44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 7, 2022 02:00PM
- Dec/7/22 6:41:09 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I do not think it is difficult. There are 231 calls for justice that clearly lay out a plan forward.
The asks are very simple right now. I have been calling for the police to call for an independent investigation and provide the support and information necessary with respect to the feasibility of a search. If that is not possible, all this letter is asking for is to stop dumping garbage on her loved one. This is not difficult. What world do we want to live in where we have to beg? This is a crime scene, and we do not want to have garbage dumped on our loved ones.
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- Dec/7/22 6:47:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre, for her passion, her belief, her strength and her heart in speaking out for the families and for justice for indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast.
I come from Vancouver East, and in my riding, we too have devastating situations of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. We also experienced a situation where there was a serial killer. Of the 33 women who went missing, he was only prosecuted for six of those cases.
Many families do not have closure. To this date, despite the inquiries and calls for justice, the government has not taken action and the police have not actually made the necessary changes to address the systemic racism and discrimination within the system.
To that end, I would ask the member what we need to have the police do to ensure justice is served.
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- Dec/7/22 7:01:48 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I wanted to acknowledge that in Ottawa today we have the chief of Long Plain First Nation, Kyra Wilson, and the family of Morgan Harris.
I am glad to hear my hon. colleague speak about how we are going to work together across party lines to get justice for the families on their terms and in response to what they are saying they need for justice.
Will my colleague work with me to get the justice the families are looking for?
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- Dec/7/22 7:41:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we can tell the words from the minister were straight from the heart, and I respect the work he and his department do on a daily basis.
It is definitely a very tragic situation we are dealing with. I know it is not specifically the minister's department, but he referenced in his speech the 231 calls for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. I am looking at a few headlines and, unfortunately, there are advocacy groups that are calling the government's progress on those 231 calls for justice a national shame. Specifically, the Native Women's Association of Canada stated, “Today, we are seeing the sad results of the government’s weak response to the crimes being committed against Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people.” That was the organization's CEO. She went on to say, “The National Action Plan, as it was drafted, was actually a recipe for inaction, and the people represented by our organization are paying the price.”
I would like the minister to comment on those very disturbing remarks based on the continued situation we are dealing with.
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- Dec/7/22 7:58:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will ask the leader of the NDP a question similar to the one I asked the minister a few moments ago. It is with regard to the 231 calls for justice that the inquiry has recommended and laid out.
Specifically, I am referring to a quote made a few months ago by the CEO of the Native Women's Association of Canada, who stated:
Today, we are seeing the sad results of the government’s weak response to the crimes being committed against Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people.... The National Action Plan, as it was drafted, was actually a recipe for inaction, and the people represented by our organization are paying the price.
The quote goes on to explain how slow the government has been to respond to a number of these calls to action.
Now that we are having yet another emergency debate on this very tragic issue, I would like to know what specific calls to action, or as the leader of the NDP put it, what action, he would like to see done immediately.
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- Dec/7/22 8:00:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member rightly highlighted what is a very legitimate and fair criticism. The fact is that it has been more than three and a half years since the calls for justice were laid out very clearly. I remember at that time the effort, work and pain that went into that work to lay out the path. At that time, the elders in the community did not expect the calls for justice would just be tabled and never implemented, just referred to without anything happening.
What the indigenous communities have been saying is that they want to see all 231 calls for justice implemented and they want that done now.
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- Dec/7/22 8:08:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it horrendous to hear the member say how much work the Liberals have done in this regard. The member must have missed the response from indigenous leaders on the failure of the action plan to implement the 231 calls for justice. The member must have missed the fact that again and again the government missed its timeline. Consequently, we see in our communities the lives that are lost. Members are coming into the House baring their souls yet again to demand action and families show up with so much hurt, and the member for Winnipeg North has the audacity to say how much work the government has done.
If the member is so proud of the government's work, will he agree to an independent oversight body of the government's action on the implementation of the 231 calls for justice for the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls?
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- Dec/7/22 8:32:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will note at the outset that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Sydney—Victoria.
Kwe, ullukkut, tansi, hello and bonjour.
I will also acknowledge this debate is taking place on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people as we acknowledge the horrific and devastating murder of four indigenous women in Winnipeg.
