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Ms. Sylvie Bérubé (Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, BQ)

May/2/23 7:05:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for Nunavut for her speech. Nunavut is a lot like Nunavik in my riding. This evening we are having a take-note debate on Red Dress Day out of respect for indigenous women and girls. They still live in fear. There are still indigenous women and girls going missing and being murdered. In northern Quebec, the suicide rate is high. There are no policies, despite the funding at the government's disposal. This raises serious questions. There is no nation-to-nation respect either. What measures should the government take, besides commemorating missing and murdered indigenous women and girls? That is my question for my colleague.

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Ms. Lori Idlout

May/2/23 7:06:19 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I think there are so many different solutions, and the biggest one, which I agree with the member for Winnipeg Centre on, is that we have to lift indigenous peoples up. I think the red dress alert would be a major solution because I know that indigenous women are targets, and the reason they might be targets is that there is not enough of a quick response when it is discovered that there is an indigenous woman, girl or two-spirit person who disappears or is missing. When those responses can be reported more quickly, more people will realize that indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people cannot be targets anymore.

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Mrs. Brenda Shanahan (Châteauguay—Lacolle, Lib.)

May/2/23 7:07:11 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am wondering about this. Earlier in the policing piece, there was a lot of talk about introducing social workers to address difficult situations. I would like to hear the member's thoughts on the kind of training needed and who those community social workers should be.

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Ms. Lori Idlout

May/2/23 7:07:40 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, hopefully, it would be Inuit, first nations and Métis who would be helping in the responses. Unfortunately, the social work services are also a very patriarchal system. They use the best interest of the child to apprehend children, so I cannot trust easily the social work system. Hopefully, it would be Inuit elders, Inuit people and indigenous peoples, who we know can help during these situations. Indigenous peoples have very collective communities, and they know who are the helpers in their communities. Those are the systems where the federal government needs to do better in tapping into as resources.

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Mrs. Dominique Vien (Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC)

