Status of Women Committee on April 26th, 2022

[Diane Redsky]

Sure. Again, this is rooted in.... You have resource communities parachuting in and staying for a short period of time, or even a long period of time—but there's a designated time. They're never going to be part of the community permanently. They're all temporary. Many of these industries are male-dominated, so now you're back to that formula of men with money who are transient. That's directly connected to violence and sexual exploitation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to move on to Leah Gazan.

Leah, you have two and a half minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

I think that's an important point: the hypersexualization of indigenous women. I brought that up during a committee—how, at Hallowe'en, there are costumes like the sexy squaw or the Pocahottie, and how we're hypersexualized, which makes us more susceptible and vulnerable to violence.

This segues into call for justice 3.7: “We call upon all governments to provide continual and accessible healing programs and support for all children of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people and their family members" and to develop a permanent fund that is “distinctions-based”.

Madame Varley, could you please speak to the importance of accessible and culturally relevant healing programs to support communities and families impacted by violence from transient workers involved in resource development projects?

[Leslie Varley]

What I see among many indigenous women impacted by violence, here in B.C., is that their spirits, souls and bodies are traumatized, and they pass down that trauma if they're not able to heal it or provided with the resources and supports needed to adequately culturally heal themselves. I don't mean accessing mainstream services or making everybody in mainstream service organizations polite...so that we can access it. I mean real healing that connects us back to our own culture and communities, and back to the land and our understanding of spirit and soul.

I think this is what is important, and it can't be done by mainstream organizations. It really has to be done within our indigenous communities.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much.

I want to end with Diane Redsky.

I know you are an icon in Winnipeg for indigenous-led and indigenous-driven solutions. Can you speak to the importance of having indigenous-led and indigenous-driven solutions?

[Diane Redsky]

Absolutely. In fact, that is one of the foundational principles in the urban sub-working group's national action plan, which I encourage you to read, because it talks about funding indigenous-led organizations. That's where the solutions are. All too often, non-indigenous organizations receive the funding.

The last thing I would add is that “distinctions-based” should be regardless of residency. Wherever you live, you should have access to funding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We're now going to go into our third round. We're back to six-minute rounds. We're going to start with Dominique Vien.

Dominique, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I also thank our guests.

I am fairly sure that all of my colleagues here, particularly those from the Conservative Party who sit with me on this important committee, support zero tolerance for violence against indigenous women and girls. My colleagues have said that and I will say it again. What I find unfortunate about what I have just heard and what I have also observed is this insensitivity that I feel from various stakeholders on this issue.

If I understood you correctly, Ms. Varley, the sector is not the only party responsible. If I have misunderstood you, please tell me. I see it as a shared responsibility. The industry is involved, as are the communities, the government, the local councillors, the bars and the police. It is, for me, a shared responsibility.

My question is for you, Ms. Varley.

If any of the other witnesses would like to add their views, I would be delighted to hear them.

If you could get all these people around a table today, who would do what and when? That is the question to ask. We need to get to work together, because the responsibility does not lie with any one group.

How do you see this shared responsibility and what duties would you give to each person affected by what indigenous women and girls are experiencing?

[Leslie Varley]

I suppose I would start in that room by reminding everyone that indigenous women are also human beings. They are subject to human rights, the same as every other Canadian in this country, and all the laws of violence against women and girls apply.

I would ask the police to work with us to make sure that they are complying with those laws to make it safer for indigenous women to report violence. I would ask the resource sectors to develop a zero tolerance policy for their workers to make sure that if there is any violence, they are outed. There doesn't have to be this burden of proof through the justice system where women have to take it, and are essentially revictimizing themselves going through the court process. We want to get rid of all that. If we have reports of violence from men working in the sector, then we move them out of that sector, and we don't get them back.

I would ask the resource sector to do in-depth reference checks and background checks on the people who are working in the sectors, so we're not bringing dangerous predators into the community to the degree that we are now.

I would ask the communities, municipalities, town councils and indigenous communities to collaborate and work together to ask themselves what they can do to support and protect women and girls, and to make sure that indigenous women and girls, in particular, are enjoying the same level of human rights protection that every other Canadian gets to enjoy.

What do we need to put in place in our communities to ensure that all of these processes are there?

Debbra, maybe you have more to add to that.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Ms. Greig, I don't know if you want to add something.

This all seems so simple to me. All it takes is leadership. Someone needs to ask all the leaders to look at the situation and look at it dispassionately, with a desire to change things.

Does this kind of committee, so simple to set up, exist where there is industry?

[Dr. Debbra Greig]

Can someone interpret for me, please?

