Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Human Rights
Issue 22 - Evidence
VANCOUVER, Friday, November 23, 2012
The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights met this day at 9:03 a.m. to study issues pertaining to the human rights of First Nations band members who reside off reserve, with an emphasis on the current federal policy framework.
Senator Mobina S. B. Jaffer (Chair) in the chair.
The Chair: I would like to welcome you this morning. On behalf of the committee, we are very pleased to have you here. I will have Senator Brazeau give you a bit of an idea of what this study is about and what we are trying to achieve. Before I do that, my name is Mobina Jaffer. I am the chair of the committee.
Senator Brazeau: Patrick Brazeau, deputy chair of the committee from Quebec.
Senator Hubley: Elizabeth Hubley from Prince Edward Island.
The Chair: Senator Mac Harb from Ontario.
Senator Brazeau: Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for being here with us this morning. Just to give you a little bit of background information and context about our study, essentially we all know who created the labels of on and off reserve. Having said that, today we still live in the reality whereby oftentimes off-reserve Aboriginal people are triply discriminated against by the federal government, provincial governments, and in some cases even their own First Nations leaders as well in terms of the exercise of their human rights and in terms of access to programs and services.
We were mandated to look into this issue to ensure, whether or not they choose to live on or off reserve, that they have access to the same rights, programs and benefits. Hopefully we can put an end to the different labels when moving forward. We are certainly here to open a dialogue and to have a discussion with individuals.
The great thing about this process is that it is very inclusive. We are here to listen. It is time that we have a grassroots approach, and this is what we are trying.
We hope to get very strong recommendations from witnesses as we move forward because in turn we will be making recommendations to the Government of Canada and perhaps even to the provincial governments as well. We have heard time and again that without the buy-in of both levels of government it is very difficult sometimes to move forward.
I wanted to give you a bit of context as to why we are doing this, and certainly as a committee we are doing this for the right reason, and that is to benefit all our First Nations citizens whether they live on or off reserve. Thank you.
Our first witness today will be Mr. Bob Chamberlin, Vice-President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
Good morning to you, sir. You have the floor.
Chief Bob Chamberlin, Vice-President, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs: Good morning.
[The witness spoke in his native language.]
I am the elected chief of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwaw-ah-mish First Nation. I have asked that you hear the words that I am speaking today, the words that I speak from my heart on behalf of our people. Of course I have acknowledged the Tsleil-Waututh, the Musqueam, and the Squamish First Nation whose unceded territory we find ourselves in today.
As is our custom, I would like to open with a prayer song as a way to set the table in a good way for the work we are about to do and to acknowledge the rich history, culture and tradition our peoples have and continue to exercise today as an example of the everlasting and ongoing title rights that we enjoy as First Nations people.
[Singing of prayer song.]
The words of that song speak of reaching to the spirit world for assistance and some guidance so our lives will have greater purpose and more meaning and we see a greater future for our children. Of course it is the basis of all the work that many of us do on behalf of First Nations people on and off reserve.
Today I speak on behalf of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs as their vice-president. As background information, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs was founded in 1969. It represents in excess of 100 First Nations here in British Columbia. The UBCIC's mandate is to work toward the implementation, exercise, and recognition of our inherent title rights and treaty rights and to protect our lands and waters through the exercise and implementation of our own laws and our own jurisdiction.
The UBCIC works collectively among indigenous nations in British Columbia and acts as an advocacy body to provide a cohesive voice regionally, nationally and internationally in support of indigenous nations and communities. The UBCIC seeks to provide open, respectful communications with the membership and the people of the land and the citizens of the province.
The UBCIC is collectively directed by indigenous nations and communities to support and strengthen indigenous governments in the exercise of our inherent rights and responsibilities, including in the areas of political, social, economic, cultural and spiritual sovereignty and development.
The UBCIC has a mandate with respect to off-reserve First Nation members. First Nation members who reside off reserve are citizens to First Nations. Although a First Nation citizen may reside off reserve this citizen is still entitled to the same fundamental human rights that apply to all First Nation citizens.
UBCIC resolution 2012-18 endorsed UBCIC's position paper on indigenous citizenship. Many of the recommendations within this paper relate to the exercise or the experience of First Nation citizen members that have been systematically discriminated against with respect to federal legislation, for example the Indian Act of 1876, the 1951 amendments and subsequent legislation Bill C-31, Bill C-3 and other related policies.
Further, by UBCIC resolution 2011-13, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs participated and led regional dialogue sessions on First Nation citizenship, band registration and membership that addressed a number of issues with respect to off-reserve First Nation citizens, focusing on the history of Canada's legislation and policies that sought to destroy indigenous citizenship laws which eroded First Nation governance and nationhood.
The ability to define citizenship, effectively self-govern and provide adequate health, housing and education programs and service for our citizen members is a fundamental human right essential to the survival of our First Nations.
It is continued discrimination and colonization of Canadian legislation and related policies that effectively hinder the ability of First Nations to address the needs of all their citizens whether they are on reserve or off reserve.
It is held among many First Nations, and the position of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, that membership is a birthright. People who are born into a family inherit a line of ancestors, belonging, culture and community regardless of where they may live and are entitled to the same rights as the citizens who reside on reserve.
When we consider membership I know for our people, the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwaw-ah-mish people, it is about who our families are. It is about the culture that is there waiting for us since the beginning of time.
The problem we face today is the government's imposition of its own wills and desires, a unilateral imposition of legislation which causes dire effects on our communities that allow for many of our members to remove themselves from living on reserve.
The Canadian government's endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a very reasonable starting point to address the historical wrongs the government continues to perpetuate to this very day.
As we consider the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples I will read a few articles for the record in case you are not aware of the declaration.
The Chair: Just so you know, you do not need to read that. We are very much aware of that declaration. I say that to you respectfully because we really want to ask you questions.
Mr. Chamberlin: Fair enough. I think a few key points need to be read to set the table for the discussion here today. There are only four articles. It will take about 30 seconds.
Every indigenous individual has the right to a nationality.
Article 8 states:
1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:
. . . Any form of forced assimilation or integration.
Article 9 states:
Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an indigenous community or nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.
Article 33 states:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions. . .
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine the structures and to select the membership of their institutions in accordance with their own procedures.
Although Canada is a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canada has never fully implemented even just the principles articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and has simply called it an aspirational document with no force or effect, I think much to the shame of Canadians internationally.
I also want to reference the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. In section 2.1(c) the CERD requires states including Canada to take effective measures to review governmental, national or local policies and to amend, rescind or nullify any laws or regulations which have the effect of creating or perpetuating racial discrimination wherever it exists.
The CERD's general recommendation 23 recognizes that the fundamental human rights of indigenous people are tied to Aboriginal title. The committee is conscious of the fact that in many regions of the world indigenous peoples have been and are still being discriminated against and deprived of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in particular they have lost their land. They have lost their resources to colonists, commercial companies and state enterprises. Consequently the preservation of their culture and their historic identity has been and still is jeopardized today.
It is unfortunate that Canada has not implemented these two important international documents. Further, Canada continues to rely on antiquated and discriminatory policies that do not reflect the state of current case law that requires meaningful consultation and accommodation. This is from the highest court of this country, the Supreme Court of Canada. It is something I experience on a fairly regular basis and hear from many First Nations, that Canada is falling very much short. I find it to be a very offensive practice of the government to not fulfill the obligations of its own highest court in the land.
Within this democracy we have the constitution and the Supreme Court of Canada. These are the promises that this government, this country makes to its people, yet when it is disregarded as it systematically is by the Canadian government it is a shame. It is also very unacceptable to be subjecting First Nations to this very narrow interpretation of the structures which give you guidance as members of the Canadian government.
You want to talk about reserves and you want to talk about individuals that live off reserve. I say to you that we do not view our peoples as such. We view our peoples as a collective. Whatever services we are able to provide with the minuscule dollars we receive from the federal government on reserve it is a divisive policy where we are not able to provide for the membership that lives off reserve.
The Government of Canada and the provincial government could have allowed for adequate and fair sharing of the resources in the title area of our peoples. As you know British Columbia is well covered with the unceded territory of First Nations. A treaty process is now under way to engage and try to find a way to integrate the joint or shared territory that Canada decides to impose upon our people.
If the governments of the day would find a way to allow us access and authority over our territories and to enjoy the benefits that flow from the resource extraction, we would be able to provide in a meaningful way for our citizens as we define it, as we see and as our culture demands of who is a part of us and who is not part of us.
We would then be able to provide without any restrictions from the government all manner of services, but as such today with the Canadian government's want to assimilate First Nations, which is really no different from what happened at the beginning of this country's existence where there was a want to absorb every First Nation into the body politic of Canada, when I examine Bill C-3 and Bill C-31 I do not see any difference. The wording has a slightly different tact. The approach may be a little different. It may be not as direct or offensive, but it is still very racial, it is very discriminatory, and it is something which does not serve Canada's reputation in the international world whatsoever.
To know that Canada continues to embark on a journey to eradicate First Nation peoples from any standing of authority within our own territory, even though your own courts decide and have described that the existence of Aboriginal rights and title is very much alive today, I find it incredible that in an entity called a democracy that the government can operate as it does, disregarding the Supreme Court of Canada and disregarding the constitution of this country and enact racism legislation which continues to work toward the eradication of First Nations people. For me I find that quite offensive.
To have an examination of off reserve as we have here today this to me perpetuates the separating of our people. This again perpetuates and acknowledges the very fact that the Canadian government's legislative approach and policy approach to our people are not working. If the Canadian government wants to do something meaningful rather than having a travelling show such as this to hear ourselves speak, I think the resources could be better put to mechanisms which would allow First Nations access to our territories and resources. Then we could enjoy the same measure of wealth as Canadians do on the backs of our territories and at the expense of our resources.
To know that the Canadian government has made an apology in relationship to the Indian residential school to me is a very clear step. It is also an admission of wrongdoing. I think it is incumbent on the Canadian government to take further actions, to take every step possible to ensure that the repercussions of the residential school experience are addressed.
When I think about a reserve I think about the community which I represent in Gwayasdums on Gilford Island. When I stepped in as a leader eight years ago, the table I sat down at had 26 homes condemned level 1, undrinkable water for ten years and no plan to address this from the federal government. The solution for undrinkable water was a "do not consume" order. It was not a boil order. It was a "do not consume" order. The solution that the Canadian government put in front of our community was barging in five-gallon containers of fresh water, still subjecting our people to bathe in salt water and to wash our clothes in salt water and so on.
After a lot of work on behalf of our council we have set about the rebuilding of our community. I can tell you right now there is one child in our community, and the reason there is only one child in our community is that at the time of the examination by the media of the situation the doctor had ordered all the children to be removed from the reservation because of the risks to health.
This is Canada. This is Canada 2005 to have children removed for their safety from houses on reserve and to have water that is undrinkable. I would ask how many of you would decide to move to a community where you were putting your health at risk, where you had zero opportunities for employment and where you were not able to have safe drinking water, something we understand or we know and see around the world and think of the pity and the shame of it that some countries do not have drinking water. I know that Canada carries that very same shame.
When I talk to our people and our band membership that want to move home there is a very heartfelt attachment to our lands, to our peoples and to our history. It is from this territory that our culture, which is as vibrant as can be, begins and continues to operate. I find it troubling that the Canadian government can perpetuate itself in the way it does, present itself to the international community and offer commentary on the human rights infringements of other countries when the very fact is that Canada continues to operate in ways which disregard the basic human rights of First Nations people in Canada. I say this due to looking at the Bill C-3, looking at Bill C-31 and other efforts that we are seeing.
This government of the day is shameful. When we look at the actions that it is taking it is clearly targeting First Nations people to eradicate us. I say this given the fact that the reshaping of the Fisheries Act prior to the Cohen Commission report coming out is shameful.
This government knew darned well this report was coming. It had invested millions of dollars in the exercise to understand what has happened here and knowing that the report was coming to completely restructure and gut the Fisheries Act which guides the government's responsibilities to ensure the food sources our people rely upon are there. Yet now we have a government which has created ways and paths to avoid that responsibility.
When a community lives in poverty, and I do not use that word lightly, it relies upon its traditional resources even more so than it did. It is not that we enjoy eating fish now and then or having clams because it is a tasteful experience. It is who we are as people. To know that the governments are now turning their back on the management of the habitat which supports the fish and supports the clams in a community that lives in poverty is offensive.
It is yet another example of how this government has lost track, how it is seeking to perpetuate the benefit and the profits for international companies rather than looking after the very people that have shared this territory since the beginning of Canada.
You look like you would like to say something, Senator Brazeau.
Senator Brazeau: Yes, sir. In the essence of time, because we do have other witnesses and we do have senators who have questions, I think everybody would appreciate it if you could wrap it up as quickly as possible.
Mr. Chamberlin: I would just like to talk for a moment about the human rights of First Nation members who reside off reserve. It is true that urban First Nation populations have been steadily climbing over the past decade. This is of course due to the continued legislation and policies that do not adequately address long-standing fundamental issues that would allow First Nations to properly and effectively provide programs and services to their citizens.
