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Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Dec/7/22 9:36:59 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my hon. colleague, not only for her intervention but for sharing her thoughts as somebody who lived in Winnipeg for a long time and knows the history of racism we deal with as indigenous people and certainly indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in the city of Winnipeg. I have been asking across party lines whether members of Parliament will stand behind these families and support the call for a moratorium on any sort of usage of the Prairie Green Landfill until further investigation can occur. I think it is a simple answer. Of course. Of course they support that, because to treat loved ones that way, as the member explained, is unacceptable. The answer should always be yes. I wonder if my colleague supports the family's call for an immediate moratorium on the use of the Prairie Green Landfill site.

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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner

Dec/7/22 9:38:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, of course we should be providing closure for these families. I understand that there will be questions about logistics and this and that, but we have to understand how difficult it is for first nations and indigenous women in this country. Sometimes I think we prioritize our comfort over their discomfort, and that is why we are here. I know my colleague has spoken about the need for an independent inquiry and assessment in this matter and said that it needs to happen because of that lack of trust in police. I agree with her. I cannot imagine being a member of that family and having the police just lay out a PowerPoint presentation for the family that is going through this, given the history and knowing the lack of trust. Of course.

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Mr. Larry Maguire (Brandon—Souris, CPC)

Dec/7/22 9:39:21 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Calgary Nose Hill for her presentation tonight. I also want to thank my colleague from Winnipeg Centre, whose call for this debate has allowed us to provide our remarks in the House of Commons this evening. One of the major issues of a government is to make sure the country is secure. We often think of that as a defence mechanism against a whole country, but a secondary process of security is the safety of every citizen in this country. We are talking tonight about how the safety of four individuals was completely compromised and the results of those actions, some of which have stemmed from many different situations with respect to the welfare and safety not only of these persons, but other individuals in Canada. I just want to close by asking this question. My colleague mentioned 78.7 billion dollars' worth of support for homelessness since 2017 and that it obviously has not been enough or has not been used properly. Can she elaborate on why it is going to take a lot more than just money to fix this situation, and what she may recommend with respect to that?

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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner

Dec/7/22 9:40:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, talk is cheap. We need action. For seven years, the government has talked, and it has spent but I am not sure on what. How many first nations persons across this country still do not have access to basic, clean drinking water? How many first nations persons have no hope of shelter? I feel the government has tokenized first nations and indigenous persons. I feel the lack of seriousness the government has shown in seeing why their “spending” has not resulted in any better outcomes for first nations and indigenous women should be lighting on fire the hair of every person in this country regardless of how they vote. The government does not get a free pass on creating action for first nations and indigenous persons simply by virtue of it being Liberal. They have failed, and they have to be held to account for it.

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Ms. Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, NDP)

Dec/7/22 9:42:10 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to first acknowledge the member's advocacy around the violence that women face online. It has been reported that this serial killer expressed white supremacist views, neo-Nazi views, deeply misogynistic views and anti-Semitic views. This has been widely reported in mainstream media. Does the member believe that the federal government needs to take action when it comes to the dangerous rise of white supremacy, which includes deep ties to misogyny, as a way of putting an end to violence against indigenous women and all women?

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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner

Dec/7/22 9:43:07 p.m.
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Madam Chair, absolutely. We need to stop white supremacy, we need to stop racism and we need to stop misogyny. Yes, of course. How we do that, though, is by not glossing over it when it happens and not turning a blind eye to it when it happens within our own tents. I see a Prime Minister who did not hold himself to the same account that he held others to when he faced allegations of sexual harassment. Do members know what that says? It says, “He can get away with it so maybe I can.” There are so many things we need to change. I could speak for two hours, but I know I cannot. This is about everything, including the fact that the criminal harassment laws in this country are probably woefully inadequate. It is difficult for even women of privilege to get access to justice, never mind racialized women, women living in poverty or both. However, the point that I think we agree on is that the government cannot keep dining out on the fact that it is a friend to marginalized groups, racialized groups and women, and then do nothing or make things worse by being silent and accepting the inertia that its lack of action has created.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Dec/7/22 9:44:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is clear that the government tabled its national action plan two years after it tabled the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls report. I will read a very short quote from Mariah Charleson, the former vice-president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. She said, “We waited two years for an incomplete action plan with no deliverables, no landmarks, no immediate goals...no timelines, no budget.” Does my colleague feel that missing and murdered indigenous women and girls are a priority in this country? The Nuu-chah-nulth have felt loss. They are still waiting to hear why the police took so long to look into the deaths of many of their women, who are still missing to this day.

