44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 4, 2022 02:00PM
- May/4/22 6:06:13 p.m.
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The hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan is rising on a point of order.
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Madam Speaker, the issue of provinces is an interesting one. It was a certain Saskatchewan premier, Tommy Douglas, the former leader of our party, who first brought the initiative to lower the voting age to 18 in Saskatchewan all those years ago. Therefore, there is a precedent.
I was talking to my wonderful colleague, the member for Nunavut, about their experience. In Nunavut, several organizations that represent Inuit people hold elections, and the voting age for those elections is 16.
I think this is a matter that would be very interesting for provincial governments to consider, but what we are talking about here this evening is the federal government, the government that we are involved in, the government for which we create laws and establish precedents. I hope that this place will lower the voting age to 16 and strengthen our country.
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- May/4/22 7:44:41 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock.
I rise tonight to take part in this debate with a heavy heart. Unfortunately, the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls is too prevalent in my northern Saskatchewan riding, and one does not have to look very far to find heartbreaking stories.
Just last September, during the election campaign, the communities of Meadow Lake and the neighbouring Flying Dust First Nation were rattled to the core when a local schoolteacher was shot and killed by her estranged husband. Charlene was 34 years old and the mother of two children.
It is a tragedy when this happens, period, but for indigenous people across the country, it happens at alarming rates, and we all need to be part of changing that. The fact is that indigenous people are overrepresented as victims of violent crime. More specifically, they are over twice as likely as non-indigenous people to experience spousal violence. When looking at the most severe form of intimate partner violence, homicide, a similar pattern emerges. While about 5% of the population is indigenous, one-quarter of intimate partner homicide victims between 2014 and 2019 were indigenous.
I share the story of Charlene because I believe it is imperative that we, as legislators, remember that these are not just statistics but real people with families who are impacted.
I want to focus, in what little time I have, on several positive initiatives that I believe are raising awareness and respectfully remembering missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Tomorrow, we will mark Red Dress Day across Canada. It was Métis artist Jaime Black who helped inspire the red dress movement. Her REDress art installation evolved into the annual Red Dress Day and sparked a grassroots movement across North America. Every year, people hang red dresses in private and public spaces to remember and to stand in solidarity with family members and loved ones.
Walking With Our Sisters is another community-based art installation that honours missing and murdered indigenous women and children. Beginning in 2012, people were asked to design and create moccasin tops for their missing and murdered loved ones. Men, women and children from all backgrounds and all parts of Canada sent in 1,600 of these vamps, more than doubling the initial goal of 600. In 2019, this art installation travelled to more than 25 locations across North America.
Another initiative is the faceless doll project. Created in 2012 by the Native Women's Association of Canada, the faceless doll project encourages people to make dolls to represent missing and murdered women and those affected by violence. As I shared earlier, often we can look at the enormity of the problem here in Canada and forget that behind each number and each statistic is a life, and this project reminds us of just that.
Next week, on May 12, Canadians from coast to coast will mark Moose Hide Campaign Day. The Moose Hide Campaign is an indigenous-led grassroots movement that encourages men and boys to stand up against violence toward women and children. With that goal, their challenge to men and boys across Canada is to stand with women and children and speak out against violence toward them; support each other as men and hold each other accountable; teach boys the true meaning of love and respect and how to be healthy role models; heal ourselves as men and support our brothers on their healing journey.
I would like to end by referencing a blog post written by Heather Exner-Pirot and Angela Pratt. Exner-Pirot is a senior consultant with Morris Interactive, and Pratt is the director of economic and community development at the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in Saskatchewan. The main theme is providing a better future for indigenous women, which I believe is a very important aspect that needs to be addressed in tonight's debate.
They discuss the link between income and safety and quote a study outlining how the rates of domestic violence are impacted by women's income. They write, “Besides exposing Indigenous women to violence, the lack of a decent, stable income and the resulting poverty has many other negative impacts.” Specifically referencing Saskatchewan and accessing good-paying jobs, they continue, “Closing the wage gap for Indigenous women means making sure they can access the best paying jobs in the province. And for Saskatchewan, that means the natural resources sector”. They end the post with a challenge: “Creating a better future for Indigenous women in Saskatchewan, and for the province as a whole, means removing the many barriers that have prevented Indigenous women from financial independence.”