Inadequate federal funding for housing, for health programs and education often push our citizens to urban areas in order for these citizens to provide for their families. The continued dispossession from our way of life, our lands, our resources and our territories allows for the ongoing effects of poverty that contribute to the increase in the urban First Nation population.
First Nations cannot exercise their title rights and treaty rights and do not have access to their lands and resources. This dispossession strips the ability of our nations to ensure that the rights of First Nation citizens are met. This dispossession is caused by the racist and discriminatory legislation and related policies implemented by the federal government.
Canada's continued denial of Aboriginal title rights and treaty rights prevents First Nations from accessing the resources required to meet the needs of their citizens. There is a broad gap between the standard of living of First Nations people and the general Canadian population, and I would add much to the shame of Canada internationally.
Again, many First Nation communities are living in poverty without access to basic human needs including lack of adequate housing as I have outlined within our community with many families living in over-crowded and unsafe conditions, insufficient land base to meet the needs of citizens, and inadequate education and health funding. This obviously results in First Nations moving to urban areas to receive the resources they require.
In closing I want to talk for a moment about the reserve allocation for First Nations that live in coastal British Columbia. Our First Nation is one of these, where we were given very tiny tracks of land, barely postage-stamp pieces of land in our territory. The reason Canada had a level of comfort in providing such a small land base was acknowledging the fact that we were fishermen, that our importance was deriving sustenance from the sea.
This is a fact that we understand, so when we turn to the Canadian government and watch what it is doing and watch what Emperor Harper is attempting or working with the DFO and the reshaping, it is completely offensive to disregard the habitat preservation, to allow for industry to continue unabated, to remove the HADD permitting, to remove the CEAA screenings and so forth. This is not good. In our language it is [The witness spoke in his native language.] It is not right, and to watch the government continue to perpetuate this is offensive.
[The witness spoke in his native language.]
Senator Brazeau: The next presenters are from the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee. We have Ms. Lillian Howard, the co-chair, and to her left is Steven Eastman, also a co-chair.
Ms. Howard, you have the floor.
Lillian Howard, Co-Chair, Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee:
[The witness spoke in her native language.]
My English name is Lillian Howard. I am a resident of Vancouver and have been for many years. I went home for leadership and returned to Vancouver. The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee was established recently in May. There were 12 appointments made to this committee by city council. There are 12 members on the council. The mandate of the advisory committee is to develop a consultation process with our Aboriginal community across Vancouver. I thank Vice-President Chamberlin for addressing some of the issues or reasons as to why people move to the cities. I will leave some of the issues to the questions that may be asked. One of the things the committee is doing first hand is establishing forums across the city to hear from the Aboriginal community. I am going to ask Steven to speak to that later.
We really appreciate the fact that the city council has appointed this committee. We note that there are other committees, but this particular committee is in a position to make recommendations to city council on some of the major concerns and issues that need to be addressed with council for the Aboriginal people living in the city.
There are some good things to report. However they are really outweighed by the bad situation of Aboriginal people living in the city. Many people move away from home for educational reasons, for family reasons and for employment, a large degree for education and family.
The situation for most cases at home is the same reality as in the city. They are moving from one place to another but the reality is the same: lack of education, lack of employment, social conditions that are not very good and poor health. So the issues are very similar whether they are living on or off reserve.
Aboriginal people living in the city remain very close to home, very closely connected to family. There are a lot of transients. People go home regularly either for culture, family or social purposes. It is really important for many Aboriginal people living in the city to remain tied to their families, to remain tied to their clans, their houses and the resources.
Over the last few years efforts have been made for resource allocation from different families on the coast to bring in fish to the people in the city. This is really essential because of the poor diet of Aboriginal people in the city.
We have a very diverse group of Aboriginal people living in Vancouver right from the eastern coast to Vancouver Island and the Charlottes. The situation is very diverse, very rich and very dynamic. We may be living in poor situations but we continue to live the best we can as are other people in the city.
One of the main issues in Vancouver is homelessness, a lack of housing. We have successes in education with university students who are doing their BAs, MAs and Ph.Ds in the city. We have a lot of service organizations to assist Aboriginal people in the city. However the services are still not enough for the people in the community.
It is absolutely crucial for organizations or service agencies to be run by Aboriginal people. Only we know as Aboriginal people what our issues are. We have totally different approaches and totally different styles in working with people. A lot of times our little programs are stuck underneath the non-native organizations with a pittance of dollars going to these organizations to provide services to Aboriginal people, not doing services and in fact doing an injustice to our people.
One of the saddest situations is that of missing women and murdered women particularly in the Downtown Eastside. The situation of the Downtown Eastside is really sad. I am ashamed that Canada allows this kind of situation to happen in one of its communities in the country. It would do you a world of good if you took a walk Downtown Eastside in the alleys. It really would.
These are human beings. They are brothers and sisters, and the majority of the people down there are Aboriginal. There was a drop-in centre society for the sex workers, fifty-seven per cent Aboriginal women. We do not have any adequate centres in the city of Vancouver for women especially. Aboriginal women are the most marginalized human beings in this city, in this country. It might be only 2 per cent, but for heaven's sake we are human beings. The reality of the situation is really sad.
Another sad situation is that we do not have enough centres for youth. I live in Vancouver East in the Commercial Drive area. There is a real need for a centre for youth. There is a high crime rate, and one of the reasons that there is a need for these centres for youth across the city is that it is a prevention program so that they do not end up in the Downtown Eastside. Many of the young Aboriginal women end up in the Downtown Eastside if things are not bad in other parts of the city. We need a lot of prevention programs. My recommendation here is for you to strongly support any kind of recommendations made by Aboriginal people, whether it is for Aboriginal people living away from home or people living in the communities. We just do not have adequate funding to provide services to our people.
We are in the process of holding forums and I am going to ask Steven to address it. I feel a lot of heaviness when I talk about the different issues of Aboriginal people. One good thing that is happening in Vancouver on the plus side is that we have a diverse Aboriginal community. Fortunately our people in the city remain tied to home and keep the traditions and culture alive. We have National Aboriginal Day. We have the powwow here at the West Coast Family Night on Tuesday nights, the Mother's Day Powwow and the Downtown Eastside Elder's Powwow. Those are the things that keep our spirits alive and we really totally appreciate that.
The assimilation policies have been horrendous since the time of colonial arrival, horrendous. We are going to keep on saying this until there is an understanding. Right now how many standing committees have there been on hearing about the issues of Aboriginal people? It is the same as it was 50 years ago. There is no follow-up to recommendations. We have totally different world views, the indigenous world view and the western world view, that have to be accommodated.
I am going to ask Steven, my co-chair and colleague, to speak on the forums that we will be establishing over the next few months.
Steven Eastman, Co-Chair, Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee: Thank you for having me here today. Part of our mandate from Vancouver City Council was to represent the urban Aboriginal population and be able to make recommendations to council that would strengthen the ties between urban Aboriginal peoples and the city of Vancouver. Sitting as a committee we had our own opinions and could go to council on what we felt were the immediate needs of Aboriginal people within Vancouver. We felt it was important to make sure that we reach out to the community at large to make sure that we represent the urban Aboriginal and that the urban Aboriginal actually has a voice.
During this process we have met with many different councils, organizations and service providers. Unfortunately one of the large gaps we see right now is that the voice out there is a lot of the times chief and council of B.C. First Nations and service providers of different organizations that are already in effect. We respect what they have to say but very rarely is there consultation that takes into account what the everyday citizen needs, wants and is a basic human right as set out. During this process we want to make sure that we visit all the communities within Vancouver and have open, honest and frank discussions with the general population to see where these gaps are, what is working and what can be better.
Right now that is one of the areas where we struggle as an urban Aboriginal population. We have been displaced. A lot of us do not have connections with our home communities. My family is from back East but I have been born and raised in Vancouver. I had to grow up in this community and this is where I call home. I do not have access to services that would otherwise be provided to me on my home reserve. In fact I was not even able to go to university because I lived off reserve and there was not enough funding for my home band. They had to make the decision to cut someone and I was cut because I live over here and not back East.
There is still a long ways to go. We have to make sure that these inherent rights are for all indigenous peoples living on or off reserve. I welcome this discussion, to be able to talk openly about how we can ensure that those individuals living off reserve that have been displaced and do not have access to their services can access them here within the city. Right now there is a very high road effect with these services. It should be the right of every individual that the services are provided to them in their home community wherever they live within an urban setting so that they can access them and build their sense of community and their sense of welcoming wherever they live. Thank you.
The Chair: Thank you for your presentations. We do realize that there is not enough time to share everything that you have to say. I see that you have written comments. If you present them to us we will make them part of the record as well. We did not mean to cut you off. It is just that we are anxious to ask you questions.
I will start with you, Chief Chamberlin. We have heard that some bands determine their own membership while other bands rely on AANDC to maintain their band list. From your perspective what are some of the advantages and disadvantages, if any? In your opinion is one approach more likely to protect the interests of First Nations people off reserve?
Mr. Chamberlin: As a First Nation we continue to exercise our own inherent jurisdictional authority over who we decide are our members. I do not mean that in relationship to the list that Canada decides to separate our citizens from Canada. I say within our culture that we have ways and means to acknowledge the family ties we have. It is a very inclusive process for us to endeavour.
Thinking on the political end of things with a First Nation or a band council making those decisions on who is a member, it still falls at the feet of inadequate funding that the federal government provides to a First Nation to provide services with. We can put as many people on that list as we want, but the funding is not going to meet that need.
The government will forever come back to its paternalist approach and definition of indigenous people by who is a status Indian and who is not a status Indian. I think the point is whether you are on reserve or off reserve it is inadequate resourcing, period, even when we have a look at what First Nations are forced to endure to live in poverty. It is not a word we use lightly. Poverty is a reality for First Nations in Canada, in our own country. Poverty is not just a series of bad choices and circumstances. It is a shame that in Canada it is actually the result of a systematic approach to the removal of First Nations people in Canada.
The Chair: My second question is to either of you, Ms. Howard or Mr. Eastman. It has to do with how the Aboriginal Friendship Centre facilitates off reserve band members to access band elections by holding polling stations in the centre. Could you please discuss how your band or other B.C. bands are implementing the Supreme Court decision in Corbiere?
All three of you may want to answer that.
Mr. Chamberlin: It is rather fascinating that you want to take a look at a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that causes us to be examined and yet the Canadian government removes itself from being examined in relationship to other Supreme Court of Canada rulings.
In terms of the elections and the accountability the federal government is always hoisting into the public eye that we as First Nations people are doing something nefarious with the resources we have. It is simply not true.
For myself I find it amazing when I hear various wages across the country and read in the newspaper recently about your housing allotment.
The Chair: We will not go there, please.
Mr. Chamberlin: The fact is that the benefits and the —
Senator Brazeau: We are talking about off-reserve human rights for First Nations people.
Mr. Chamberlin: Yes, we are. We are also talking about the lack of resources to provide the services for these very same people. If Canada would make more efficient use of the resources it has and allocate them in a meaningful way to First Nation people instead of finding ways to provide comfort for people that are living an elite lifestyle, we could actually meet the needs of First Nations that live on reserve and off reserve.
Ms. Howard: I can only speak from the B.C. perspective as we have Aboriginal people from across the country as Steven has pointed out. I am an active member participant from my own community. It is my choice to be an active member whether I live on reserve or off reserve. With my own particular community I do vote on mentor issues. We are under a very different system. I note with this friendship centre that some of the First Nations have elections, but I want to agree with Mr. Chamberlin that the size of the band membership does not really help people away from the reserve.
I note this is a federal hearing and that jurisdiction of the federal government is for people on reserve, so I can see these recommendations on urban Aboriginal people not going anywhere. You are hearing the issues. What are you going to do with it? What can you do? Can you provide people living away from home in the cities with funding? You will say, "No. I am sorry. You are not living on reserve."
Similar to Steven, I wanted to go for my Ph.D last year. I could not because I could not get access to funding. I have to pay for it on my own. These cutbacks are affecting Aboriginal people especially on reserve because we do not get services from our community, our First Nations. We understand it because there is not enough funding. That is the reality.
Mr. Eastman: I can only speak for my own personal experience and experience of my family when it comes to voting in elections on reserve. We have recently started to take an interest in politics that happen on reserve, but for many years there were just too many issues within the home and within our home communities to be able to take the time to explore issues that arise back East when we are separated by four provinces and have little contact with members that live on reserve. It is hard to be able to make an informed decision on those matters, but it is definitely an area where my family is trying to get more involved so we can make sure that those of us that do live off reserve are being served just as well as those living on, and I think it is a growing topic.
Senator Harb: Thank you, Mr. Chamberlin, Ms. Howard and Mr. Eastman. I very much enjoyed your presentations and your comments.
A number of studies were done in relation to the off-reserve population in Aboriginal communities. It strikes me that it is a matter of first generation migrants who move from reserve to off reserve. Statistics Canada has shown that when those children move to the mainstream communities they suffer in terms of their achievement, health, living conditions, socio- economics and so on.
What is really interesting is that the second generation of Aboriginals that are given the same conditions as are given to non-Aboriginals seem to have performed exceptionally well, just as good as everyone else, which leads me to the point Mr. Chamberlin has brought up. The fact is the problem really starts on the reserve. That is where the damage is done in a sense.