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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner

Dec/7/22 9:45:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, no they are not, and the plan to make a plan resulted in these four women being in a landfill, in a dump. Are we are just going to sit here and do this again in six months? I hope the next time that people look in a garbage can they think of these women.

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)

Dec/7/22 9:45:59 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. First, I want to acknowledge that I join my colleagues here, and those present virtually, in Ottawa, which is on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people who have lived on this land since time immemorial. I too want to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for her ongoing advocacy on this issue. Tonight's debate reminds me of meeting for the first time with Bernie Williams and Gladys Radek, who came here to Ottawa on behalf of the families. They wanted us to know they wanted justice for the family member they had lost. They wanted healing for their families and they wanted concrete changes so no other families would need to go through what they had. They walked across this country seven times in the Walk4Justice. It really was not until the death of Tina Fontaine, the surviving of Rinelle Harper and then the death of Loretta Saunders that the consciousness of all Canadians was raised. This week, with the arrest of the serial killer in Winnipeg, it is a stark reminder of how indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people have been targeted and so disproportionately been murdered and gone missing. There is the serial killer in Prince George and the Highway of Tears, the horrific legacy of Robert Pickton. On Monday I was able to be with my friend CeeJai Julian, a survivor from the Pickton farm. She reminds me every day of those we have lost and those whose lives, as well as the lives of their families and friends, have been changed forever. Tonight's debate is about the hugely disproportionate numbers of indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people who have been murdered or gone missing. The numbers are horrific. Tonight we also must remember that they were mothers, daughters, aunties and nieces. They are loved and they are missed. In 2016, when we launched the pre-inquiry, it was heartbreaking to hear first-hand from the circles of families and survivors coast to coast to coast. We had, I think, 17 circles, and they gave us advice on what they wanted to see in a national inquiry. They were also very clear, as we have heard tonight, that they wanted changes in policing and child and family services. They were clear that from the search to the investigation, from the charges being laid to the plea bargaining and to the sentence that the treatment was very, very different if the victim was indigenous. We heard from families who, when their loved one went missing, felt they should not correct the missing person notice if it said that the person was white, because they felt the search, the investigation and everything would be different. We are really grateful to commissioners Marion Buller, Qajaq Robinson, Brian Eyolfson, and Michèle Audette who we are so proud to have here as a fellow parliamentarian in the other place, for their truly important report. I particularly thank Gina McDougall-Wilson and all of those who served on the core planning committee to develop the national action plan. This week, I was honoured to meet with Sylvia Maracle, who chaired the subcommittee on the 2S chapter. I know it should be in the libraries of all the schools across this country how homophobia arrived on the boats and the history of how important the two-spirited people are in those communities, yet now they are so unfairly targeted. Diane Redsky and her chapter on urban we know led to the $2.2 billion that was in budget 2021. We know we have very much more to do, but we are inspired by the changes in indigenous policing. There is Bill C-92, where families will be kept together. There is the incredible success of the rapid housing initiative for indigenous people. Everyone who was at the Equal Voice reception tonight wishes that they could be part of this debate. We have a lot more to do and we will do it together.

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Mr. Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, NDP)

Dec/7/22 9:51:27 p.m.
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Madam Chair, there are a lot of people watching. There are a lot of people who are dealing with the trauma, both at a distance from past events, but also for the people who were here this evening, the family members. A comment was made by the member for Calgary Nose Hill. I do not want to attribute malice to what was said, but in her closing remarks, she said that when people look at a garbage can, they should think of the family. I did not want to have this take-note debate and just allow that comment to pass. My hope is that, at the appropriate time, the member or a member from her party would perhaps retract that statement. When it goes into Hansard, it stays there forever. I want to make sure that in those remarks, when we are talking about the dignity and sanctity of life, we do not ever refer to it as a reminder when people are passing by landfills or trash cans. This is not a question. It is a comment. I am not sure if the hon. minister wants to respond to it or not. It was not directed at the hon. minister. It was directed at the previous speaker, the member for Calgary Nose Hill.

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Dec/7/22 9:52:44 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for the comment. I do want to say that those kinds of comments actually diminish why we are here today. We actually know that the first nations, Inuit and Métis women, girls and leaders want hope. They want to see that they can be their full selves. The way the member referred to it is hurtful. I think it probably came from a good place, but I think we actually have to listen to first nations, Inuit and Métis leaders, and particularly women, on how they want to go forward and what their view would be on that. I do know, from hearing from some of the people in Winnipeg, that they want that landfill to be put on hold, in ceremony, and that it be treated very differently from this time forward. We have to deal with the various families and—

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The Assistant Deputy Chair

Dec/7/22 9:54:09 p.m.
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I am sorry, but I have to give time for other members to ask questions. The hon. member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski.

