Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Lorraine Whitman, Grandmother White Sea Turtle, and I'm president of the Native Women's Association of Canada. I am also here to represent the rights of first nations, Métis and Inuit women across Canada and internationally. You have aske

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  All right. Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Did you want me to continue? We have some ideas in terms of what we can do quickly—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we have noticed is more the violence, the domestic abuse. From what we have done with our surveys, our assessment as well as this online survey that we have, we've found 68% more abuse with our women, 64% more elder abuse, and another 64% more child abuse. It hasn't mentione

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, I haven't heard any more about it, but I do know that the women are working more on the trafficking component. With the social distancing, again, it's difficult to be able to be there to help them physically. We do have calls that are coming in. It's more in the line of abu

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We do have our survey that has been up, and in-house we have four of our elders answering calls online, whether they be from women experiencing violence or calls relating to suicide and what have you. We've been working in that area. We've also put in proposals to assist us in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I did get part of it by the time I found the translation. In regard to the violence that's occurring, you're certainly correct that with the shelters and what have you, it makes it far more difficult for our women to be able to find accommodation and make use of some

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We need sustainable, reliable income. As was mentioned, we're reacting to this, and with the murdered and missing indigenous women inquiry, we should be proactive and there should be dollars here so that we can start having preventive messaging and ways that we can meet the needs

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It makes a big difference in the line of violence that's occurring, because we need sustainable dollars. We need to be able to work together, and we need the inclusion of indigenous women to be able to make a step forward, with a plan that is made by the indigenous people for the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would also like to stress, with this.... I mentioned the children, the women and the elder abuse. Yes, the funding is so important, and we did sign an accord in 2019 in which the government, under the Crown, said that we would be at the same tables as those of our indigenous

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I just want to make sure that when we're working within funding and whatever, we're inclusive, as indigenous women, Métis and Inuit. Because we work with those women, we know where we're going, and we need to have that inclusivity with the government. We're also urg

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is a problem. We're finding that the resources and the services that are normally available in our first nations communities aren't available due to the closures. The women are feeling like, “Where do we go from here?” Because of the social distancing, they're not able to...

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We would like to have one in every province and territory, because of the importance of the vulnerable women, girls and two-spirited people. That's another area we certainly need to look into, to be able to give the support and the services to the women.