House of Commons Hansard #143 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was families.

Topics

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:05 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Madam Chair, from the bottom of my heart I want to acknowledge the courage of what the member for Calgary Nose Hill just did. It is all too rare in this place to apologize for words, especially when they were meant, as the hon. member noted, from a good place.

However, it is appalling that the landfills remain open. I hear the voices of Morgan's daughter and Marcedes's family and other people, saying, “Look, stop putting garbage there, at least. Let us find a way to find the remains of our loved ones.”

We already have the loved ones, the children who were stolen over so many years in the residential school system. Those children are still underground. We have to acknowledge that the grief of families is never resolved through having the remains, but the wound remains far more open when the remains are not available for burial, for respect and to be brought home.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:05 p.m.

NDP

Lori Idlout NDP Nunavut, NU

Uqaqtittiji, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver East.

I stand today in solidarity with Chief Kyra Wilson of Long Plain First Nation and Cambria and Kera, the daughters of Morgan Harris, who was murdered and whose body was found at a landfill, in seeking justice for indigenous families. I call on the government to finally start to end the genocide by implementing the MMIWG calls for justice and the demands made by those I stand with today, including helping to search for Morgan Harris so her daughters may have the closure they seek.

I am concerned with some of the questions that have been asked in the House tonight. As much as I have appreciated MPs' interventions, the words are distant and, while empathetic, make it clear to me that violence against indigenous women is clearly not understood.

As an Inuk, I have experienced violence and have seen violence. I grew up with violence in my life. Here is what violence feels like. There is so much physical pain that it is unbearable to breathe, it is unbearable to cry and it is unbearable to ask for help. There is so much misguided love and trust that keeping the unhealthy relationship going feels like the only way. When there is finally courage to leave that violent relationship, women are put into other violence situations.

Cambria and Kera have asked us to help them end the genocide. I frequently have asked tonight how we can do this. How can we in the House guide the federal government to end Canada's genocide against indigenous peoples?

The federal government must create policies and programs and provide better resources. The federal government must help lift up indigenous peoples and their sense of cultural identity.

It must ensure that systemic racism is addressed by improving law enforcement and policing for the overincarceration, overpolicing, underenforcement and underpolicing of indigenous peoples. It must lift up indigenous families that still suffer the effects of intergenerational trauma and ensure they are encouraging each other to rely on each other the way they used to before colonialism. It must help indigenous families find the remains of their loved ones. Victims of genocide are targeted because they belong to a certain group. As such, targeted resources must immediately be released to protect indigenous girls, women and two-spirit people. Last and certainly not least, it should implement fully, not incrementally, UNDRIP, the TRC's calls to action and the MMIWG calls for justice. These instruments provide the framework to end genocide.

I note the words of Chief Kyra Wilson, who said, “We have 231 calls to justice, we need searches, we need support and it needs to start now.” I will end with what the beautiful, amazing and courageous Cambria Harris said at the presser yesterday: “Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and...Buffalo Woman. Remember these names. Shout them from the roof of your lungs and bring the justice that these women deserve.”

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:10 p.m.

Green

Mike Morrice Green Kitchener Centre, ON

Madam Chair, I want to thank our colleague from Nunavut for her bravery, her courage and the way that she brings a forceful truth to this place that needs to be heard across the country. I just wanted to thank her.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:10 p.m.

NDP

Lori Idlout NDP Nunavut, NU

Uqaqtittiji, I appreciate the encouragement. It does take a lot of emotion and strength to speak. I especially need to thank my party, which has been great in allowing me to share my experience and my voice, and also making sure that indigenous people's voices are being amplified in this House.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:10 p.m.

Conservative

Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

Madam Chair, I appreciated hearing what the member had to say. I also appreciate working with her on the indigenous and northern affairs committee. I have learned a lot from her and appreciate her valuable input each and every day.

I know that often in this place, our time is short but our thoughts are many, and I was just wondering if the member had anything else she would like to touch on that she did not have enough time to complete in her speech.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:10 p.m.

