Status of Women committee  I would have to say that for women's shelters on reserve, because they are federally funded, there should be an entrenched funding formula that is applicable on a district basis, not even on a provincial basis. We realize the vast geographical differences in where women's shelter

Status of Women committee  I really can't answer that. The rate of domestic homicide in indigenous populations, though, is at least five times higher than the average Canadian rate. In many cases, firearms are involved, but I cannot give you statistics on it.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. On reserve, 100% of the funding comes from the federal government. There are proposals that are written by the executive directors of the shelter for individual needs—child safety seats, for example. Sometimes it means accessing little individual pockets of money. It

Status of Women committee  First of all, there is such a distance between the municipal level of government and on-reserve services, or reserves period. Reserves are federal jurisdiction, and many are in isolated areas. Not only is the municipal government sort of the bottom level of government, but there'

Status of Women committee  The shelter building movement on reserve happened mostly in the early 1990s, so about 20 or 25 years after the mainstream women's shelter movement happened. That was funding through CMHC, and that was for the physical structure itself. When the structure was finished, the band wa

Status of Women committee  I could certainly do that, yes. You don't mean right now, do you?

Status of Women committee  Oh, definitely. It can be as many indigenous voices as you need for this issue. There are women who would love to talk about this. I'm not sure why I'm the only indigenous person to be speaking on this issue, because our rates of domestic violence are so exceedingly high compared

Status of Women committee  That's a huge issue, and thank you for bringing that up. When you say that it's the secret nature of the location, everybody really does know. It's a small community. A lot of first nations have fewer than 1,000 in population, and it's isolated and way off somewhere. The issue of

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Meegwetch. My name is Anita Olsen Harper. I'm an Anishinabe from Namekoosipiing, or Trout Lake, in northwestern Ontario. My Ph.D. is in education. My dissertation was on domestic violence and resilience in first nations communities. I'm a researcher for the Nationa