Indigenous women and girls have been the target of violence for far too long. Canada, as a country, cannot fulfill its full potential until this crisis is solved.
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- May/4/22 7:50:26 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, actually, I disagree with the hon. member on that discussion about a guaranteed basic income. I have spent my four years in this world talking about opportunity for all. What I mean by that in northern Saskatchewan is creating the opportunity for people to participate in a prosperous economy.
I am so proud of the fact that in the last few months in my riding there have been projects in the forestry industry and some projects in mining that are going to create 3,000 jobs in northern Saskatchewan. I firmly believe in the value of having a good job and a stable income. The self-worth that comes with that is invaluable in the context of solving many of the social issues that we have in a riding like mine in northern Saskatchewan.
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- May/4/22 7:54:03 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, education is absolutely fundamental to the success of many on their journey out of poverty, out of some of the social challenges that we find in a riding like mine in northern Saskatchewan. I would remind the member that my riding has the second-largest indigenous population in the country. I have been working with people in northern Saskatchewan to make sure that they get access to a quality education. To upgrade that quality of education, we must work in conjunction with the federal department that is responsible for education on first nations and with the provincial folks who are responsible for the education off the first nations. We have to have a coordinated effort to educate young people, enhance their opportunity and give them that chance of success.
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- May/4/22 9:26:41 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank, from the bottom of heart, the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill for such a thoughtful and inclusive approach to talking about the take-note debate tonight. I particularly appreciate her perspective on what the report calls out.
To my hon. friend from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, I did not invent this or pull one industry out of many. The extractive industry is the only industry mentioned in the report as a threat.
The hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill is so correct, and I want to ask her to expand on this, if we can accept that it is a thing and it is happening. Nobody would ever suggest that it is every single person in that industry. That would be appalling. However, there are other recommendations in this report that would make things safer for women near those extractive industry camps, such as safe ground transportation, which is also called for in call for justice 4.8.
Does the hon. member have some thoughts on how we can face this reality and make it safer?
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- May/4/22 9:48:55 p.m.
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Madam Chair, before I begin my remarks, I will indicate that I am happy to be splitting my time today with the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, who we know often contributes quite meaningfully to the debates that we have on a number of issues in this chamber. I appreciate the work he does on behalf of his constituents and all Canadians.
This is an incredibly difficult discussion to be having here this evening, but I am honoured to be here and I feel it is quite important for me to be here as the member of Parliament for the Kenora riding to speak about this important topic, which, unfortunately, has touched the lives of far too many people in my riding. I will touch more on that in just a moment.
I will begin by indicating that it has been nearly a year since the national action plan was released by the government. From the discussions we have been hearing on all sides of the House today, respectfully, I think we all agree that there has not been enough action to this point. Many short-term priorities were outlined in that plan, such as services being provided for families and survivors and developing public education and awareness campaigns, which are so vitally important and, as the plan mentions, are needed immediately. From what I have been hearing so far today from all sides, I am heartened to know that all members recognize the importance of moving more quickly to implement this and put it into action, because we have gone far too long without adequately addressing these important issues.
As I noted, the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls hits very close to home for many in my riding. I would like to quote a statistic that I have previously noted in this chamber, just a couple of years ago, from Grand Council Treaty No. 3. The Kenora riding encompasses three treaty territories, Treaty No. 3, Treaty No. 5 and Treaty No. 9, which is 42 first nations, as well as the Métis homeland, but Treaty No. 3 is an area that represents a large portion of the population in my riding. Grand Council Treaty No. 3 indicated in 2020, so perhaps it is a bit dated, that over the last eight years, half of Ontario's identified cases of murdered or missing indigenous women actually happened in the Kenora region. That is an incredibly troubling and incredibly startling statistic, especially looking beyond the actual statistic and understanding what that means for the families and communities, recognizing that those individuals are daughters, mothers, sisters and valued members of their communities who, unfortunately, have faced a tremendous amount of abuse and, in some situations, we know had their lives taken from them.