[Diane Redsky]

If they're not doing it now, they're not doing it at all. If there is no interest in changing that, it needs to be forced. There needs to be some way in which that industry is mandated well in advance to work with communities to identify all of the impacts that its presence is going to have for the entire community in all aspects, and then create that common table to problem-solve issues pertaining to all of them.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Ladies, do you think that, as part of the impact assessments that are being advocated, we should assess a company that wants to come in from the perspective of gender differentiation and the protection of indigenous women?

Is this a good idea, a good direction to go in? Do you believe in it?

My question is for Ms. Varley.

[Leslie Varley]

I'm sorry, do you mean the history of the indigenous group, the land, the people or the history of the company? I'm not sure what your question is.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls talks about the possibility of doing impact assessments before a project takes hold. I'm paraphrasing.

It proposes impact studies, not only environmental, but also studies on the socio-economic aspect and on the presence of women. The idea would be to look at a project through the lens of women's protection and gender differentiation to see what kind of impact a project may have on men, on women and on indigenous women.

Do you believe in this?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'll give you about 15 seconds to reply to that.

[Leslie Varley]

Absolutely, yes, I do.

Of course, protecting indigenous women and protecting all women and girls is going to benefit all of society. It's not going to harm anybody to add further protection for us. It's going to enhance and improve society.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Greig seems to be having trouble getting the interpretation. Could we have somebody from IT call her and work that through?

I do know that we have votes this evening as well and there's lots coming up. We have a vote at 5:45 and I don't want to delay too many things.

Perhaps we can switch over to Jenna for her six minutes, if that's okay.

Jenna, if you have something specific for Ms. Greig, then you could ask it in the latter part of your six minutes. I'll pass the floor over to you.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Thank you very much to the chair.

My sincere thanks go to the witnesses who have joined us today. I'm learning a lot, to be completely candid. I really appreciate the expertise and the insights you're sharing with us.

I think I'll start with Ms. Varley.

I had read a bit about some of the various prevention programs that you run at the association of friendship centres. Obviously, we're hearing today about demanding zero tolerance for violence against women from the resource sector.

I'm wondering if you can speak to some of the prevention programs that you have tried. This is twofold: What is the impact and what else you would like to be doing or would you suggest be done?

[Leslie Varley]

We've had many project-based funds to develop some capacity. We've worked with indigenous youth, for example, to teach them about their body and their agency over their own body and how they get to decide if and when somebody gets to touch them and how. We've spent some time doing that, but that was through project-based funding and that's over.

We've done a lot of research work looking at the sex trafficking of indigenous girls who are sometimes in our housing projects or in our poorer neighbourhoods and who are being targeted by traffickers. We've worked with those women and girls to try to teach them how to protect their bodies and protect themselves and how to seek help and resources.

A telephone company has very generously donated to us 1,000 phones with talk and text so that if indigenous women and girls are reduced to having to hitchhike to and from their community into a local town or wherever, then they hopefully have some safety. Sometimes that works. Oftentimes, there are dead spots. There are still very many dead spots in B.C. for cellular service, so that's not always applicable.

Recently, we started to develop some training and capacity for indigenous women to provide anti-violence support services to indigenous women and girls. Generally in B.C. it is not the case that you can call a helpline and get an indigenous person on the end of it. One of the areas we've been really working on lately is developing our own capacity to provide services by and for indigenous women and girls.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

That's amazing. Thank you so much. Obviously, it's incredibly important work.

For my next question I'd like to just follow up with Ms. Redsky.

Previously one of my colleagues asked you a question about how government, families and partners can all work together as a community in order to develop community-based solutions to best support indigenous women and girls. I think your answer was along the lines of forcing or mandating the resource industry to work with the community proactively.

That was a very stark statement, and I'd really love for you to build on that. What does that look like to be really impactful?

[Diane Redsky]

Thank you for following up on that.

I'd like to begin by saying that most of industry.... It has been very rare. In fact, in my entire career, I've heard of only one in Quebec who actually made an effort to be proactive in their impact on the community, socially, to the environment, and so on. That tells me a lot. Why aren't others doing it?

I think it's a resource problem. It eventually cuts into the bottom line because it will take investments of resources, enough money, in order to do it well. I do think we have to mandate impact assessments for the environment, and I would say a social impact assessment should be added to that with the full engagement of the communities in the surrounding areas and then there should be adequate resources to problem solve and invest in those solutions and they should be part of the whole package that is mandated.

Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 20 seconds left.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

That's incredible. I think I'll leave it there. I appreciate the fulsome answer and the amazing work that you're all doing. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks very much, Jenna.

We're now going to move over to Andréanne.

Andréanne, you have the floor for six minutes.