While you are in the process to move to the mainstream the program that is supposed to be in place to give the proper integration and the proper support in education, health care and so on is not sufficient enough. That is why we find a lot of people falling between the cracks. The jurisdiction issues between the provincial and federal government come into play and organizations such as yours and others are overwhelmed. They do not seem to be able to deal with them.
I know what we all know, that there is a problem with the system. I know you have been a bit cynical about what we are trying to do, but we are really trying our best. Obviously we generally want to bring about recommendations to the Senate and to the government to improve the quality of life of people who live off reserve and ultimately all Aboriginal people. What specifically do you recommend for us in terms of recommendations to the government that we can put in our report moving forward?
Mr. Chamberlin: First off I would completely disagree with you that the damage was done initially on reserve. That to me is a very offensive statement to begin with. I think if we are going to be allocating blame we need to acknowledge what it is that Canada is doing and not doing for First Nations people.
The urban setting is not a panacea. It is not a place where First Nations are endeavouring and always wanted to be. We would rather live in our territories, in our villages, with a very strong sense of community and identity. It is this that Canada has sought to target, to eradicate.
When you removed all the children from reserves for the residential school it was a very clear approach to dislocate family and separate generations from one another, weakening them as a unit and as a people. This is what Canada has apologized for: that very act. When I think about it now and when I think about the lack of resources that are given to First Nations people, it is impossible to meet the needs. What happens then is our people are moving off reserve to be examined yet again.
If I were to say one recommendation that I would hope you would put forward if you had the magic wand to actually make it happen, it is for First Nations to enjoy and have benefit from the resources found within our territories. It is as simple as that.
The Canadian government has sought many ways to make sure that we do not have fair and equitable access to our own lands, our very own lands that your courts have shown we have not ceded title to. How can it not be seen as an oppressive manoeuvre or a racist approach from Canada to continue to perpetuate a system which keeps us from enjoying the resources from our own territories where we could look after our very own people in our ways?
Senator Harb: I am surprised you would disagree with the fact that there are problems on reserve when statistics have shown that 45 per cent of housing on reserve is substandard, when in fact the health of people who live on reserve is far worse than those who live off reserve, when the educational level and access to education on the reserve are far less better than that off reserve, and when the opportunities for employment on reserve are far worse than that off reserve. Chief Chamberlin, frankly I do not comprehend how you would not see that as being a massive, major problem in the beginning of what we see for people who transition from on reserve to off reserve.
Why are we running away from the fact? Why do we not state the fact as it is, that the policy in place now even on reserve is an absolute failure? It is failing the Aboriginal First Nations to no return, to the point where the United Nations has issued a report damning Canada. When you take the living condition of people who are living on reserve, in health care, education, housing and social development, the human development index put Canada at the rate of 63.
I asked somebody a few days ago if we were only to put the Native community in the human development index where would Canada rank, and I was told in the hundreds. That would put Canada at par with least developed countries in Africa and you, Chief Chamberlain, are telling me now that that is not true. I think there is something wrong.
Mr. Chamberlin: I think you are missing my point or you are misinterpreting it. Maybe I will speak a little slower.
I agree with some of the very fundamental points that you have just made. You have talked about inadequate housing. You have talked about inadequate educational access. You have spoken about employment deficiencies on reserve where there are no opportunities. You have talked about poor health standards that come from reserves which are much less than what they might enjoy in an off-reserve setting. That is what I heard you say.
It is Canada's responsibility. There is a fiduciary obligation that the Canadian government has to First Nations people to provide adequate housing, to provide adequate education, to provide adequate health services, and it is failing. That is the problem. You cannot provide services when the government does not provide the resources in order to do the very thing that you are criticizing us for not accomplishing.
Senator Harb: I am not criticizing you, but what I am saying is that the major problem, it seems from all of the statistics we have looked at, is that the living conditions on the reserve are so bad that people on reserve are moving off reserve and coming into urban centres. In another words, the problem does not just surface once they are off reserve. No. The problem comes with the migrant from on reserve to off reserve and the transitional period between the time these people are integrated into the mainstream and are able to take care of themselves and their families.
During that period of time is where the shortcoming is. According to statistics the second generation of Aboriginal youth and children, given the same opportunities as non-Aboriginal, seem to do exceptionally well in every single field, pretty well.
Mr. Chamberlin: You have almost got it. You are close. You have one more dot to connect and that is Canada's responsibility to First Nations people.
Senator Harb: That is precisely what I am asking you.
Mr. Chamberlin: Your speaking about the fact that the second generation is better integrated into an urban setting is offensive. Why is it that Canada does not provide those very same resources on reserve as they are available off reserve? To me when I hear you speak about the fact that we do better on the second generation off reserve, that we participate just as well in everything else that Canadian's enjoy, we should not be subjected to being removed from our territories and our resources to have those same benefits and those same opportunities.
It is Canada's failure. It is Canada's failure to meet the needs of First Nations on reserve that brings and drives the situation that we find off reserve. That is what your focus needs to be. The very fact that the government cannot come up with the resources to meet the needs of our people, it needs to then turn its attention to creating a scenario or a situation where we as First Nations people can look after ourselves with our territories, with our resources for our people without your involvement.
Canada that has tried many different ways to meet the needs of First Nations people from a very Eurocentric and paternalistic approach to our people, and you have missed the boat. You are not meeting the needs of First Nations. What I think you need to focus on is the fact that the government is failing First Nations people in Canada, not to turn and look at us as under-resourced organizations and criticize us for not meeting the needs of people.
Senator Harb: I have a supplementary question on precisely what I am asking you. We both agree on the living conditions of Aboriginal First Nations on reserve.
I am asking you a question. You are not helping me and I need you to help me. Knowing all of the ills that we are all in agreement exist on reserve, the populations that move into urban settings have specific needs. What do you think we should be recommending to the government to do in order to improve the quality of life and the human rights of people who are already in the urban setting? Everything else we agree on. I am asking you specifically what you recommend.
Mr. Chamberlin: Specifically I would say that Canada must move away from the funding model it has now that sets First Nations up to fail. Canada needs to ensure that if there is a real want and a desire to make sure that all our nations, all our members have those resources or to find those services which you are describing, I would say to make it so that First Nations have adequate and full resources and not limit the expenditure of those to on reserve. It needs to be adequately resourced. It cannot just be another small program that we can hopefully apply to. It needs to be something where there is adequate resourcing for our entire membership, not just a funding formula driven by who lives on reserve because then you knee-cap us from being able to provide the services notwithstanding the location of where our people reside.
Mr. Eastman: On the question that you ask it comes down to an issue of assimilation. The second generation is born here and I can speak as a second generation person living off reserve. We are being born into a society of colonized peoples in the urban setting. A lot of times we are better able to cope with issues within the urban setting.
There is a lack of cultural place-based services to be able to make that transition easy for those that need to make the transition. There are many that should be able to take care of those services where they live on reserve.
I do not disagree with anything that Mr. Chamberlin said, but if we are talking specifically about the first generation that has to make that transition, it is a lack of cultural place-based services to ensure the services they need to connect with their culture and to stay connected with themselves. That is what it comes down to. They turn to other means and that is what is lacking.
Senator Harb: So just the cultural component is the missing link?
Mr. Eastman: Not just but that is a big portion of it. There are many things that are missing when it comes to making that transition. I would recommend a place-based strategy of services to make sure that the services are available for the individuals where they are, that the funding, however the model looks, is there for the individuals living off reserve.
I do not have the answer on what the model should look like, but we need to ensure that we look at the allocation of funds, how it is being done, if there is a need for increase or a need for reallocation, and that the services needed by urban Aboriginal people living off reserve are available to them and they are able to access those services where they live.
The big issue right now is that they cannot always access them where they live. We are forced into, for lack of a better word, urban ghettos to access these services because that is where they are and that is where we can afford to live a lot of times. Our people are trying hard to overcome that and working very hard to succeed but we do lack services where people live.
Senator Brazeau: I have a quick comment and perhaps a small question specifically directed at you, Mr. Chamberlin.
Obviously part of this process is to have an open, honest and frank dialogue. I have been at these, as have you, and they spur a lot of anger. They spur a lot of hard positions with respect to the government. Nobody disagrees with the things you have said in terms of past policies and so forth.
I do not know how many times you have used the word "shameful" in terms of referring to Canada. The great thing about it is that you are entitled to your opinion, as am I and everybody else around this room. But I do have to take exception to one thing that you said as a First Nations person. You said from the onset that this is a travelling road show or something to that effect.
I take issue with that. With all due respect in terms of your presentation 95 per cent of it or maybe even more was spent more on highlighting what the government is doing wrong rather than providing recommendations and advice with respect to urban and off reserve First Nations people. I find that unfortunate because the exercise is really about trying to make a difference.
I see it as part of the problem. It is nice for people to vent and highlight all the problems. We all know them. We all know what the problems are. I will not ask you to comment now because we do have to close this session but I would certainly invite you to provide perhaps written recommendations that we will read because we are dealing with people's lives at the end of the day. This is not about publics. This is about dealing with people's lives. This is the exercise that we are doing.
I have to say this because I find it unfortunate that rather than providing recommendations to be able to move forward from this day on together slowly in partnership we are still hearing the same issues that we always hear. I take great pride in the fact that we are travelling and hearing from witnesses such as yourself and others. It is time that we have this open and frank dialogue because it is a reality. There is on and off reserve and how do we eliminate those labels for the betterment of other peoples.
I leave that with you because I think it is important to be said. This is not a political exercise. This is a human rights exercise for our peoples.
Mr. Chamberlin: I would like to say to everybody, "Don't mistake passion for anger". It is as simple as that. I would also like to say we will talk time and again of the scenarios, the policies and the situations which cause us to be here today. If Canada truly wants to meet the needs of the off-reserve First Nations and if this effort is to inform and make recommendations, it is only by truly understanding where Canada missed the mark so that we do not try and shoot at the same target again but understand the shortcomings of the approach. Only by understanding mistakes can we chart a better day tomorrow.
I would say again, as First Nations we do not view ourselves as off reserve or on reserve. It is the imposition of regulation and policy from the government which forces us into this scenario. If we were able to enjoy the resources and the profits that are made in our territories by other people, we would then be in a position to meet the needs of our citizens and we would not be having a discussion like we are today.
I think the one key and fundamental piece that Canada is missing is the sharing of the territorial resources. You have systematically encroached upon our title and our authorities and subjected us to a pittance of resources from the government and then wonder why we are not doing very well. I think that is one thing that needs to occur.
Quite clearly the Canadian government needs to work with the provincial government to ensure that we have fair and equitable access to the profits and resources in our territories. That would be a very good, strong beginning. Then if our First Nation had full access and authority in our territories to enjoy I would welcome in a heartbeat a very serious and focused examination of how we govern ourselves and how we expend that money. That is what needs to happen.
I do not think there is a leader in Canada on First Nations reserve that would avoid that kind of examination if we were given the opportunity to actually meet the needs of our people and a means to arrive there. I think that is where Canada is missing the mark. We do not need more programs. We do not need more services. We need to be treated fairly and honestly as we have treated everyone else that has come to our country.
Senator Brazeau: That is exactly what this committee is about. It is about solutions and strong recommendations. To that end, you just offered a very viable solution. I would certainly invite you not to just say it but to put in writing how that would unfold and what it would look like. I leave it at that.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
I would ask our next panel to come forward because we are on a very tight schedule today.
I would like to welcome Senator Marjorie White, Diane Sugars, Lynda Gray, Patrick Stewart and Ken Clement.
We only have an hour and today I would respectfully ask you to stick to the hour. It makes us very uncomfortable to ask you to wind up or get to the questions, so we would ask you to speak for five minutes so that we have time to ask questions.
Please do not see this as the only time we can talk. I am from British Columbia so we can certainly continue our conversation, and you can also make further written submissions.
I welcome all of you today. Senator Marjorie White is going to start.
Marjorie White, Board President, Aboriginal Mother Centre Society: Good morning. First of all I want to thank you for coming to Vancouver and holding these hearings in the beautiful territory of the Coast Salish people, the territory that we enjoy working in. We are thankful for our surrounding nations for allowing us to work in their territory. I am presenting on behalf of the Aboriginal Mother Centre.
A disproportionate number of Aboriginal women particularly in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver live in poverty, face homelessness, fear violence, face addiction and face degradation. As mothers these women face greater chances to experience loss and profound pain as their babies are born into a high-risk environment. Opportunities for these women to recover, to acquire economic security and to provide self-sufficient family lives for their children are either limited, culturally inappropriate or have regulations, policies and standards difficult and time-consuming to meet.
In 2002 the Aboriginal Mother Centre was created to address these issues. The centre offered essential programs to moms and their children for five years and in 2008 closed its doors to undergo major renovations. AMC went into partnership with Lu'ma Native Housing Society for the construction of the building. Other partners stepped forward to assist with the financial requirements: BC Housing, Builders without Borders, CJ Foundation, and Streetohome.
The centre reopened in December of 2011 offering a 16-bed transformational housing for Aboriginal women at risk of losing their babies or at risk of being homeless, a 25-space daycare centre, commercial kitchen, large dining area, programming office space, commercial leasing space and a social enterprise called Mama's Wall Street Studio. The centre only reopened a year ago, and we continue to address the barriers that face the young moms and their children.
