Status of Women Committee on May 3rd, 2022

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 17 of Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on Tuesday, February 1, the committee will resume its study of resource development and violence against indigenous women and girls.

Today’s meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House Order of November 25, 2021. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application. Per the directive of the Board of Internal Economy on March 10, 2022, all those attending the meeting in person must wear a mask, except for members who are at their place during proceedings.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses and members. Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mike and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. For interpretation for those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen you have the choice of floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel. I'll remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

I would really like to welcome our witnesses for this part of our study. I know that two of our witnesses are online. We're working to get our third online.

On our witness panel today, we have, as an individual, Ellen Gabriel, indigenous land defender from Kanesatake. From the National Family and Survivors Circle, we have Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, chair. We're still working on the York Factory First Nation. As soon as we see that they're online, we'll be introducing and welcoming them.

We'll be providing five minutes for opening comments to all of the witnesses. You'll see me start waving my green pen to let you know to wrap it up. I'll just put up a little note or try to cut you off. I'll give you a one-minute warning.

I am now going to turn to floor over to Ellen.

Welcome. You have the floor for five minutes.

[Ellen Gabriel, Indigenous Land Defender from Kanehsatà:ke, As an Individual]

[Witness spoke in Mohawk]

[English]

Greetings, everybody. I am from the Kanienkehaka Mohawk community of Kanesatake, which is an hour north of Montreal. Thank you for inviting me to be part of this process.

The right to dignity and security of life are part of the hallmarks of the enjoyment of human rights. All human rights are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent, a fact that complements indigenous people' laws and customs.

For decades, indigenous women have been active participants in the protection and promotion of our human rights, and those of our families and nations. We have been at the helm of positive changes for equality and equity with regard to indigenous peoples' human rights.

From the Mohawk women who stood on the front lines on July 11, 1990, without weapons, against a paramilitary force comprised of the SQ and army—a SWAT team—to the Tiny House Warriors and the Wet’suwet’en women, brutalized by a paramilitary trained RCMP force, we are active participants in the defence of our human rights, our homelands, families and nations. Despite this, we remain marginalized under the systemically racist framework of the Indian Act that continues to define who we are as peoples and who decides who is a legitimate person to speak.

While there have been many nice words declaring the respect of indigenous peoples' human rights through legislation to protect indigenous languages or to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, there still remains no change in the status quo. Legislation must be based on a human rights perspective, not solely on words or funding. Instead, we are forced into quotas, numbers and time frames, rather than the cost of damages to our family units, languages, lands, culture and governing structures.

Systemic racism forces us into Canada’s costly court system as the colonial praxis remains the basis of our relationship. The brutality of colonialism should be a thing of the past but, sadly, it is not. In fact, when I spoke to former minister of indigenous affairs Carolyn Bennett to request a moratorium on development in Kanesatake or Oka, she said, no, and if I didn't like it, I should take them to court.

Indigenous women land defenders are made more vulnerable by man camps and a society ignorant of the multi-generational impacts of trauma. Again, we are denied the enjoyment of our rights through costly court systems.

I know I have only five minutes. I will skip some of my presentation. I'm letting the interpreters know.

In order for indigenous peoples' languages, cultures and identities to survive, we must have access to our lands and resources. The rights to development threaten our existence as indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. Indigenous peoples must constantly fight to protect our lands, waters and natural resources.

Now is the time to put action into words. There has to be a movement to bring the political rhetoric to a decolonial framework and relationship in order to help indigenous peoples, protect them on the front lines, and protect our security and who we are as the first peoples of Turtle Island.

Canada and its provinces must work together to create genuine reconciliation. We are proud of the many survivors of the Indian residential schools who courageously gave public testimonies of the abuses they suffered as children by government and church entities. We cannot forget the thousands of indigenous children who never came home and whose bodies lie in unmarked graves across Canada.

From the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the commission on murdered and missing indigenous women, we know the way forward. We know what needs to be done. These recommendations need to be implemented, and not just through legislation. It is the cultural bureaucracy of Canada and its provinces that has been the most negligent in its duty to uphold the highest standards of human rights and to implement these recommendations.

