Status of Women Committee on April 16th, 2024

[Lorna Brown]

There definitely needs to be police involvement. However—again, I think it's been said before—it needs to be in collaboration with family members. Whether that's just consulting, having a committee to consult with on a regular basis so that they're informed... There definitely needs to be that communication because, again and again, we've heard that there's a lack of communication in regard to families. Something like this needs to be community-led. There definitely needs to be that, like Denise said, starting out in the region, and then it could be spanned out from there.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

We heard from a colleague here earlier who was speaking to our other witnesses about mental health and about ensuring the red dress alert is in place and is indigenous-led by women. Those are clearly recommendations that we're going to hear from the committee.

When we talk about intergenerational, we look at residential survivors, at child welfare. It's not just women; there are men in general in the community. What are your recommendations related to mental health?

What should we do as a federal government to support the red dress alert system linked to mental health services and programs?

[Denise Halfyard]

I think it comes down to education again.

A lot of people don't understand, still, what intergenerational trauma is, even people who are actually going through it. Educating them and showing them this behaviour is a result of their intergenerational trauma and guiding them, giving them resources to get that help that they need.... There's education for sure.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

We talked about urban and indigenous. We have reserves. What role do you think the municipalities, when we look at friendship centres, when we look at urban indigenous...so we really have the rural aspect and the urban.

Are there any specific recommendations along those lines?

[Lorna Brown]

In Terrace we have a local friendship centre because we're considered an urban centre. Terrace is a hub to the northwest and we have approximately 27 surrounding first nations communities that all come to Terrace for their goods and services. We're definitely lacking in that area of even having any type of counselling available.

I know there are groups that have been advocating for a healing centre or detox, and for the number of first nations we have in our area it's quite shocking that there is nothing available. The first place that you can get any type of help with is in Prince George, which is a six- to seven-hour drive. Then there are certain criteria that have to be met before they can access any of those services.

I think the services need to be streamlined so that people can get help right away because they might be ready to get help today, but next week it might be too late. I know that personally, because I lost my sister a year ago February. She wanted to get help, but there was the red tape and she had to travel and she had to jump through all these hoops before she could get help. Then when it came down to it, it was too late.

We need to be able to streamline and cut out all the criteria to be able to get help. When somebody wants help, we should help them now, not next week or in three months or six months.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Mrs. Brown.

Now, we'll move to Andréanne for six minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank our witnesses for being with us this morning.

Your family stories of missing and murdered people are extremely moving.

I would also like to thank you for reminding us that your stories affect not only indigenous women and girls, but also men and boys.

I've travelled the road from Banff to Jasper, and Ms. Ferreri reminded me that there is no mobile phone coverage in this area. This is also the case in several other rural areas. We've already talked about this.

We're in solution mode here, and I'd like to hear your views on the following issues.

Why is it important, beyond the red dress alert on phones, to find a way of rallying other people?

I'm thinking, for example, of initiatives involving truckers who want to raise awareness, contribute to the fight against the disappearance and murder of indigenous women and girls and act as scouts.

I'm also thinking of certain initiatives in airports, such as the "Not In My City" awareness campaign.

We also want to make posters of missing and murdered people.

What do you see as a complement to the red dress alert on telephones to make sure you cover as many areas as possible and make up for certain shortcomings in cellphone coverage?

[Denise Halfyard]

I think you make a very good point about truckers being educated and assisting in this. My cousin Tamara has been missing. Her dad Tom is a trucker. He trucks from Terrace to Alberta and sometimes into Saskatchewan quite regularly. Yes, it would definitely be a huge help if they used their network to help get the word out when a woman goes missing.

I think there also needs to be a proper active list of women who are missing based on location. If I were to be, say, in Winnipeg and saw an active list of who's missing, I'd know who to look out for. Of course, that would be voluntary for anybody who wants to look, but I think you'll find that, for those of us doing the work already, it's something we would definitely look into.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Ms. Brown, would you like to add anything?

[Lorna Brown]

No.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Okay.

There's another interesting aspect, and that's the fact that the red dress alert is not an end in itself. We also need to be able to offer other education and prevention services, both upstream and further downstream, to make sure we support the victims.

