Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Aboriginal Peoples
Issue 4 - Evidence, February 5, 2003
OTTAWA, Wednesday, February 5, 2003
The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples met this day at 6:15 p.m. to study issues affecting urban Aboriginal youth in Canada and, in particular, to examine access, provision and delivery of services; policy and jurisdictional issues; employment and education; access to economic opportunities; youth participation and empowerment; and other related matters.
Senator Thelma J. Chalifoux (Chairman) in the Chair.
[English]
The Chairman: I would like to welcome you all here. This is a very important issue affecting all our people across the country. This committee is very interested in what is happening with our Aboriginal people, especially in urban areas. We endeavour to develop an action plan for change with strong recommendations. One our report is finalized, it is our hope that it will provide you with the necessary ammunition to deal with government, negotiate for funding and participate as partners in the Canadian mosaic. Aboriginal people are the most discriminated-against race of people in Canada. That has been proven by several surveys. We must educate and become partners in this new age with all segments of society.
I would like to welcome you all here. I am sure you had a good trip and welcome to the cold capital of Canada. Mr. Adams, would you like to start?
Mr. Robert Adams, Executive Director, Native Canadian Centre of Toronto: Thank you. We are delighted to be here and I thank you very much on behalf of the Toronto Aboriginal community. I would like to acknowledge your hard work. You have been listening to Aboriginal voices for a while. We were at the AFN yesterday, where we met with Lynn Chabot and some other folks working in this area, and heard about their testimony before you in June.
I serve at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, one of 117 friendship centres in Canada. Accompanying me is Ryan McMahon, who manages a youth program. Mr. McMahon will share some of the short time we have for an oral presentation. Also with us is Arlen Dumas, also a manager delivering programs to youth in the city of Toronto. He will also speak.
We will speak on the core of the issues that affect youth: education, education and education in all of its various forms, models, support and delivery. That is what we are working hard to either support or, for older youth, deliver.
I am sure you are have seen the recent Statistics Canada reports that confirm that 50 per cent of the Aboriginal population lives in cities and towns. Toronto's population, as represented in these statistics, is very much under- represented, and we have spoken to that publicly.
We want to emphasize that there are tens of thousands of Aboriginal youth in the City of Toronto, and the Native Canadian Centre is now a safe haven for all ages. Half of Toronto's Aboriginal population under the age of 24. These tens of thousands of youth are seeking education, shelter, employment, guidance, legal services, emotional support and a place to nurture their roots.
We will be raising a common theme that you have heard before. These services — education, human resources and health — are best delivered in an Aboriginal environment in the urban Aboriginal community. The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and other such friendship centres and Aboriginal agencies throughout the country have very high success rates in the matters because we understand Aboriginal youth.
When young people come to us, they do not feel picked upon. I will give you an example. In the Aboriginal youth community of teenagers and young 20-year-olds, we have started to discuss gangs in the City of Toronto. We do not have the gangs that exist in Winnipeg or other western cities, even though our Aboriginal youth population is huge. Nevertheless, we have started some talking circles to focus on this issue. Recently, Mr. McMahon convened a talking circle including other Aboriginal agency representatives and youth. In attendance was a young woman who was in her early to mid-twenties. She probably has a four or five-year-old baby already. I remember seeing her when she was in her early teens, and she became a young mother at 18 years of age. She tells the classic story where, when she was a teenager going to high school, she was barely able to get the bus tokens to come to the native centre for our social evenings. Yet, she made the effort to do that so she could come to a place where she did not feel peer pressure, did not feel like she was having problems with her mainstream peer group because she could not have Nike shoes and Parasuco jeans. It was just hard enough for her to get the bus tokens to come to the native centre to be with other teenagers. While she had her baby at a young age, she has matured to the point where she feels confident about herself — in part because she knows she has a home base and lots of nurturing support through the programs and the facility that we have at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. She has found her own security and her own voice. She spoke up in the meeting. That process took years and years for her, but she is still a young woman. She has a whole life ahead of her. We support young families. Our current receptionist is another young mother who 21 years old. She often brings her baby to work and everyone accommodates her. There are lots of little babies that come through in any given day.
Our goal at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto is to deliver meaningful education and support for our youth. This works when we deliver it with the Aboriginal culture supporting it. That is the foundation; the money spent on these centres works. I would like to introduce Ryan McMahon, who is running a program through a crime mobilization grant. Year one is over and we will roll this over into year two soon.
Mr. Ryan McMahon, Youth Coordinator, Native Canadian Centre of Toronto: Thank you. I would like to take a second to thank all the senators for having us here today and also acknowledge some of our own people who are here as guests and maybe we can have a cup of coffee and introduce ourselves later.
As Mr. Adams said, my name is Ryan McMahon and I am Ojibwa from Fort Frances, Ontario. I am a member of the Bear Clan and Couchiching First Nations is the name of my reserve.
I am one of the utility coordinators at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. I have recently finished coordinating the ``Awareness Through Art'' program, which was funded by the National Crime Prevention Centre. I now coordinate the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto's Trillium Foundation social recreation youth program.
Awareness through Art is a program that targets ``youth in transition'' — youth willing to make, and seeking a way in which to make positive changes in their lives. This program uses theatre and other artistic mediums as open people up through positive risk-taking, self-esteem building, by using theatre games, peer support, sharing time with elders and traditional healers in our communities.
This program strives to move youth participants towards reintegration into the greater Aboriginal community of Toronto. Never before has the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto communities seen such a program in its uniqueness and culturally relevant content. More programs like this need to be supported. Relationships are born and fostered by providing the youth — many for the first time — with a strong sense of community and what their role is in the community, through a holistic approach to programming for their mental, physical, spiritual, emotional needs.
We have applied for second stage funding through the Community Mobilization Program Fund and we hope to deliver another solid youth program in the near future as we look at taking our delivery methods to the next level by learning through our successes and failures.
One of the key objectives of the program, beyond crime prevention, is rebuilding our communities. Through the Awareness Through Art program, youth volunteer with the Aboriginal Circle of Life Services, a seniors program at the Native Canadian Centre. They engage in cultural events, such as pow-wows, sweatlodges and sundances. With the exposure to traditional feasts and celebrations they might not otherwise be exposed to, they become grounded and immersed in the culture and practices of our culture.
