Status of Women Committee on March 1st, 2022

[Angela Brass, Coordinator, UMatter Program, Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc.]

Hi there.

The UMatter program focuses on teen dating violence prevention, adding the indigenous teachings to it to bring that awareness to them. So far, it has been going very well, having the elder do the teachings for the youth and the young adults. It has been very beneficial.

We've had a lot of the youth disclose to us some of the things they've seen and experienced, which is a big step, but I feel that they've built that comfort with having the elder passing on the indigenous teachings to the youth.

So far, our program has been very beneficial for the Winnipeg inner-city area.

That's really all I had to bring forward today. If there are any questions—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I'm now going to move the floor over to Wahbung Abinoonjiiag, and Angie Hutchinson.

Angie, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Angie Hutchinson, Executive Director, Wahbung Abinoonjiiag Inc.]

Tansi, and good afternoon.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson and honourable members of Parliament, for the opportunity to present to the committee today.

I join you today from Winnipeg, Treaty 1 territory. These lands have been stewarded by the Anishinabe, Cree, Dakota and Oji-Cree nations for millennia, and it is the homeland of the Métis nation.

I also acknowledge Treaty 3 territory and Shoal Lake first nation. Shoal Lake is the primary water source for Winnipeg.

My name is Angie Hutchinson, and I am the executive director at Wahbung Abinoonjiiag.

Wahbung Abinoonjiiag is an indigenous non-profit organization established to empower children and their families to end the cycle of violence. Wahbung Abinoonjiiag provides opportunities for holistic healing and support to children, youth, individuals and families to thrive through the support of programming and services that are rooted within indigenous ways of knowing.

Our programming is directed by the expressed needs of the community, gathered through community councils and community connections. At its heart, it's a relationship-based connection to community.

Wahbung Abinoonjiiag holds the vision of a place and time where children and their families can live free from violence and unrestrained by the impacts of violence. To achieve this vision, Wahbung Abinoonjiiag creates a community that wraps around children and their families to nurture their healing and well-being so that they can take their rightful places within the world and the future.

The truth and reconciliation calls for action speak to the restoration, revitalization and strengthening of indigenous cultures by and for indigenous peoples through the provision of culturally relevant services on issues such as family violence and indigenous-specific victim services programming.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples uphold that indigenous people have the right to self-determination, including social and cultural development. Indigenous people have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their history, languages, oral traditions and philosophies.

The national inquiry calls for justice support the revitalization of indigenous health and wellness care practices through land-based teachings and ceremonies and supporting indigenous-led initiatives for individual, families and communities to access cultural knowledge as a strength-based way to support cultural reclamation and revitalization.

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples notes that understanding inequality and power imbalances lie not only in relationships but also within structural violence.

Family violence cannot be addressed as a singular problem but rather requires addressing the root causes of inequity, including racism and patriarchy as contributing factors to family violence in addition to addressing the dynamics and behaviours of violence within relationships.

The insidious impacts of the settler-colonial process across Turtle Island have been devastating for indigenous families, communities and nations. The intentional and systematic destruction of indigenous sovereignty and self-determination was undertaken through the destruction of families and communities through the removal of children through the residential schools, the sixties scoop era and the ongoing devastation of the child welfare system. These historical and ongoing systems of oppression are intended to strip away a sense of belonging and strength, disrupting families and communities, and they continue to have negative and damaging impacts on the well-being of indigenous communities.

Wahbung Abinoonjiiag creates a community of support for individuals, families and communities healing from violence for current and future generations.

Indigenous ways of healing are holistic and inclusive. Wahbung Abinoonjiiag honours that participants are the experts in their own experiences and that understanding one's healing journey is not a time-bound nor a linear process but rather would be reflective, flexible and responsive to experiences. Healing requires humility, patience and wisdom.

An aspect common to many indigenous nations is the connection to relationship building, community and kinship ties. It is with this understanding that healing for children cannot take place without the healing of families and communities. Programming needs to move beyond narrowly defined criteria and have the ability and flexibility to be responsive and rooted within relationship-based approaches. We must see the child as the centre of families and communities, and healing opportunities for children are intimately connected to healing for all of those around them.

Kinanâskomitin. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to move over to Melanie with the Women of the Métis Nation.

Melanie, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Melanie Omeniho, President, Women of the Métis Nation - Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak]

Good afternoon.

My name is Melanie Omeniho and I am the president of Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak. I'd like to bring greetings on behalf of my board of directors and staff. I am located right now in the land of Treaty 6 and the Métis motherland, and am found in Edmonton at this time.

We implement our vision and mandate through national advocacy for distinctions-based, culturally relevant policies that are intended to improve the lives and well-being of Métis women, children, families and communities. We apply a gendered, intersectional approach to the views and equitable access for an equality of outcomes through a Métis gendered lens, considering our historical and contemporary Métis women's roles and acknowledging that gender and culture are inseparable.

It is also through this approach that we have developed the gender-based analysis that we work with. Preventing violence and abuse against Métis women, children and two-spirited and gender-diverse people has been a priority for Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak since its very inception. In addition to consistently engaging in activities to promote Métis women's leadership, LFMO undertakes many activities to end gender-based violence and intimate partner violence.