This is a week where the expression “being treated like garbage” took on a tragic and literal meaning. These women were and are the victims of senseless violence. Their lives were taken from them. Their futures were stolen from them and their families. Each of them were cherished and loved by members of their families and communities.
I had the privilege yesterday of meeting one of the families. I am obviously humbled by our conversations, and I want them to know, although I had little opportunity to speak as it was not my place, that I heard them. Nobody should have to go through this pain or the trauma of uncovering the truth. No one should have to struggle to obtain justice, and nobody should have to sift through the trash looking for their loved ones.
In a sad twist of fate, yesterday was the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It was a violent femicide when 14 women were killed and 13 others were injured at the École Polytechnique de Montréal 33 years ago.
Quite frankly, I am disgusted by what is happening. There is a crisis involving the disappearance and murder of indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people. Together, as a nation and at various levels of government, we have the responsibility to respond to the calls for justice and to provide access to safe spaces and programs that help the most vulnerable to not be targeted.
Canada needs to do better for all of the families, the survivors and the communities that have to live with the consequences.
It was made clear in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that the federal government, all other levels of governments, the private sector and civil society each has a responsibility to address this national crisis that is ongoing. The report made clear that “jurisdiction” was a poisonous word and a word that contributes to the killing of indigenous women and girls.
While we are focused on a very tragic murder and the circumstances surrounding it, as governments and as people, we need to focus on every step of the way that put these indigenous women and girls in the vulnerable situation they found themselves in. Today, women on the street perhaps face that same challenge.
As a result of the final report on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, Canada funded projects to support families and survivors, build cultural spaces and strengthen capacity for indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQI+ organizations, as well as launched indigenous-led data initiatives. This includes many initiatives in Manitoba that many members have spoken about.
Over the past year, Canada has supported 65 cultural spaces and provided infrastructure investments that speak specifically to the priorities identified in call for justice 2.3. Despite these investments and despite the work we are doing to implement the calls to action, the progress is slow, and we keep failing indigenous women and girls across this country. Sadly, it is shameful that I am standing in the House saying that I do not know with any certainty whether any of those investments, had they been made in the places where they needed to be made, would have saved lives.
I will not go on much longer with this speech, but I do want to say that as a nation we have a duty to keep breaking down jurisdictional boundaries and keep breaking down the silos within our own government that keep failing indigenous women and girls. As I have heard from the House tonight, this needs to be multipartisan. I welcome initiatives from the House. I welcome initiatives for increased oversight to make sure the federal government is doing its part in responding to this tragedy.
No one should be bragging about what they are doing until every single indigenous woman, child and 2SLGBTQI+ person in this country is safe.
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- Dec/7/22 8:41:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I should have clarified my thought. We are supportive of putting in place call for justice 1.7, which does call for an ombudsperson. We need that engagement to occur so that it is done in the proper procedural way. This is something the government is open to and will be moving on.
As for the calls that we have heard from the families, I would have to see what exactly is being called for with respect to that site. I heard it clearly yesterday, but we need to understand exactly what needs to be put in place to support that. We clearly do not want remains being disturbed. The feasibility of doing searches, given the toxic nature of the land site, is something that I do not have expertise on. We need that expertise. We also need to put the resources in place to make sure these women are properly honoured and that if searches are done, they are done in an exhaustive fashion.
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- 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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- 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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- Dec/7/22 10:22:17 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to start by recognizing what a strong voice the member is in this place in calling for housing that is for indigenous, by indigenous.
As the member calls out for the federal government to follow through on all 231 calls to justice, at least nine of them relate to housing. I wonder if she would like to comment further on the critical need for the federal government to follow through specifically on the calls to justice related to housing.
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- Dec/7/22 10:27:12 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as we continue to talk about this, which the government is doing, people are dying and lives are being lost. The violence taking place is real.
When we say we need to do this work, what we need the government to do is put actions to words. I want to see in the budget real, significant investments, and want the government to spend those investments, not just to put them on paper and not take action. I want to see the government's implementation of call for justice 1.7, because we need the government to take responsibility and ensure there is independent accountability for that work, not just platitudes.
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