Recommendations to end Indigenous women’s displacement from land

Band councils

Recommendation 52: Aboriginal governments should fund community-based education to ensure that the historical and cultural importance of two-spirit identity is widely understood, supported, and promoted.

Recommendations to end Indigenous women’s displacement from land

Band councils

Recommendation 53: Aboriginal governments should adopt the principle of equal representation of women in governing councils and decision-making bodies, and introduce pay-equity policies on reserve.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 55: Implement a human rights, Indigenous rights, and gender based analysis in the conception and implementation of all poverty reduction strategies, policies, legislation, and decision making.

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 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 guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Employment security

Recommendation 81: Enact stand-alone proactive pay equity legislation that requires public and private sector employers to pay women equal pay for work of equal value.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 92: Funding initiatives to end homelessness must be more inclusive of Indigenous women. Implement the existing recommendations of Homes 4 Women and Women’s Shelters Canada on making homeless initiatives and funding structures more gender-equal.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 93: Federal funding for homelessness needs to go beyond Housing First initiatives to better suit the diverse needs of Indigenous women. Housing First funding must also have less eligibility criteria and longer timelines.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Legal and judicial reform

Recommendation 148: End the counter-charging and criminalization of Indigenous women who defend themselves or their children from abuse and violence.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Legal and judicial reform

Recommendation 150: Repeal laws that criminalize or increase harm for women in the sex trade.