Often art, music and theatre are the first things to be cut from our education systems or programs, but I am here before you to tell you the impact that it has had on our community. Attendance in our program is high. We are often complimented on the vision of the project itself. People would ask, ``theatre as crime prevention?'' with wrinkled look on their faces. Often people would walk away from a conversation with me a look of bafflement on their faces. Perhaps I can be long-winded about theatre, as it is my first love and passion, but the sole message I try to share with people is the power of expression. Young people need to be heard. They long for it. What better way to let them express themselves than through theatre, where there are no wrong answers, where everyone is at the same level of learning and where we are all making fools out of ourselves together?
I would like to share one of our success stories with you. This story is of a young man who was riddled with a number of problems — namely selling drugs and a having penchant for violence. This man is very shy, as he speaks with a stutter, and wears his hat really low to hide his eyes. This man started attending the theatre modules with us. Shortly after he started, he quit. The reason he quit was due to his shyness. He could not overcome his shame of his stutter, but he met a mentor at the Native Canadian Centre. Most would see his quitting the program as a failure. This was no failure. The young man started sharing more time with the mentor he met during his time in our community. The youth program, my program, held a pow-wow March 9 and 10, 2002. It was a pow-wow that brought him into contact with the eagle. He received an eagle feather bustle. This is a bustle that men wear when dancing in the traditional men's style. To receive a bustle is a life-changing event, and brings with it a number of responsibilities. It is also one of the highest honours of our people to receive the eagle feather. I can say this has changed his life. He is now a volunteer in our cultural program. He is a men's traditional dancer. He does not mind coming and sitting through a theatre workshop with a few of the new people he has met along the pow-wow trail.
This is just a small example of the power of our community and the culture. This man is walking on what we call the ``Red Road.'' He now walks with all the teachings that help him live a good life day to day, and those teachings are found within our rich community in Toronto. To me, they begin and end with our culture.
Whenever we look at developing youth programs and at what works, what is found in the mainstream, what applies to the mainstream and what does not apply to our communities, I will always go back to grounding it inside of a cultural context within our cultural teachings and within our communities, with our aunties and uncles. Friends that we do not yet know are often the people who will help us change our lives.
The Awareness Through Art program has cultural relevance, promotes empowerment and allows youth to share with the community the story of themselves. Perhaps the best thing about it is that it was created from the ground up by our community. It is unique and deliverable. The main objective of the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto's youth programs is to rebuild our urban youth community. Often, we feel overwhelmed by the challenge of delivering programs to our youth that will make a difference. As a young person myself, I realized what made the biggest difference in my life, and it was community —the sense of community and my role in the community. As native people, we have to look inside ourselves and communicate clearly to our non-native brothers and sisters to detail our needs culturally so we can be effective at servicing our youth community. I hope that is what I have done here today. I thank you for your time.
Mr. Arlen Dumas, Youth Program Manager, Native Canadian Centre of Toronto: [Mr. Dumas spoke in his native language]
Thank you. I am grateful for this opportunity to speak before you. I am a Cree from northern Manitoba, Pukatawagan reserve. I manage a Youth Services Canada project.
The courage to believe in our own potential is what makes dreaming, planning and working for the future possible. Without this courage, not only is potential wasted; so are people's lives. While youth possess almost immeasurable potential, to their detriment, inexperience can sometimes lead them to squander their greatest asset. When a person does not attempt to harness their potential, it is a loss not only to them but perhaps a greater loss for everyone. For each and every youth who has not attempted to aspire to their recent childhood goals, there is now one less doctor, fireman, astronaut or leader.
As the program manager of a Youth Services Canada project funded by HRDC, I facilitate a skills-developing and enhancing program where the theme is to help Aboriginal youth at risk to overcome obstacles that keep them from living their dreams. One of these obstacles is displacement, as they exist in an insecure, urban setting where nothing in their surroundings reflects their culture. This leads to feelings of helplessness, which results in them not believing in their own potential.
At the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, we can provide the participants a unique environment that is welcoming, familiar and stable. We are able to introduce youth who come from across the country to other youth who face similar issues. Together, they can challenge themselves to better their situations. We encourage the youth to become more vocal, to have the courage to argue, to be critical through debate and speaking exercises. This is just one component of our life skills course that teaches them how to confront someone in authority without being meek or combative.
We also have various guest speakers requested by the participants who are successful and come from the same background. Our course curriculum is culturally relevant and provides a spectrum of lessons that focus on the Aboriginal experience. The participants have the opportunity to meet with elders and other traditional leaders weekly. Also, the youth are encouraged to volunteer at various community events that offer them insight as to how their work can make a difference.
Please remember the difficulty of being a youth. After all, it should only seem like yesterday. There is a young man who I have had the pleasure to meet. He applied to enter my youth program. I asked him why he had dropped out of school at the age of 14. In his own words, he told me that he had found a part-time job and that he was making money, which happened to be $5.50 a hour. When one is 14, this is a substantial income. Sadly, a few short years later, he finds it almost impossible to secure an income any higher.
Another community member I was fortunate enough to meet is a young mother of two. Despite the challenges of raising two children on an extremely fixed income, she is undaunted in her dreams to raise her children in a home all her own.
I am confident that, as long as these individuals remain determined, they will achieve their goals. As long as there are opportunities provided to youth, we can safely say we have fulfilled our roles as uncles, aunts and mentors. Those of us who can influence today's aboriginal youth to be courageous and to cherish their potential have the satisfaction of knowing that we have moved toward achieving our own potential.
Mr. Adams: We have a pretty successful native centre, and we are happy to be a part of the larger friendship centres in Canada, because the National Association of Friendship Centres is truly the only urban voice. We want to deliver good quality support to the urban people.
On a specific, practical basis, Mr. Dumas' program is funded by HRDC funded: $300,000 one year, 32 young people going through it, and hopefully many of them will get jobs. We will be applying for year two, so we can do a repeat. We will use year two as a model, to look for a five-year pilot project so that we can ``institutionalize'' this youth training program, which is working very well. We can demonstrate that. Then we will look for partnerships, perhaps with our local community colleges, so it becomes a certificate program of some kind of quality. Then, after a five-year pilot project, we can have it permanently under our direction and deliver it year after year after year. That is how successful that model is. We have a strategy that is very practical for this program.