It is a known fact that many social agencies are unable to provide all services within their building. The AMC is offering an under-one-roof concept to avoid referring moms from agency to agency. For example, during the 18 months the women are in the transformational housing they participate in various programs such as cultural connection, life skills, parenting skills, addictions and self-care.
Partnerships are also developed with BC Women's Hospital that refers mom and baby right from the hospital. Vancouver Coastal Health provides a nurse practitioner who comes to the centre on a weekly basis from the Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services.
The transformational housing is staffed 24/7 providing women and their children an opportunity to transform their lives by providing safe and secure housing for up to 18 months. While the centre is able to provide the service for a certain length of time, the board of directors and staff have grave concerns about the women being able to find affordable housing when their program is finished.
The moms who are in our housing continually say that if it was not for the AMC transformational housing they would be homeless and their child would be apprehended. Affordable housing is as a great issue for these young women as it is for any Aboriginal woman or family. It is fair to say if one has a comfortable warm home that many barriers are lifted.
The biggest fear faced by these young moms is losing their babies. We have had women in house who come to us with a new baby but have older children in foster care. The only reason the new baby is able to stay with the mom is because she is being accommodated at the Aboriginal Mother Centre.
The apprehension of Aboriginal babies and children has to come to a stop. The disproportionate number of Aboriginal children in foster care is staggering. There are far more children in foster care than those who went to Indian residential schools. There is no difference between the two situations as both have separated families, experienced loss of identity and loss of culture.
The AMC offers a 25-seat daycare that is open to all children from all different backgrounds to learn and be involved with the enriched Aboriginal curriculum. The daycare staff put energy into providing a happy, healthy environment for the children.
The outreach program provides assistance to the Aboriginal community. This service delivers resources to people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless to access permanent housing. It provides support for housing search, financial assistance with damage deposits, rent or utilities. It also provides for some start-up housing items.
The program successfully placed three moms with their babies from the transformational housing into permanent housing. Their future goal includes expanding their connections in order to increase resources and to increase cultural connections to promote a sense of belonging and identity.
Mama's Wall Street Studio is a social enterprise that is operated at AMC. They have filled the contracts for making conference bags. They make blankets, scarves, iPad bags, et cetera, all for sale at the studio. A number of Aboriginal women were trained to operate new machines that have been acquired since the opening. We hope this social enterprise will provide us an opportunity to become self-sufficient at some time.
The commercial kitchen provides for meals for women upstairs, for the daycare, as well as the staff. It also catered a number of functions and has fed a few hundred people. With a few more resources added to the community it is our hope that we will see our women empowered to take on the challenges of moving forward and making some very positive changes.
Most of the moms with us are single and face many challenges. Some are still battling with their addictions but getting them under control with the support of staff. There is still a need for training programs so that they can find employment to become self-sufficient.
We are fortunate to have as one of the tenants in the building a satellite of the Native Education College which it is hoped that moms will eventually access. As we do our work with Aboriginal mothers our goal is to see a switch in their lifestyle and to decrease the number of children being taken into foster care. We want to see Aboriginal women free of domestic violence.
I was visiting with another Aboriginal organization last week and a 15-year-old told us her story about being abused by her boyfriend. That is far too young for youth to be inflicted with abuse. Parents need to take responsibility for the safety of their young ones. Most of our moms are second or third generation living in an urban area so the likelihood of them returning to their home reserves is not an option.
In the last 18 months the centre has been visited by a number of tourists and interested individuals, out of which has come donations to assist with the operation of the centre. Our most prestigious guest was Her Excellency Sharon Johnston who visited our centre twice and on the second visit she spent a night with the women upstairs. For them that was a real treat to have a woman in that caliber to come and spend time with them.
We also had a visit from Senator Nick in our early stages.
We have had First Nations chiefs through the building and the female chiefs in particular said that the centre should be replicated on reserves. That is how impressed they have been with the services and with the building itself.
While our services are focused much on women in house in our first year of operation, as our funding becomes more secure, more programs will be developed and offered to the community at large.
I just want to ask Diane to add some more to my presentation because she has some statistics.
Diane Sugars, Executive Director, Aboriginal Mother Centre Society: As Marjorie has said, we run a centre. It is 30,000 square feet. In that centre we have 16 apartments. In those apartments we house Aboriginal women who are homeless or at risk of being homeless. They are also at risk of losing custody of their children and/or have lost custody of their children. Our focus is on the women to help them retain or regain custody of the children, to help them learn skills and to become more self-sufficient so that they can live within the urban community on their own.
We have several programs within the centre. We feed homeless on top of that. We do everything through an Aboriginal lens and we look at ourselves as a village within the city. It is a model that we hope can be replicated in other locations. We have been told by chiefs that this is something that should be put on reserve. We have been told by moms that this is something that should be put on reserve so they do not have to leave the reserve to come to the city to access services so that they can keep custody of their children.
I have two stories. One is very short. Sofia is a drug addict and has made some bad choices in her life. She became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter in August of this year. Women's Hospital contacted our centre requesting a place for Sofia to live with her baby. The plan was that Sofia had a place to live and was not homeless. She had supervision because our centre is supervised 24-7 with staff that we hire. Because it was supervised she could retain custody of her daughter.
She lives in an apartment in our centre and she now has her baby with her. We were able to provide accommodation. I have to report that she and her daughter are thriving and doing very well. She is an amazing mom. She is on methadone treatment through the City of Vancouver and her baby is very well loved. Because of our centre with the 24-7 support as I mentioned, she is able to retain custody and not have her child removed at birth as I was just told by a mom who gave birth two weeks today. Unknown to mom, who is also an addict, the child was removed from her arms at the moment of birth. She is not allowed to see or be in custody of that child until several meetings are held with social services. This is despite the fact that we have a place for her to live at our centre which is supervised by professional staff.
The second story is of Janna: She has also made some bad choices in her life, more specifically with her boyfriend. He beats her. She has two children aged three years and four months. When she was in hospital giving birth to her second child the infant was removed from her arms at birth and put into foster care. The reason was because of family violence but Janna does not beat her children. Janna has been living at our centre now for four months.
She is not allowed to have her children stay with her despite the fact that we supervise 24-7. She is only allowed to have supervised visits with her kids. She is a loving, capable woman. There is no reason in anyone's mind at all why she should not have her children stay with her or at least have overnight visits while she is living at our centre.
We would like to extend an invitation to all of you to come and visit to see what is being done and how it is being done right.
Thank you.
Ms. White: I want to say in closing that we would like to make a recommendation that the government spend less money on researches and inquiries and bring more focus on the needs of Aboriginal women and children such as providing safe homes.
Second stage housing is supported for Aboriginal women so that a safe place is provided for them once they leave programs such as ours and when they leave treatment centres and halfway houses. Our focus is on the safety of our women and children.
Thank you.
Lynda Gray, Executive Director, Urban Native Youth Association: I want to acknowledge that I am on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish people. I am from the Tsimshian Nation which is up the coast so I am a visitor here. They allow me to do my work, to live, to play and to raise my children here. They have always been welcoming, much like our people have been from time immemorial.
I really want to acknowledge the words that Chief Chamberlin said because until the Government of Canada and the rest of Canadians acknowledge what the history of this country has been we cannot move forward in any meaningful way. What he was trying to say is kind of what my message is today. It is not as simple as asking if we know of and have access to our human rights. It is more important to highlight the processes that lead us into the urban setting which in turn ultimately leaves us more vulnerable to having our human rights violated and/or ignored.
First, where have externally imposed government-sanctioned policies, laws and action led? For us to say that everybody knows this is just not true. People understand what has happened in this country on a very surface level. They do not understand how they have impacted our community and how they continue to impact our community generation after generation. Until we kind of understand that we are going to have to just keep hearing it.
These things have lead to the social and economic conditions that leave us the most vulnerable population to having our human rights violated by non-First Nations people, systems and governments both on and off reserve, as well as by our own people because of the negative behaviour they have adopted.
We were forcefully taught negative behaviour and coping mechanisms in residential schools that continue to be passed on generationally. We were forcefully displaced from and denied access to our healthy behaviours, coping mechanisms and cultural traditions that were suppressed for so long that many have been forgotten and not yet reclaimed. Most First Nations people have a lack of trust that governments respect our human rights, much less are willing to help protect them.
On an individual level most First Nations people have a lack of knowledge of what our human rights are at all. I looked on your web page the other day to see what you considered to be human rights. What I found, and maybe it is buried deeper, is that you are concerned with human rights generally. So to try to speak to something specific is a bit difficult.
Second, human rights are not protected on reserve which often forces us to relocate to urban settings, which in turn leads to more human rights violations of the most vulnerable First Nations people. Now 60 per cent of us have been displaced into urban settings of which 60 per cent of us are youth under the age of 25.
Women continue to face high rates of unaddressed violence which leads to women and children being forced to leave their homes, their community and their culture. It is not just as simple as relocating to another city like mainstream society thinks of it. We leave so much behind beyond just a house. LGBTQT/Two-spirit people continue to face high rates of unaddressed violence and are forced to leave their homes, community and culture.
One of the most significant ways that you can see how our human rights are violated within the city is to look at the Missing Women's Inquiry. Pivot and B.C. Civil Liberties Association and West Coast LEAF's report came out the other day called "The Blueprint for an Inquiry". In that report they said that in the most disappointing fashion the province and the commission repeated the very mistakes that allowed Pickton to operate with impunity for so many years. The voices of marginalized women and their supporters were ignored. In the most basic fundamental way we do not have a voice. We are still an invisible population within this country. Until those things change our voices will not be heard.
Third, the federal government often uses human rights as a tool to try to force other concessions by First Nations people. They have to stop purposely misinforming the general public by making statements that First Nations people are blocking our own people's protection of their human rights. Examples of this are the Indian Act when they tried to impose the First Nations Governance Act without meaningful consultation and ignore what our people say and the Matrimonial Real Property Act.
I believe these issues must be highlighted for the record as the Government of Canada continues to bring shame upon itself and its citizens by ignoring all that I have mentioned above and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by referring to it as an aspirational document only and by misinforming the public about its compliance with the constitution, human rights, and other legal protections.
Literally hundreds of people who are lawyers and constitutional scholars have said that what the government is saying is not true, that if there continues to be misinformation purposefully put out that makes us look like we are causing the problem, problems cannot be meaningfully addressed by not adopting UNDRIP until three or four years after everybody else did.
The Government of Canada really needs to live up to its promise and its apology to residential school survivors in 2008 when it said in a real way they are going to walk with us, that they are going to try to reverse some of the damage that was done to our families and that they have acknowledged has gone on intergenerationally. Until such a time as the Government of Canada lives up to its fiduciary duty to First Nations people, both treaty and non-treaty, both on reserve and off reserve, we will continue to suffer the violations of our human rights as a direct result of the actions and inactions of the Government of Canada and in many cases the Canadian provinces and territories.
I understand that earlier somebody said there were not that many programs in Vancouver. In fact there are 24 Aboriginal organizations in Vancouver, First Nations ones and other ones. There are lots of programs that are not funded well. They are short term and we especially have problems with federal funding that is stopgap. It does not allow for us to do meaningful ongoing work.
One of the recommendations is that there be ongoing funding from the federal government, that there not be funding the CCAY funding. The Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth funding was stopped immediately. That stuff cannot happen. Now we are going to start again. We just got funding and then we probably will not start again in April on time, so we have these gaps in services that leave our kids vulnerable, and everybody knows what happens when those things happen. If governments want to make a meaningful effort they can try to ensure that we have equitable funding with non-First Nations organizations. I know as a native youth organization we do not have equitable funding with non-native youth organizations. The funders acknowledge that, but they do not do anything about it. It is both a provincial and a federal thing.
Senator Brazeau: Excuse me. Would you be able to wrap up, please? We have about 16 minutes left and we still have two presenters, and I am sure there are will be questions.
Ms. Gray: My recommendations would be that we have an equitable share of resources from our territories. Especially in B.C. where it is unceded territory, that could be up to 100 per cent of the resources coming out of our territories. Without that we cannot make meaningful efforts. As everybody knows it takes money but it also takes effort and it takes the will for things to happen.
We need equitable funding with non-First Nations people. We need equitable funding with on reserve but without taking money away from what they already have. We do not want to take a piece of the pie that is already there. That pie is already way, way, way too small. The government is not living up to that. If it were living up to the amount of money and resources that should be coming from the treaties, the lands and everything else that was taken, we would be able to meaningfully change things.
People such as the Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council, who are the leaders in the community here, are the ones to talk to for recommendations in that we have meaningful participation on things such as the tripartite health agreement that everybody is saying is such a great thing in this province. I do not know that it is because as urban people we are not invited to the table yet, even though it has been an ongoing process.
I think some of you know, including Senator Jaffer, about the Native Youth Centre that we have been trying to build across the street. It would be great if the federal government came on board because our youth are our future. I really believe that. A lot of people say it, not everybody lives up to it. This is our opportunity to do it. We have the land across the street. We have full community support for it. We have the experience. Youth themselves have told us that this is what they want. That is what I think.
