Ottawa is providing nearly $1 million in financial assistance over four years to the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal with a view to providing better access to justice for vulnerable members of this community.
This is part of the first collaborative Indigenous justice strategy to address overrepresentation and systemic discrimination in the Canadian justice system.
Federal Minister of Justice David Lametti confirmed Tuesday morning financial assistance of $919,000, which will be used, among other things, to provide the services of a full-time lawyer to the organization and the families who attend it.
A social worker will also be hired to support the beneficiaries of the centre’s services. The rest of the envelope will be devoted to the implementation of training allowing them to better understand their rights.
The amount is taken from the Funding program for the provision of legal services and support to racialized communities, for which $21.5 million had been allocated in the last budget.
Curb overrepresentation
Currently, many Indigenous families across the country are being broken up by the removal of children by child protective services, said shelter director Na’kuset S.
Many specialists or lawyers are poorly equipped to help mothers because they are not familiar with the reality of indigenous peoples, she also lamented.
The services to be funded by the Department of Justice will be added to a 23-unit housing project for Aboriginal women and their children, which will also include a social pediatrics clinic. Everything should open next August.
“We wanted to work with experts to help women, especially to get their children back. The arrival of a family law attorney will give them hope,” said Na’Kuset S.
Mr. Lametti hopes that these measures will help reduce the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the justice system and in the field of youth protection.
“I am aware that it is flaws in our system that make the work of organizations [comme celui du Refuge] so essential,” he said.
“We all have a role to play in ending violence against women and LGBTQ people in Indigenous communities,” said Liberal MP for Outremont, Rachel Bendayan. Our government is committed to addressing discrimination and systemic racism, which have caused them trauma across generations, in addition to social and economic inequality. »
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for the news.