44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 4, 2022 02:00PM
- May/4/22 7:34:58 p.m.
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Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji.
I want to thank the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations for sharing his time with me. I am dismayed that I have to stand today and that we still need to debate sustained funding and commitments after so much work has already been completed to ensure that all Canadians understand the injustice experienced by Inuit, first nations and Métis families.
On June 3, it will be three years since the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA published “Reclaiming Power and Place”. The inquiry made 231 calls for justice. The report concluded that the acts of violence against indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people in Canada constitute genocide. The calls for justice stated:
Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people in Canada have been the targets of violence for far too long. This truth is undeniable. The fact that this National Inquiry is happening now doesn’t mean that Indigenous Peoples waited this long to speak up; it means it took this long for Canada to listen.
In the 2022 budget, there were no new funds to stop the genocide. The events leading up to this debate show that Canada still does not know how to listen. With great leadership by the member for Winnipeg Centre and the New Democrats, we have advocated for solidarity and support for victims and their families. Not including new funds for MMIWG must only be allowed to stop when all indigenous families have found justice.
We have to be inspired by the stories and testimony of the courageous people who started this important work. Included in the engagement during the inquiry were over 2,380 people, 468 family members and survivors of violence, 15 community gatherings with almost 750 people sharing statements in gatherings, and 84 expert witnesses. We must not shut down the momentum that was started.
I asked a question on April 8 during a debate: Why are no new funds committed in budget 2022? The response was to indicate how much was promised in the past.
I now turn to an Inuk woman who went missing. Mary Papatsie was the youngest of eight siblings raised in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. She was a hockey and volleyball coach who loved to fish. Mary later moved to Ottawa's Hintonburg neighbourhood but spent most of her time in the Vanier neighbourhood.
Mary Papatsie was 39 years old and a mother of 10 when she was last seen on the afternoon of April 27, 2017. She was last seen east of Ottawa's downtown centre in the area of Montreal Road and Marier Avenue. Mary is missed. Mary is still missing. When Mary first disappeared, there was very little support to make sure there was a proper search for her. I want to thank Billie Jo for sharing her story.
I will complete my statement by amplifying the work of YWCA Agvik Nunavut, which provides a women's shelter, a transition house and other programs. Agvik has organized a red dress march in Iqaluit for tomorrow, starting at 2:00 p.m., starting from the Elders Qammaq and going to the Nunavut Court of Justice.
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- May/4/22 7:40:23 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, it was, disappointingly, provided with commitments that are never sufficient. First nations, Métis and Inuit communities do experience, as the minister mentioned, atrocities when it comes to violence. Inuit women specifically continue to experience higher levels of violence in intimate partner relations. I was told a story of a family that left Nunavut. The woman is being physically abused by her life partner, whom she refuses to leave because he is the father of her children. There is no justice for her.
I really am sincerely dismayed that we are having this debate today. The funding announced is not enough. The genocide is continuing, and we must continue to make sure that funding is sustainable and that new funding is announced.
I am hopeful that changes can be made and that the great work of the member for Winnipeg Centre is recognized. We must continue to do more for our first nations, Métis and Inuit women and girls and gender-diverse people.
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- May/4/22 7:42:41 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I believe the human rights of first nations, Métis and Inuit people continue to be ignored too much. We must do what we can to make sure that the human rights of first nations, Métis and Inuit's are as equally recognized as those the rest of Canadians enjoy. I agree we need to make sure that funding is not cut and that communities out west are also recognized for the funding they need.
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- May/4/22 7:44:06 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I absolutely agree that this funding must be provided. All too often, first nations, Métis and Inuit families have been oppressed for generations and it is very hard for first nations, Métis or Inuit to advocate for themselves. Those resources need to be provided so that first nations, Métis and Inuit can be the self-determining, self-reliant people we always were. We must return to that mindset as first nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
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- May/4/22 8:01:42 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji.
I would like to thank the member for his intervention. That was great. I am glad that he outlined some of the factors that lead to the incidents that we see all too often. I wanted to ask the member what he thinks about all those indicators impacting indigenous people's and indigenous women's perspectives on what they need to rely on, including the perceived need for resource industries and gaining employment in those kinds of sectors, because those sectors are the places where most of the violence is being caused.
Could the member share what his thoughts are on that?
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- May/4/22 8:43:15 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji.
I want to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for her very inspiring story and her leadership. I very much appreciated her story about her mom, because that is a direct example of how deep the impacts are of colonialism and what those behaviours continue to do in generations that have had to follow in those traumas.
I want to ask for her expertise and knowledge about how deep the impacts are on the reliance on the resource industry, and how there is a misperception that first nations, Métis and Inuit want to rely on those resource extraction companies because of the gainful employment that they might provide. At the same time, those are the same places that are exercising the genocidal activities resulting in too many first nations, Métis and Inuit women and girls being lost to murder and going missing for years. Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji.
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- May/4/22 9:34:29 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji.
I would like to thank the Minister of Indigenous Services for her important intervention, and thank her for confirming that she has read “Reclaiming Power and Place”. Many recommendations included in there are calls for sustainable funding in many different service areas impacting first nations, Métis and Inuit.
Would the member agree that not renewing funding in the 2022 budget is an indication by the Liberal government that it plans not to provide sustainable funding for this important issue?
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- May/4/22 10:24:58 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, indigenous women and girls have gone missing and have been murdered amid all these so-called investments. None of these so-called investments are reducing the impacts on the crisis that remains today.
What will the member do to ensure that he and his party are being accountable and ensure sustainable and targeted funding to end the genocide against first nations, Métis and Inuit people?
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- May/4/22 10:56:46 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I think the hon. member's speech was great. It has been interesting to sit here during this debate and hear all the empathy and understanding that apparently seems to be quite common about the realities and experiences of first nations, Métis and Inuit.
Unfortunately, we are not hearing a lot of calls for accountability.
I wonder this. Can the hon. member, with her long experience as a member of Parliament, share some examples of how accountability could be ensured, and to make sure we are seeing, with regard to the crisis of the murdered and missing indigenous women and diverse gendered people too, accountability from that perspective? Qujannamiik.
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