For our younger kids, we harbour a ``stay in school'' program, and there is a nice story in the background material here. For the future, the Native Canadian Centre has established the Miskaowjiwan foundation, which has about $400,000 to begin with. We have very good quality directors. It just had its first fundraiser, where Bay Street meets urban Aboriginal Toronto. About 40 or 50 bankers and investment people met us in a downtown restaurant. It was a wonderful evening, and our first opportunity to meet them and them us. The idea is to build up an endowment style fund with millions and millions of dollars — which is a totally realistic goal in the years ahead — and to have a stream of income that we control and that comes from no government sources at all. We will build it up from all of the benefactor bases that everyone else looks to. We will have an income stream for self-government, several empowerment and our own cultural purposes. It is just a healthy part of the future.
My last point is that with all of this investment in people, we know that education is probably a number one priority right across the country for all segments of society. That investment in people pays fabulous returns. I know my struggling for an education and going to university as a young adult was eye opening. It was perfectly wonderful and allows me to sit here today 25 years later.
However, we give back. We have a wonderful program called ``Visiting Schools'' funded by the Indian and Northern Affairs, Canada, Ontario Region. We send traditional men and women into the Toronto District School Board education system and do curriculum Aboriginal teachings. Last year, our two full-time people, plus our part-time dancers and singers who are hired for each event, visited 35,000 school children. This calendar year, it could be 40,000 or 50,000. We have a modest budget of less than $100,000. We are all committed and passionate.
Our phones are ringing off the hook because there is a mandate to have Aboriginal curriculum content in grades 3, 6, 9 and so on. We are delivering it and we love to do it. Education is a key. Having us, in a sense, control the education process for our own people works best.
Mr. Leonzo Barreno, Director, Aboriginal Youth Leadership Development Program: I am from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College — SIFC. It is part of FSIM. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before all the senators.
I would like to acknowledge the presence of our elder, Elder Beatrice Lavallée, who is from Piapot First Nation, and she is an elder in our college. Also with us is Mr. Wes Stevenson, vice-president at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College.
I am honoured that you invited us to be here. Also, I am very thankful they allowed me to speak here as part of the college and as part of the First Nations and Metis communities. I prefer to speak on behalf of the First Nations college.
I would like Elder Beatrice to say a few words followed by Mr. Stevenson. Then I will focus on the presentation.
Ms. Beatrice Lavallée, Elder, Saskatchewan Indian Federated College: Greetings to you fine folks. I have been with the college for a few years. Every day I am busy. Being the elder for the college is a busy job. I am into different classrooms and different schools in the community. This past week, for instance, the interns from the Indian Education Department are getting together with the cooperating teachers. It is a very heart-warming experience to be with these people and see the changes that are happening for Native people.
I was born in 1929. There have been many changes since I went to school in a residential school. I encourage the students today. I tell them, ``You are so lucky. Take advantage of your education. Do the best you can. Keep at it.'' It is so heart-warming to see all this.
I have heard a few things about youth at risk here. I work with another lady at the gathering place who has a group of youth at risk teenagers. I help her out once in a while. I do not go there as often as she would like because I am with the college.
I see the good things that are happening. Like I said, I go into a lot of classrooms. Last semester, I was into Cree 100 and Cree 101. The instructor there is a very good teacher. He is teaching Cree. I saw that over half of them were non- native. I welcome that. I often tell the folk, when I first got to the college, I say, I have learned your western culture, I speak a little English today, but what do you know about mine? I was thinking one day, I am going have to quit saying that. There are too many of you guys. I welcome that idea. Over half of them were non-native. The instructor was telling me that they are good. I sat in the middle of the room and the students came and shook my hand. The first person greeted me in Cree as though he had been speaking Cree forever. I was also told that they are good because they know how to write it, also. It is a good place.
I like it there because we are allowed to learn about our own culture and to practice our traditional ways. We have a pipe ceremony once a month. We have feasts.
I go to different schools with the interns and explain to the children in the community the purpose of what they do. They teach those kids in the community. In the future, I think everyone will understand, everyone will care about one another and respect one another.
Once I get going, I can talk forever.
Mr. Wes Stevenson, Vice President, Administration, Saskatchewan Indian Federated College: Madam Chairperson and committee members, I am a Saulteaux First Nation from Cowesses First Nation about 100 miles east of Regina. Of the 2,400 members, 384, maybe 385, depending on who is in town, live on reserve, and the rest live off in urban centres.
I graduated from high school in 1970, and my first timid experience at the University of Regina was when the counsellor told me that ``my kind'' usually does not make it there.
The Saskatchewan Indian Federated College has been around for 27 years now. We share space on the University of Regina campus. As Mr. Barreno will tell you in a minute, we have graduated many students. The success we have there has been tremendous.
Mr. Adams stressed the importance of education. We truly believe that. Thirty-two years later, still on the University of Regina property, I have the honour of being a part of an administration that on June 21 of this year, Aboriginal Day, will have a grand opening of a $30 million structure that is owned and controlled by the First Nations of Saskatchewan. Douglas Cardinal designed this structure.
It has been a tremendous pleasure to experience the transition of going from my first day on the Regina campus and being told that I would not make it, to being part of an administration that has worked very hard for the last 10 years, and to open the doors to this very symbolic, very Canadian post-secondary education structure.
Education has been my saviour. I see it as the saviour of so many of the young students who come in to our college. All students face transitional difficulties when they leave home to go to college; these difficulties are especially challenging for those coming from reserves and are just beginning their journeys.
There are many things broken in post-secondary education in Canada for First Nations. We are building this $30- million structure, but we will still have a $15-million mortgage when we are done in June. We fit into a policy vacuum where responsibility for First Nations post-secondary education continues to be tossed between the federal government and the provincial governments. We are not supposed to be around. We get a $6 million grant each year from Indian Affairs. We are called a ``pilot project,'' a ``research project,'' but we are not called ``an institution.'' That is why we find ourselves here.
Although we became the seventy-sixth member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the AUCC, we continue to be chronically under-funded. We receive two-thirds the amount that other universities and colleges in Canada receive for operational funding. That does not speak to capital funding because we have none.
This is why I say there are some things that need fixing. When we talk about ``education, education, education'' as being the way out for many of our people in the future, this is one area that needs drastic and very immediate attention.