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Ms. Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, NDP)

Dec/7/22 9:54:21 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to acknowledge that we are all here under very sombre circumstances. We are honouring the lives of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois, and a fourth loved one who has yet to be found. We are also here demanding action from the federal government. The hon. minister knows this national tragedy so well through the work she did to support an inquiry. As was clearly said, what we do not need is for the 231 calls for justice to sit on a shelf. What families and communities are asking for is federal action now, not just in the case of supporting the search in the landfill, but also as was so powerfully shared by Cambria Harris, which was to put an end to the genocide that indigenous women are facing. What concrete action is the federal government going to take now to put an end to the genocide that indigenous women face in our country?

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Dec/7/22 9:55:31 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for her leadership on all of these things. The work that has been done, as she knows, on changing child and family services has been absolutely transformational. When we look at the results from the study this week at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata in Winnipeg, we can see that over 90% of those families were brought back together. Those children are being raised in their language and culture. This is the way forward. This is what we heard about in the inquiry. The apprehension of children put them at high risk and aging out of care put them at high risk. I think there are significant changes. The changes to the child and family services is a significant advance.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/22 9:56:37 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is an honour to rise this evening to take part in this debate on such a serious, sombre and important subject. I am here this evening on the traditional territory of the Kanienkehaka, an area known as Montreal, within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. In the time I have, reflecting on all the important speeches given tonight, I want to focus on what we were told in the inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people plus. The hon. member from northern Manitoba was just mentioning that, in looking at this debate, we have a question of what we have done in relation to those calls for justice. I am struck by, two and a half years after those calls for justice, how little we actually look at what the inquiry told us to do. However, that was abundantly clear in the inquiry report. The most important thing every single Canadian can do is read that report. We received advice and instructions, while sitting in the Grand Hall in the Museum of History on that crowded June day and receiving this very important report. The commissioner said, “Every Canadian, please read it.” We should take stock. Have we read it? Do we understand what it said? Obviously, the killing of indigenous women and girls continues and accelerates. The recent killings, the charges laid in Manitoba in Winnipeg, and the four women killed in that serial killing remind us, if we did not need reminding before, that we have not responded to the report of the inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. What did they tell us to do? They told us to read the report, accept that this is a genocide and move on to actually implementing the recommendations. I will just refer to a few of those recommendations that we fight for, many of us in this place, every day. One of the recommendations of the inquiry was to bring in a guaranteed livable income to eradicate poverty. The reason so many indigenous women and girls and men are vulnerable to killings and vulnerable to violence is that they are poor. Economic injustice as well as racism are at the heart of why so many indigenous women and girls go missing. The inquiry called for justice and to bring in a guaranteed livable income. It also called for us to end what are called “man camps” by indigenous women and girls. They are large construction projects, usually dedicated to resource extraction, the resource extraction itself violating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I know it has been controversial and people who work in those industries say, “Don't paint us all as violent criminals”. No, we do not, but we recognize that these large camps full of workers, men who are away from their families and who are subject, themselves, to trauma and addiction, are a condition that leads to the increased vulnerability of indigenous women nearby. That was an inquiry recommendation and we have expanded the man camps instead of ending them. Another key recommendation was that we move to provide supports for indigenous women and girls who have been the victims of violence, including that there be trauma counsellors and that there be assistance to get through the criminal justice system. These are important recommendations. I want to draw our attention to another area where there is no mystery as to how indigenous women and girls were killed. They were killed by the police. Chantel Moore was killed in June 2020. She was a Nuu-chah-nulth woman from Vancouver Island who had recently moved to Edmundston, New Brunswick. There is no question as to how she died. She died at the hands of a police officer on a “wellness” check. In the intersection between mental health responses and police, far too many vulnerable women and indigenous women end up in a morgue. That is not a wellness check and we need to really look at what happened, particularly in the case of Chantel Moore. I will say in the House again that I think she was murdered. The facts point in that direction, and her family waits for answers. We have an obligation in this place not to take note. We have to take action.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Dec/7/22 10:01:43 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I really appreciate my friend's speech and I appreciate her. She knows full well that I live in Nuu-chah-nulth territory. I represent the Tla-o-qui-aht people here in Parliament and I bring their voice here. I am grateful that she talked about the late Chantel Moore. The fact of the matter is that there was an independent investigating officer team that came in from Quebec, with no indigenous representation, to investigate her death when she was shot by police. Lisa Marie Young, a Tla-o-qui-aht member in Nanaimo, is still missing after 20 years. “Creating a national task force to review and re-investigate unresolved files of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people” is actually a commitment in the national action plan, but there is no timeline and no money. The government has not acted on it. Can my colleague speak about the importance of an action plan, not just for these two unresolved files but for the women from Winnipeg who were just stolen through this genocide that is taking place in this country?