NDP

Lori Idlout NDP Nunavut, NU

Uqaqtittiji, I also enjoy working with the member on the indigenous and northern affairs committee.

I have changed my speech a lot tonight. One of the things I wanted to remind the House of is this. There were many questions about what women can do, and I kept thinking that this is not just a women's issue. This is not just a government issue. This is not just an indigenous issue. This is something that we all must do and we all must work together on: men, women, indigenous and non-indigenous. We all need to be working together to make sure we are part of a system that can say we are the ones who ended genocide in our time.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:10 p.m.

NDP

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Madam Chair, the hon. member quite rightly identified the need for targeted interventions. I know of her tireless work and her advocacy on the deplorable conditions of northern housing. I would like her to have the opportunity to reflect on how having the stability of dignified, safe housing for people in her community might help prevent some of the preconditions that lead to the atrocities committed against women, including Inuit women in her communities.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:15 p.m.

NDP

Lori Idlout NDP Nunavut, NU

Uqaqtittiji, the member's question is very important. I have risen in this House so many times to speak about how impactful overcrowded housing is to my constituency, how the poor conditions impact the mental health of the people I represent, and how, because of those conditions, we suffer worse mental health impacts.

We definitely need more investments in housing, to make renovations to improve housing and to also fill empty units. There are many empty units in our communities that need to be renovated and reopened.

I also wanted to very quickly say that more of our communities in Nunavut need safe places for women to go to. I know personally of two women I wanted to mention who I think would not have been murdered if they had had a safe place to go, because they were murdered having been in unhealthy, very violent relationships. We also need to be investing in ensuring that women have safe places to go to in their communities, so that they do not have to leave their communities and can remain with their families and keep raising their children in their home communities.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:15 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Madam Chair, I want to take a moment to acknowledge my colleagues, the member for Winnipeg Centre and the member for Nunavut, who spoke very powerfully and so starkly about the situation that indigenous women and girls face.

I was reflecting about what I was going to say and I changed my mind about 100 times. I have landed on this. I reflected back to seven years ago when the government made the announcement that it was going to initiate a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. I have to say my heart sang with joy thinking of the changing moment, the significant moment where the voices of indigenous peoples and families had been heard finally, and the government of the day was going to do something about our stolen sisters, indigenous women and girls.

I was not part of the Liberal government. I am still not part of the Liberal government. I will never be a Liberal member. However, my heart sang with joy, because of the hope that it represented. Then as the work continued, I started to have a sinking feeling. Reflecting back, Marion Buller, the lead commissioner, and her team advised nine months into the inquiry that they were using their own personal cellphones and their own email. They did not have office space to undertake the work.

Fast forward to after the report was put out, where a genocide had been recognized even by the government, and 231 calls for justice had been put on the public record. The government promised that it would put forward an implementation plan. Three years later, where is that implementation plan? It is nowhere to be found.

It is not just New Democrats who are saying this. Marion Buller said on the public record that the federal government had “fallen flat on its face”. She said:

We don’t have an implementation plan. There hasn’t been any sort of cohesive statement on the part of the federal government about what it plans to do. There is no looking forward. If there is an implementation plan, I don’t know about it and they’re keeping it quiet. But, they have quite literally fallen flat on their face in terms of their responses.

She said, “I just find it appalling that the genocide is continuing, because it is and they’re not being held accountable.”

That is the reality of where we are today. Consequently, we in the community and my colleagues see loved ones of family members grieving, in pain and in anger at the loss of their loved ones. Hence we are having this debate tonight.

Tonight I had the pleasure, the honour and the privilege of meeting the family members just outside of the chamber. I shook their hands, looked them in the eye, and made the commitment that we will never stop fighting, even when they leave this place. We should not have to do this time and time again. We should not have to say the names over and over again, and each time with different names, with more hurt, more pain and so much loss, with hope dashed to say that something will happen.