Mr. Barreno: Now we will concentrate on why we were invited to come here.
It is true that many Aboriginal students — First Nations and Metis in the case of Saskatchewan — do make it to the college but the majority do not. They drop out at a very early age. They do not continue their education and they end up in menial jobs or not employed at all.
Because of that, four years ago, I approached some colleagues at the college together with some people from the federal and provincial governments and asked them to create something to reach youth who are not at the university level. We wanted them to have some sort of training so they could record an educational path and find meaningful employment. That is was why we created the Aboriginal Youth Leadership Development Program.
I would like to talk about some of the things we have learned about youth — the things they like; the things they do like. Using their own opinions, we created programs for their benefit. For instance, we all know that youth do not like to hear negative comments, hurtful comments or racist comments against Aboriginal people. Because they are young, they do not like to be lectured all the time about their situation. We have also discovered in doing internships that they do not like to be used just for a show. They do not like to be considered as numbers to fill quotas. They also do not like to be ``Indian'' there — that is called ``tokenism.'' They prefer to use their talents and to show what they can do and to improve their skills.
Youth do not like to be labelled. We are good at labelling them all the time: ``youth at risk,'' ``young offenders,'' ``foster youth,'' ``gangs,'' and so forth. They say they feel hurt by those labels. They dislike being misunderstood and they dislike it when their problems are continuously ignored. They also tell us that they are not just ``the future.'' That phrase is said so often that it has become a cliché. The youth say, ``We are the present and we are here to do something.''
Youth believe they can accomplish anything they can dream in life. They like to be trained in things that will boost their self-esteem. Many of those who quit school did so because they felt they were not good enough to stay in school, that they would not make it — just as someone once told Mr. Stevenson.
Youth prefer training that is hands-on, that challenges them mentally and that includes physical activities. As young people, they like to move. They like to show that they can do things that are challenging.
One important lesson has basically become the basis of whatever we do at our centre: Aboriginal youth have an urgent need to go back to their traditional roots. We all know the effects of colonialism and residential schools on many generations of Aboriginal people. The new generation is urgently re-claiming their culture. Especially when they live in the cities, it can be very difficult to go back to their traditions. I am glad there are programs, as my friends have described, that bring back to them this amazing sense of pride.
We believe we gain strength from our partnerships. Therefore, we bring the elders in to talk to our youth. From those relationships, we build the rest of the programs. Traditional knowledge should be included. The elders are an integral part of the culture. It is beneficial to both elders and youth in all stages of the programming to not only receive the programs, but to be involved in planning, delivering, evaluating and even terminating programs if they are not successful. All training should be holistic, not only in the traditional sense but also in the sense of including families, community members, and any private or public groups that are interested in working with us.
We are always looking for self-sustainability. We are always under-funded in our programs. We are always creating ways to bring in funding for our programs. We want to show the youth that they also can bring funding to the program when we involve them.
We firmly believe that training should focus on two essential elements. The first one is to empower youth so they can realize their potential and self-worth. The second focus is on areas of education and employment that will benefit them.
We evaluate each program and improve the areas that are not working for youth or not having a positive impact. We maximize resources. My colleagues were explaining how they have worked to reach thousands of people with a few dollars. We also do that. We have a strong sense of accountability. We keep records of all the activities and, of course, we keep financial records of every expense we pay.
Our program is successful because it is publicly well known. We are very visible in the community. We change, we diversify and we grow. The college is a perfect example of that. Our programs are open to all Aboriginal youth — First Nations or Metis. We promote our programs as accurately as we can, setting out information and requirements very clearly so that the applicants know what they are coming to. We show professionalism but we are also very culturally sensitive. We respect all people who are involved in our programs. We do not discriminate against those youth who have had minor offences in the past. They also deserve a chance. On the other hand, we ensure that they know that there are cultural and administrative protocols and guidelines that cannot be broken. They understand that. We are very clear about those things and we always have the elders help to explain that.
Once applicants are accepted into our programs, we sign agreements with them of mutual understanding and expectations between them and us. Of course, the elders are present as well.
Because our programs include not only classroom teaching but also travel to camps in rural areas, we must insure those participants. The college has insurance in case of any accident. So far none have happened.
Once we are in the training, elders, the staff, and the trainers, are well aware of the participants. We all have experience in our different fields. We incorporate traditional knowledge very strongly, as well as non-Aboriginal knowledge ensuring that our youth absorb the content of the training; a training that is dynamic, non-stop, empowering, respectful and motivating. We do this training because we want the people to discover their inner selves and the abilities they do not know they have. We always encourage them to communicate and not just to listen to us. We teach them to be leaders — not followers — and to be builders of healthy societies.
Then, when that part is done, when we focus on teaching them the actual jobs and careers that are out there that they can pursue, we help them to pursue that. We also believe in creating our own capacities and that is why we facilitate training for trainers so that people who come to our program receive a further education.
I will now speak about barriers and funding. If we are going to avoid barriers in the future and help Aboriginal youth, we recommend strongly that funding agencies should be more flexible within their terms and conditions to ensure that programs can be innovative and focused more on the actual needs of the community — in this case of the youth — and not solely on the funding agency's requirements.
Funding agencies should encourage innovation and input from our elders and youth. Funding agencies, be they federal, provincial or Aboriginal, should work in a more coordinated fashion. The process to access funding from them should not be so rigid and be accessible to small agencies for small programs.
We also would like that whoever is in charge of those agencies to identify programs or institutions that have an impact in the lives of our youth and continue to support those institutions because of the good job they are doing. The funding agencies' representatives should visit us; they should visit the programs they fund and monitor our activities. If possible, we would like some of those funding agencies to consider coming to some of our programs because we believe that to wear moccasins does not hurt. On the contrary, it will make them feel very good.
Also, funding agencies should support programs and institutions to set up effective mechanisms for narrative and financial reports. Reporting should not be complicated. Since that is one of the issues that usually arises in relation to Aboriginal programs and institutions, by working together we can advance in this society.
