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 75: We call upon all police services to establish an independent, special investigation unit for the investigation of incidents of failures to investigate, police misconduct, and all forms of discriminatory practices and mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples within their police service. This special investigation unit must be transparent in practice and report at least annually to Indigenous communities, leadership, and people in their jurisdiction.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 80: We call upon all police services to develop and implement guidelines for the policing of the sex industry in consultation with women engaged in the sex industry, and to create a specific complaints mechanism about police for those in the sex industry.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Educators

Recommendation 82: We call upon all elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions and education authorities to educate and provide awareness to the public about missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and about the issues and root causes of violence they experience. All curriculum development and programming should be done in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, especially Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Such education and awareness must include historical and current truths about the genocide against Indigenous Peoples through state laws, policies, and colonial practices. It should include, but not be limited to, teaching Indigenous history, law, and practices from Indigenous perspectives and the use of Their Voices Will Guide Us with children and youth.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 87: We call upon all governments to prohibit the apprehension of children on the basis of poverty and cultural bias. All governments must resolve issues of poverty, inadequate and substandard housing, and lack of financial support for families, and increase food security to ensure that Indigenous families can succeed.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 95: We call upon all child and family services agencies to engage in recruitment efforts to hire and promote Indigenous staff, as well as to promote the intensive and ongoing training of social workers and child welfare staff in the following areas:

• history of the child welfare system in the oppression and genocide of Indigenous Peoples
• anti-racism and anti-bias training
• local culture and language training
• sexual exploitation and trafficking training to recognize signs and develop specialized responses

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 97: We call upon all child welfare agencies to establish more rigorous requirements for safety, harm-prevention, and needs-based services within group or care homes, as well as within foster situations, to prevent the recruitment of children in care into the sex industry. We also insist that governments provide appropriate care and services, over the long term, for children who have been exploited or trafficked while in care.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Extractive and development industries

Recommendation 102: We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to fund further inquiries and studies in order to better understand the relationship between resource extraction and other development projects and violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. At a minimum, we support the call of Indigenous women and leaders for a public inquiry into the sexual violence and racism at hydroelectric projects in northern Manitoba.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Correctional Services Canada

Recommendation 115: We call upon Correctional Service Canada and provincial and territorial correctional services to provide programming for men and boys that confronts and ends violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.