It is incumbent upon all governments to educate the public about the truth that has happened, our shared history in this country, especially within our schools right from kindergarten until your Ph.D. When you have things like social work, education and health where people are going to work with our people, it is not if they will but when they will. If they do not understand how to deal with us, things will not change.
Do not ask us to fit into mainstream systems. I understand that this Senate hearing wants us to write down a whole bunch of recommendations and for them to be in a certain way, but I am really trying to decolonize my mind of this. I am not trying to fit into certain systems. I want to go back to the way of my ancestors. My ancestors are an oral people. We know what we want. We know how to take care of each other. I really think that as much time and effort that went into all of the things such as residential schools and all other policies, the time have to go back into helping our communities recover from the onslaught of things that were externally imposed that have changed our communities and caused the kind of problems the senator was talking about on reserve and off reserve.
Thank you.
Patrick Stewart, Chair, Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee for Metro Vancouver:
[The witness spoke in his native language.]
My English name is Patrick Stewart. I want to acknowledge the unceded territory of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations on whose land we are meeting.
On behalf of the member organizations of the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee for Metro Vancouver we ask you to remind the Canadian government of its legal obligations to honour human rights of indigenous peoples in this country now known as Canada.
We know that the Canadian government finally supported the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2010, three years after voting against the declaration. They reversed their original decision and voted to support it, though with a caveat. The government stated that the declaration "does not reflect customary international law or change Canadian laws." By their own words the government showed that the rights of indigenous peoples do not have a place in Canada. The reality is we still have a federal government in opposition to Aboriginal people in this land.
Section 91.24 of the Constitution Act provides that the federal government has the legislative jurisdiction over "Indians and lands reserved for Indians." The key words here is "and." It does not say only Indians on lands reserved for Indians. It says "Indians." It says "legislative jurisdiction over Indians." This means wherever we as Indians live, on or off reserve. There are 60 per cent of First Nations people living off reserve yet they do not get 60 per cent of the funding from INAC.
Canada needs a national legislative and policy framework against which government programs can be evaluated to assess what extent the government supports the human right to adequate housing for all. Housing is not a right in this land. The reality is Aboriginal peoples in this land do not have equity with non-Aboriginal people and are imprisoned in a system that does not respect human rights on or off reserve.
The Canadian government has devolved its fiduciary responsibility for housing to provincial governments. This is evidence that housing is not a right in this country because this country no longer controls housing. This is unacceptable. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is but a shell of its former self when it was designing and building housing. It has been almost 20 years since the federal bureaucracy ended a permanent social housing program and with that housing for off-reserve Aboriginal people. An Aboriginal non-profit can no longer go to CMHC to build housing units. They have turned themselves for all intents and purposes into a market-driven mortgage company. I say shame on Canada.
Canada also lacks a national legislative and policy framework to end homelessness. There needs to be federal legislation that takes measures to end homelessness. It needs to be coordinated with the provinces, territories, regional governments, municipalities and indigenous governments across the land. Canada is supposed to be a rich country, but it is not a healthy place to live, judging by the conditions in which Aboriginal peoples find themselves living. The Government of Canada is supposed to be concerned for all people living within its borders, not devising laws and regulations that divide and conquer and pit one against another, but that is the history of democracy in this country. Again I say shame on Canada. The UN Special Rapporteur on Housing was right to chastise the federal government on the living conditions of Aboriginal peoples.
There is an unacceptable proportion of Aboriginal homeless people in Metro Vancouver. At less than 4 per cent of the metropolitan population Aboriginal peoples make up at least 27 per cent of the homeless population. I say "at least" because it is acknowledged that homeless counts are undercounts. The Aboriginal community is way over- represented among the homeless though is not given funding parity when dealing with homelessness. We are reduced to begging for crumbs because of the federal policy of competition among non-profit service providers. I attached a letter that we have recently sent to Minister Finley looking for more dollars. We constantly fight for survival to serve our people.
In Vancouver we have only a temporary adult shelter to serve the Aboriginal homeless. It is at capacity every night and turns people away. The shelter is run by the Friendship Centre here. Their vision is to build a permanent facility that would have support services and a continuum of housing from shelter spaces for men, women and families to transition units, to permanent social housing units. There are no designated Aboriginal capital dollars to build this facility and it has to compete with non-Aboriginal service providers for dollars. It was recently deemed too risky a project and did not receive funding in the recent capital call. It is federal policies that create barriers that result in proposals such as this being turned down.
Consider homelessness as a symptom of greater ills in this country. Though there are more examples, consider just two for a moment before I close. For example, Aboriginal people are over-represented among children in care at 56 per cent in this province and youth in custody at 22 per cent, though only making up 5 per cent of the youth population. Once released from care or custody there are few resources to assist them and they can end up on the streets. We should be giving them all the supports needed to stay off the street. The traditional way of indigenous peoples was to take care of their own but that has been dismantled and we are left with a discriminatory system that controls our lives.
Where are our human rights here? Why is there money to be made off of Aboriginal children? Every time a child is taken into custody or put in care or even put in learning assistance in the schools money is exchanged. We continue to fight for our rights in this province and this country.
Finally therefore I conclude that Canada fails Aboriginal peoples off reserve in this land known as Canada.
T'ooyaksiy nisim. Thank you.
Ken Clement, President, Lu'ma Native Housing Society: Thank you. I want to acknowledge the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations whose traditional lands we are on today. My name is Ken Clement. I am President of Lu'ma Native Housing Society, the Executive Director of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, and the first elected Aboriginal person to the city as a school trustee for Vancouver.
Lu'ma Housing has been in the housing business for 30 years in Vancouver providing unique housing opportunities for people living off reserve. We have evolved into a broad-based community resource not only providing affordable housing but for the last decade also acting as the community entity responsible for the delivery of homelessness programs in the Greater Vancouver area.
I am here today to present to you our growing concern over human rights issues, systemic barriers and inequities which First Nations peoples living off reserve and other Aboriginal peoples face throughout British Columbia and Canada in relation to housing.
I want to emphasize the importance of subsection 91(24) of the Constitution Act, as I believe Senator Brazeau and others canvassed at the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights in Ottawa in October 2012. I want to point out that without affordable, decent and stable housing no First Nation family, individual, or household can fully participate in Canadian society. Before one has decent, reliable and affordable housing they cannot think about searching for or retaining employment and they are at risk in terms of losing their health and safety. Without the appropriate housing and relevant support services needed to capitalize on the opportunities that housing provides, Aboriginal people are likely to join the ranks of homeless or, worse, end up in coffins, care or corrections.
With such outcomes possible the federal government cannot afford a passive hands-off role as is currently the case throughout B.C. and Canada. With a place to live other life improvements follow. Employment and retraining are possible. Better outcomes for children are noticed and health costs are reduced. Clearly the right to adequate housing is one of life's necessities.
We need to redress the inequities of opportunities and place urban First Nations individuals and families and other Aboriginal people living off reserve on par with our First Nations brothers and sisters living on reserve by matching the number of housing units that they now enjoy and reducing the overall incidence of housing need to a level no higher than that among the non-Aboriginal population.
In evidence provided by Debra Darke of CMHC she discussed the federal investments in housing for the following groups of people: all Canadians, First Nations people living on reserve and First Nations people living off reserve. I will just go to the First Nations people living off reserve.
It is important to note that there is no relationship between the federal "government and the First Nations people living off reserve when it comes to housing in urban centres. The provinces hold the responsibility to work with First Nations off reserve, set funding criteria and establish programs. Nationally there is approximately $140 million available for existing social housing in urban and rural communities, which is slightly less than half the funding allocated to First Nations living on reserve.
It is imperative to understand that this $140 million the federal government is boasting about is set to expire within the next five to ten years as 35-year operating agreements are coming to an end. It is important to note that the First Nations people living off reserve are also sharing this $140 million with other urban Aboriginal people, Metis, non- status and Inuit, which we suspect results in less than 50 per cent of the $140 million actually making it into the coffers of First Nations people living off reserve. This is somewhat problematic and results in significant inequities for First Nations people living off reserve as our counterparts living on reserve are not suffering the same type of fiscal limitations.
Third, as noted above there are significant inequities that exist in the way in which First Nations people living off reserve are treated financially and in terms of housing needs only because they are situated off reserve regardless of whether First Nations choose to live off reserve or are forced to live off reserve because of social conditions, health needs, employment, education or poverty.
One of the most offensive inequities is the government's refusal to acknowledge First Nations people living off reserve by declining to have relationships with them in a similar manner as they do with First Nations living on reserve. Ms. Darke confirmed this in her evidence where she stated:
CMHC closely works with First Nations and with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada to deliver and administer federal housing programs.
And when speaking of First Nations people off reserve she stated:
Off-reserve. . . we have no agreements with provinces and territories. . .
If internationally the human right to adequate housing is defined as the right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a safe and secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity, Canada is failing to meet its international and domestic obligations by denying First Nations people living off reserve the right to adequate housing in the same manner as they are for First Nations living on reserve and for failing to place First Nations living off reserve on par with the overall incidence of housing needs to a level no higher than among the non-Aboriginal population. With respect, I say this based on the following dialogue that I now present.
In 1979 there was an urban Aboriginal program —
Senator Brazeau: Excuse me, Mr. Clement. We just have a few minutes left, so in the essence of time perhaps you could wrap up. I certainly have one very quick question. We do have your fairly well written 13-page brief and it will be part of the record so perhaps you could conclude, please.
Mr. Clement: In conclusion or my wrap-up I would like to offer a number of recommendations:
The creation and implementation of a national Aboriginal housing and homelessness policy complete with funding targets and sufficient resources, both capital funding and operating funding, to ensure that Aboriginal Canadians have a right to an adequate standard of living and to end the human rights violations that we experience in Canada, the provision of funding for the capacity building of the urban Aboriginal people so that we can address our housing needs, and an immediate commitment of 40,000 housing units nationwide to address the backlog of Aboriginal housing.
I will conclude there since I have been rushed.
Senator Brazeau: Thank you. I apologize for that. Obviously we are under time constraints as well. Like I said, I do have your brief.
I have a very quick question for you. Obviously you are aware that the federal government does transfer funding to the provincial governments for the benefit of all their citizens in terms of housing, in terms of education, health and other issues as well.
Do you think perhaps it would be a good recommendation that in the future for any funding transferred by the federal government to the provincial government, for instance in housing, there are criteria built into those transfer agreements so that the provincial governments actually spend the money specifically on Aboriginal housing?
Mr. Clement: Well, that is pretty obvious. Yes.
Ms. Gray: Can I just add to that? I would say yes, as long as it does not take away from other obligations that the government has in relation to us in housing and resources.
The Chair: As someone from your city and knowing all the work that all of you do, I want to let you know we are not able to ask questions because we have run out of time, but I want you to know that this committee will certainly take what you have said very seriously. Please do not see this as the only time that we can have this discussion. We will have a continuing discussion.
As for the youth centre, I have never seen as much persistence as existed from young people to build that centre. Never give up on that dream. It will definitely come. It will happen because of your absolute determination. Thank you very much for your presentations.
Before we call our next panel, Senator Harb, you will move that we annex the complete transcript to the presentation as if it has been read.
Senator Harb: Yes. I move that all of the presentation be made an appendix to the minutes of the committee hearing.
The Chair: As you can see we are really tight on time. Before we get started, I wanted Marjorie's permission to say something. For the record, Marjorie is the one who swore me in as a Canadian citizen, so this is a very special occasion for me. When you come to Vancouver you always know people. This is a very special day.
We will go on to the next panel.
Barb Cowan, Executive Director, Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Centre: Thank you. I would like to defer to my elder Alex Nelson at this time for a few moments.
Alex Nelson, Elder, Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Centre:
[The witness spoke in his native language.]
Good morning. My name is Alex. I am from the Musgamagw First Nations, and I have acknowledged the Coast Salish for allowing us to be on their sacred territories.
I just wanted to offer a perspective, as it were. I am 66 years old and for 57 years I have been living as they say off reserve, but I have the honour of returning home as much as I can to maintain my roots and remind myself to get grounded and work from there. In my journey I did graduate from the University of Victoria so academically I suppose I can qualify myself to say I can offer you a perspective here.
How I try to understand life is I have the best of both worlds and I have come to see the systems as a square. I have come to understand the systems of the indigenous Aboriginal people as a circle. I have gotten a sense that the square is trying to swallow up the circle and it just does not fit. Then it reverses itself where the square is invited to come and fit into the circle. That does not fit. The challenge here is how to get the square and the circle together in a way that there is an area where there is commonness. I leave that with you as far as a line of thinking.
I am going to also make a bold statement here. I am not a lawyer but I have consulted with lawyers. I am not a historian but what I do know is that Canada is the only country in the universe that has two separate laws, a law for mainstream and a law for the Indian people. Therein lies a really strong confusion as to a treatment of a people.
I also wondered. There was one time when the federal government divided up into ministries to help it administrate the country. There was one time that Indian Affairs was classified the same ministry as Immigration. Think about that, Immigration. It tells me that Canada is searching for some relationship with a people but has come to a point where it is so deep now how do you disentangle all what has happened and what is happening?