Thank you for your time. I give to each of you a little folder that contains information about the college and the programs, as well as comments from youth who have taken our programs. I want to commend this committee for the work it is doing. I am not from Canada but I was embraced by First Nations people and adopted by them. I come from a society where tolerance was zero and I left mainly because of the conflicts. I commend you because Aboriginal people, especially in the West, are growing tremendously fast and they need urgent attention. The youth and the Aboriginal people who live in larger cities in the East and West also need support. This is not a plea for pity but is a rightful plea so that First Nations people, and Metis and Inuit, can feel a part of Canada.
Mr. Lyndon Linklater, Chairman of the Board, Saskatoon Indian and Metis Friendship Centre: Thank you, senators, and colleagues. I extend greetings on behalf of the Saskatoon Indian and Metis Friendship Centre.
As some of you might be familiar with the City of Saskatoon, right now when you speak about demographics that affect Aboriginal people in the Province of Saskatchewan, on my taxi cab ride here I asked the cab driver how does he know where to go because Ottawa is such a big city. He told me that there are a million people here. I said that that is how many people live in the whole province from which I come.
They say in the year 2030, 50 per cent of the population of Saskatchewan will be made up of Aboriginal people. I am sure you have all heard about the demographics with respect to First Nations people and how they are disproportionate in terms of regular Canadians when you talk about longevity rates, diabetes rates, incarceration rates, and all of these health and socio-economic things. What do we do?
A number of different programs that have been worked. One is the friendship centre movement. The Saskatchewan centre will be celebrating its thirty-fifth year in the city. We hope to see continued funding for the centre and all of the programs that it delivers.
In our city, we have problems. There a gang problem occurring in the city where we live. This is new to us. It is only five years old. We hear of gangs in Winnipeg and they are moving west. When we speak to our elders and when we speak to community members in the City of Saskatoon, they say we need to continue doing is offering programs such as the programs we have at the centre, which are culturally relevant and culturally appropriate programs. Some of my colleagues from the Toronto friendship centre spoke of their programs. Many Indian organizations have similar programs that offer culturally relevant programs as value-added programs. Those programs need to continue. If we are to make any dent in to the socio-demographics with which we are familiar, we need to continue to support those kinds of initiatives.
Currently, there is an initiative called the urban Multi-purpose Aboriginal Youth Centre initiative. We are not sure how long this initiative will be in existence. I actually work for Indian government. I work for the Saskatoon Tribal Council, Urban First Nations Services. There is a bit of a conflict there because we deliver very similar programs, the friendship centre and the place where I work. However, when I think hard about it, there is no question that there can never be enough programming for Aboriginal young people or Aboriginal people in general. We will continue to coexist, these Indian government organizations as well as non-government Aboriginal organizations, in trying to address the needs of our people and the health issues that face our people and all the others that face our people. We will all work together. However, we need to know that support will be there by the federal government as well as provincial governments.
There is this place in Saskatoon called the White Buffalo Youth Lodge, that is about two or three years old. It is funded by Heritage Canada. The Saskatoon Tribal Council urban office where I work manages the youth lodge. For the first time, young people have a place to go in the City of Saskatoon.
There is an area called Rivers Dale, in Saskatoon. It is the Indian part of town, so to speak. There is a very high population of Aboriginal people there. There has never really ever been any kind of place for them to go. I am told that youth who become involved in gangs get involved because it is a family to them. They have a place to go and hang out. They have a place where someone speaks their language, whether that is street language or a First Nation language. That is why they join the gangs. It gives them a sense of home. That is where they can go to relate to their own kind.
The White Buffalo Youth Lodge is a place where 75 per cent to 80 per cent of the young people who go there are of Aboriginal ancestry. They offer culturally relevant programs such as recreation programs and guidance programs. The White Buffalo Youth Lodge is a building that is in partnership with other government agencies such as health, for example. There is a nurse and a dentist on site. We have set up partnerships at the community level to address these issues that our people face.
Partnerships are really good as long as the people involved have the same kind of goals and want to achieve the same kind of results.
I wish to acknowledge the Senate itself for having this committee and trying to make a difference in this beautiful country where we all live. I think about what is going on in the world in places like in Iraq, with the space shuttle Columbia; these are serious situations. However, closer to home we have many problems that we need to continue to deal with if we all want to make this a better place. We are certainly on the right road, but I want to encourage you to continue walking on this road.
That is all I have to say for now. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
Senator Pearson: I wish to thank you all for your presentations. They were fascinating and very interesting. Certain themes emerged from what you say. One is a theme of community, which is so important that any programs that are going to work to help any young people must have that community base. Among the recommendations that we will be making will be recommendations for guaranteed funding — to the degree that one can ever do that — for things like friendship centres and the urban multi-purpose centre, particularly if you figure out you can live together. As you say, there is never quite enough. Clearly, there is a need for a place to go. All kids need that, but they do need a place to go where they feel comfortable and where they learn things, et cetera. I am one year younger than your elder, but I was glad to hear from her, too. The connection between the generations is important, as are the opportunities that such a connection offers.
I was interested in the Toronto presentation because I have spent a lot of time in Toronto and come from Ontario. Is your centre the one that is on St. George Street?
Mr. McMahon: Spadina.
Senator Pearson: I remember going there when Rodney Bobiwash, who has since died, was there. I was quite excited then. That was some years ago, before I became a senator.
The Department of Justice just released, in mid-January, a snapshot of young Aboriginal people in custody across the country. The remarkable thing was the difference between Toronto and Winnipeg. In Toronto, there were six; in Winnipeg, there were 62 or something of that order. They had actually the same basic size of population of young people. Obviously, things in your area are working. Perhaps Winnipeg has different problems, in terms of the way that the city is structured, and so on. I spoke with Judy Findlay, the child advocate in Toronto. She commented that the programs are well established. I love your program on learning through the arts since that is one of my great interests. I think it is one of the things we would like to reinforce as well.
In your presentation, Mr. Barreno, when you speak about the funding issue, it is eloquent when you read behind what you are saying and what that means. It is not just your organizations that are suffering from those kinds of issues, it is the whole non-governmental sector to some extent that is suffering from these extraordinary demands and irrationalities in funding formulas.
I was particularly struck by that comment ``maybe someone could come and visit us one day.'' I think that is true, people fund something and then they never go to see what is going on because once you go to see it, you get really excited. Maybe they are told not to go so they do not get too excited.
I want to reinforce the kind of messages that you have given and ones that we feel are important. Perhaps you could speak a bit more about the arts. That is something we need to have on the record as much as possible. It should be a theme that we pick up.
