Status of Women Committee on March 1st, 2022

[Gerri Sharpe]

There was one thing I was very interested in attempting to do, and I wanted to try this in Yellowknife first. It was to make it mandatory for new officers to participate in some sort of community-driven training.

I am also an artist. I teach people how to make things like sealskin mitts. One thing I was working on with the RCMP here in Yellowknife was setting up sealskin-making workshops. If there was four officers, then there be four community people where the conversations happen naturally.

This is something that would be community-driven and would benefit only the community. This is where the officers would be in a safe place to ask questions such as, “Why are you are raising your eyebrows for yes and squinting your nose for no.” They may not feel comfortable asking that in the community. This would give them safe place to ask questions like that.

There was a lot of interest from the RCMP in Yellowknife on that. Unfortunately, COVID prevented me from starting that. I think this is something that should go on in every community, because it immerses the officers in the community and it builds that trust.

When I lived in Inuvik and the officers would participate in Muskrat Jamboree, even by just running in one of the events with their full gear on, the whole community clapped and rejoiced in that.

In order to protect the community, the officers need to be part of the community. If they're not part of the community, they can't prevent everything from happening. They really need to be part of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's perfect. Thank you so much.

We're now going to move it over for five minutes to Anita Vandenbeld.

Anita, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank our witnesses for very compelling testimony.

I'd like to start with the friendship centres. I am familiar with the incredibly important work that you do and also what you mentioned about basing it on the lived experiences, and certainly in Ontario, most indigenous people are living in urban areas. In my riding, I have an indigenous youth council and some of the stories are very much along the lines of Inuit or indigenous young people coming to Ottawa, fleeing households in which there is violence, and then not being able to find a safe place to live, a place where they will not then face the same kind of violence. I know that advocacy led to our announcement of $720 million for the indigenous shelter and transitional housing initiative. One of those will be right here in Ottawa for Inuit women.

How important is that and how important is it that people will be able to live within their cultural community but also have that safe housing? I note that you mentioned that there's a gap in government policy on urban indigenous, in my view, particularly for youth, young women. What more can we do? Should we be expanding that project? How do we resolve this?

[Gertie Mai Muise]

That's a complex question.

Having a focus on lived experience is so critical because many, many indigenous women and girls and their families in urban settings are basically invisible. There are a lot of things happening in the urban space. I really think there needs to be an urban-specific approach to anything we're doing in the country.

I'd also like to invite my colleague Sean to make some comments about a link to the shelters and that aspect of your question.

Sean.

[Sean Longboat]

Crisis intervention is an important aspect of the work of friendship centres. We do experience high service demands among women who are in crisis, who are fleeing intimate partner violence and other forms of violence. Therefore, shelters and transitional housing are important immediate interventions. We do have a number of partners across the province who are playing an important role in this space, but with that being said, it is important to highlight that the shelter system itself is not an adequate response to violence and that in many cases it can be a hostile environment for indigenous individuals.

A more effective solution, in our view, would be to develop safe and affordable housing options for indigenous individuals and families, including women who have been victims of intimate partner violence, to empower them to recover from their experience of violence. For many years, the OFIFC has been calling on the federal government to invest in a national urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy. We know from our research that safe and affordable housing is a protective factor that counteracts the risk factors for, really, all forms of violence.

We're happy to provide more detailed information on the specifics of our ask. I think we provided some general information in our brief, but we're happy to follow up with details on the nature of that specific approach.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you very much.

I still have a minute, so my next question is to Ms. Sharpe.

We talk about rural and then deep rural and the barriers that you described for some of the women who are in northern communities, the fly-in, fly-out communities. I know that The Ottawa Hospital is actually the primary care centre for most of Nunavut and that many of these women do end up here in Ottawa. I'd like you to talk a little bit about what more can be done so that they don't have to leave their community in order to get the help and the services, so they don't have to use the health system and fly all the way to Ottawa away from their families and supports in order to get help. How can we do that in place?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 30 seconds to respond.

[Gerri Sharpe]

The big, big issue, I think, is going to be midwifery. Reverting back to allowing individuals to give birth in their home communities as well as moving education to online is going to be a major, major relief for individuals.

I also want to touch on the urban centre, because Pauktuutit definitely is so appreciative of the Ottawa-specific shelter that is there. There are 5,000 Inuit living in Ottawa, which is more than in some of the northern communities, so allowing them to be culturally relevant is definitely needed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We are now going to move it to Andréanne.

Andréanne, you have two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for their testimony today. It's been truly enlightening.

I would like to come back to one aspect. One of you brought up the issue of intergenerational violence.

Can you elaborate on that aspect, which should be monitored? One of the two witnesses addressed this issue.

