Active Indigenous women’s leadership

Recommendation 2: All levels of Canadian government, national aboriginal organizations, and nonprofit agencies must ensure the active leadership of Indigenous women in the design, implementation, and review of programs and policies that are directed to increase the safety of Indigenous women. Strengthen and support solutions that restore the role of Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people as Title-holders of their lands, traditional knowledge keepers, sacred life-givers, and matriarchs within extended kinship networks.

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.

Legislative reform to reduce Indigenous women’s manufactured vulnerability

Recommendation 4: Implement independent civilian oversight of officials responsible for responding to and investigating violence against Indigenous women. Ensure that administrative, disciplinary, or criminal measures are available to hold such officials accountable when officers are found to have failed to act on reports of missing women or to have carried out biased or inadequate investigations of violence against Indigenous women.

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.

Immediate services needed in the DTES

Recommendation 17: Fund more 24/7 low-barrier emergency shelters, transition homes, and drop-ins for women with long-term funding and full wrap-around supports. Also fund more Indigenous-centered and community-based, rather than police-based, victim services programs that provide holistic support including connection to land-based healing and guidance from elders.

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 34: Establish free public bus transportation between each town and city located along the entire length of Highway 16 and all other highways, with a number of safe homes and emergency phone booths along the length of all the highways.

Recommendations to end Indigenous women’s displacement from land

On reserve

Recommendation 40: The federal government must guarantee:

1. Access to clean drinking water; food security based on a traditional diet; critical infrastructure including roads and sanitation systems; and essential health, education, child care, housing, transport, recreational, cultural, and emergency services on every reserve.
2. Safe, affordable, and livable housing for every woman on her reserve that is independent of her matrimonial status.
3. Affordable child care and licensed day care options on every reserve.
4. Complete complement of maternal and infant/child health services on reserve to enable women to remain closer to home to give birth.
5. Free public transportation between each town and city located along the entire length of Highway 16 and all other highways, with a number of safe homes and emergency phone booths along the length of all the highways.
6. Increase funding on all reserves for programs and services that strengthen traditional and cultural knowledge grounded in Indigenous laws, values, and practices.
7. Range of anti-violence services including preventive programs, crisis intervention, victim services, advocacy support, restorative justice circles, shelters, transitional housing, and second-stage housing on every reserve.
8. Cultural sensitivity training for all first responders such as police, healthcare professionals, and social workers who assist survivors of violence on reserve.

Recommendations to end Indigenous women’s displacement from land

Band councils

Recommendation 49: Women’s shelters on reserve should have the option to incorporate as nonprofit organizations to receive funding directly from INAC, rather than through Band councils, in order to maintain the privacy of those accessing the shelter.

Recommendations to end Indigenous women’s displacement from land

Band councils

Recommendation 50: Aboriginal governments should provide mandatory training for band councillors and community leaders to ensure that they treat the issue as a high priority.