Mr. McMahon: I am an actor and a writer. Growing up in the theatre and in the friendship centre movement, I am a friendship centre brat. The ``little beavers'' program that I grew up with no longer exists. Literally, I grew up in a friendship centre. Both my parents were recovered alcoholics. Mother went back to school and the friendship centre was our baby-sitter. The friendship centre really saved my life, and that of my brother and my two sisters. We leaned so much on the friendship centre and the movement.
I will never forget the words of this woman who this story about being able to express herself and tell what is on your mind. We often tell young people to watch their Ps and Qs and to speak when spoken to and to be polite. While all those things I believe to be true, we must be respectful. One thing she always encouraged in the little beaver's program was, open expression. If you were not happy, you were allowed to say so. If you wanted things to change, you were allowed to say so.
That has influenced the way I do things at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. This may come out wrong, but I do not provide much structure and I do not have many rigid rules. The one rule that people must adhere to is respect for themselves and other people in the space we are in. That is our basic rule and from that, everything else is basically thrown out the window. When we establish respect, then we move on.
That teaching came from this woman at the friendship centre. She told us that it was okay to express ourselves. So, growing up in the theatre was an open way for me to communicate with people. The basic principle of theatre and art is communication. The strength behind the theatre project that I proposed was not carried out the way I proposed it. The Department of Justice made me, as my colleague said, ``define it inside a box.'' So, you can imagine my struggle to define the theatre within a funding requirement box. It was incredibly difficult and for the first project, we worked for almost one year on the proposal.
It was a ridiculous process but a rewarding one because it made me define it for myself. The modules that I proposed came in six parts. Teamwork and cooperation was the first principle; we have to learn how to get along and to get to know each other. Teamwork was a huge component of that first theatre module and the cooperation was, obviously, self-explanatory.
To be in the space and to work together, we had to work as a team but we also had to give and take a little bit. In terms of cooperation, we had to be able to drop our personal agendas and work according to someone else's agenda. That is a steadfast rule in the theatre and a basic rule in improv theatre, which is my background.
The second one was leadership. We made people take a leadership stance in our modules. The leadership module comes from being able to take charge in a room, to express yourself freely and to run exercises. After teaching our first component, we had the youth coming into the workshops facilitate one of the theatre games that we play or one of the exercises, for example. They started to take ownership of the program early on. Frankly, most of the time you fail. There is a great deal of failure in our program and that is important failure. As our elders teach us, we only learn from our mistakes. If we keep doing things right, we will never get better at them. It is by making mistakes that you really begin to learn and to grow. These young people made mistakes early on and we encouraged that. Our mistakes are not right or wrong; they are learning opportunities.
The second module allows them to take leadership over the program. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth modules are a little artier but it is about creation. In terms of content and expression, you are able to go through different popular theatre techniques such as ``clown,'' which is a form of theatre used in neutral masking. In that form, you learn to drop your guard and to be exposed and to be open. You open yourself up to communication and emotions so that those elements are able to flow freely.
You go through a number of different techniques such as writing and movement. We talk about recreation programs and what gets you sweating — theatre will do that. It approaches leadership, communication and life skills in a way that allows you to open up. None of these principles are new; I did not invent them. I thought I did — I was prepared to do a masters degree in theatre techniques as a means to youth programming and life skills. There I was, a big shot in Toronto proposing the program to Justice Canada. I had a meeting with justice officials and told them we had a new project — we will do theatre as life skills — brilliant. One official sat across from me and said, ``KYTES has been doing that for 25 years.'' KYTES, the Kensington Youth Theatre and Employment Skills program has been running in Toronto for some time. It is a take on life skills and is not a paper handout where you fill in the blanks — it is a practical life skills program. As we know, expression is medicine and laughter is medicine. The workshops promote laughter.
Senator Pearson: — and role-playing.
Mr. McMahon: Yes.
Senator Pearson: — and other people's points of view.
Mr. McMahon: When you take away authority figures inside the workshops, you produce a safe environment for youth to participate. No one, other than the facilitator, is in a position of authority. Usually, the facilitator will set up an open environment where communication is key. There are no authority figures and everyone is allowed to communicate.
Senator Pearson: Thank you for elaborating on that. It will be useful to have on the record. One of the values of this committee is that it is recorded; it is not just you speaking to us but it is you speaking to a much broader audience than you see here. I wanted to support that.
Senator Christensen: As you can see, we are gathering all kinds of information to try to come up with ideas. We will probably not come up with many new things but perhaps we can do them in a different way. We are all reinventing the wheel one way or another and we may just add a few more spokes.
What you have said is extremely interesting about the programs that you are running. You have had many successes. I would like all of you to comment on how we get people on the street into your programs. Do you have any suggestions? How do we make that transition for those who are out there and not coming to your programs? If they at least get there, the chances are doubled at minimum. Once they see the mentors and role models, their chances are so much greater. How do we make that transition? How do we get them into the college? How do we get them into the two friendship centres?
Mr. Barreno: You go to them. We go to them. In this program at the college, we have cultural workers who may not have an education but they know their people. They know the reality of their people because they probably come from that reality. We hire perhaps four per year. They go to the street and talk to people. We encourage them to listen to us first and we listen to them. We teach these workers, first of all, to listen and not to pretend anything. Little by little, we gain their confidence and we tell them that we have something for them. The first step is to bring them to the elders.
Thanks to the healing foundation, we go after those people because it is not their fault that they are the streets; they are there for many different reasons. We all know the processes that these people may have gone through. We do not raise the issue and lecture them. Rather, we simply invite them to come to us and, of course, we offer them confidentiality and constant support. We take them to ceremonies, if they would like that.
You gain their trust and they come to you. People have to go and find them as well, because they go through a very rough life. The workers we have talk to people on the streets, prostitutes or people who are into alcohol, drugs or whatever. In Regina and Saskatoon and, I am sure, in other cities in the West, we experience a lot of problems: young girls of 12 becoming prostitutes, young kids already getting into trouble with the law. We try to offer them alternatives that will make them feel good about who they are. The first step is to let them know that they belong to a whole, to a society, to their own culture. That is why the elders talk to them. The training comes after that, to encourage them to take the training, to offer them alternatives to discover things they didn't think they had.