As indigenous land defenders, we do not seek power. We are mindful that our needs cannot interfere with the needs of present and future generations, the faces not yet born. Without access to our lands, we cannot transmit traditional knowledge of our languages, our cultures and our governing structures. We are trying to protect the land and waters for the present and future generations.

I want to say something about due diligence, which I learned from Sheryl Lightfoot, who is a professor at UBC. Due diligence is preventative. The purpose of due diligence is, first and foremost, to avoid causing or contributing to adverse impacts on indigenous peoples, the environment and society, and to seek to prevent adverse impacts directly linked to operations, products or services through business relationships.

We need to have good intentions become actions. We no longer need rhetoric. We need to stop the police brutality that is done on behalf of corporations that do not respect indigenous people's human rights and our rights to self-determination.

Thank you for listening to me. Skén:nen—wishing you all peace.

[Witness spoke in Mohawk]

These are my words.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much. We appreciate that.

We're now going to move over to Hilda Anderson-Pyrz from the National Family and Survivors Circle.

Make sure you take your time. You have a glass of water there if you need it. We'll work through this.

I'll turn the floor over to you.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, Chair, National Family and Survivors Circle]

I wasn't actually sure if I'd have a voice to do this, because of my throat thing going on right now.

I want to acknowledge that I'm coming to you from Treaty No. 1 territory. I'm Cree from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation.

I want to share about the National Family Survivors Circle.

We're a group of amazing indigenous women from across Canada who were brought together in August 2020 to support the development of the national action plan. We're really looking forward to continuing this important, sacred work that we have. We use our strength and expertise as family members and survivors of gender-based violence to advocate for the process that is moving forward with respect to the national inquiry's final report into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

All actions must come from a rights-based approach. Everyone has the right to live in dignity and safety and to maintain and practise their identity and culture. Under international human rights law, states are obligated to do everything they can to ensure that rights essential to individual and collective well-being, such as the rights to education, health and livelihood and the right to live free from violence, can be fully realized in the lives of all people without discrimination.

All governments are expected to take every reasonable measure to stop human rights violations, including preventing crimes and abuses committed by private actors such as corporations and individuals. Where rights have been violated, states have an obligation to ensure justice by acknowledging the harm, assisting the victims in their recovery and preventing the harms from being repeated.

When resource development is occurring indigenous communities do not have the infrastructure, leadership capacity or expertise to respond to the rapid social changes, violence and population growth. Consequently, local resources are drained dealing with crime, substance abuse, health problems and the stress placed on human service organizations and public services due to increased demand for services and an insufficient capacity to meet those demands. Increased social responsibility by the state and companies that are profiting from resource extraction must be mandatory in all agreements.

Many reports have clearly demonstrated the intersectionality of resource development and violence against indigenous women and girls and to 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, yet recommendations fail to be implemented and the violence continues.

Sherene Razack identifies resource extraction as the heart of colonial violence. She goes on to say that while white men are not explicitly mentioned and it is only the “transient worker” when referring to mining camp workers, we know there is a culture of impunity in this location. Racism in the oil patch can be obvious and sometimes subtle. It is important to ask, what does the violence do? What is it about? Why is racism and violence such an everyday, anticipated activity of resource extraction? Colonial histories have led to this. It is a genocidal impulse.

Drawing from Sherene Razack's work, she also identified that it is critical to understand how colonial power is imprinted on indigenous bodies. It is the raw material for the making of the settler state and from which it manufactures power. Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people should never suffer for the state's economic prosperity.

It is often the voices of those who are most impacted that are absent from the table, and the silence is deafening for those who are being victimized during resource development projects. Indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people must be part of advisory circles from the territory where resource extraction is occurring, and safety and accountability mechanisms must be included in all legally binding agreements.

The National Family and Survivors Circle has identified four pillars in their contribution to the national action plan. These four pillars are fundamental in properly applying the principles of change from the national inquiry final report and should be utilized in all resource agreements.

The pillar of inclusion is the full and informed involvement of MMIWG2S families and survivors of gender-based violence. It centres their lived experience and recognizes their agency, knowledge, experience and expertise as valuable and as a key part of the information guiding all decisions.

The principle of interconnectedness reflects and reinforces the indigenous understanding that everyone and everything has a purpose. The root cause of violence, as well as the solutions for ending it, are also interconnected. It is the lived experience of families and survivors that is the thread that brings to light the root causes and the solutions.

