Honourable senators, I rise before you today to lend my support to Bill S-213, An Act to amend the Department for Women and Gender Equality Act. I believe that we should support this bill because it’s important for legislators to recognize the interconnection between culture and gender for Indigenous women, as Senator McCallum has clearly explained.

Bill S-213 is a necessary step toward achieving reconciliation by helping create robust and effective policies that reflect the lived experiences of Indigenous women. Adopting a more holistic approach will better protect Indigenous women from the colonial harms they have historically been subjected to.

It would require that certain bills undertake an analysis of culture and gender, two critical aspects that are inseparable for Indigenous women. This would ensure that future governments do not neglect these important considerations in the passing of legislation.

We are all familiar with the term “gender-based analysis.” We know it’s a tool that allows policy-makers to align government actions with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Canadian Human Rights Act. We also know the Government of Canada has committed to supporting the full implementation of gender-based analysis across federal departments and agencies.

Currently, gender-based analysis is being undertaken through the discretion and goodwill of government, which means that future governments may dismiss it if they so choose to. Of course, departments developing bills are likely to think about their impact on different populations and would likely consider all risks. However, as it stands now, any gender-based analysis practices within government for reviewing proposed bills are at the discretion of the government of the day; yet, we know that gender-based analysis is a crucial and important step in the development of legislation. We’ve seen how gender-based analysis shapes how the government identifies and defines problems in its many policy responses.

In their 2015 report entitled Report 1—Implementing Gender-Based Analysis, the Office of the Auditor General evaluated the progress of gender-based analysis and found that the work was largely spearheaded by Status of Women Canada. The Auditor General outlined a number of areas where improvements were required, and yet the office remained silent on the question of cultural relevancy. This creates a significant gap for Indigenous women.

Status of Women Canada has clarified that gender-based analysis should also include the consideration of diversity factors among groups of women and men such as age, education, language, geography, culture and income. Considerations can also include race, ethnicity, religion, and mental or physical disability. This is called Gender-based Analysis Plus.

Bill S-213 goes further by accounting for the relevancy of culture and recognizing the unique realities of Indigenous women. Bill S-213 is an important step toward implementing a culturally relevant gender-based analysis.

Leaders in the field have recognized the importance of examining the interconnectedness between culture and gender. At least since 2007, the Ontario Native Women’s Association has been advocating for a culturally relevant gender-based analysis, because it recognizes that culturally relevant factors are important when conducting these analyses. For example, in the health sector, historically, it was the norm that health research and clinical trials were exclusively conducted on Caucasian males, thereby creating serious gaps in research that resulted in a failure to meet women’s health needs. This also placed women at greater risk, because findings derived from male-oriented trials were considered the gold standard.

These were then applied to all women, sometimes resulting in very dangerous health consequences. When applied to Indigenous women, this gold standard completely overlooks their unique health needs that stem from intergenerational trauma caused by colonialism. For instance, many Indigenous women’s heart comorbidities are exasperated due to ill effects of colonialism, including the physical, mental and spiritual stress from policies of forced relocation or forced starvation, the depression that comes from loss of identity through the Indian Act and the effects of trauma and violence perpetrated by generations of residential school survivors.

However, using the tools that Bill S-213 provides would reduce the knowledge gaps that exist on culturally relevant gender-based factors and allow legislators to obtain a more reality-based understanding of Indigenous women’s lived experiences.

The Ontario Native Women’s Association has provided clear direction on the roles of Indigenous women in traditional society, which contrast sharply with the roles of European women. That clash in cultural norms has resulted in a very different and difficult history for Indigenous women in Canada. Indigenous women, who were traditionally revered for their capacity to create life, were confronted with European common-law views that regarded women as chattel, meaning property that was dependent on their fathers and then on their husbands.

Today, Canada recognizes this extremely harmful view of women. However, patriarchal and masculine assumptions continue to influence many laws and policies. And as previously explained, a male-centric perspective can have long-lasting negative effects on the health of Indigenous women.

Feminism and the Western legal traditions have made some gains in balancing out of the injustices that come from patriarchal colonialism, but these conceptions do not entirely reflect an Indigenous perspective. For example, as I mentioned in my last speech two days ago, balance in Indigenous society cannot be equated with equality; rather, balance is understood as respecting the laws and relationships that Indigenous women have as part of Indigenous laws and the ecological order of the universe.

So the question is this: How can a bill such as S-213 assist in creating a more balanced and fair society for all women? We find that legislative tools could, for example, apply a culturally relevant gender-based analysis that takes into account the unique cultural needs of Indigenous women when reviewing environmental legislation that may typically produce camps of male workers for resource extraction in rural and remote areas. Senators McCallum and Galvez have spoken in depth about these issues. A culturally relevant gender-based analysis would assess these risks at legislative drafting and amendment stages, and highlight the potential for violence against Indigenous women in these remote areas. Bill S-213 moves us toward considering the important role that culture plays in policy-making and how this impacts the treatment of persons under the law.

It’s not surprising that in a multicultural society like Canada, a culturally relevant, gender-based analysis can include multiple intersections. In our commitment to reconciliation, we must take the first step towards recognizing other cultural realities and biases that make up the current practices of law and policy-making. Bill S-213 is a critical and positive step in protecting the unique realities of Indigenous women. The government has committed to reconciliation, which requires that unique rights, interests and circumstances of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples be acknowledged, affirmed and implemented. Bill S-213 will significantly advance this objective.

Honourable colleagues, I support this bill, and I encourage you to do the same. When future governments look back at Bill S-213, they will recognize an important piece of legislation, which helped them open their eyes to new perspectives. This is the only way we can ensure that no one is left behind or forgotten. Thank you, meegwetch.