From our perspective, gender-based violence is not a women's issue; rather, it is an issue that requires a whole lot of society response to end this grim reality. Over the last few years, much of our work has been dedicated to developing our report, which we call “Weaving Miskotahâ”. It is the Métis nation's journey to ending violence and missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.

We are currently undertaking the development of the Métis nation action plan to implement our plan. In addition to our ongoing work on missing and murdered women, girls and 2SLGBT people, LFMO has undertaken the development of a gender-based violence tool kit. Our tool kit is strength-based and incorporates principles of lateral kindness. When we use these lenses, we hold in balance the acknowledgement of our challenges while celebrating our resilience and strength, those positive characteristics that have helped us to overcome for generations and keep going and thriving through our adversity. This is relentless work, but our mission will always remain to see a world where Métis women from across the Métis nation motherland are safe, respected, connected and empowered, and have the capacity to work with Canadian Métis governments, agencies and organizations to help create the conditions for healthy, vibrant and productive communities.

The lack of understanding of Métis identity and the misrepresentation of indigenous women have been reflected in their stereotypical media portrayals, which have led to their continued dehumanization and mistreatment in Canadian society. Gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, against Métis women does not exist in a vacuum. It is a reaction that is a result of colonization, toxic masculinity and imposing patriarchal values and norms. Popular culture, including televison shows, movies and video games, has situated Métis women and girls as uncivilized, hypersexualized and disposable.

When accessing services, Métis women, girls and gender-diverse people have continually faced racism that is distinct from the racism experienced by first nations and Inuit women, girls and gender-diverse people. The racism is often due to a lack of information about Métis women's experiences. One way that LFMO promotes ending violence with respect is through our “She is Indigenous” campaign, and we are going to continue to work with our grandmothers and elders to help make sure that there are kinship and community programs and cornerstones to healing.

We are going to develop, with an emphasis on education and awareness.... To help change this, we need to involve men and boys in these conversations, and we will continue to do this in a culturally relevant manner.

I thank you for this opportunity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that as well.

We'll start off our first six-minute round of questions. We'll pass it over to Dominique, who is online.

Dominique, you have the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Greetings to my colleagues.

Ladies, thank you for your top notch presentation.

Ms. Brass, you left us a little wanting. Obviously, I'm very interested in the program you set up, uMatter. What I find interesting is that you've brought generations together, that is, elders welcome the younger ones to pass on their knowledge and science.

How does it work? How is it organized? Who participates? Is participation voluntary?

I'm giving you the opportunity to tell us more about what is going on at home. It's significant and intriguing. All the initiatives presented in our study must be, or can be, exportable. That's what I want to check with you.

Thank you for making our mouths water, but we would need a little more detail on this experience.

[Angela Brass]

Hi there. Thank you for being so intrigued. I apologize for the lack of information earlier.

My program is Ka Ni Kanichihk Incorporation in central Winnipeg. We run various programs out of our organization that deal with the youth and with young adults. The youngest youth we've presented to has been nine years old, and the oldest youths we've presented to have been up to, I believe, the age of 26. These are after-school programs that Ka Ni Kanichihk provides for the inner-city indigenous people in the core of the city where there are more low-income individuals.

We use the programs that are run out of Ka Ni Kanichihk to present to them—the UMatter program. The program has been around for two years, but unfortunately because of COVID we had to stop presenting the program. Now that we have finally been able to present, it's been almost every evening from Monday to Friday. I have an elder who comes in with me and we tag-team or take turns. She will provide an indigenous teaching to our youth, who are urban youth, because they haven't had the opportunity to learn these traditions here in the city. We get to provide that knowledge that they've been lacking as youth living in the city. They soak it in. They love it.

With what she talks about with her indigenous teachings, I incorporate the statistics and some of the things we see that are very violent—like in our music, in our social media, our movies, our video games and things like that. We're able to relate to the youth so that they have an understanding of how much teen dating violence there is. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit with indigenous people, because we have those traumas that have been passed down from generation to generation. It's educating our youth with these types of programs that have been very beneficial so far.

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

Are these teachings directly related to your indigenous resources, to your lived experience, to what is intrinsically connected to you?

[Angela Brass]

It's not me directly. However, have I used some of my past traumas as examples with the youth? Yes, of course I have. Has the elder I work with used her past traumas as well? Yes, she has. This is how our inner-city youth, our urban indigenous youth, are able to relate to us. They're able to relate to their own families with some of their horrific passed-down traumas they've had to deal with as well.

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

Ms. Brass, thank you very much for the clarifications.

Ms. Hutchinson, as I understand it, you do the same type of activity. You talk about programs and services that are rooted in the indigenous way of life. Did I understand correctly? Is that really the basic premise of your activities?

[Angie Hutchinson]

All of our programming at Wahbung Abinoonjiiag is rooted within indigenous ways of knowing, so that is a big part of how we are uplifting indigenous knowledge. Unfortunately, a lot of the time we face challenges in wanting to deliver indigenous-based programming that's rooted within our world views, our understanding and our connection to relationships and how that fits within funding criteria or reporting measurements, because they're two different world views.