For accountability, there must be the will to support and carry out transformative change at all levels. Mechanisms and forums to report on actions taken are essential to hold all governments, agencies and organizations accountable.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Hilda, I know you have only one more pillar. We are way over time, so would you just mention the last pillar?

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

It is impact and creating meaningful impact at multiple levels to effectively build, gain and sustain the momentum required for the transformative change needed to end the genocide.

In the written part of it, I shared links to the reports.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

I'd like to welcome Martina Saunders from the York Factory First Nation. She is the community engagement coordinator.

You weren't here when I began, but you'll have five minutes to speak. I'll start getting you to wrap up and then I'll interrupt when you do need to stop.

I'm going to pass the floor over to you, Martina. You have it for five minutes.

[Martina Saunders, Community Engagement Coordinator, York Factory First Nation]

Good afternoon to everyone who is joining us today.

My name is Martina Saunders. I am an Ininew Iskwew—a Cree woman—from York Factory First Nation. I am appearing before you today on behalf of York Factory First Nation and the MMIWG2S+ implementation committee of Manitoba.

As many of you may be aware, York Factory First Nation entered a partnership with Manitoba Hydro on the Keeyask project on the Nelson River of the Treaty 5 territory in northern Manitoba. Our first nation was focused on bettering the livelihood of our Cree nation when we participated as best we could in the project planning and environmental assessment process of the Keeyask project.

York Factory First Nation quickly learned that covert and overt racism, sexism, homophobia and sexual violence was being experienced by our indigenous women and two-spirit people in these hydroelectric projects as a result of this historic and ongoing relationship with Manitoba Hydro. Not only have our young women and two-spirit people experienced these human rights abuses, our women—including me—have faced bullying, harassment, racism and discrimination by industry workers at the corporate offices of Manitoba Hydro in the urban centre of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

These acts of violence and human rights abuses occurred decades ago and as recently as a few years ago.

These experiences have caused a lot of harm and trauma and have impacted our people in horrific ways. We continue to call on the provincial and territorial governments to act on our calls for a public inquiry into the racism, harassment, discrimination and sexual violence in hydroelectric development projects in northern Manitoba.

We need to examine and understand the structural and systemic factors that continue to harm our people, but most importantly, our murdered and missing indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. We ask that gender-based analysis be a part of all industry approval assessment processes, which will allow us to view any proposed resource extraction project through an indigenous world view, way of being and with a decolonized approach.

Those are the notes that I've put together. I don't know if I used my five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have about a minute left.

We can end now if you want to take more questions, but if you do have a couple of things, go for it.

[Martina Saunders]

Okay, I'll end now.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you, Martina.

What we're going to do now is start our rounds of questions. For each party there will be six minutes provided for the the first round.

We're going to start off with Michelle Ferreri.

Michelle, you have six minutes for questions. I'll pass the floor over to you.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

On record, I'd love to have it said that we want to do this study so that we can invest in resource development to reduce poverty, to put resources into the communities, but that we also have to do due diligence so that no one is harmed and so that these companies are held to account.

My first question is for you, Martina. The national inquiry’s call for justice 13.4 calls for, at a minimum, a public inquiry into the sexual violence and racism at hydroelectric projects in northern Manitoba. Can you explain the importance of holding a public inquiry into the violence and racism at these projects?

[Martina Saunders]

It's important that we examine these human rights abuses so that these atrocities don't happen again. We need to understand that, coming from an indigenous perspective and being marginalized in northern Manitoba, there is a lack of resources like education, health care, things that would help us to live better lives. We're at a disadvantage in northern Manitoba.

It's hard to understand when these acts of violence are happening to us, and we want to join the broader conversation on how resource development impacts indigenous people, not only in Manitoba or through Manitoba Hydro but in Canada or across the globe.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much, Martina. I hear accountability, for sure. That is critical.

Ellen, if I could move to you, one of the policies that we'd like to see on the Conservative side is “for indigenous, by indigenous” being involved in the conversations and being leaders at the table on the decisions that are made.

What types of activities could help mitigate the impacts of temporary work camps and worker influxes, in your opinion?