My riding of Vancouver East is very similar to that of my colleague's in Winnipeg Centre. I remember so many years ago when I was just an activist, walking the streets, doing rallies and protesting about a serial killer in Vancouver East. People denied it. When we raised it, people accused us of trying to obstruct justice by suggesting that there was a serial killer and demanding an inquiry.

To the names of the people who have been brought up today who went missing and who have been murdered, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and Buffalo Woman, I add these names: Tatyanna Harrison, Chelsea Poorman, Noelle O'Soup and Ramona Wilson. These are just the latest few, and there are so many more.

They do not have to be dead. They did not have to die this way. It does not have to be this way. For tonight, once and for all, will the government take action and fully implement the 231 calls for justice?

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:20 p.m.

Green

Mike Morrice Green Kitchener Centre, ON

Madam Chair, I want to start by recognizing what a strong voice the member is in this place in calling for housing that is for indigenous, by indigenous.

As the member calls out for the federal government to follow through on all 231 calls to justice, at least nine of them relate to housing. I wonder if she would like to comment further on the critical need for the federal government to follow through specifically on the calls to justice related to housing.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:20 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Madam Chair, there is no question that housing matters, and it will save lives. The missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry mentioned housing over 200 times. Can members imagine not being able to access housing, and as a result of that being subject to extreme violence every moment of the day to the point where their lives are lost?

What the federal government can do is, in budget 2023, ensure that there is at least $6 billion over two years for a for indigenous, by indigenous urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy and let the indigenous community lead this work. There is already a coalition that has been set up to do this work. The government needs to fund it, be that true partner and get the job done.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:20 p.m.

NDP

Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB

Madam Chair, I want to be quite frank. We have heard a lot of discussion today, and for indigenous people, whether it was yesterday or tomorrow, their lives will largely remain the same, and I am angry because of that. I am upset and angry that we have to have this discussion in this place constantly, and that the lives of indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people continue to be ignored constantly. I am angry about that, but I also know that, when an indigenous person like myself gets loud, people stop listening.

I want to be as clear as possible. We cannot continue to wait, but there is a long history here. This did not happen overnight. Colonialism, racism and, to be frank, misogyny are the reasons we are here today. Indigenous women are not the problem. Colonialism and violence against these women are the problem.

Can the member speak about the root cause of the tragic losses of indigenous women, girls and two-spirit folks that is so deeply rooted in our history here in Canada?

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:25 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Madam Chair, I have to say that there is no question in my mind that it is colonialism that is the root cause of this. There is no question that governments and the successive governments allow for the genocide to continue, which is also the ongoing problem of the situation.

When everybody in the House got up to say that they hear the families, they see them and hear them, well then, I ask them to take action. Words are cheap, but lives are not cheap, and the lives of these indigenous women and girls and two-spirited people matter.

They matter very much, and we need to honour them. We need to honour them from this perspective as well: They are the very first people who were the owners of this land, and we are their guests on their land. We need to honour them and respect them and take action. We do not need more words.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:25 p.m.

NDP

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Madam Chair, we heard today the government side, unfortunately, frame this about hope, about these communities demanding hope. However, I do not recall there being 231 demands for hope. There were 231 demands for justice, demands for action.

I would love for the hon. member, in her closing remarks, to explore why it is important that we do not just sit here with platitudes, offering talking points about hope, but that this government takes responsibility for taking clear and targeted steps towards action.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:25 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Madam Chair, as we continue to talk about this, which the government is doing, people are dying and lives are being lost. The violence taking place is real.

When we say we need to do this work, what we need the government to do is put actions to words. I want to see in the budget real, significant investments, and want the government to spend those investments, not just to put them on paper and not take action. I want to see the government's implementation of call for justice 1.7, because we need the government to take responsibility and ensure there is independent accountability for that work, not just platitudes.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Chair Liberal Alexandra Mendes

It being 10:28 p.m., pursuant to Standing Order 53.1, the committee will rise.

(Government Business No. 23 reported)

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsGovernment Orders

10:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 10:28 p.m.)