You talked about the heavy administrative burden imposed on organizations that want to help survivors. One of the witnesses who took part in a previous meeting of this committee spoke to us about the recurrent nature of funding.

Predictable funding is important for organizations that want to support victims.

How important and essential is it to ensure the recurrence of funding to support organizations that help survivors or that work on prevention, so that the red dress alert can be properly implemented?

[Lorna Brown]

Yes, 100%. There needs to be funding. We have all of these meetings. I know it has been a frustration for family members that we're always having meetings, yet very little action is happening. We need to have funding for a call centre—or whatever that looks like for the red dress alert—and to implement it and train people, whether they're family members or other indigenous people working with non-indigenous people. It's about having a full balance of committee members, whether that's the RCMP where we are, or different policing.

Yes, it costs money to run these organizations. We need to act on that and come up with a plan that's actually going to work, then implement it. There needs to be continuous funding.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Ms. Halfyard, would you like to add anything?

[Denise Halfyard]

No, I think she said everything.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

In closing, I understand that we have to reduce the administrative burden on organizations and ensure that they are guaranteed funding. That's how we can sum it up. Both aspects are important.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Andréanne.

Leah, you have six minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much.

Thank you for travelling so far to be with us in committee today. Thank you also for sharing stories about your family. I know those stories are difficult and painful to share.

Lorna Brown, you mentioned that in the territory you're from there is resource extraction. Would you say that there is a lot of sex trafficking or sexual exploitation that's happening out of those resource extraction sites?

[Lorna Brown]

Yes, absolutely. We have heard so many stories of sometimes really young girls—as young as 15—being held up in hotel rooms for two and three days at a time. They're picking up young girls and doing whatever they want with them. We're also finding that there are lots of foreigners, who are new to the country, who are also coming in and picking up our young girls and doing the same thing. It is the extraction industry, but it's also new people coming into the country.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Our committee did a study on the connection between extractive industries and increased violence against indigenous women and girls.

I ask that question, because you also shared the fact that companies are coming in, not taking proper safety precautions, and also using the ongoing genocide against indigenous women and girls for financial purposes. Can you expand briefly on that? Then I have another follow-up question. It's deeply troubling.

[Lorna Brown]

Yes, it's interesting. I know in the one project.... I do have sons who work in the industry, and, obviously not every single person is a perpetrator. My son told me he saw me on his training video this morning. I wasn't really even aware, but the work we do on the Highway of Tears is used in industry to train. We actually try to hold the companies accountable, to see what they're actually doing.

I can think of an example. A few years ago my sister had word of a perpetrator who had assaulted a female police officer in Kamloops, I believe, and he was actually employed with this company in Kitimat. A bunch of grassroots women went there to hold the company accountable for—

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm sorry, but I have limited time.

Like I said in the study, this isn't about how you feel about resource extraction. Whether there's resource extraction or not, it needs to be safe, and it's not safe for women and girls, wherever you sit on that issue.

I ask that, because there are dead zones. First of all, there are dead cell zones. The second issue is that companies come in promising these digital technologies. These are companies that are already not taking precautions to make sure women and girls are safe, not fulfilling their promises. How is it important to put in legislation to hold these companies accountable? This is particularly because these agreements are generally made—sometimes tripartite, federally and provincially with the company—to hold them accountable for things like ensuring digital technology, holding governments to account to make sure, as a human rights matter, that there aren't dead zones.

In light of the extreme violence and sex trafficking, particularly in your area, how is this critical if we are going to make sure women are safe and can participate in a red dress...equally, like other people in different regions across the country?

[Lorna Brown]

Yes. You bring up a really good point. I know an indigenous woman who is actually holding the company accountable directly. Our women need support in doing that, whether that comes from a government level.... She is now fighting on her own as just one person. They definitely need to be held accountable for not providing a safe environment.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I feel concerned because this is really quite a serious human rights matter. We have all this money to support industry and building and we can't build cellphone towers to make sure that all the women going missing on the Highway of Tears.... If they're abducted, they literally have no way to communicate.

That was what first came to mind. If they are trying to escape, it's like there's nowhere for them to go, in the boondocks with no technology. How urgent is this?

[Lorna Brown]

Extremely urgent.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

We've known about the Highway of Tears forever. What is the feeling—