44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 7, 2022 02:00PM
- Dec/7/22 8:27:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, previous speakers have talked about the lack of efficacy in spending on this issue and have alluded to how the government uses spending as an outcome, when we are in here, once again, six months later, having a debate about a tragedy that we should have prevented.
I am wondering if my colleague could comment on some of the ideas that have been raised about having independent review boards for the monitoring of spending, to ensure that when the government is talking about spending, it is actually getting to the people who need it to prevent these tragedies.
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- Dec/7/22 8:38:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government has said a lot of words over the last seven years, and the government has spent, or claims to have spent, a lot of money, yet here we are. I appreciate the minister's willingness to be non-partisan, but at the end of the day, he is the one who writes the memorandums to cabinet. He is the one who has responsibility for oversight. It is actually his fiduciary responsibility to the country to break down the silos, and here we are.
Would the minister today commit, in light of these murders, to immediately implementing the call for justice that would require an independent oversight body to ensure that the government is actually meeting its spending objectives, as opposed to just making announcements and then, per my colleague from Winnipeg Centre's Order Paper question from earlier this year, spending minimal amounts of money while indigenous women are still being taken, still being murdered and still freezing to death on the streets of Winnipeg?
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- Dec/7/22 8:49:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are indeed many accomplishments of which first nations and indigenous women in this country can be proud, but that is not for the government to own. In fact, many times it is in spite of the government that these women succeed.
Tonight we are here to talk about what the government will do to prevent further murder, further tragedy and further lack of opportunity for these women. The one woman from a first nations and indigenous background who actually had her hands on the levers of power was turfed by the government. We need to stop tokenizing first nations women and listing their speeches as if they were the government's accomplishments, and commit to action.
Does the member across the way regret not having a first nations woman at the helm of the justice ministry today?
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- Dec/7/22 9:25:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I start debate tonight, as other colleagues have done, I want to provide a bit of a warning at the top end of my speech, because what we are discussing here tonight is graphic and should not make anyone comfortable. It should make every person in this country deeply uncomfortable.
What we are talking about tonight are the horrendous murders of four indigenous women and countless others in our country, but I want to talk specifically about these four women and what the families have been going through, and then contextualize that with how much I really feel our country and our government has failed these families and what we need to do going forward.
The remains of these women are in Winnipeg-area landfills. That is what the Winnipeg police have expressed, I believe. I would like people to think about the refuse that they have produced. They should think about their kitchen trash bag or the smell of their garbage in the summer in their garages, and then think about the garbage they have produced being piled on top of these women. That is what these families had to go through this week. They were told by the Winnipeg police that it was not feasible to provide closure to them by searching the landfill for remains.
That really got me. When would it be feasible to provide closure to families? What would it take? Would it take it being the remains of a former male premier of Manitoba perhaps? Why are we just content to let these women's families sit like this? I cannot believe it, yet I can. I grew up in Winnipeg. I spent 25 years in Winnipeg, and I can believe it because the conversation we are having here tonight is something I have heard for the entire duration of my time on this planet.
I was eight years old when J.J. Harper was shot in Winnipeg by Constable Robert Cross. J.J. Harper was doing nothing wrong and was unarmed. He was just walking around and got shot for the crime of being a first nations man in Winnipeg. There were supposed to be all of these recommendations to make the police less racist in Winnipeg, and here they are today saying it is not feasible. Can anyone imagine? I cannot believe it. I am just going to say it. If it had been a man of upper-class society in Winnipeg, that type of a man, it would not have been okay to say it is not feasible.
The government is comfortable with its not being feasible. It is comfortable with it. Why? It is because for seven years first nations people have been tokenized, given platitudes, given promises and given nothing. That is fair to say because we are having the same debate again, six months after we had it the last time. This is a perpetual debate that we have in the House of Commons.
The government allocated $78 billion-and-something in 2017 to address homelessness, and this past year the Auditor General said that, even though homelessness under this plan was supposed to have been cut across the country by at least one-third, there were more homeless people in Canada on the streets than ever before. When the government announces funding for homelessness, which is the number one determinant of the cause of death in missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada and the number one thing that the report talks about, how can Liberals sit here with a straight face and talk platitudes? How are we having this conversation?
There needs to be action. This is not about a government going and tokenizing women. I will say it again: The government had an indigenous woman with her hands on the reins of power in the justice ministry, and it turfed her. The Liberals are content to give platitudes and photo ops on funding but never to deliver. They are not content to allow for independent first nations oversight of government funding to address some of these issues.
Some of my colleagues, particularly my colleague from Winnipeg Centre who called for this debate tonight, have some really concrete suggestions to address, in the short term, the pain and suffering that these families are going through, but there are so many more. First of all, she has called, and many of us across party lines have called, for the federal government to address the fact that saying that it is not feasible to provide the families closure and saying that we cannot do anything about those remains in that landfill is not good enough. I agree with her. That line normalizes remains being left in a landfill. That is what it does.
I know in my heart that if it were not a first nations woman it probably would have elicited a different response. The federal government needs to move on that. It needs to give closure to these families. If anything, it needs to give closure to these families.