A TVO report put out in 2018 highlighted the human trafficking problems that exist across the Kenora region, something that was under the radar for far too long, and arguably still is. There is not a lot of data to back up what is, for lack of a better term, conventional knowledge on the ground from the Kenora Sexual Assault Centre and other organizations, knowing that Kenora has, as the TVO report indicated, served as a hub between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay for human trafficking. There is certainly great importance and great urgency in the Kenora riding for all of us in this chamber to move forward together and work together to address these very real and very important issues.
I want to make one final plea in the remaining moments I have. It is important that we take this action because we have had discussions like this before, but if action is not taken, if the government does not move forward and work with everyone in this House, and if we do not work together to put these ideas into action, unfortunately we are not getting the job done. I want to make sure I emphasize that point because of the importance of this and what it means for people across the Kenora riding.
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- May/4/22 10:05:34 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my hon. colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, particularly for the lens he brought to the questions around sexualized images and groups like Pornhub.
It is rare chance, in this take-note debate, to actually exchange ideas, so I want to clarify and perhaps come to the same place, along with the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill, because I want to clarify what I said and make sure it is understood.
This report, after extensive expert testimony and an extensive review of the issues, only focused on one legal industry that is identified as a source of a threat to indigenous women and girls in remote locations. It is only the resource extractive industry that is named. That is not to say that there are not illegal industries, such as the sex trade and human trafficking, that are grievous issues, or to say that there are not systemic issues, such as racism, misogyny, poverty and marginalization.
All of those issues are real, but to the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, I did not pick it out of a group of possible industries that could be identified like the film industry or agriculture. The only industry mentioned by the inquiry report is resource extractive industries, and we need to find solutions.
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- May/4/22 10:22:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, to begin, I would like to talk about a project that takes place in the Atlantic region: the Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance. 2SLGBTQ+ people have been ignored and erased by traditional colonial data collection and analysis. The Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance will aim to lay the groundwork for improved methodologies and new approaches to produce better data around the safety of 2SLGBTQ+ people that are inclusive of indigenous world views and perspectives.
I would like to thank John R. Sylliboy and the team for their advocacy and hard work in our Mi'kmaq communities, including the Mi'kmaq community I reside in of Eskasoni. Another example is the Liard Aboriginal Women's Society that operates in the Kaska homelands in Yukon and northern British Columbia. They are supporting families and survivors in efforts to commemorate their loved ones and celebrate their lives. This is done through potlatch, a traditional feast and ceremony. The potlatch is held to bring a sense of balance to those who have been affected by losing someone close to them.
Another project is run by a group named All Nations Hope Network in Regina, Saskatchewan. The group is organizing individual counselling sessions and group sessions targeted toward the 2SLGBTQ community. That work will be coordinated by a two-spirited person.
All the projects that have received funding focus on supporting communities and giving compassionate, culturally sensitive care. These groups are conducting invaluable work, and I am honoured to witness this work.
Make no mistake: There is more work to be done, as healing and reconciliation do not come easily. They require difficult conversations and for Canada to take accountability and continue to support survivors, families and communities. Our relationships with indigenous people are strengthened when we collectively pursue truth, address injustice and combat prejudice, as painful as that can be.
I call on opposition parties to join us, along with indigenous voices across the country, as we work to promote healing and an end to violence. Thank you. Merci. Nakurmiik.
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- May/4/22 10:56:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as I was calling out the calls for justice from the inquiry report, I will read it:
4.5 We call upon all governments to establish a guaranteed annual livable income for all Canadians, including indigenous peoples, to meet all their social and economic needs.
I could go into this at great length. We have a poverty caucus in this place made up of members of Parliament and people from the other place. We have had expert testimony for years. I recommend to the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan a great book by the great Progressive Conservative Hugh Segal: Bootstraps Need Boots.
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