On Tuesday, February 11, 2003 the Commission on First Nations and Métis Peoples and Justice Reform held a roundtable on "Victims and Violence" in Regina. In attendance were the Commissioners and staff plus invited guests from a wide range of service and government organizations as well as Elders and youth representation.

Victimization was presented as a circular process:

The issues presented were related to who was involved at which stage. For example, who is the victim at crisis, who is contacted first, who is involved as resource at later contact (i.e. Elders, other counselors), and who is involved in the long term as a preventative measure.

The questions posed by participants were as follows:

1. Identify who participants see as victims
2. Identify the resources in the community for victims (existing strategies, processes, policies)
3. Identify the resources that should be developed or included in the community
4. What are some proposed next steps for moving these solutions forward?

There was a wide range of answers for this question including children, children and youth involved in the sex trade, mothers, and families and friends who are affected by victimization of someone they care about. There is a fine line between victim and offender. Victims are people who suffer harm, distinctions are drawn between harm done to property and harm done to people. Harm can be physical, sexual, mental, emotional, spiritual and intellectual. This can break some people to the point where they do not recover and it becomes a way of life. Others survive in varying degrees.

Many offenders are also victims. One person who works with youth gave the example of a time one of his foster children destroyed his car with a heavy chain. His insurance covered the costs of the damage, and the youth went through the criminal process as a result. However, the worker noted that he had not really felt victimized because his car was repaired, but when one considered the youth’s history of abuse and growing up on the streets, in the system and in a dysfunctional family, he felt that the youth was the real victim.

Similar examples were given in regards to sexual offenders who had themselves been victimized, and then went on to victimize others. Many participants stated they felt the residential school system was the original source of victimization in many Aboriginal communities and families.

One participant also mentioned that the government, through the history of neglect, has victimized the North, and that this victimization has been a violation of the basic human rights of the residents. Following that logic, it was mentioned that one should also look at victimization and what victimization really is. For example, victimization can be a form of interpersonal violence including murder or physical abuse; or it could be neglect. It could be allowing someone else to live with feelings of a lack of self-worth.

Victimization is passed from generation to generation. Through the perpetuation of victimization, violence and victimization becomes normalized. Part of the continuity of victimization, particularly among youth, is the lack of parenting skills in the Aboriginal community. Many Aboriginal parents either do not have adequate parenting skills (due to residential schools) or feel that they are unable to discipline their own children because of the threat of intervention, apprehension or prosecution. It was felt that the various interventions that are designed to address victimization could also be processes of victimization. For example, when children are removed from homes that are violent, children and their parents feel further disempowered and victimized. Similarly, courts victimize youth that go through the court process, often because they cannot afford adequate legal representation or because their parents are not present, neither of which are the fault of the youths.

As with the example of the North, entire communities can be victimized.

The term "victim" was also discussed. Many who have been victimized do not like being referred to as victims, but as survivors. True victims are those who give up, who are lost to addictions, or who commit suicide.

Other themes about victimization:

People, particularly youth, can be victimized by the criminal justice process in the following ways:

• They report abuse by police;
• They often have to attend court alone;
• They have less access, due to financial inaccessibility or backlog, to legal representation;
• English is not their first language, and legal and criminal justice language is difficult for anyone to understand, particularly for those youth for whom English is not a first language.

Finally, in relation to the victimization of whole communities, it was stated that communities, particularly women, were victimized when the church and government were given responsibility for family and domestic violence.