May/2/23 7:08:35 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is with great humility that I rise to speak this evening on a very difficult subject that is a true tragedy, that is, the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. It is a difficult but necessary conversation, and one that cuts across party lines. We need to name things as they are in order to improve the lives of indigenous women and girls. I am pleased to be able to take part in this conversation with my fellow parliamentarians. First, let us be honest. Indigenous women and girls often face terrible situations. The statistics are chilling, but it is important to talk about them. While indigenous women and girls represent only 4% of women in Canada, the homicide rate for young indigenous women in Canada was four times that percentage between 1980 and 2012. I am a member of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and we are currently studying the very sensitive issue of the human trafficking of women. We are hearing from a number of witnesses who are telling us their stories, and it is sometimes, or too often, very difficult to hear. Just yesterday, Fay Blaney, lead matriarch of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, appeared before the committee. One of the things she told us is that more than 50% of the victims of human trafficking are indigenous women and girls. I would remind the House that they represent 4% of women in Canada. Here is another troubling fact: On average, indigenous girls first become victims of exploitation at just 12 years old. This is an average, which means that some of them are younger than 12. It can be difficult to determine the exact number of victims of human trafficking and sex trafficking, and to determine the exact number of missing or murdered indigenous women and girls. For example, prior to 2014, the number of missing or murdered indigenous women and girls was estimated to be approximately 600. However, in 2014, we learned that more than double that number had gone missing or been murdered in the previous 30 years. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report was tabled in 2015, and its call to action 41 led to the establishment of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, also in 2015. A final report was tabled in 2019, and it contained no fewer than 231 recommendations or calls for justice. There were 21 calls for justice that were primarily aimed at Quebec. The Government of Quebec committed to implementing these calls for justice in collaboration with indigenous representatives and organizations. In the budget following the tabling of the reports, it also announced $200 million over five years in order to promote the academic success of indigenous youth, make public service workers aware of indigenous realities, support the well-being of indigenous women and girls, and improve access to culturally adapted services that meet the needs expressed by first nations and Inuit. As we know, at the federal level, the government introduced a national action plan in June 2021 to advance reconciliation with the first nations, Inuit and Métis. It said that substantial, immediate and transformational change was required by all Canadians to address the root causes of violence against indigenous women and girls. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work to be done, as evidenced by the fact that we are here in the House this evening to discuss this subject. As I mentioned earlier, I am part of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, which has conducted several studies over the past two years. We are currently studying the situation of women in sport and, over the past two years, we have conducted other studies on topics such as intimate partner violence and family violence, the mental health of young women, and human trafficking. We also did a study on the bill about judges, which we heard an update on today in a member's statement by one of our colleagues. One of the studies we did in 2022 stemmed directly from the calls for justice set out in the 2019 final report. Calls for justice 13.1 to 13.5 target the resource extraction and development industries. According to the national inquiry, resource extraction projects can “exacerbate the problem of violence against Indigenous women and girls”. Canada has many natural resources, and this industry sustains hundreds of communities and millions of people. This is not about demonizing an entire sector of the economy. It is simply about recognizing that we need to be vigilant to protect indigenous women and girls. The committee heard from 47 witnesses and made a certain number of recommendations. It called on the government to ensure indigenous women’s participation in all aspects of resource development projects, from consultations to decision-making. Another recommendation encouraged the government, in consultation with the provinces, territories and municipalities, to require resource developers to implement mandatory training for all employees on sexual violence and anti-racism. In that regard, I want to point out that the issue of violence against women in the specific context where they find themselves in an environment where many men from different areas of Canada will be working, and where they are in a vulnerable position, does not just concern one group of people. It concerns society as a whole. I think that all members will agree with me on that. City representatives, first responders and, most importantly, the people from the company or business should sit down together to discuss this issue, even above and beyond the training that should be given to the workers who come to the site. I would remind members that this is a key sector because it sustains many Canadian families. I am very proud to say that the work being done at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women is collaborative. This committee is an example—a very rare one, unfortunately—of goodwill between the different parties. I would like to commend my colleagues, who are doing an extraordinary job. That, of course, includes the member for Winnipeg Centre. We are all committed to advancing women's rights. This study, along with all the others, is a good example. As I mentioned earlier, there is much more to be done, but the discussion is under way, or continuing. Meaningful actions are being taken, and the creation of Red Dress Day is one such measure. May 5 is a day on which we honour the memory of these girls and women, our sisters. It reminds us of the magnitude of their loss. Red Dress Day is an initiative started by Métis artist Jaime Black, whose REDress Project involves hanging red dresses in public places across Canada. She was inspired by a group of Colombian women who wore red dresses in memory of their lost sisters. These dresses evoke a presence, but also an absence. They provide an unsettling reminder, but also a ray of hope, the hope that, one day, violence against indigenous women and girls will be nothing but a bad memory. Things need to change. The only way to eradicate this scourge is by talking, reflecting collectively and naming things as they are, as we are doing here tonight, even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if it hurts us.

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Mrs. Brenda Shanahan (Châteauguay—Lacolle, Lib.)

May/2/23 7:18:08 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for her speech. She shared some recommendations for helping vulnerable people in difficult situations. There have been tragedies, many of them in Quebec, but also across Canada, involving indigenous women. Does my colleague agree that systemic racism exists in Canada?

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Mrs. Dominique Vien

May/2/23 7:18:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, there are factors that make some communities more vulnerable, more at risk. That is the case for indigenous women and girls. Various studies have shown this to be true. Today I became aware of various documents indicating, based on evidence, that indigenous women and girls are vulnerable and at risk. We need to take care of them. It is important to recognize that. We also have to tell it like it is and take care of these women and girls. Today, under the leadership of our colleague from Winnipeg Centre, the House passed a very important, very interesting motion. She came up with an appropriate name for a tool similar to an Amber Alert, an alert that we could create here in Canada. It is indeed a very promising and interesting idea. We were very pleased to support it.