One is often very quantitative and lacks an understanding of intimate relationships; those are relationships with self, with families and with communities. We see individuals who come to Wahbung Abinoonjiiag as whole beings who exist not in terms of specific criteria tied to one program. So whether it be their link specifically to a program that supports individuals who have—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excuse me. We are past the six minutes by quite a few seconds here.

We are going to pass it over now to Jenna Sudds.

Jenna you have your six minutes, and perhaps that can be discussed in the next round as well. Thank you.

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

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses for joining us today. It's certainly an important topic, and we appreciate your contributions today.

I'm going to start with Ms. Hutchinson. I am intrigued by the focus on community, which our witnesses on our previous panel today spoke as well. You also mentioned your approach, which involves the wraparound services for the child and family, to them from that perspective. I'd love to hear a bit more about the focus and the outcomes of that approach of wrapping around the family.

[Angie Hutchinson]

Thank you. I will note that I am getting—

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

Yes, there are connectivity problems.

[Angie Hutchinson]

If you are able to hear me, that wraparound approach—if I understood the question, because it cut out a little bit—is absolutely essential. Healing is not done on an individual basis; nor is it done on a specific trauma basis, such as family violence or intimate partner violence.

As has been mentioned by a number of folks who have spoken today, there's a larger kind of context of the historical factors that have contributed to the levels of violence we now see being faced within indigenous communities. The individual is seen within a larger family unit structure and a larger community unit structure, and when one individual starts to undertake that healing process, there are ripple effects through the community and through their families. Those go both ways. It's that reciprocal understanding of that intimate connection of community, relationship and kinship ties that is rooted within who we are as indigenous people and in the way we move through the world.

Just the very fact of having wraparound supports and seeing individuals as part of larger units within families and communities is uplifting indigenous ways of knowing and being. It's the way we move through the world, and that's how we approach all of our aspects of healing as well.

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

Thank you very much for that.

I actually have one more question for you, Angie. From preparing for today and reading a bit about the amazing work you do, it's my understanding that you do offer transitional housing for up to one year. I'd like to ask how that program is going, what the availability is and what the demand is like.

[Angie Hutchinson]

Absolutely.

Our transitional housing is available. We say up to one year, but again it's rooted within that individual's experience. So we're responsive in our understanding that we're not setting a specific timeline so that in one year or 365 days folks are out the door. We understand that housing supply is a huge challenge. There may be housing that's available, but it's not a safe place for that individual to go, so we have to work and walk alongside that individual to find safe and stable housing that's affordable. Having affordable housing is a huge barrier to being able to have a permanent place to call your home, and we definitely see a huge challenge for family units. Larger family units require larger apartments or housing units. There's a huge gap in what's available within the housing supply right now.

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

Thank you very much.

I have a question for Melanie.

You stated that gender-based violence is not a women's issue and you also later commented on the importance of involving men and boys. I'd love it if you could expand upon that, particularly how you're engaging men and boys as part of the solution.

[Melanie Omeniho]

Part of our role, of course, our mandate, is to work with Métis women and gender-diverse people, so we try really hard to work with them, and we also work with the other Métis nation organizations and governments to start bringing in opportunities for a change of attitude. None of us, much like the previous person said, live in isolation from each other, and the only way that we're ever going to change how things work is to change the dynamic of how people see each other.

Gender-based violence was not a normal part of our society in the early stages of our community, so one of the things that we are doing is working on developing programs and encouraging our various Métis nation regional organizations to start looking at things as more than a bystander and helping to understand how to change the attitude of people. We also have a She Is Indigenous program to help lift up women and demonstrate the important role they play in our communities so that men do not see us as a disposable part of society and we're not an objectified part of what our community is. Those are things that we try to develop to try to change how men perceive women, because it isn't just indigenous men who need to have re-education on who women are. It's all men.

Thank you.

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

Absolutely. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Awesome. Thank you so much.

We're now going to turn it over to Andréanne.

You have six minutes, Andréanne.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much to the three witnesses on our second panel.

Ms. Brass, Ms. Hutchinson and Ms. Omeniho, I have a question for each of you.

First, Ms. Hutchinson, in your opening remarks you mentioned the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. I would like to know if you have any more specific recommendations to make.

You mentioned a few suggestions, but in terms of the report, what could be introduced to work on this issue of domestic violence and intimate partner violence?

[Angie Hutchinson]

Thank you.

Programming that is indigenous-led and developed and available through the community at the direction of the community has been mentioned a number of times.

Individuals are the experts of their own lives and when we work with a community to understand the expressed needs of a community, community-based organizations such as Wahbung Abinoonjiiag are then able to respond and provide [Technical difficulty—Editor]. We often see a mistrust of systems. Family violence services and indigenous victim services rooted within systems like the justice system or policing system are not trusted and folks are not going to reach out to those systems. They are going to come to folks whom they have relationships with, and that's community-based organizations, which build relationships on a day-by-day basis and inherently really work with individuals and walk alongside them. They don't direct individuals about how they should be healing or the steps they need to take to heal.