I just leave those thoughts with you. I have been in Victoria for the past 40 years and I am really honoured to be a resident elder for Surrounded by Cedar. I will now hand this over to my respected young person.
Ms. Cowan: I am from the Haudenosaunee people in southern Ontario. In keeping with traditional protocols I wish to express the gratitude for the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people who have ties to this territory and acknowledge the unceded territory of all Coast Salish people for providing me with a place to work and to raise my family. I would like to thank the Senate committee for the invitation to come and speak on this very important matter before them and to have an opportunity to voice an opinion and to be consulted. I also hope that Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services is not the only delegated Aboriginal agency that has received an invitation to participate and appear before the Senate committee in this process.
As you know Aboriginal people in Canada are an ever-increasing Aboriginal urban population. In B.C. 60 per cent of the Aboriginal population reside in the urban setting. We move to the urban areas to seek out greater employment opportunities, access health care, find more suitable housing, better educational opportunities for our children and for ourselves. Yet we are still one of, if not the most, marginalized populations in Canada.
Historical factors have placed Aboriginal people at a disadvantage from the outset of any policy. Residential school has left its scars on generations of individuals, families and communities. Coupled with the system of colonization, generations have grown up with without opportunities to fully develop parenting skills. Poverty, unemployment and inadequate housing have all contributed to Aboriginal family and community breakdown. In small rural communities these struggles are further exacerbated by isolation and economies of scale.
As the former lieutenant governor of British Columbia Steven Point has recently stated, Aboriginal people are the poorest people in Canada. Regardless of residency in British Columbia, Aboriginal children comprise 54 per cent of all children currently placed in permanent foster care. Yet Aboriginal organizations that provide direct services to the Aboriginal community, whether on or off reserve, receive considerably less than 50 per cent of the budget for these direct services. We are also all very aware of this information. We have all kinds of data to support it.
Aboriginal people want and need to be directly involved in developing policies that affect them and in delivery of services in communities. Our views of what is the best interest of a child is often in conflict with non-Aboriginal views which call for removing children rather than providing culturally relevant family protective services at the very start of a concern.
Until we collectively examine our values and beliefs, the outcomes we establish to reflect our shared values and beliefs, we will continue to struggle with any deterrent as to what is just, fair and equitable financial commitment for services to Aboriginal people regardless of where they reside.
There has always been a fundamental difference in how Aboriginal people view the world and how non-Aboriginal people do. The values and beliefs we hold may be similar or shared, but it is in how these values and beliefs are communicated, demonstrated and carried out as well as the result of those interactions where we differ.
Over generations Aboriginal people have been pushed or forced into learning a non-indigenous value system, but as we have often witnessed in the child welfare system, Aboriginal children who have been taken away from family and culture will find their way back. We all find our way back. The values, beliefs and culture draw us back to knowing that our children are at the centre. Our cultural values and beliefs are living and breathing every time we share and we pass on our creation stories, our hunting and fishing stories, our legends and traditional teachings to our children.
In the provincial and federal system a child-first value is emphasized. In this way a child is viewed as their own individual entity. They are not necessarily recognized as being a part of a whole community and having impact on the whole. The community remembers this loss.
Each system has merit and value and neither is wrong or right. Yet we as Aboriginal people are being asked again to consider a non-Aboriginal world view where it pertains to services whether we are living on or off tribal lands. Regardless of where we reside we are still Aboriginal people with shared values and beliefs, an inherent right to the way we learn, the way we parent, the way we educate our children and the land that we live on.
We see ourselves as something greater. We know intrinsically that we belong to a larger community with a role and a purpose in that community. By soliciting Aboriginal views we must speak of our values and beliefs because until Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people can agree to come from a place of shared values and beliefs that have a shared meaning we cannot begin to discuss policies or finances. Our two cultures are continually coming together to gain a better understanding of who we are separately and together. For us to move forward together the child welfare system must understand and accept an indigenous world view to be of any benefit to Aboriginal people. We are here to stay together. The question remains: How do we do this?
Thank you very much.
Hugh Braker, President, Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of BC: Thank you very much for the opportunity to make this presentation here this morning. I have tabled a paper with the clerk on behalf of the courtworkers. You will be relieved to hear I am not going to read that. It is a 16-page document. What I would like to do is to highlight some of the points we would like to make this morning rather than read the paper to you.
The Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia is celebrating its fortieth year of providing services to Aboriginal people in B.C. this year. The Native Courtworkers found the fruits of the current organization starting in the late 1960s or the very early 1970s when Aboriginal leaders in British Columbia were appalled by the number of Aboriginal people finding themselves in front of the courts.
There is a myth that the Native courtworkers are designed to reduce the number of Aboriginals being incarcerated. That is not the purpose of the Native courtworkers. We are there to provide counselling services, paralegal services and referral services for Aboriginal people. We are there to make sure that they know and understand their responsibilities and rights before the law.
As an organization we provide services throughout British Columbia. We have courtworkers in over 30 of the provincial courts in this province and in most of the supreme courts of this province. We have other staff as well. We have alcohol and drug counselling staff because of our holistic approach to dealing with clients. We have youth and family advocates in a couple of areas in the province as well.
Since the focus of these hearings is on urban Aboriginals I want to reflect in the few minutes I have on particular issues faced by the Native courtworkers and to let you know about the challenges we face particularly in the urban areas. You have already heard this morning that 60 per cent of the Aboriginal people in B.C. live in an urban setting. I wanted to focus for one minute on youth. Forty-six per cent of urban Aboriginals are under the age of 25 in British Columbia. Of that 46 per cent, 74 per cent are under the age of 14. We are therefore dealing with a much younger group of people than we would for other groups of Canadian citizens. Only 29 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population is under the age of 25.
We have a very young population firstly, and what do we see when we look at that population? We see that 51 per cent of Aboriginals in British Columbia generally drop out of school in junior high school. The figure is much higher for the urban population. It is actually only 46 per cent of those entering grade 8 that go on to complete grade 12.
If we look at the child removal statistic it is even worse than my friend Barb Cowan just mentioned a minute ago. Fifty- six per cent of children in care are Aboriginal but of those 56 per cent, 89 per cent live in urban settings. We are dealing with firstly a very young population in the urban setting but secondly a population which has a very high dropout rate from school and an astonishing and alarming rate of being removed from their family home by child protection agencies.
In the prison population we find the statistics for urban youth equally alarming. The average daily rate for in- custody in British Columbia for Aboriginal youth is eight times higher than the rate for non-Aboriginals. On any given day in British Columbia the numbers of Aboriginal youth incarcerated is eight times higher than that of non- Aboriginals. The Aboriginal youth in-custody population is the only population which continues to rise in the youth custody statistics in this province. The Aboriginal women in prison in British Columbia are the only group whose statistics continue to rise in this province. Twenty per cent of the prison population in British Columbia is Aboriginal.
These statistics confront the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia with particular challenges. We have a challenge to try to meet the needs of Aboriginal youth in this province and to try to meet the needs of Aboriginal youth who are themselves facing challenges, extraordinary challenges outside the criminal justice system. We have a challenge to meet when it comes to providing services to Aboriginal families who find themselves in conflict with the law resulting in the removal of their children.
I want to take one brief minute to illustrate what we consider to be one of the great mysteries to us in the way government operates. The Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia provides services pursuant to a contract between the federal government and the province. In British Columbia that contract only allows us to provide services in criminal court, but what happens when a child is removed? We want to provide services in family court too because the families are entitled to legal representation and to understand their rights and their responsibilities in front of the court, but we are not permitted to do so. We have to do so surreptitiously.
We do not understand the contract that exists between the feds and the province. In other jurisdictions in Canada, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and Alberta, for example, they are permitted to enter into family court. In British Columbia they are not. We do not understand that distinction. It makes no sense to us. It presents us with a challenge that need not be there. It results in some of our work being skewered in terms of the statistics.
The point I am trying to make is not only are we faced with the challenge that the statistics I have just gone over with you present, but we are also faced with a challenge, I suggest to you, by government bureaucracy which does not understand how things actually work in the courtroom. We would like to provide a holistic service, a service that meets the needs of the family in family court, that meets the needs of the family in youth court and that meets the needs of the family in adult criminal court. We would like to take a holistic approach to solving any of the issues faced by the families and at the current time the contract between the province and the feds does not allow us to do that.
The Native Courtworker and Counselling Association has been lauded by virtually every organization in the justice system in this province that I am aware of. Lawyers, judges, prosecutors, sheriffs and everyone else working in the system have come to the defence of the Native courtworkers whenever there has been a challenge to our funding or a challenge to our operations. We are quite frankly very proud of that. We have tried to provide to the Aboriginal people a quality service and one that is going to serve them very well.
Before I close, I want to briefly talk about the issue of funding for Aboriginal programs. It is a myth to say that the on-reserve organizations do not provide any services to urban Aboriginals. They do. As Native courtworkers we find that it works much better when we are able to work in that type of an atmosphere. I am going to use the example that I am most familiar with, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. They have an organization, the Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation, which provides funding for business development for members on and off reserve regardless of where they live. They provide nursing, counselling and child protection services to members on and off reserve equally, no matter where they live.
I just spoke to the Native courtworker in Port Alberni the other day. We find that where you have this integrated service by an organization it works much better for the rest of us in the other areas of providing service like the Native courtworkers. We are able to work with the organizations much more closely and provide much better service to them. We applaud those organizations that do reach out and set up services for members on and off reserve. We think it works very well and it helps the Native courtworkers in providing our services as well too.
You probably have the gist of my comments already. I have concentrated most on Aboriginal youth. If I had to sum up I would ask this committee to take a special look at the unique position faced by Aboriginal youth in the urban setting in this country. The statistics provide Canada with a great challenge. It is one that Canada certainly must meet in the future. If it does not, I suggest it is going to inherit the same mess that it inherited after the residential school debacle in the early part of the last century. It is a challenge that Canada has to face. I am confident it is a challenge that Canada can meet.
Thank you very much for listening to me this morning.
Senator Brazeau: Thank you for your very well articulated presentation.
Our next witness, last but not least, is Mr. David Eddy who is with the Vancouver Native Housing Society. Sir, please go ahead.
David Eddy, Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Native Housing Society: I am the CEO of Vancouver Native Housing Society. Before I go on with my presentation I want to make it clear that I am not Aboriginal and I do not pretend to speak for the Aboriginal people. I am a housing guy and I am going to speak on housing, before I do that I want to ask the permission of my colleagues who are here and particularly of Elder Marjorie White if they are okay with my doing that.
Thanks to Marjorie and to all my friends and colleagues in Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council.
The Vancouver Native Housing Society was incorporated in May of 1984. We are a large housing society. We have 17 buildings with our 18th under construction. We house about 1,500 people. We have 10 family buildings, one elders building, and six singles buildings with a seventh singles building under construction. For the last five years we have concentrated our housing mostly in the Downtown Eastside. That is partly because it is the only housing game in town with the provincial government. They focused on housing the homeless. Family housing has been taken care of not by new supply but with rent supplements. When I say "taken care of" it has been minimally been taken care of.
We have worked in what is known as Canada's poorest postal code, which is the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. In particular we have recognized, and certainly my board which is entirely Aboriginal has recognized it, the devastating effects of things like the residential school system, particularly the residential school system, and how that trickle-down effect and multi-generational effect has further marginalized people.
We have come to recognize that while Aboriginal people have had their children taken away, have had their culture taken away, have had their regalia taken away, have had their language taken away and to a great extent their dignity, what could not be taken away is that innate creativity and ability to put forward ideas and representations of themselves through art. Through that we have developed a new theme of community building through the transformative power of art. Our latest project in recognizing that is a spectacular building in Downtown Vancouver, the only longhouse in Vancouver with a 40-foot pole on the top and stainless steel house panels.
I know you have busy schedules and maybe are moving on to another city, but I urge all of you to come and visit. We see it as a beacon to Aboriginal people in the Downtown Eastside and a reaffirmation of the rebirth that we think is coming through that transformative power of art.
I am past president of Canadian Housing Renewal Association and a former executive board member of B.C. Non- Profit Housing Association. I am also on the Mayvec Committee in Vancouver. We recognize that since 1993 when the federal government effectively got out of the provision of new housing programs we have been on a downhill slide. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s Canada was recognized as a leader in the Western world for providing safe and affordable housing for people. With the creation of the urban Aboriginal housing program through CMHC it also provided a lot of benefit and a lot of units to people in need. Those days are over, at least presently. We think it is to the great shame of the federal government that is the case.
There are projects now coming to what we call the end of the operating agreement, so there will be no more subsidy provided to those projects. Currently about $2 billion is spent federally to provide subsidy for housing but gradually that is being eroded by the fact that those operating agreements are expiring and no new money is forecast for those units.
In contrast, the provincial government has agreed to continue to supporting those projects at their 50 per cent level and is asking the federal government to do the same but so far that has fallen on deaf ears.
I want to talk a bit about the banner to my right. It is one that we created for the Olympics. We were part of the Downtown Eastside Connect which spoke about housing. Here are some of the facts. Vancouver has the dubious distinction of being one of the third most expensive cities in the world in which to live, the third least affordable. We have a graphic of the housing continuum that we created to try to illustrate what the situation is. You will see it has a bit of a nautical theme.