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Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

May/2/23 7:20:12 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I just want to start out by saying how much I appreciate working with my hon. colleague on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. We may be from different parties, but at the end of the day we all have a responsibility to end gender-based violence no matter who it is. In the case of indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and trans women, we know we are disproportionately represented. My colleague spoke about resource extraction. In our committee we spoke about how companies often come into communities and there is no accountability in place for them to ensure there is any safety put in place for communities, including for women and girls in the communities or in the nations they are reaping wealth out of. I am wondering if she can comment on that.

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Mrs. Dominique Vien

May/2/23 7:21:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, here in my hands I have all the recommendations that were developed as a result of this important study that we conducted on resources. Obviously, the whole community needs to step up in areas where natural resources are being extracted and developed. The community must include the company, the municipal council, community organizations, first responders, workers and, of course, representatives from indigenous communities. That allows for a broader view of the entire issue and ensures that promising solutions are being developed in order to enable us to turn things around once and for all.

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Mr. Jamie Schmale (Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, CPC)

May/2/23 7:22:18 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to go back to some of the things my colleague mentioned in her words, and specifically about the study on human trafficking and the sheer disproportionate number of indigenous women and girls who are caught up in this. I am wondering what recommendations she would like to maybe go into more detail about at this time, in addition to what we are talking about today with Red Dress Day and perhaps even the motion we passed today regarding an alert system.

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Mrs. Dominique Vien

May/2/23 7:22:55 p.m.
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Madam Chair, they are like building blocks that can be stacked up, one on top of the other. There are so many solutions that could be implemented. My colleagues have gone over them: shelters, halfway houses, or safe houses for these women and girls who wind up on the street, with nothing, at the mercy of bad people who can sense their vulnerability. I want to say that I am distraught at the increase in violence that we are currently seeing in Montreal and elsewhere. Yesterday, a colleague delivered a member's statement about rising violence in other provinces. There has been a 32% increase in violent crime and a 92% increase in gang-related crime. That is the setting that vulnerable women and girls like indigenous women find themselves in. That is something that needs to change. Criminals should be in jail, not on the streets.

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)

May/2/23 7:24:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, in good Conservative fashion we began this conversation talking about the risks to indigenous women and have now gone to the discussion of resources. However, I digress. I would like to ask the member a question with respect to her speech. She mentioned the right to consultation. Would she agree that the right to free, prior and informed consent includes the right to say no?

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Mrs. Dominique Vien

May/2/23 7:24:48 p.m.
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Madam Chair, obviously, when a woman says “no”, she is not saying “yes” or “maybe”. When a woman says “no”, it means “no”. The study I mentioned is an important study. It was conducted by the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. During that study, we took a closer look at what was happening in certain workplaces. Some men who come from all over and go to work in resource extraction unfortunately take advantage of vulnerable indigenous women and girls. Unfortunately, it is often men who commit these acts. That is the current reality. I think it was only right and appropriate to mention the huge amount of work we did. Moreover, we conducted this study in solidarity as women and with the support of our male colleagues. The member for Winnipeg Centre is always at the heart of these discussions. She has been very involved and presented her vision to our committee.

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Ms. Michelle Ferreri (Peterborough—Kawartha, CPC)

May/2/23 7:26:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I love working with my colleague on the status of women committee. She is bright, insightful, wise and compassionate. I know when we first started our work on missing and murdered indigenous women that she was horrified to learn of a lot of the statistics. I would like her to share her journey of learning with respect to this, because I think it ties in really well with this conversation we are sharing with the people watching at home and brings this to light, because some people still do not know that this is a real statistic.

