In 2019, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre published the report entitled “RED WOMEN RISING: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside” and written by Carol Muree Martin (Nisga’a – Gitanyow) and Harsha Walia. This report is the first comprehensive project with Indigenous women survivors in the DTES figuring at the very centre of community research, rather than as a secondary statistic.
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Policing and the criminal justice system
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.-
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Legislative reform to reduce Indigenous women’s manufactured vulnerability
Recommendation 7: Require Gladue factors to be used as mitigating factors only, unless the victim is an Indigenous woman in which case her wishes should take precedence over an offender.-
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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.-
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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.-
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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.-
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Recommendation 11:
End the criminalization of people who use or possess small amounts of illicit substances.
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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.
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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.-
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Immediate services needed in the DTES
Recommendation 20: Expand non-policing options for publicly intoxicated people, including civilian-operated 24/7 sobering centres providing appropriate care for Indigenous women.-
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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.-
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