Public Safety committee  Thank you. This is probably one of the most challenging spaces, because of jurisdiction. If we truly want to deal with training, then we need to start dealing with teaching real history in Canada and dealing with the K-to-12 system and others in this country. When countless co

Public Safety committee  I'm going to throw this over to Jocelyn so she can also add to the previous things.

Public Safety committee  Quickly—and I'll probably then pass it over to Jocelyn—61% of all indigenous people don't live on reserve, so if you're going to implement an act, it should probably make sure that it talks to the majority of indigenous people and also to Inuit Nunangat and Métis folks. I'll pas

Public Safety committee  I can give a couple of examples, actually, because, one, I'm an indigenous person who lives in Canada and has had interactions with the police. I also was the executive director of a large friendship centre that worked within a women's prison and within a youth correctional centr

Public Safety committee  Good afternoon, committee. I'm Christopher Sheppard. I'm the president of the National Association of Friendship Centres. I want to recognize that I'm joining you today from Treaty No. 6 and the homeland of the Métis, where I have received an incredible welcome since moving. I'm

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll start by saying that Canada needs to start creating public policy based on facts. We have language legislation, and although 61.1% of indigenous people are urban, urban's not mentioned. Maybe we could start there. And it's not just there; it's across policy. It is a very cha

Canadian Heritage committee  It's on record from one of my previous presentations that the national number is 61.1%. We have an email from StatsCan to confirm that, and I think I provided it in one of my previous presentations. I don't have a breakdown by province, unless Jocelyn is rocking that data somew

Canadian Heritage committee  It's interesting. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint where money is coming from for some of these friendship centre programs that do language learning. I just happen to be very close with the executive director from Native Montréal. He does over five indigenous languages with $100,0

Canadian Heritage committee  They're from everywhere. If you look at our centres, you have them in metropolises, really. In Montreal, you have the different first nations, you have people from other countries and you have Inuit people who go there. You have these multitudes of indigenous people from multipl

Canadian Heritage committee  I would really just look at it in the same light that I look at the way friendship centres cultivated and kept culture as a whole going in urban centres. There are friendship centres that were entrusted with many cultural practices over the last 70 years, and there are examples o

Canadian Heritage committee  Good day. My name is Christopher Sheppard. I'm the President of the National Association of Friendship Centres. I'm an Inuk. I am a beneficiary of the Nunatsiavut government in Labrador. We have submitted two copies of both French and English versions of the NAFC discussion pap