[Gerri Sharpe]

I'm going to say that was me. When it comes to instances of intimate intergenerational violence, I am a 53-year-old woman who lives in Yellowknife. I attended a residential school and there are many younger than I who have attended residential school. My mother attended the same residential school I went to.

When I was at Akaitcho Hall, there was a supervisor who had also been there when my mother had been at that same school. So the intergenerational trauma I felt is my mother's anger and not being able to articulate why she was angry [Technical difficulty—Editor], which led to her dying from three different cancers because she did not trust white doctors. She did not trust men.

In turn, very vulgar language was directed towards me and my brother. I tried my damnedest to make sure that was not directed to my children and I think I have succeeded with that. My grandchildren will not know what I grew up hearing. That's still just four generations and there are three to go before that never happens again, so the intergenerational trauma is real.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have about 25 seconds.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I had the opportunity to substitute on the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

If you look at discrimination in federal institutions like the RCMP, in your opinion, is it crucial that we restore confidence in these institutions and that we stop discrimination to break this cycle of violence, particularly intergenerational violence?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Were you expecting a response from either Gerri or Gertie?

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Madam Chair, actually, I wanted to get the witnesses' views on how important it is to rebuild confidence, and how federal institutions like the RCMP, where there is still far too much discrimination, can fit in.

I would like to hear what they have to say about the connection between discrimination in these federal institutions and intergenerational violence, which repeats itself from generation to generation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Okay.

We're coming right to this last two and a half minutes. I'm going to have to move it over to Leah.

Leah, you have two and a half minutes. Then we will do our best to get all the answers.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you so much, Madam Sharpe, for sharing your story.

Federal funding is a huge issue. The national inquiry came out. We have no timelines, no directed funding specifically for indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQQIA folks. Marion Buller and the APTN two weeks ago said the federal government has fallen flat on its face in response to the national inquiry.

One of the things—I'm hope I'm correct, Madam Sharpe—is that only 13 of the 51 communities in Inuit Nunangat have emergency shelters for individuals fleeing violence.

Can you please share the impact that the inaccessibility to safe shelters has had to protect women and girls and 2SLGBTQQIA?

[Gerri Sharpe]

When it comes to violence in the smaller communities where there is not a shelter, I'm going to speak to the Beaufort Delta specifically, which consists of nine communities in the upper part of the Northwest Territories. They include Tuktoyaktuk, Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, Inuvik and Aklavik. In that area, there are two shelters. One is an emergency shelter in Tuk. The other is the transitional home in Inuvik.

If somebody in Sachs Harbour needs to access the transitional home in Inuvik, they have to get the approval of the nurse in charge so that they can fly from Sachs Harbour to Inuvik to use the shelter. This isn't if they feel they need to utilize the shelter; this is how they get approval to use the shelter. It's considered to be part of health care, which it is not. It should have its own budget line and not be part of health because that is a conflict of interest.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Women fleeing violence can't just walk down the street to their local shelter for safety. What's the result in terms of murdered and missing women, for example? How has that increased as a result of that?

[Gerri Sharpe]

This is something I gave as testimony on to the inquiry as well, when they were here in Yellowknife.

In my opinion, when it comes to women needing to flee violent relationships, they go to urban centres. When they go to urban centres, women end up in Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Montreal and Nova Scotia. This is where we lose our aunts, our sisters, our babies and our grandmothers because they've been completely removed from their support systems. They fall into this cycle of down-spiralling victimization.

It's a huge issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We have come to the end of time for our first panel.

On behalf of the status of women committee, I would really like to thank Gertie Mai, Sean and Gerri. Thank you so much for joining us today and providing this passionate testimony.

We'll take a break for about one minute. We're going to switch over to our second panel. We would ask this first panel of witnesses to leave the meeting. Just press the leave button on the bottom of your screen. That would be fantastic and we'll get started.

Jenna, do you have a question?

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

Thank you, Karen.

I do have a question. I have a motion I want to discuss briefly. I'm not sure when would be the best time during our meeting today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

There's a little bit of committee business closer to the end. Perhaps we could allow the group to come through first. We'll get that done and then we'll ensure that we can have that discussion for you.

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

Amazing. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I reconvene this meeting.

I'd really like to welcome our next group of panellists today.

I'm going to make mistakes, so I need everyone to fix what I say.

From the Ka Ni Kanichihk, I would like to welcome Angela Brass, the coordinator of the UMatter program. From Wahbung Abinoonjiiag, we have Angie Hutchinson, executive director. From the women of the Métis Nation, Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak, we have Melanie Omeniho, president.

We'll be starting off with five minutes each. I'll give you my timer. At one minute I'll show you my one-minute sign for you to start wrapping it up.

I'm going to pass it over to Angela for five minutes.