In the beginning we have homelessness and we support the end of homelessness through three SRO hotels. We have subsidized housing of which we have 12 buildings and then we have affordable home ownership, which is where we would like to go but we have not been able to create any projects yet. That is next on our list. We have this housing continuum, for example, where we move people from the SRO hotels, which are for the most part marginalized and need the most support, until they are stabilized. We then have the ability to move them through to less supported housing and open the door for others who are more marginalized to go in their place.
We talk about Metro Vancouver having a shortage of 30,000 rental units increasing by 3,500 a year. We also have some urban Aboriginal facts, many of which have been stated prior by my colleagues. Aboriginal people make up 2 per cent of the Metro Vancouver population but over 30 per cent of the homeless. Aboriginal children have twice the poverty rate at 40 per cent of non-Aboriginal children. The completion rate for Aboriginal students in high school is 31 per cent. The norm is 82 per cent. Aboriginal youth are nine times more likely to end up in jail and tragically six times more likely to commit suicide.
Almost one-third of Aboriginals living off reserve are in core housing need compared to 15.8 per cent of non- Aboriginal households. Aboriginal people living off reserve are three times more likely to live in unacceptable dwellings than non-Aboriginal people. Research indicates that the next wave of homelessness will be Aboriginal elders.
I will end my presentation there because a lot of what I said or had to say about housing Ken Clement and some of the others dealt with. I want to give people on this panel and also in the audience more time to respond to questions.
Thank you very much for asking me to attend.
The Chair: I have a few questions but before asking them, I have worked with you and the Native courtworkers program. I heard what you say. I thought we had made some steps forward but we have not. We have a lot of work to do and it was good to be reminded.
Ms. Cowan, you mentioned the best interest of the child is the test Canadian courts use in matters relating to children. What would the best interests of the child look like if the child's Aboriginal culture were fully considered? I do not want to put you on the spot. You may want to reflect on it and send us something in writing.
Ms. Cowan: I think that would probably be best, to take it back and reflect on it because that is a pretty extensive question to ask.
The Chair: It is. If you feel comfortable that you could put something in writing, that would be helpful.
Ms. Cowan: Sure.
The Chair: Mr. Braker, you asked that the committee take a special look at the Aboriginal youth in the urban setting. Does this mean in your view focusing on education, prevention and diversion? How could the government best serve off-reserve First Nations youth to reduce the number that you and your organization see in the court system?
Mr. Braker: That is going to take a multi-pronged approach. I suggest it would be frustrating and misdirected to only focus on one part of the problem. My friend, speaking for the housing issue a minute ago, referred to the high suicide rate, the high incarceration rate and the high dropout rate. All of these have to be attacked if you are going to try to do something that is going to work. My focus would be on Aboriginal families. I would provide many more services to Aboriginal families in the urban setting than exists now.
The Chair: You are so much involved in the court system and have been involved for so many years. Do you see Gladue being applied and are you being asked to make any reports on Gladue?
Mr. Braker: Native courtworkers do not provide reports on Gladue. As you may be aware in British Columbia there are two what have been euphemistically called Aboriginal courts. Judge Marion Buller of the Provincial Court of British Columbia started one in New Westminster several years ago and another has recently started in North Vancouver. There are calls for others in Prince George and Kamloops and we may see other courts develop.
These are sentencing courts. They are not trial courts. They are courts where the person is either decided or been found guilty. The court then takes the directive of Parliament and of the Supreme Court of Canada to look at the unique circumstances of Aboriginal people. There has been a bit of a myth generated in the media in part and among the population in British Columbia that somehow Aboriginal people are getting off easy, that they are not going to prison whereas somebody else would go to prison if they were not Aboriginal. That of course is not true.
In any jurisdiction in this province when someone is sentenced, whether Aboriginal or not, the court takes into account all of the circumstances of their background. Where Aboriginal people are a bit different is the court will take into account the collective experiences of the people as well, not just the individual. So the residential school becomes a part of the court's consideration. Efforts to suppress language and removal of children also become factors for the court.
Yes, the pattern of application in British Columbia in the courtworkers' experience is very different. In Ontario and in Manitoba you find widespread use, almost universal, of the principles of Gladue in sentencing. In British Columbia, not so. It is very much a checkerboard approach. It varies from one court to the other very much.
The Chair: Mr. Eddy, I have a question of you but before I as it, do you have a smaller version of that chart?
Mr. Eddy: I have an electronic version I can send to you.
The Chair: Please send that to Mr. Charbonneau so we can attach it as part of our transcript. Thank you very much.
My question to you is that all of us who live in Vancouver know the extreme shortage of housing, especially affordable housing. From time to time the city makes an effort to provide some housing. It has built some housing around this area. Is there a percentage set aside for Aboriginal people?
Mr. Eddy: The city provides the land typically, not the housing and the financing for that comes from the City of Vancouver. The city usually gives you a 60-year lease.
They have been engaging with Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Committee on a number of urban Aboriginal issues. There is yet not a specific number that I can recall. Maybe Ken Clement can correct me on that, but I think they recognize the need and as much as they can want to support the need to do something about it. Where it falls down is with the federal government.
Mr. Braker hit the nail on the head when he talked about not enough family housing. Our last family housing CMHC project was completed in 1994. Our last two projects, one we just completed in June of this year and the other will be completed in 2014, are funded for the most part provincially. There is tremendous need for the federal government to get back into the provision of housing programs and the creation of new housing stock in particular for families.
We do not just build housing. We build communities. The provision of rent supplements is a tool in the toolbox, but it does not create that community. It puts people into market housing which is maybe not as forgiving, not as empathetic or not as understanding of the plight of poor marginalized people, particularly Aboriginal people.
Senator Brazeau: I have a question for Mr. Braker. Obviously when we talk about the non-Aboriginal population they have a right if they so choose to access the justice system. When talking about First Nations people, first, do you believe that they have the same access to the justice system as other Canadians and, second, in your experience and your work have you seen perhaps First Nations people go the easy route in the criminal system and just plead guilty because they do not have that same access and just give up?
Mr. Braker: The answer to that is going to in part depend on what is meant by access so I am going to give you my definition, which is the ability to utilize the system.
There are several reasons why my answer is no, Aboriginal people do not have the same access to the system. One is rooted in their misunderstanding and misapprehension of the system. It goes without saying probably for me to tell you that for almost all the Aboriginal cultures in British Columbia that I am well aware of there is no concept of guilt. The concept of guilt comes from European values, not Aboriginal, and so you do not find the world guilty in most of the Aboriginal languages that I am aware of in British Columbia.
These fundamental misunderstandings between Aboriginal people and the non-Aboriginal justice system inhibits their access to it by simply not having an understanding of something.
In addition, Aboriginal people find the justice system in British Columbia to be foreign. When you appear in a court in almost every one of the small towns and large cities in British Columbia, Aboriginal people appearing before the court will first go to the Native courtworker. They do not go to the lawyers. They do not go to Legal Aid. They do not call the bridging number that Legal Aid has, the 1-800 number. Aboriginal people shy away from those. They immediately seek out the Native courtworker. Why? I suggest to you it is because they are Aboriginal. They identify with them far more closely than they do with the other players in the system.
Aboriginal people see the justice system as foreign. For those living on reserve, of course, the justice system is very far away. For some Aboriginal people particularly in remote areas of the coast of British Columbia and the North going to court requires several days of travel, so they will not be able to access the justice system at all.
Before I finish your question, I wanted to remind the committee of something in answer to Senator Jaffer's question earlier about the Pendaker report. I hope you do not mind if I use a second to do that. Professor Pendaker did some very interesting studies in British Columbia. This is in answer to your question about what the government can do and in part in answer to Senator Brazeau's question about the relationship to the justice system. He looked at the populations in British Columbia, the Aboriginal populations, and he found and was able to show in his report that where the community has a strong language retention program, a strong cultural program and a strong traditional Aboriginal family values program the suicide rate among youth, the incarceration rate among youth and the school dropout rate among youth is dramatically lower. I suggest to you there is an answer in there somewhere.
Senator Harb: Thank you very much for your presentation. It is very complementary to the panel before us in particular when we are dealing with housing, the justice system and how youth are faced with the dilemma of trying to make a good future for themselves but not being able to have the necessary support that goes along with it.
I guess my question to you is dealing with a specific recommendation you will give us in order to deal with some of the issues that you are struggling with as it relates to the justice system.
Mr. Braker: I did not hear a name to the question but I am going to take the bull by the horns if that is okay.
Senator Harb: Sure.
Mr. Braker: As I had mentioned earlier from viewpoint of the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association the concentration must be on youth and families if we are to achieve anything by looking at a long-term goal of reducing the figures because there is not going to be an improvement today, there is not going to be one tomorrow and I rather doubt there is going to be one next year. We have to take a long-term view. Otherwise all we are going to be doing is providing band-aids. Short-term programs, short-term attempts, apply band-aids. They apply something that I suggest to you is destined to fail.
You must take a long-term view if you want to try to address the problem. It is going to require, first, programs for youth in the areas that we have already highlighted: keeping them in school and getting them a good education. Second, with language and culture retention it has been shown by studies that there is a direct correlation between strong language, strong cultures and strong traditional Aboriginal family values programs and improved rates for suicide, incarceration and staying in school. If we can foster those in the long term I think that will have a far more profound effect on Aboriginal people than anything else. Third is a program for Aboriginal families. They are going to complement each other and I would strongly urge the government to take a look at those.
Senator Harb: I am not making a comparison here at all, but it strikes me odd, for example, that when a family migrating to Canada from another nation arrives here there is what we call in the family class process a sponsor who would be the family member in Canada. For a period of up to about 10 years it is the sponsor's responsibility to ensure the well-being of this migrant who is coming from another nation, not from within Canada.
It strikes me what is really missing is that when we have migration within Canada and people who are coming, for example, from a community on reserve and moving to off reserve the federal government that is supposed to be the sponsor is not there. It is missing in action. Based on the statistics that you have given us many of these individuals have specific needs in terms of health, in terms of education, in terms of their ability to fit in socioeconomically, in terms of their ability to work and so on. That sponsor is missing
Is it your opinion that perhaps what needs to be in place is a specific strategy at the national level to deal with these specific needs? It is almost like one would say distinct society but this is not a distinct society. This is a First Nation society. These are the people who were here first and we have failed them on the reserve. It seems to me, at least from all of the different presentations that we have heard so far, we also are failing them off reserve.
Mr. Eddy: I am guessing that is over to me. Again I agree with Mr. Braker about long-term strategies. For years we have been promoting the idea of a national housing strategy. There was a bill that did not pass the Senate. It looked like it was heading on an upward trajectory and was going to be passed but then died on the order paper because of the election. I know it has been revamped and hopefully we can get support of that bill with an Aboriginal-specific housing component in it.
I would urge the panel members here to support that because it ties in. Housing is the cornerstone of what is needed for people to have better outcomes, for children to have better outcomes in school, for people to have less intervention with the criminal justice system and for those who need support for mental health or drug and alcohol issues. Living in a community is going to aid in a much greater way than living in a market housing setting where those supports are not in place.
If I had one recommendation it would be to urge you to support that national housing strategy with an Aboriginal- specific component to it.
Senator Harb: So that also should go for a national mental health strategy and a national education strategy
Mr. Eddy: Absolutely. It is all tied in.
Senator Harb: What I hear you saying in essence is that what is required is a specific strategy for First Nation off reserve in Canada which is missing. That particular strategy would need to have different legs to it in housing because this is fundamentally important. Health care of course is important. Mental health is also important. Education is also important, and so on. Is that what I hear you saying?
Mr. Eddy: That is what you heard, and thanks for articulating that.
Mr. Nelson: Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members. My passion comes from the world of sport, recreation and physical activity. As soon as I heard some of these issues that have been cited very eloquently here, I then went to the world of prevention for sport, recreation and physical activity to be expressed. I guess in the past 20 years I have come to understand the international, national, provincial and local sport world, the North American Indigenous Games being the big one.
I find that in many forums that subject area is not called to the table. So my question to the committee here: Is there an opportunity for the sport world to come to the table to express its perspectives? It directly links up with all we have been talking about.
I do not know what the trail has been coming across Canada as far as who has come to the table and I do not know what the opportunities are regarding continued voices coming to the table, but I certainly would like to encourage the commission to consider the voice of the sport, recreation and physical activity world. Thank you.
Senator Brazeau: Thank you very much for that. Obviously we have just begun this study. There are ample opportunities for many organizations, individuals and/or whoever wants to appear before this committee. As I have said time and again, we do have time constraints but anybody, whether they appear before us or not, has the opportunity to submit a written brief with recommendations on how we should move forward and in turn make our own recommendations. Thank you for that.
At this point I will turn it over to Senator Harb to introduce a motion for the inclusion of the documents.
Senator Harb: I would like to propose a motion that the urban Aboriginal facts as are included in this wonderful display be incorporated as part of the proceeding, as well as that all the different presentations that were given in writing to the clerk of the committee be included and incorporated as part of the proceeding.
Senator Brazeau: Are we agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Senator Brazeau: We are agreed.
