are facing, but I do think we need to review our approach to ensure that the future structure allows us to respond quickly and so we know who has to respond quickly.
I am concerned about how the structure will work at a more local level. I am referring to the nations of Quebec. Those are the first communities involved. That is where Indigenous women live. Indigenous women live in Quebec society. Implicitly, we need to involve all local stakeholders. The national system will be at a different level and will also have a role to play, but first we have to work at the local level because that is the foundation.
If we do not consult people locally, I think we could miss out on important information for establishing the red dress alert system.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you.
We're going to turn it over now to Leah.
Leah, you have two and a half minutes.
12:05 p.m.
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you so much.
My first questions are for President Étienne.
Can you tell the committee what happened in Lac-Simon to women? Most of the women were from Lac-Simon. I know some were from Kitcisakik. What happened there with the police? What was discovered?
12:05 p.m.
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
Yes, in 2019, women in Abitibi reported certain situations involving police services in the Val-d'Or area. This resulted in a loss of trust in non-indigenous police services.
That is why I think we need to look at what is happening in our communities more locally. They all have indigenous police services. That is why I firmly believe a consultation process has to be launched with indigenous communities for the establishment of a service that addresses the real needs of indigenous women. That is the foundation.
12:05 p.m.
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
In terms of conduct, was there reported police violence against indigenous women from these communities by the police, by the Sûreté du Québec?
12:05 p.m.
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
That was made public in 2019. It was in Abitibi, in the Val d'Or area, that women spoke out publicly about very unpleasant and troubling situations.
I raise my hat to them and salute their strength and courage in speaking out. That was also covered in a ICI RDI report, which is publicly available.
Yet these situations are not unique to Val-d'Or; they also occur...
12:05 p.m.
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Because I have limited time—and it's very valuable—I'm wondering how much trust there is and whether you think a solution to that would be to have first nations policing instead. Would the community feel safer? Has that been discussed?
Am I over time?
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
I will be brief.
In my opinion, involving our own communities would give us insight into how things are organized and how the service is structured. Further, this would make it possible to consider all the important and relevant considerations in establishing a service that meets the needs of women and girls who might be reported missing, among other things.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much.
I'm usually very strict with the time, but I recognize the importance of all of these answers and all of these questions, so I'm trying to much more flexible, which, on the other hand, messes up our third round.
All we have left is time to finish the second round, which would be five minutes to Michelle and five minutes to Sonia, and then we will be finished for today. If there are any questions, work with some of your colleagues, and let's get these questions going.
Michelle, you have the floor for five minutes.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Thank you so much, Chair.
Thank you so much to our witnesses. This is such an important study.
Thanks to my colleague Leah Gazan for doing this study. It's really important and a big piece of all of our ridings across the country.
I want to thank Mitch.
Your testimony today is really important when we look at the prevention end of things. I have two sort of logistical questions for you.
Are you working with non-indigenous men as well, and who's funding you?
12:10 p.m.
Community Helper, As an Individual
No one's funding us. We're all volunteers doing this work.
What was the second question?
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
The ratio. Do you have to be indigenous to be in the group, or does it matter?
12:10 p.m.
Community Helper, As an Individual
No. Any male-identifying human can come into our group. It's the indigenous men who are seeking this help, so it's mostly indigenous men in our groups, but we certainly welcome others.
Can I quickly add something for about 20 seconds?
12:10 p.m.
Community Helper, As an Individual
Just getting back to the 25% or 20% of harm that's coming from outside the community, some long-distance truck drivers, some taxi drivers, some men in construction and the northern “man camps” of Manitoba Hydro have perpetrated the violence against the women. I need to remind people of that.
Really quickly, because I'm a male here, I have to honour our women in Manitoba: Leah Gazan, Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, Sandra Delaronde, Cora Morgan, Minister Bernadette Smith, our MLA, who co-founded Drag the Red, and Minister Nahanni Fontaine, who has created the Matriarch Circle.
April 9th, 2024 / 12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Thank you.
When we look at domestic violence, which has increased drastically, and in particular for this highly targeted population of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, there's a lot at the prevention end of things, and you touched on it very, very well today. I hope people are paying attention, because we have to break a lot of cycles where men and boys were taught very unhealthy relationships, and that just repeats. We have to do a lot of work. When we look at funding models, that's what we need to be investing in.
I'm going to turn my questions over to Ms. Augustine. I really love what you talked about today in terms of who is driving the ship to implement a red dress alert. One thing that gets lost so often—and I see this in many programs—is that everybody says that it's a great idea, but there has to be this one person or somebody who is in charge, otherwise it's like that group project in high school where we all walk away and say, “This is a great idea,” but nothing manifests as a result of it. How do you see that rolling out? Do you see it being done provincially? You have the floor here for this committee to ensure that it is actually rolled out effectively. Do you know what it looks like?