Senator Christensen: What level of education do you want them to have?
Mr. Barreno: Some people may have quit school in grade 8, 9 or 11. Each situation is different. We offer them the different alternatives, so they can finish their grade 12 and if they are very close, we invite them to also become college students. The college is very successful, but I would say the majority do not make it to that level, so we are trying to increase those numbers at the college level.
Mr. Linklater: That is a very good question, and the fastest answer I could come up with is to feed them.
Mr. McMahon: That is the truth.
Mr. Linklater: We offer a number of programs at the centre where I work, and when you have a nutrition component in your program, they come. If you cook it, they will come. Along with that, programming and a place that is friendly and culturally appropriate and relevant. Food really works and, of course, we cannot give them three meals a day, but it is part of getting them into the programs.
There are so many different kinds of problems in all the cities that are represented here this evening. Regina and Saskatoon are very similar. My colleague spoke about the sex trade in Saskatoon, where girls as young as 10 or 12 years are working the streets and being sexually exploited by pimps and johns. We work with these young girls at our centres and through our programs. Poverty is such a huge reason why they are doing those kinds of things. There are problems related to addictions to gambling, cigarette smoking, solvent abuse, alcohol and drugs. Many of these young girls are direct descendents of people who went through the residential schools, and who went through loss of identity and culture, which explains to a great degree, why things are the way they are. Sometimes, where I work is like we are a MASH unit, with people coming in. They call it ``meatball surgery'' — you can only do so much with one person and you have to move to the next person. Sometimes that is how it is where we work. Sometimes we do not have time for the ones on the street. We see them with their hands or hat out asking for money. We are so busy trying to help those who are the position to become more educated — people who are easier to work with, so to speak, because they do have some kind of education. We are busy trying with families who are in crisis, losing their children, having their children apprehended, going to social services. We are busy with families involved with alcohol and drug problems. These other people fall through the cracks.
If there is any kind of answer, it is just to continue what we are all trying to do, and it is working. It is very slow, but it is working.
Mr. Adams: Thank you for the question. My answer is similar to the previous two. On a lighter note, we serve perhaps 40,000 hot meals a year in feasts and give-aways and we have an institutional kitchen in the basement, so we have hot lunches Monday to Friday either for free or $1 or $2, depending on whether you are employed. Seniors come in, street people, youth and young mothers, so it is just wonderful to have a social congregate dining atmosphere.
We want to have is a happy place. That is what we have at the native centre now. It is an environment where there is a kind of joy. Laughter is medicine, so people feel good coming into the actual facility because the people feel pretty good working there. That is a starting point; a welcoming, warm and loving atmosphere that serves lunch and our big feast give-aways.
Every Thursday night for the last few years, we have maintained a drum social. Sometimes there are just a few dozen people there and sometimes there are more. Every Thursday night, lots of young people come. They can come from their high schools where they feel threatened, perhaps, or just hang around with friends. They do not have to worry about the Parasuco jeans, et cetera. Even just maintaining on a regular basis, the social nights are very important.
Senator Christensen: Moving to a different focus, there seems to be a difference in the types of people and the reason for the migration of Aboriginal people into the different cities. In Ottawa, Aboriginal people coming here are usually upwardly mobile. They have jobs they are coming to and their families are working. It seems to be a different kind of culture than in Winnipeg, Saskatoon or even Toronto. Toronto, however, seem to be different than Saskatchewan. Would you like to comment on that?
Mr. Adams: I come from out west. My father is Saulteaux from Pasqua, but I only lived in the cities: Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Boston. Ottawa is a kind of small town here. It is a migrating population. I know these gentlemen come from smaller communities.
Senator Christensen: What are the reasons people migrate from the northern communities down or from the reservations down?
Mr. Adams: Jobs, education, despair in perhaps some of the home communities where there are not enough opportunities. There are certainly lots of successes in these First Nations communities, but with over 50 per cent of the Aboriginal population living in cities, that is home. We are dealing with second and third generation people, children coming into the centre now.
Mr. McMahon: Some of the young people I have come in contact with are near-homeless or absolute homeless clients. It is like looking through stained glass; the promise of moving to a city is so rich — there is employment; there are opportunities. It is a huge difference. I come from a town of 7,000 people. The prospect of a better or a different life in the cities is one that is very promising. However, when you get to the city you find out that even to be a waiter you need experience. Even to be the low man on the totem pole, so to speak, you still need the experience and the relevant training.
The people and the youth I have met have come to the city in search of that promise. It is not there. Many of them become stuck in the city over a period of time. They follow their bad habits in the city. At that time, at least in Toronto, it becomes too late because the cost of living is so high. Rent is so high. There are no places to live. There is not affordable housing. For the communities I have come in contact with, that seems to be the case.
Mr. Dumas: I am from northern Manitoba. I grew up on my reserve. There were 18 of us in my home. That is common. At that time, I lived in a three-bedroom home. We are now lucky enough to have a five-bedroom home. That is common for every household on the reserve because there are large numbers of people living on the reserve.
I grew up in a time when the population was not booming as it is today. There is just no room. There is literally no room. There are no homeless people on reserve because you always have family. Someone will always bring you in, even if there are 30 people living there already. There are real limitations. There is some intrigue to urban centres or towns.
There are also other small limitations. When I was growing up you were either out on the land or off somewhere doing something constructive. Now, life is so busy that young people walk up and down the road. Their parents do not have enough time to take them out on the land. They do not have enough time to do all these other things with them. They are fairly limited as a result.
When they think of going to the big town of The Pas — which is 100 miles away with an extra thousand people — that is a big deal for some of the young people. That is a big city. I remember The Pas being a big city as well, and now I live in Toronto.
It is a number of things. That is why there is such a migration. There is not enough room. There are not enough jobs.
Mr. Adams: When my father walked off the reserve in the late 1940s he went into the Korean War and came out a veteran. He then went to work in the ironworking trade, where he was welcomed somewhat. His generation was the first to try to live in an urban environment in any large numbers. His generation's children, whom I represent at 50 years old, have learned through hard struggles. We have learned how to live successfully in the cities. I can live well in any kind of context in any city. I also go to ceremonies. I live in Red Road country. I know my traditional ways.
