Thank you.
The second thing I want to bring up is violence within the justice system.
We often look to the justice system to solve violence. However, particularly for indigenous people, the justice system perpetrates violence. I want to read this very quickly. It's about Kinew James, who was incarcerated. Some of this comes from her family.
It says:
The family of Kinew James hopes the inquest into her death will take into account everything about her treatment during the nearly 15 years she spent in Canada's correctional institutions.
James died of an apparent heart attack in 2013 while in custody at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon.
An inquest into her death began Monday....
Then it talks about what happened before. I'm going to read this part.
It says:
Before that January day, she suffered from several ailments, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.
Her brother, Cecil James, said those were not pre-existing conditions when she was sentenced for manslaughter nearly 15 years earlier.
Cecil also said his sister's treatment inside the prison—specifically the time she spent in specialized confinement away from other prisoners—needs to be taken into account.
In 2013, Kinew's family said she complained of chest pains in the days leading up to her death. Inmates in neighbouring cells also alleged staff ignored her calls
An investigation into her death already found a nurse took too long to call a Code Blue after finding her unresponsive in her cell.
Kinew was nearing the end of a 15-year-sentence for manslaughter when she was transferred to Saskatoon. The 35-year-old had been transferred from the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Ontario after speaking out about guards who she said were smuggling in goods in exchange for sexual favours.
We're talking about sexual violence. I shared that because I'm concerned about the misrepresentation of prisons as “luxury”, when we know there's a lot of sexual violence that occurs in prisons. It's particularly concerning to me because a lot of women end up there as an indirect result of violence they're experiencing in intimate partner relationships. They make choices to avoid violence and end up being incarcerated.
I know the Elizabeth Fry Society did a report. In Manitoba right now, 85% of incarcerated persons are indigenous. Women who have had a life of gender-based violence are now incarcerated in places where systems are perpetrating gender-based violence.
What's being done about that? I feel like we don't talk about it.