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Mrs. Dominique Vien

May/2/23 7:26:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I feel the same way about my colleague, a very vibrant woman who has very good judgment. I have had the opportunity to hold positions where I had decision-making powers as I was formerly a Quebec MNA and minister. These positions made it possible for me to make positive contributions, I believe. Let us take, for example, labour standards, which are not inconsequential since the success of women and girls requires that they have economic autonomy. I also believe that a woman's economic maturity and independence from men depend on it. In the studies we carried out, that was a key point. The most important thing I learned is that women's economic security provides them with access to housing and care and lets them meet their basic needs. I believe that is where we need to focus most of our efforts.

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Mrs. Marilène Gill (Manicouagan, BQ)

May/2/23 7:28:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is with great solidarity with my female colleagues that I rise to speak this evening. Of course I am thinking of my colleague from Winnipeg Centre, my colleague from Nunavut and also my colleague from Edmonton Griesbach. Today I was thinking about this speaking opportunity, and there are some topics that truly speak to us as human beings. Certainly we are elected members first and foremost. I represent a riding. However, I will never stop thinking about the tragic events all around, most recently in Winnipeg. Empathy is the foundation of every human being. Even if it is impossible to truly get there, I try to put myself in someone else's shoes, in those of the family and that of my colleagues who are elected. It hurts every time. Yes, it is happening in Winnipeg, but it can happen anywhere. As a classic playwright once said, “I consider nothing human alien to me”. This affects us all. I am the member of Parliament for Manicouagan, a riding that is not Nunavut or Winnipeg, but it is large. There is natural resource extraction. There are women who are stuck in situations of poverty, isolation and lack of resources. Basically, these are very difficult situations, so we also have our own missing women, women who left their homes one day and were never seen again. Some of them are still missing. I would like to begin by expressing my full solidarity, as a woman, as an elected member and as the Bloc Québécois indigenous affairs critic. This is not unrelated to my own past experience, since I worked as a coordinator for the Regroupement des femmes de la Côte-Nord, which is also in my riding. I have worked in shelters for abused women where I have seen the reality on the ground, although I have never witnessed this violence first-hand. I often speak about my children. One does not necessarily need to have children to be compassionate. However, when we make decisions and take positions as elected officials, the fact that we are parents makes us question things and consider issues with our children in mind. I have two sons and a daughter. I remember that I talked about my daughter in the House last year. When my daughter was very young, I told myself that her life would be harder because of violence against women. My daughter is not indigenous. In theory, it is less likely that she will experience this violence, but she does still run that risk. I wonder if, since giving that speech last year, things have really changed for indigenous women, who are four times more likely than non-indigenous women to be impacted by such violence. I would like to say that things have changed, but I have to say that I do not see it in general and given everything that has been accomplished. Actually, my colleague from Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis was just talking about what gets accomplished in committee. It is true that important work gets done in the House. This afternoon, a motion was moved that proves it, but at the same time, Parliament is a sort of bubble. There are positions and wishes that are expressed, but it all remains theoretical once again. These are not meaningful actions. I have been wondering how we can measure what we are doing right now, what has been done since the report was tabled and even before that. We can do something before the report is tabled. We know that something is happening. We know that many women are killed or disappear when they should not have been killed or disappeared. What do we do? What tools do we have to find out? It is quite broad. I am not saying we can find out exactly, but it feels like we need some tools. There is talk of the 231 recommendations. I will name two huge pieces. This involves both colonization and the entire issue of the patriarchy, as someone else has already noted. Those are daunting issues. They are huge. How are we able to say that what we are doing as elected officials is really having an impact? We can see that funding was invested in various programs, for example, and more investments were made this year. We need to look at how those investments will really address the root of the problem. Will it make a difference? Is it really a practical solution? I do not think we are doing that. Perhaps we need to think about that. I was talking about the ability to measure. I do not like to talk about units of measurement for this type of subject, but I think that, as human beings, we always have to be able to measure what we are trying to do to see whether improvements have been made or whether we are failing to meet our objective. That is huge, but we need to have this overall view to figure out where we can provide more assistance. I was pleased to see that the motion by my colleague from Winnipeg Centre mentioned an alert. For me, that is a concrete example where we can see a real, measurable impact on the ground. I am grateful for that. That is not exactly the word I am looking for, but I do appreciate it. At the same time, it is interesting that that comes from the indigenous community itself. I am the Bloc Québécois critic for this file, however I am not indigenous. Earlier my colleague from Edmonton Griesbach talked about consultations. Yes, we must always consult the people involved. We must always ask what first nations and indigenous people would like and what can be done. Here we have some examples. I say this quite humbly because I am not an indigenous person. I found it interesting that my colleague from Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis used the word “humility”, a word I often use. Consultation is needed. Once again, it must not end with the tabling of a report. We must continue to have relationships with all the first nations, organizations and women's organizations to go even further. I talked about money. I talked about one-size-fits-all measures, but there also needs to be flexibility, perhaps through a number of smaller measures. It would be impossible to come up with one big measure that will solve everything, so we need to take baby steps, although perhaps we can pick up the pace, with measures like the alert. As my colleague from Nunavut stated earlier, there are no roads in certain regions. There may not necessarily be a police force. Women are on their own. Their families are nearby. The individual who may be violent is part of their immediate circle. These are very complex situations requiring many measures that are truly adapted to and appropriate for each situation. In conclusion, I will come back to what I said at the beginning. I hope that, in the House, we show what we are doing in theory, but that we can see the concrete applications of the decisions we make. We need to take action and not just by investing money. We really need to see how this can appropriately respond to the calls to action. We are talking about urgent situations. Nothing can be more urgent than people's safety, integrity and lives. For these women and communities, it is their lives that are at stake. Their lives are in danger. For me, there is nothing more urgent than saving human lives. Clearly, this cannot wait.