The generations behind me are even better at it. They are becoming lawyers and doctors. When my brothers and I went to university, we might have been the only Aboriginal people in the university. We can do it successfully. The cities are our home. The traditional cultures are alive in all the cities. They are vital. Our eagle feathers are nurtured and protected.
Mr. Linklater: It is true what has been said. I am a second generation urban Indian. I grew up in cities all my life. My father in his time was like Mr. Adam's dad; they were the first ones to move off the reserve. My dad grew up in a time when he could not leave his community unless he had the approval of the Indian agent. It was illegal for them to be in bars where they sold alcohol. I am now of the second generation.
The first thing the people from where I come from when we come to a new place is to shake hands. If new people come to visit us, we first shake their hands and then offer them something to eat. When I walked into the committee room this evening, that was the first thing the chairman did to me. I thought that these are my kind of people.
I went through hard times growing up in the city. I went through lots of things lots of young Canadians should never have to go through. However, I went through them and I survived and I healed. I became educated. I have a job now and I pay taxes. I have been to Germany. I have been to almost every major city in Canada. I know what it is like to live in the cities.
Behind me, too, are younger people who do not know their own culture and who do not know their own heritage. They watch a lot of MTV and Much Music. They say, ``Yo'' and they wear really baggy pants and their hair colour is different. They are influenced by what they watch on TV. That is what Canadian young people are going through. Globalization brings other problems.
In First Nations communities, the problems are compounded because of all the other things that went on in the past. Much of what happened in the past explains why things are the way they are today.
Someone spoke about the young offender facilities in Manitoba and Toronto. When you go into a young offended facility in Saskatoon, you will see 95 per cent brown-faced young people in there. There is something not right about that. When you go to the provincial and the federal correctional facilities, 65 per cent of the population are brown- skinned men with long hair. There is something not right about that.
Back in the communities, there are simply not enough jobs. They leave their communities to come to the urban centres to have a better future and more hope. However, that migration brings new problems. All of us here are trying to address these problems. There are many success stories, too, and they are happening more and more.
Ms. Lavallée: Piapot is only about a half-hour drive from Regina. Every day, I drive from Piapot to go to the University of Regina where the SIFC is situated.
I left home when I was seven years old. I did not leave on my own. We were taken to the schools. I did not speak one word of English. I just spoke Cree. What a hard time I had learning. I did not return to my reservation until December of 1992.
From the age of seven until 1992, I have been away from home. I kept in touch with my mom, dad and grandma. In the summertime, I would go home and try to teach my brothers a little English. I have five brothers, all of whom are still at home. Some are bus drivers. They are all busy guys.
My family has always managed to do all right. However, that is not the case for everyone in my community. There are no jobs on the reservations. There is nothing to do. Somebody mentioned MTV and Nintendo. We did not have all those distractions when I was growing up. We did not even have power for a long time in my community. It was not until the 1980s, I believe, that we started to get the telephone and all these things.
I went to a school in Gravelbourg. At that time, we did not go beyond grade eight. It was the highest level that we were allowed. I do not know why. I think now that the priests and the nuns wanted some of us to be nuns and some of us to be priests. I think that was their idea. Elizabeth Bellgarde and Marianna Pelletier both became registered nurses, and I was the next one. Two men — Victor Mackay Alphonse Lavallée, my uncle — were sent to St. Boniface to go to school. None of us became priests or nuns.
I was 24 years old when I had my first child. I am 73 now. I have one great grandson and seven grandchildren. My boys are kind of slow starters. I had mostly boys and one daughter.
I go to a lot of places in the City of Regina today. I was thinking about the Rainbow Youth Centre, where I went recently and where they serve anywhere from 90 to 100 meals in the evening. I went to the Albert Scott School. It is in a heavily populated area. I mentioned one day to one guy that in the 1970s my son, Paul, was the only Indian in that school. It used to be known as Scott Collegiate. He played football there. He hung out with a lot of the football guys.
I lived in Regina in the 1950s. I got married in 1953. There were only two or three Indian families at that time in Regina. You did not see any Indians working anywhere. Perhaps you saw a few of the ladies in the kitchen washing dishes.
I often tell a story about one lady, Eleanor Brass, who phoned me one day. She was older than me. She asked me what I was doing. I said I was waiting for my child to get back from kindergarten. It was October 1967. To make a long story short, she said that she was looking for an Indian who wanted to work. I am an Indian, and I wanted to work. ``Which kitchen,'' I said? She told me to meet her the next morning at Albert Street and Eleventh Avenue — the Credit Union League of Saskatchewan. Before she hung up, she said that there was a dress code and I should wear a skirt. I did not have a skirt, just jeans. We grew up with brothers.
I went the next morning. I was there for over four years and seven months. It amalgamated with the Sask Coop Society, and I am still with them.
After that there was another guy looking for an Indian but you needed four qualifications. I could drive a car. I could speak the language. I knew the down slope of alcoholism — the recovery part. My first husband was a drinking man. It had me going to Al-Anon to learn how to live with this miserable guy. I have learned a lot from Al-Anon. I learned I could do anything I want and that I could fix me.
I would like to talk about Mr. Barreno. He is a hard-working man. The creator must be kind to us. This man has done so much for my people in Saskatchewan. Sometimes I get all choked up. I see many of the young people he has helped through the leadership program. Last fall he had some life skills leadership guys come from Minneapolis. We had two groups — one for older adults and one for younger adults. That is a good program. I see these young men in Mr. Barreno's programs. I am so happy to see them because they are all employed. They are good at working with youth because they have been there and done it. I see wonderful things happening.
Sometimes I think about these guys talking about education and why we fail? I think if we start off with a life skills program for our youth, and then send them out, we would be more successful. In my opinion, that is what would help.
However, it will take time. It takes time and patience to keep going no matter what.
We have a busy place in Regina called Gathering Place. A lot of our people go there for a gathering place. Mr. Barreno has worked hard; he saw the need for a program and developed it. He has been very helpful.
The Chairman: If there are no other questions I would like to thank you all very much. We could ask many more questions, but the time is getting late. You have been excellent witnesses. You have come up with some good success stories; these are needed so that we can move forward.
That Urban Multipurpose Aboriginal Committee program is very important, and we will have to go after them to get it extended.
Thank you for taking the time to come to Ottawa, because this is an important action plan for change.
The committee adjourned.