The list of available resources included:

• The Wrap Around Program (Dept of Social Services)
• Regina Family Services Domestic Violence Outreach Program
• Lighthouse Tabernacle
• Child and Youth Services
• Choices for Men (La Ronge band)
• Alternatives to Violence (Mental Health)
• Anger management program (Family Services)
• Peyakowak (Circle Project)
• Children Who Witness Domestic Violence (YWCA)
• Interval House
• Transition House, Isobel Johnson, Sophia House
• Emergency Intervention Orders
• Victims Services
• Tamara’s House
• Infinity House
• Indian Child and Family Services
• Local community resources such as access to Elders, ceremonies
• Victims of Domestic Violence Act
• Sexual Assault (crisis line)
• Victims of Sexual Exploitation Act

There needs to be more services in the North, especially because domestic violence is a huge problem in the region. There are some services, however, they are usually delivered by personnel from outside the community. It is felt that in any community, services should be developed in consultation with community, including victims. Communities do not want to be helped, they want to be supported so that they can help themselves. Respite homes would be useful in the North, particularly since it is felt that many of

the foster homes up North are as bad as or worse than the homes that children and youth are apprehended from. There are no reunification programs in the North – that is, there is no assistance for families who are in the process of reunification after separation due to crisis.

It was widely expressed that the family should be the focus of intervention. It was noted that it seems like the Department of Community Resources and Employment is willing to put money into foster care, but not into resources that assist families to work together.

There also needs to be services for men. The male role in domestic violence issues is often ignored. There is a need for male leadership among the leaders. Responsibility for social issues are often passed on to women’s groups, overlooked or ignored. It is felt that this is often due to feelings of shame among male leadership. The problem is so bad in the North that one northern participant noted that there are "no prostitutes up north, sex is taken." Many times, communities deal with the issues outside of the formal legal system in a manner that was referred to as "Indian justice." Many times, the problem is ignored.

Many health care professionals deal with sexual and physical abuse on the front lines. However, there is little capacity to deal with these cases on a long-term basis, which is particularly a problem in the North. Often, the response from the Department of Community Resources and Employment is a search for further evidence but little else.

More specific needs mentioned included:

• Sexual Assault Centre
• Child-friendly RCMP and Victims Services. Although these resources exist in many communities, it is reported that many clients report different forms of systemic racism, and that there is resistance and discomfort with these services. As such, many communities would like to see more First Nations staff.
• Children’s Justice Office
• More traditional Elders Counseling. There is a movement to return to traditional ways, but the system does not recognize Elders the same way that they recognize other professionals
• The system needs to recognize that there are different ways to work with offenders. ie. Elder’s counseling
• Better privacy and confidentiality rules. Currently, confidentiality rules prevent the sharing of information between organizations. As such, support services work only with the information that they receive from the client, and such information can be incomplete and the client’s needs cannot be properly addressed. This also contributes to the fragmentation of services and communication problems.
• More wrap-around services. This is a client-centred approach that recognizes the needs of clients based on their strengths and the support of their personal networks.
• Racial and cultural awareness training for staff who work with Aboriginal victims including social workers, police, corrections and justice personnel.
• There needs to be violence education in schools from an early age
• More efficient court process. Many times court cases are delayed and by the time they are addressed, the offender is in a new relationship
• Services need to focus more on prevention. Much of what exists is reactive
• Better consultation processes with community to find out what they need and not what government thinks they need.
• Need to access those resources and skills that exist within the community. Community resources and skills are more representative of community needs.
• Extended hours. Many government and non-government organizations are available from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. These hours are not the times when a crisis usually occurs.

• Education about criminal behaviour (particularly violence/abuse of all forms), racism, drugs and alcohol
• Communities have to be trusted to find the answers for themselves. "Why do they expect us to fit into already-made programs that don’t work for us?"
• Consult Aboriginal leadership and communities
• Realign existing resources (improve communications) and invest in communities in preventative programming
• Need better reintegration for offenders and reunification processes for families
• Consult the proper Elders, help to make them accessible particularly in urban centres.
• Create a process for transferring dollars to local authorities to create services for their communities.
• Create a system that is healing and not punishment based.
• We need more programs for children who witness violence.
• More emphasis on positive reinforcement.
• Implement self-government for First Nations people. Knock down INAC and send the funds to the NAD.
• Make a 24-hour 1-800 line to provide referrals
• Integrate the existing programs and improve communications.
• More training for police so that they will look at all contributing factors ie. alcohol.
• Look at alternatives to what we already have. For example, why not a hostel instead of a drunk tank?
• Alternatives to incarceration ie. Elders camps.