We have also talked tonight about having independent oversight of government spending or lack thereof. It is not just about spending. It is actual outcomes on some of the big issues, like housing, education and changes in justice. There needs to be independent first nations oversight. Clearly, this is not working. We are here talking about women in a garbage dump, and we are still getting platitudes and no concrete plan.
It is my job to hold the government to account. There is nothing to celebrate here. There is only tragedy to mourn and make right. Also discussed tonight was the need to have a red dress alert. Why do first nations women not have some sort of tool available to let the public and those around them know that there has been an abduction or a missing woman, or some sort of effort to find them and to intervene early so that we are not talking about the feasibility of excavating a garbage dump for remains?
Frankly, we also need to address the issue of trust with police for those growing up in Winnipeg and growing up through the J.J. Harper case. There was a report issued in 2020 that I remember basically saying that nothing had changed, that the vast majority of people since the J.J. Harper shooting in 1988 who were on the receiving end of deadly force by police in Manitoba were indigenous persons. When a family is sitting in with police and they are being told that it is not feasible to find remains or find justice, can we blame them if they do not trust them?
This is particularly true when there is a government that is content to give photo ops and say thanks for the donation, and then fire a first nations indigenous woman from the justice ministry and hope that we are all going to go into holiday recess and forget about it. Then what? Do we have this debate again in three months? That is the cycle here. That is the cycle that has to end. Something has to be done to establish trust within first nations communities, first nations survivors and first nations women that we are going to do something here. Nothing has been done. We are having the same debate.
In closing, the last thing I want to say is that I want to disabuse anyone of the notion that it is up to the first nations communities, and first nations women particularly, to do the emotional labour and heavy lifting of getting the government to move on these issues. They have enough to do just to survive on a daily basis.
It is up to each and every one of us in this place, and at home listening to this tonight, to understand that the government has not delivered. It has failed, and we cannot allow it to keep tokenizing women in these communities and abdicating its responsibility to provide action.
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- Dec/7/22 9:36:02 p.m.
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Madam Chair, there is a report that is about three inches thick that was developed by the missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry and it has numerous calls for justice, including specific reforms around establishing trust with the police. Those are the words of first nations women who spent years putting those recommendations together, and the government has not moved on them.
Similarly, on a local level, particularly in Winnipeg, I know there was a similar report on how the police could reform, and numerous calls specifically dealing with some of the inherent racism, poverty and inequity issues.
The point I am making is there are reports. We all know these requirements. My job here tonight is to tell the government that it is not doing its job, and to do it.
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- Dec/7/22 9:38:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, of course we should be providing closure for these families. I understand that there will be questions about logistics and this and that, but we have to understand how difficult it is for first nations and indigenous women in this country. Sometimes I think we prioritize our comfort over their discomfort, and that is why we are here.
I know my colleague has spoken about the need for an independent inquiry and assessment in this matter and said that it needs to happen because of that lack of trust in police. I agree with her. I cannot imagine being a member of that family and having the police just lay out a PowerPoint presentation for the family that is going through this, given the history and knowing the lack of trust. Of course.
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- Dec/7/22 9:40:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, talk is cheap. We need action. For seven years, the government has talked, and it has spent but I am not sure on what. How many first nations persons across this country still do not have access to basic, clean drinking water? How many first nations persons have no hope of shelter?
I feel the government has tokenized first nations and indigenous persons. I feel the lack of seriousness the government has shown in seeing why their “spending” has not resulted in any better outcomes for first nations and indigenous women should be lighting on fire the hair of every person in this country regardless of how they vote.
The government does not get a free pass on creating action for first nations and indigenous persons simply by virtue of it being Liberal. They have failed, and they have to be held to account for it.
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- Dec/7/22 9:43:07 p.m.
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Madam Chair, absolutely. We need to stop white supremacy, we need to stop racism and we need to stop misogyny. Yes, of course. How we do that, though, is by not glossing over it when it happens and not turning a blind eye to it when it happens within our own tents.
I see a Prime Minister who did not hold himself to the same account that he held others to when he faced allegations of sexual harassment. Do members know what that says? It says, “He can get away with it so maybe I can.”
There are so many things we need to change. I could speak for two hours, but I know I cannot. This is about everything, including the fact that the criminal harassment laws in this country are probably woefully inadequate. It is difficult for even women of privilege to get access to justice, never mind racialized women, women living in poverty or both.
However, the point that I think we agree on is that the government cannot keep dining out on the fact that it is a friend to marginalized groups, racialized groups and women, and then do nothing or make things worse by being silent and accepting the inertia that its lack of action has created.
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- Dec/7/22 9:45:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, no they are not, and the plan to make a plan resulted in these four women being in a landfill, in a dump.
Are we are just going to sit here and do this again in six months? I hope the next time that people look in a garbage can they think of these women.
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- Dec/7/22 10:04:05 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I wanted to also raise an issue that I believe my colleague from Hamilton Centre raised. I am really haunted by the thought of the families of these women having to deal with the remains of their loved ones in a landfill. Words matter, and if my question or my comment to try to express that caused any harm, I unreservedly apologize and retract them.
However, I think we should be haunted by this fact. I think we should be haunted and concerned and disturbed that these women are in landfills.
I wonder if my colleague could comment on some of the recommendations our colleagues have made earlier tonight about looking for ways to remedy and provide closure to the families, given the situation and the location of the remains.
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