Cabinet ministers set to discuss sex abuse on reserve: Bellegarde
OTTAWA — The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations will meet three federal cabinet ministers soon to discuss the issue of sexual abuse within indigenous communities.
The discussion will include Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, Health Minister Jane Philpott and Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu, Chief Perry Bellegarde said Monday in an interview.
First Nations leaders, set to gather for an annual meeting beginning Tuesday in Gatineau, Que., have also faced pressure from the national chief to have the courage to publicly confront sexual abuse and incest on reserve, following an investigation by The Canadian Press.
“We can help facilitate and create the awareness as the Assembly of First Nations, but the chiefs and councils have to make it alive and real in the communities, because that is where it happens,” Bellegarde said.
During a months-long investigation by The Canadian Press, a number of leading indigenous experts, including former Truth and Reconciliation chairperson Murray Sinclair, have flagged alarming levels of sexual abuse in some communities and links to the suicide crisis among aboriginal youth.
Some victims have also cited widespread silence about the issue.
Others, including Fred Kejick Thomas from Lac Seul First Nation in northwestern Ontario, are asking to be in the forefront as part of a national conversation to help others suffering in silence.
Kejick Thomas, who says he was sexually abused by an uncle at the age of four, has personally approached leaders in his own community about the need to address the problem.
Sexual abuse remains very much a taboo subject, he said, noting community members can experience backlash for speaking up about what happened to them.
“People don’t really want to listen — they look away,” he said. “I am really, really proud of those people who come out and talk . ... We have to educate our people.”