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Dec/7/22 10:02:57 p.m.
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Madam Chair, indeed, both of us know family members. We know Chantel's mom and her family and her friends, and we know that this is not being properly investigated, as is the case for many more indigenous women and girls. Sometimes we know who the killer was, but it is brushed over because it was a police officer. Sometimes we do not know, and we can only conclude from the lack of attention to it. I do not want to criticize policing in Manitoba. It was in the span of a year that we now believe that four women were murdered by the same man. We do not know for sure, but we can make educated guesses that had those four murdered young women been white women, we might have seen more warnings, more action to take on the bits of clues and evidence that suggested that the same man had committed all the crimes.

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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill, CPC)

Dec/7/22 10:04:05 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I wanted to also raise an issue that I believe my colleague from Hamilton Centre raised. I am really haunted by the thought of the families of these women having to deal with the remains of their loved ones in a landfill. Words matter, and if my question or my comment to try to express that caused any harm, I unreservedly apologize and retract them. However, I think we should be haunted by this fact. I think we should be haunted and concerned and disturbed that these women are in landfills. I wonder if my colleague could comment on some of the recommendations our colleagues have made earlier tonight about looking for ways to remedy and provide closure to the families, given the situation and the location of the remains.

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Dec/7/22 10:05:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, from the bottom of my heart I want to acknowledge the courage of what the member for Calgary Nose Hill just did. It is all too rare in this place to apologize for words, especially when they were meant, as the hon. member noted, from a good place. However, it is appalling that the landfills remain open. I hear the voices of Morgan's daughter and Marcedes's family and other people, saying, “Look, stop putting garbage there, at least. Let us find a way to find the remains of our loved ones.” We already have the loved ones, the children who were stolen over so many years in the residential school system. Those children are still underground. We have to acknowledge that the grief of families is never resolved through having the remains, but the wound remains far more open when the remains are not available for burial, for respect and to be brought home.

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Ms. Lori Idlout (Nunavut, NDP)

Dec/7/22 10:06:14 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver East. I stand today in solidarity with Chief Kyra Wilson of Long Plain First Nation and Cambria and Kera, the daughters of Morgan Harris, who was murdered and whose body was found at a landfill, in seeking justice for indigenous families. I call on the government to finally start to end the genocide by implementing the MMIWG calls for justice and the demands made by those I stand with today, including helping to search for Morgan Harris so her daughters may have the closure they seek. I am concerned with some of the questions that have been asked in the House tonight. As much as I have appreciated MPs' interventions, the words are distant and, while empathetic, make it clear to me that violence against indigenous women is clearly not understood. As an Inuk, I have experienced violence and have seen violence. I grew up with violence in my life. Here is what violence feels like. There is so much physical pain that it is unbearable to breathe, it is unbearable to cry and it is unbearable to ask for help. There is so much misguided love and trust that keeping the unhealthy relationship going feels like the only way. When there is finally courage to leave that violent relationship, women are put into other violence situations. Cambria and Kera have asked us to help them end the genocide. I frequently have asked tonight how we can do this. How can we in the House guide the federal government to end Canada's genocide against indigenous peoples? The federal government must create policies and programs and provide better resources. The federal government must help lift up indigenous peoples and their sense of cultural identity. It must ensure that systemic racism is addressed by improving law enforcement and policing for the overincarceration, overpolicing, underenforcement and underpolicing of indigenous peoples. It must lift up indigenous families that still suffer the effects of intergenerational trauma and ensure they are encouraging each other to rely on each other the way they used to before colonialism. It must help indigenous families find the remains of their loved ones. Victims of genocide are targeted because they belong to a certain group. As such, targeted resources must immediately be released to protect indigenous girls, women and two-spirit people. Last and certainly not least, it should implement fully, not incrementally, UNDRIP, the TRC's calls to action and the MMIWG calls for justice. These instruments provide the framework to end genocide. I note the words of Chief Kyra Wilson, who said, “We have 231 calls to justice, we need searches, we need support and it needs to start now.” I will end with what the beautiful, amazing and courageous Cambria Harris said at the presser yesterday: “Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and...Buffalo Woman. Remember these names. Shout them from the roof of your lungs and bring the justice that these women deserve.”

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