Recommendation 69: We call upon all transportation service providers and the hospitality industry to undertake training to identify and respond to sexual exploitation and human trafficking, as well as the development and implementation of reporting policies and practices.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 70: We call upon all police services and justice system actors to acknowledge that the historical and current relationship between Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people and the justice system has been largely defined by colonialism, racism, bias, discrimination, and fundamental cultural and societal differences. We further call upon all police services and justice system actors to acknowledge that, going forward, this relationship must be based on respect and understanding, and must be led by, and in partnerships with, Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 71: We call upon all actors in the justice system, including police services, to build respectful working relationships with Indigenous Peoples by knowing, understanding, and respecting the people they are serving. Initiatives and actions should include, but are not limited to, the following measures:

1. Review and revise all policies, practices, and procedures to ensure service delivery that is culturally appropriate and reflects no bias or racism toward Indigenous Peoples, including victims and survivors of violence.
2. Establish engagement and partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, communities, and leadership, including women, Elders, youth, and 2SLGBTQQIA people from the respective territories and who are resident within a police service’s jurisdiction.
3. Ensure appropriate Indigenous representation, including Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, on police services boards and oversight authorities.
4. Undertake training and education of all staff and officers so that they understand and implement culturally appropriate and trauma-informed practices, especially when dealing with families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 72: We call upon all governments to fund an increase in recruitment of Indigenous Peoples to all police services, and for all police services to include representation of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, inclusive of diverse Indigenous cultural backgrounds, within their ranks. This includes measures such as the following:

1. Achieve representative First Nations, Inuit, and Métis diversity and gender diversity within all police services through intensive and specialized recruitment across Canada.
2. Ensure mandatory Indigenous language capacity within police services.
3. Ensure that screening of recruits includes testing for racial, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation bias.
4. Include the Indigenous community in the recruitment and hiring committees/process.
5. In training recruits, include: history of police in the oppression and genocide of Indigenous Peoples; anti-racism and anti-bias training; and culture and language training. All training must be distinctions-based and relevant to the land and people being served; training must not be pan-Indigenous.
6. Retain Indigenous officers through relevant employment supports, and offer incentives to Indigenous officers to meet their unique needs as Indigenous officers serving Indigenous communities, to ensure retention and overall health and wellness of the service.
7. End the practice of limited-duration posts in all police services, and instead implement a policy regarding remote and rural communities focused on building and sustaining a relationship with the local community and cultures. This relationship must be led by, and in partnership with, the Indigenous Peoples living in those remote and rural communities.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 74: We call upon all police services for the standardization of protocols for policies and practices that ensure that all cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are thoroughly investigated. This includes the following measures:

1. Establish a communication protocol with Indigenous communities to inform them of policies, practices, and programs that make the communities safe.
2. Improve communication between police and families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people from the first report, with regular and ongoing communication throughout the investigation.
3. Improve coordination across government departments and between jurisdictions and Indigenous communities and police services.
4. Recognize that the high turnover among officers assigned to a missing and murdered Indigenous woman’s, girl’s, or 2SLGBTQQIA person’s file may negatively impact both progress on the investigation and relationships with family members; police services must have robust protocols to mitigate these impacts.
5. Create a national strategy, through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, to ensure consistency in reporting mechanisms for reporting missing Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. This could be developed in conjunction with implementation of a national database.
6. Establish standardized response times to reports of missing Indigenous persons and women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people experiencing violence, and conduct a regular audit of response times to monitor and provide feedback for improvement.
7. Lead the provincial and territorial governments to establish a nationwide emergency number.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 78: We call upon all levels of government and all police services for the establishment of a national task force, comprised of an independent, highly qualified, and specialized team of investigators, to review and, if required, to reinvestigate each case of all unresolved files of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people from across Canada. Further, this task force must disclose to families and to survivors all non-privileged information and findings.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Attorneys and law societies

Recommendation 81: We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, and Canadian law societies and bar associations, for mandatory intensive and periodic training of Crown attorneys, defence lawyers, court staff, and all who participate in the criminal justice system, in the area of Indigenous cultures and histories, including distinctions-based training. This includes, but is not limited to, the following measures:

1. All courtroom officers, staff, judiciary, and employees in the judicial system must take cultural competency training that is designed and led in partnership with local Indigenous communities.
2. Law societies working with Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people must establish and enforce cultural competency standards.
3. All courts must have a staff position for an Indigenous courtroom liaison worker that is adequately funded and resourced to ensure Indigenous people in the court system know their rights and are connected to appropriate services.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 93: We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to immediately adopt the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal 2017 CHRT 14 standards regarding the implementation of Jordan’s Principle in relation to all First Nations (Status and non-Status), Métis, and Inuit children. We call on governments to modify funding formulas for the provision of services on a needs basis, and to prioritize family support, reunification, and prevention of harms. Funding levels must represent the principle of substantive equity.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Extractive and development industries

Recommendation 101: We call upon all parties involved in the negotiations of impact-benefit agreements related to resource-extraction and development projects to include provisions that address the impacts of projects on the safety and security of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Provisions must also be included to ensure that Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA people equitably benefit from the projects.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Correctional Services Canada

Recommendation 104: We call upon Correctional Service Canada to take urgent action to establish facilities described under sections 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to ensure that Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people have options for decarceration. Such facilities must be strategically located to allow for localized placements and mother-and-child programming.