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Mrs. Brenda Shanahan (Châteauguay—Lacolle, Lib.)

May/2/23 7:37:47 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, in her speech, my hon. colleague mentioned some very important aspects of this problem, including decolonization and the patriarchy. This demonstrates that there are some cultural concepts that are deeply anchored in this problem. I would like to know if she agrees with me that more indigenous women are affected by this problem even though they represent 4% of the population. Does systemic racism exist in our society?

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Mrs. Marilène Gill

May/2/23 7:38:51 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I will quite simply say yes. The Indian Act is the epitome of systemic racism. We are talking about segregation. We are talking about denying human rights. This exists, of course, and we need to eliminate it. The first nations, indigenous peoples, the Inuit and the Métis peoples will show us how to do this.

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Ms. Michelle Ferreri (Peterborough—Kawartha, CPC)

May/2/23 7:39:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is nice to see solidarity in the House on such a serious issue. One of the questions I would ask is whether there are any personal stories from the hon. member's riding. I have some, as many do, but as to her riding, can she share how this issue affects her constituents?

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Mrs. Marilène Gill

May/2/23 7:40:03 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for the question. Certainly, we all have stories to tell. I cannot say that everyone I have spent time with has wanted to tell these stories. Sometimes it is so painful. We need to respect each person's choice. They might not be able to tell their stories. I have several, but I have one in particular I heard from a woman. In 2015, I organized a march for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and a woman came up to me to talk about her sister. She told me that her sister left for the city, let us say Quebec City, roughly 500 kilometres away, and she never came back. Marching is a symbolic action to call for change, but for this woman, just participating in the march helped her to talk about her sister. We did not talk about it as much as we do today. There are also a lot of taboos. She realized that she was not the only one to have gone through this, that there were other cases. Where I am from, it did not happen in an industrial area. It actually happened in an indigenous community of 5,000, where someone disappeared one day. That was one case, but there are so many more across Quebec and Canada, each under different circumstances. There are places in my riding, 1,000 km away, where children were taken away at the age or one or two and never returned to their communities. There are little girls who have gone away, never to be seen again. People are still mourning these children who never came back to their communities. There are so many stories, so many permutations, but they all boil down to the need for solidarity and concrete action to ensure this never happens again and to enable these people to grieve their loss, if not heal.

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