[Ellen Gabriel]

That's a really good question. If there were real respect for free, prior and informed consent, that kind of process, that would save a lot of people a lot of trouble. It's part of the international human rights norms to understand what is going on, how it is going to impact our rights as indigenous peoples and how it is going to impact the environment, because part of indigenous law is to protect the environment.

It's really simple. It's sitting down and having everybody who is a rights holder able to make a decision on what kind of development takes place on our territories, on our lands, and what the consequences are, and for businesses to understand that we have the right to withhold consent if we feel it is a serious infraction and has serious consequences to the environment and to the health and well-being of the people.

There has to be a real effort to be able to understand indigenous peoples' perspectives when it comes to this.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you very much.

I'm going to switch to Hilda. I know I don't have much time

Hilda, obviously some key priorities of our government right now are housing, transportation and economic development. These are critical for everybody. Especially in the more rural areas of Canada, transportation is critical.

How could the Government of Canada help to ensure indigenous women and girls living in communities close to resource extraction projects have increased access to shelters if they need to escape violence?

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

I think that, first of all, shelters have to be built in the communities, because many of the first nations across this country, even in rural locations, do not have shelters. Shelters are very limited, so I think that's the first step, ensuring that there are shelters built so that victims can have access to that support. I would recommend that be the first initial step, as is providing not only for the infrastructure for building but for operational requirements as well, such as training of staff who are working in those shelters to be able to fully support victims who come forward.

I would say that the reality is that there aren't many shelters across the country, especially when we're looking at indigenous communities where we see major resource projects occurring, so the first step is investing in the building of shelters, the infrastructure, the operational dollars and the training of staff.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

I'm now going to pass the floor to Jenna Sudds, who's online.

Jenna, you have the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

My sincere thanks to Ellen, Hilda and Martina for being here. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your wisdom as we go through this study and for the important work, of course, that you are doing.

My first question is for Martina.

You very eloquently said how important it is that indigenous views are reflected as resource-extraction projects are considered. You referenced the colonized approach. I would love for you to take a minute to further expand on your statements.

[Martina Saunders]

A decolonized approach—not a colonized approach—would include our Cree world view if we come from my Cree nation.

When I look at it in the context of having a public inquiry, it's being validated. It's having our stories heard. That brings healing for our people. We can't move forward if these abuses and acts of sexual violence are not acknowledged by the government and by industry, by Manitoba Hydro.

We need to use an indigenous approach. What that means to us is including ceremony and practising our culture when we're doing this work, making sure that it's a trauma-informed approach and not bringing more harm to victims of sexual violence. In doing it this way, using our protocols that we follow in ceremony and that are meaningful to us in our culture, that is how we see it as healing. Acknowledge it.

For apologies to happen to people who are harmed and.... Of course, we know it doesn't stop only at the person who was harmed, but it impacts the family system. It impacts the whole community. It impacts the whole nation. It isn't just these individual acts of violence. When we use our culture and ceremony, it includes all of those. It isn't just for one.

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

You mentioned the family unit. I noticed, as I was reading a bit about the work that's happening at York Factory First Nation with the aboriginal head start program. I'm wondering if you can speak to the impact this has had in the community.

[Martina Saunders]

With regard to the impact it's had in the community, I've seen this project from different angles. I've been home most recently, and we have a huge problem with addiction in our community. I can see how it's impacted the different groups in the community. When I visit my mother, I can see the impacts that the addictions have on her. I have spent some time with her recently. Prior to this, I didn't notice those changes.

Being home most recently, I can see how it's changed people. There has been a lot of family breakdown. We recently lost one of our family members through violence and alcohol and addiction. It's very sad to see that. Of course, this impacts our children. It impacts the young people.

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

Of course. I'm sorry to hear how it's impacted your family.

I know that I don't have much time left, but I want to quickly go to Ellen, if I may.

Ellen, you made the comment that “we have the right to withhold consent” when it comes to projects and protecting the environment. I'd like to hear your perspective on how to go about achieving that as projects are being proposed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'll let you know, Ellen, that you have about 20 seconds to answer.

[Ellen Gabriel]

The right to have some sort of legal remedy is also included in free, prior and informed consent, as I said. In terms of development, we're living through a climate crisis. I think part of the deal is that we should be assimilating you into indigenous laws, customs and protocols, because it's always us who have to fit into the box.

Thank you.