Eliminating structural violence against Indigenous women and girls

Recommendation 3: Increased state enforcement alone cannot eliminate violence against Indigenous women and girls because structural violence is connected to individual acts of male violence. A comprehensive national-level integrated action plan to eliminate violence against Indigenous women and girls must address all the socio-economic factors impacting Indigenous women’s, girls’, trans and two-spirit’s safety including equitable access and self-determination over land, culture, language, housing, child care, income security, employment, education, and physical, mental, sexual and spiritual health.

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.

Guaranteed public services

Recommendation 28: Provide a safe and affordable home for every Indigenous woman on and off reserve. This housing must be with long-term security of tenure, independent of matrimonial or common-law status, and self-contained units of at least 400 square feet with bathrooms and kitchens. Housing must also consider specific needs such as mobility access, space for children and extended families, and ceremonial practices. Highest priority for social housing should be given to Indigenous women fleeing violence and Indigenous mothers at risk of child apprehension.

Guaranteed public services

Recommendation 30: Ensure Indigenous mothers are able to maintain an adequate standard of living by raising income assistance and disability rates, ensuring safe and affordable housing, and guaranteeing food and transit allowances. Provide grandparents raising grandchildren, and all kinship care providers, with livable incomes and benefits. Provide income, housing, food, transit and all additional supports to youth transitioning out of government care until the age of 25 years old.

Guaranteed public services

Recommendation 31: Guarantee a free and culturally appropriate child care system for all Indigenous families, including families awaiting kinship care placements, that accommodates children of all needs and abilities and is independent from child welfare services.

Recommendations to end Indigenous women’s displacement from land

Recommendation 37: All Canadian and Aboriginal governments must ensure that Indigenous women are engaged fully and have equitable access to decision-making on issues of governance, land, culture, language, housing, child care, income security, employment, education, health, and other areas impacting Indigenous women.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 62: Provide grandparents raising grandchildren, and all kinship care providers, with incomes and benefits comparable to foster parents. This includes a living wage and full access to child care and respite support.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 63: Eliminate barriers to accessing income and disability assistance by reducing unnecessary eligibility criteria and simplifying the application processes. This includes:

1. Removing the two-year financial independence requirement for income assistance.
2. Basing income assistance eligibility on current income only.
3. Removing the penalty clawback for failure to work search requirements for income assistance.
4. Removing the work search requirement for mothers with children over the age of three years old.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 68: Amend income and disability benefits assessments so that only relationships that display significant financial dependence or interdependence are relevant for the purposes of eligibility, and remove financial interdependence by default on the basis that a person indicates parental role for a child unless a spousal relationship can be established.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Universal public services

Recommendation 83: Guarantee a free and culturally appropriate child care system for all Indigenous families, including families awaiting kinship care placements. Child care must accommodates families’ diverse schedules, be available to children of all needs and abilities, and must be independent from child welfare services.