Mr. Chair, I am pleased to stand this evening to participate in the estimates of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
As the former chair of the National Liberal Women's Caucus and now as chair of the newly formed Standing Committee on the Status of Women, I am particularly interested in the estimates of the status of women area, one of the member portfolios of the Department of Canadian Heritage. I will focus on one particular area in a moment.
However, before I do that I would like to take the opportunity to say a few words about the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
By creating a Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Parliament has recognized that gender equality is one of the keys to Canada's social and economic success and to effective government. In its upcoming deliberations, the committee will work to advance the cause of women across the Government of Canada with a goal of achieving lasting, measurable and sustainable change. I am hopeful that in my role as chair of the committee and given the make-up of the committee that gender equality and women's human rights will be promoted to become an important part of the government's policy agenda.
In January 2003, when Canada reported on its progress to implement the United Nations convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the concluding comments of the committee pointed to the situation of aboriginal women in Canada as needing particular focus and particular attention.
This past September, I was pleased to have the opportunity to accompany the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Minister responsible for the Status of Women to the annual meeting of the ministers responsible for the status of women in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Immediately, when I was there, I was struck by the passion that the ministers had to advance equality for women and men in Canada and particularly by their commitment to prevent violence against all women and girls, especially aboriginal girls and women.
In September 2003, the federal-provincial-territorial ministers responsible for the status of women made the situation of aboriginal women both on and off reserve a priority. This year they made prevention of violence against all women, and again particularly aboriginal women, a priority and they agreed to take action to improve access for aboriginal women to programs and services, public education and policy development processes.
We all heard the terrible reports coming from Vancouver and Edmonton of murder and sexual violence against indigenous women. Unfortunately, many aboriginal women, many of whom who have turned in desperation to the sex trade for employment, are disappearing off the streets of some of Canada's major cities. For too long their invisibility in Canadian society and their low economic and social status have allowed them to go unnoticed.
As members are aware, Amnesty International recently released a report entitled “Stolen Sisters: A human rights response to discrimination and violence against Indigenous women in Canada”. It documents the pervasive human rights problem of violence against aboriginal women in Canada. The report paints a grim portrait of grinding poverty, addictions, violence and powerlessness and disenfranchisement in the daily lives of aboriginal women.
What do we really know? Certainly our knowledge remains limited, given the historic invisibility of women and particularly aboriginal women in Canada but a picture is starting to form. We know that aboriginal women run a greater risk of being victims of violence than do other Canadian women. Three times as many aboriginal women report that they have experienced some form of violence perpetrated by their spouse, and aboriginal women run eight times the risk of being killed by their spouse after a separation. That is according to Statistics Canada's 1999 general social survey.
My question for the minister is this. Given the alarmingly high rates of violence against aboriginal women in Canada, how can we ensure that the aboriginal communities on reserve as well as off prosper and grow healthy and that aboriginal women and girls have as bright a future as their non-aboriginal counterparts?