Madam Chair, I will say first off that I appreciate the very passionate remarks of the member for Winnipeg Centre. It is very difficult to follow her, but I will do my best.
I am not an expert in this area, although in the last 20 years I have had an opportunity to learn a bit more about what has happened to indigenous women and girls in Canada over the last several centuries and, in particular, in the last number of years.
Just this past week, a man was charged with four first-degree murder charges for murdering four indigenous women. Three have been identified and a fourth has not. The indigenous community has called her Buffalo Woman, so I would like to put her name on the record as well. I hope we can find out who she is and where her remains are.
It is very upsetting to talk about this, so I will try to keep my composure. I feel it at such a core level. It almost seems like every other week we are learning about another indigenous woman who has been brutally murdered, who has been raped or whose remains have not been found. It seems just so commonplace that people seem to think, “Oh, there is another one”, like it does not matter. It does matter. This is in Winnipeg and nothing has changed. In the almost 10 years I have been in politics, we are having the same debate in the same House over and over again, and nothing really seems to happen.
There were years during which 231 calls to action were established. I have not a heard a robust debate in the House about those. In fact I believe the Liberal government, unfortunately, took three years to make a plan of implementation. That was about a year ago. I am not aware of any full movement forward. We had a debate six months ago in the House on this very issue. It was about different women but the same issue. I have not heard of any meaningful action in that time. I fully understand and recognize the rage, upset and tremendous disappointment and internal pain caused by repeatedly asking for help and change, and nothing seems to be happening.
I am from a small rural town. I did not have any experience in this area, but my first introduction to how indigenous women and girls in Canada were treated was by a very intelligent and progressive teacher in high school, who told us about Helen Betty Osborne. She was a young woman in the 1970s who was walking home in the dark, in The Pas, Manitoba. She was kidnapped, raped repeatedly, beaten and stabbed 50 times with a screwdriver. Her naked body was just thrown in the woods and was found by a 14-year-old boy. There was a lot of coverage about how the investigation was not taken seriously and how it was bungled. In fact the provincial government issued a formal apology many years later, in the year 2000, for how that case was handled. It took far too long for that apology, but it was given, and rightfully so.
That was my first introduction, not knowing anything about what indigenous women and indigenous peoples face on a regular basis. That was in high school. About 10 years later, I started in politics at the provincial level in Manitoba. In my very first week, the body of Tina Fontaine, a tiny 14-year-old girl who had been murdered, rolled up in a mattress and chucked in the Red River, had been found. She was 14 years old, a child. That was my introduction to working in politics. That was in 2014, eight years ago, almost to the month, last month, and I have not seen any meaningful change. That is shared by all parties and all levels of government. I want to acknowledge that.
The member made a very impassioned statement that people are tired of waiting. We need supports from everyone and we need to put politics aside. We may not always agree on the solutions, but surely where there is a will, there is a way. We could be providing better support to families, women and children who are being abused, raped, murdered and thrown in ditches and landfills like it is nothing.
I completely understand the outrage from the families. If it were my mother who had been murdered, thrown in a bin and dumped in some landfill, or if it were my sister or best friend, I would be outraged. These women were mothers, sisters, aunties and best friends. They have a whole community around them who will miss them forever. If I were related to one of these women, I would feel the same. I would want to get a shovel and go find these women. I would wonder what is taking so long.
I understand it is very complicated. I understand that it has been a number of months and that this is a commercial dump site. There is a lot of clay, asbestos and things from various slaughterhouses, hog plants and things like that. I understand a forensic investigation would be complicated. I also understand the police have found enough evidence to charge this vile serial killer with four first-degree murder charges. Although we cannot intervene, I do hope that, if he is found guilty, he rots in prison for the rest of his life. I think everybody would agree with that.
I understand it is complicated and like finding a needle in a haystack, but I do believe there should be far more discussion about making this happen, at least trying to find these women. If it were my mom, I would want her to be found. Why should these women be treated any differently? I completely understand, and I hear the people who are speaking up about this.
I believe the City of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg police are doing their best. I understand it is extremely complicated. However, why not call on the federal government for some money? Why not call for the military to come and help out? I do recognize that the manpower and womanpower it would take from the Winnipeg police to conduct this investigate may pull many police officers off the street. We do not want that either. However, surely there are enough people in Canada that we can conduct some sort of recovery mission for these women, to at least give some hope and say that we tried. That is the position I am taking on this.
The landfill these women are in is in my riding, West St. Paul. My understanding that the Prairie Green Landfill is privately owned. It is not run by the city. It is provincially licensed, so the provincial government has a responsibility to take leadership here as well. I call on my friends in the provincial government to do so. I call on the mayor of Winnipeg and the chief of the Winnipeg police to do the same. I know they have been trying.
I would ask again that we do everything we can to provide some dignity to the women who have been murdered. The member mentioned that, if they are not found, perhaps this site should be closed and turned into a burial site or something, where garbage is no longer dumped on women who were loved and who were brutally murdered and tossed in dumpsters. That is not a lot to ask.
I understand this is a commercial enterprise, but surely that is reasonable. If it were my mom or my sisters, I do not know if I could live with myself if I did not do everything I could to stop garbage from being dumped on the bodies of my loved ones, or of the women who have been killed by this man.
I completely understand. I just want to put it on the record that I recognize where they are coming from. I do not know what it is like, but I can understand how they feel.
I was doing some research in the lead-up to my remarks today. Indigenous women and girls are six times more likely to be murdered than any other demographic of women in Canada. Certainly this has been the case in the past. I know there are examples from folks who have experienced these types of investigations that indicate it also may be continuing. It is happening so frequently that the police sort of brush it off or perhaps do not give it as much time as they could. I know police officers care about justice and care about having these vile killers held accountable, but I wonder if this would be a bit different if it were not indigenous women. Would it be treated differently? We will never know that.
I believe we should be putting every effort we can into finding them or at least honouring where they lie. If that is where they are going to be for all eternity, should we not honour that space? I will be reaching out to the West St. Paul city council to gather more information on how we could proceed with honouring this area. I will take that responsibility on, and I am happy to work with the member for Winnipeg Centre on those communications.
I will also commit to ensuring I am much more familiar with the 231 calls to justice. I have not familiarized myself enough to be able to recite them. I should be able to do that as a lawmaker. I should at least be able to know what they are, top to bottom, and have an opinion on how we could implement them. We do not always agree on solutions in the House, but I hold myself responsible for doing that work. This has certainly been a reminder of how important it is, as a lawmaker, an elected member of Parliament, to know more about this issue. That is my responsibility and I make that commitment today.
In conclusion, I feel very out of place and do not feel I can do this enough justice. I do not have these experiences but I have great respect for my colleague from Winnipeg Centre. We have had many good discussions about this and I hope we have many more. I think there are things all parties could agree on about this.
My ask would be that the federal government work with the City of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba to pursue every avenue to see if there is anything we could do to find these women and give dignity to them. This should be done whether this is their final resting spot or whether we find them and allow them to be buried with their appropriate cultural practices within the indigenous community, giving some peace and justice to the families. That is my ask.