On behalf of the committee I would like to thank Ms. Cowan, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Eddy, and Mr. Braker for their presentations. Obviously there is a lot of food for thought, a lot of information for us to digest and ponder over the next couple of weeks and months. As I have stated to every witness who has appeared before here, and I will say it again, this is just the beginning of a dialogue. If there is anything you believe you may have omitted from your presentations you can always do that in written form for the benefit of this exercise. Thank you very much to all of you.
At this particular point in time there are three individuals who have filled out an application to make very brief presentations to the committee, so I would invite Mr. Scott Clark, Ms. Verna Benson and Ms. Kelly White to please join us at the table.
To let all of you know, because this process is a bit different than having the official witnesses that we have had today, the presentations should be as brief as possible. As I mentioned again, it could always be done in written form. There will not be any questions from senators at this point, but on a one-off basis that can certainly take place.
The first on the list is Mr. Scott Clark. Sir, you have the floor.
Scott Clark, as an individual: Thank you very much for the opportunity to present here. I am Executive Director of Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement, ALIVE. I am also Coast Salish. We did make a formal submission to get in but somehow in Ottawa cyberspace we did not get on the panel. Hopefully we will get an opportunity to do a full report.
On behalf of Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement, I hope our organization will be out of business in about four years. We are providing an innovative new way of looking at urban Aboriginal realities and looking for really grounded solutions that reflect Aboriginal people's aspirations, particularly our young people and our single mothers, those that are struggling day to day particularly in the inner city.
You have heard a lot of stats about our being 2 per cent of Vancouver's population. I also sit on the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Process and we are 10 per cent of that population, but the closer you get to what's called the "Pain and Wastings" area we are up to 35 per cent of that population. Forty per cent of the survival street sex workers are indigenous women. Forty per cent of them have children in care that are being funded and paid for by the delegated agencies. Forty per cent of the youth homeless population is Aboriginal. Over 50 per cent of the missing and murdered women are Aboriginal in the Downtown Eastside. Seventy per cent of our kids are pushed out of the school system. Clearly something is not working, and it is the system. Whether it is a functional system or a dysfunctional system, it is a system.
There are 178 non-profit agencies in the Downtown Eastside. There are over 50 Aboriginal service agencies in this area. They do not work cooperatively together in the ground. There is no integrated coordinated systems approach on how we can work better, not just on the service area but also on the economic area, not just on the individual but the family and the community as a whole. It is this kind of a systems approach that we are actively working on with well over 80 partners from various sectors of the community with absolutely fantastic outcomes and often without any government money where we are simply bringing these groups together.
Today it was reported in the Vancouver Province newspaper that we had a suicide pact just up the street here, something we all knew about for quite some time. The system has failed our people. People are arguing they cannot address this because of liability issues, confidentiality issues and so forth. Clearly there is a systems failure, and we are actively advocating for that system to be changed.
We do endorse research because there is some excellent research coming out of the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study, the one they did in Vancouver. The aspirations of the urban Aboriginal population like many other populations are safe homes, jobs, careers, education and so forth.
We embrace research. We are actively working with many academic institutions to support the actual work we are doing where we are coming out with not just what people are saying but with outcomes. We are not here to promote ourselves as any type of agency because. Like I said, if we do our job well we will be out of business in four years. The parks board, the school board and the city will start embracing indigenous people throughout all 24 neighbourhoods. The current silo segregated model that is in play and has been in play for 50-plus years in Vancouver is clearly out of date with the new reality of urban Aboriginal peoples throughout Vancouver, and I would argue Metro Vancouver and Canada.
I have here a document that I encourage you to read. It is called From Restless Communities to Resilient Places: Building a Stronger Future for all Canadians. It was submitted to Prime Minister Harper in 2006. It talks about place- based strategies and the need for revision of taxation policies, all the way through to working with vulnerable populations be it the urban Aboriginal population or the immigrant population.
In addition, in the kit I provided you with is some actual background information that will give you more details on what we are talking about. For urban Aboriginal place-based strategies you can look to our friends to the south. President Obama has adopted place-based strategies and is now funding 20 promising neighbourhoods to look at how they can revise social, economic and ecological strategies to build empowerment among people and communities as a whole.
I want to thank you for giving me this very short opportunity to provide that information. I don't know where to give them but here are our documents. Thank you.
Verna Benson, as an individual: My name is Verna. I am from the Gitxsan Nation in Hazelton, B.C. I received word from my parents that there was trouble in our community. I find living on reserve is that our brothers and sisters living off reserve are impacted by the reserve system. One of the things that I am going to bring out right now is the fact that we have homelessness in our reserve due to housing shortages. Some of us have to move off reserve in order to make it, to pay my taxes so society tells me.
While I am living in this off-reserve situation my son is impacted as well with a high rent for a low-income earner. I will never allow him to be on income assistance so he has to take whatever job he can get. He is busy struggling off reserve as a youth to maintain his home which is expensive for a slum landlord building.
I am also trying very hard to maintain myself and not be homeless. My brothers are on reserve too and are homeless. One of them is losing his house due to band takeover. He has all his belongings and his family. He raised his children there. That is a takeover from the band office. That is kind of an impact, an indirect impact.
What I am doing now is trying to write a letter to the honourable John Duncan in the Parliament Buildings. I highly recommend looking at having a very strong Aboriginal advocate that would advocate for both on and off reserve.
I know there is high racism in the city. My son faces that at work. I also work in a frontline area too. I face racism on a daily basis. It is pretty hard to be working in that type of environment.
I ask that cultural sensitivity be foremost for all of the Canadian citizens that are arriving here from other parts of the world that are not practising humanity to First Nations people. They still look at us as a low-class citizen when they arrive here because that is how it has been taught to them by western culture. That still exists today. It is very sad to say but that is part of the reason I am here to talk. I am one of those people who always stands up against racism. I do not want to stand alone anymore. I am asking for help.
My brothers and sisters live off reserve but my parents live on reserve. Another things I need to bring up is that our people are also helping to evict people off reserve. It impacts us where I cannot go back to my own community because I am no longer welcome there through no fault of my own. It is because my grandmother is from the Gitxsan reserve. The government took over that reserve and called it Crown land. It removed all the First Nations people that lived there before. I am a descendant from that. I asked that the reservation be opened again so our people could move back to rightfully where they belong instead of being told by other reserves that they are not welcome because they are not from there.
When my brothers moved off reserve they also transferred their status card. My mother is Gitanyow reserve. My sister is Gitanyow. My brother is Gitanyow. I asked to be removed to the Kispiox band office reserve status card and my other brother has Gitanyow status card as well too but he is not welcome in that community. It is hard to tell you that, but that is real and that is what happens. Some of our people are going through it, but I can only speak for myself. I cannot talk for anybody else about what is going on.
I wanted to bring that to your table to see what I could do, but as I said before I highly want to have a strong Aboriginal advocate that can speak on my behalf and not be afraid of hurting anybody else or making waves in the community.
Thank you.
Senator Brazeau: Thank you very much for that presentation and for the courage to come out and speak publicly. It is not always easy. I am certainly aware that there are many people in your situation that should have the courage to step up because these things need to be said and this is part of the exercise. If we are going to move forward together we need to speak about these issues honestly because it does not help anybody's purpose if we just sweep these issues under the rug.
Thank you very much. Last is Ms. Kelly White. Please go ahead.
Kelly White, as an individual:
[The witness spoke in her native language.]
In spirit of our ancestors of the Coast Salish people, we are thankful and grateful to welcome the Senate to our unceded territories. We are thankful for our Salish people from Montana, Washington and British Columbia who were summoned before Columbus and deserve the highest of the honours for healing our nations of united resistance to apathy.
I thank the Senate and its staff for doing the best of their ability to cross the country to hear the concerns of our human rights violations. I am grateful that the committee is able to email the statements throughout the national tour so we could air them on our public affairs First Nations broadcast so the word could get out farther than the Senate's in-house meetings.
Also I am grateful to Aboriginal friendship centre veteran Susan Tatoosh who was able to provide copies of documentation. I have provided for the committee a map and documentation from the place of my parents and grandparents at Musqueam where we are in a battle for protection from desecration of over 750 of our bodies for development of a high-rise by the airport.
It is a known fact that I would like to recommend this document for protection of Musqueam. The federal government is well aware, and it is well documented, of the desecration of our Indian graves and of our people throughout the provinces where the majority of the nations are located throughout the country.
My submission would be to make peace with our people in regard to the life and death that we cannot even afford. I also mention a document that I brought for the B.C. Aboriginal Veterans. My uncle built our house. Five generations we were raised in it. Two of them served in World War I and World War II. My uncle, the last of the McLeans, burnt in his house. There was no hydro because the veterans' sustenance was not enough for them to pay their hydro bills and their lights even though he housed five generations of our family. It has not changed today.
I am a volunteer with the Coast Salish Veterans and we have worked for eight years now for the urban Aboriginal veterans to support the National Aboriginal Veterans Day. It has not changed for our veterans. Our co-founder of Vancouver's Aboriginal Veterans Day passed. This past Wednesday before Aboriginal Veterans Day was his funeral. The country would not even give a flag or a cookie or a cup of coffee toward that funeral for our veteran, and he served World Wars I and II.
The violations of the rights to life of our veterans are well documented by the country. My recommendation would be that the country awakens to the unjust attitude toward the right to life of our veterans who fought and still fight for the freedom of our country.
I also present a document as a co-founding member of the Missing Murdered Women's Campaign from 1988. As a representative of the country's National Teachers' Union I travelled the world. I am also an active NGO for the International Indian Treaty Council at the United Nations. We co-founded in 1988 the Missing Murdered Women's March and went public in 1990 when we scraped the body parts of our cousin off at the front of the police station.
We are currently working on a memorial for the 33 women murdered in the Vancouver area, and I present a document for the support and repatriation of the bodies. We had to battle with the government from 1997 to 2002 for the families to have the right to their beloved ones, and eight of the families didn't even receive body parts from those 33 murders.
My recommendation is for the Senate to be supportive of the families' memorial. In the Greater Vancouver area we are working on a 33-foot memorial pole to represent all of the women that were murdered there. The pole raising will be next year.
You have heard of many of the reasons such as the murders and the missing people that make us apprehensive of the welfare system and homelessness. My recommendation would be to invite the Missing Murdered Women's Task Force to and all our documentation to the Senate. We would like to be open with the Senate and work with the Senate starting in B.C.
We started a Sister Watch program with the Vancouver Police who have harsh relations with our people. I will forward that document also. It is not in my documentation here, but I will forward that Sister Watch document on our partnership with the murdered women's families and the Vancouver Police.
My final document is for the war veterans. We are working for betterment on our own, out of our cupboards and our kitchens. We are asking for respect of the veterans in the country, that they be supported for their sustenance needs as well as their funerals and their lifestyles. We are asking for support for the families of the veterans who suffered great needs when they return home crippled and handicapped, not able to work, never mind not even being able to pay for the medical needs.
In closing, I am appreciative of the Spirit of the Creator's will that made this tour possible. I invite all to rise in silence for a 30-second closing of my presentation. I thank the Senate for accepting recommendations of people across the country and facing this gigantic slaughter of our people, the premeditated murder of our people through human rights violations on a daily basis by the ink and the blood of our peoples through the Canadian government.
I invite people to stand in silence for the strength of our ancestry for seven generations that bring us to this partnership through the Senate attending the country in honourable manner to hear the plights of our people in person and to remember for our seven generations after us that we make this place a better place for the future of our generations.
I invite now all to stand for the strength of our ancestry that from here on in the Senate be able to come further more often to meet the people's needs by listening. In that respect I stand for my veteran uncles and the ones that are murdered in our community as well as cross-country.
[The witness spoke in her native language.]
In the beginning we told this country when they arrived here that we loved them but now it is up to you. You have taken the bull by the horns, the apartheid bull in our country by the horns. I thank you, senators and all your staff, for the highest of honour the Creator has blessed you with to do this task. With that I would like permission for the Senate to invite your party to rise in remembrance of all of our people murdered including the veterans.
Senator Brazeau: Just as a protocol thing, as long as everybody is agreed then we can proceed. Then let us proceed.
Ms. White:
[The witness sang in her native language.]
On behalf of our relations we come in peace. Together we work in peace. It is our goal. Thank you for your time.
Senator Brazeau: Thank you very much for that.
Senator Harb: Allow me to thank you very much for your excellent presentation. Certainly we had a very productive day. Each representative individually and collectively has been able to give us a lot of thought. It is our commitment to incorporate as much as possible your input and suggestions. Again, thank you very much. May God bless you.
I would like to ask that the report entitled From Restless Communities to Resilient Places: Building a Stronger Future for All Canadians, dated June 2006 be incorporated as part of the proceeding.
Senator Brazeau: That will conclude our session today. I would like to thank all the organizers for allowing us to be here today and yesterday at the Friendship Centre for some meaningful discussions.
Like I said and will keep saying throughout this process, it is the start of a dialogue. We are certainly appreciative of all the information that we received. I will conclude and adjourn this meeting.
Just to let you know, we do have a little token of appreciation for the centre itself as well as for the president of the centre which we will give after the adjournment of the meeting.
(The committee adjourned.)