Legislative reform to reduce Indigenous women’s manufactured vulnerability

Recommendation 8: End the policing practice of street checks; reduce the number of bylaw infraction tickets issued by police in the DTES; prohibit police from carrying and using all lethal weapons; develop guidelines to facilitate greater use of police discretion not to lay charges especially for minor poverty-related offences; and end the counter-charging and criminalization of Indigenous women who defend themselves or their children.

Legislative reform to reduce Indigenous women’s manufactured vulnerability

Recommendation 9: Commit to using non-incarceration and alternative measures especially for minor offenses committed by Indigenous women. Governments must also provide sufficient and stable funding to Indigenous communities and organizations to provide alternatives to incarceration including community-based rehabilitation, diversion, community courts, and restorative justice methods geared towards Indigenous women.

Legislative reform to reduce Indigenous women’s manufactured vulnerability

Recommendation 10: Repeal laws that criminalize or increase harm for Indigenous women in the sex trade.

Recommendation 11: End the criminalization of people who use or possess small amounts of illicit substances.

Recommendation 12: End the criminalization of homelessness by eliminating bylaw infractions and criminal charges for sleeping or tenting in public spaces, and end the displacement of tent cities.

Immediate services needed in the DTES

Recommendation 23: Fund an Indigenous legal clinic in the DTES that can support Indigenous women in all criminal and civil legal matters including but not limited to family, criminal, mental health, and poverty law issues.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 69: No reduction of welfare for families in cases of child apprehension, so that income support and housing is maintained while mothers are in the process of getting their children back.

Recommendations to keep Indigenous families together in the DTES

End child apprehensions

Recommendation 115: End the apprehension of Indigenous children due to poverty or Eurocentric ideas of neglect that stem from a legacy of colonization. Poverty must not be conflated with neglect or mistreatment, and removing children from their families exacerbates cycles of trauma and poverty.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 134: Redirect growing municipal, provincial, and federal police and prison budgets towards solutions that increase safety for Indigenous women such as more housing, child care, income, healthcare, mental health and addictions services, and healing supports.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Policing

Recommendation 136: As in other jurisdictions, prohibit the police from carrying and using all lethal weapons. Even in the most escalated scenario, there is no justification for a police-involved lethal shooting.