SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A federal committee gathering public opinion on violence against aboriginal women was told lack of housing is one of the biggest problems in the North at a public hearing on Jan. 20.

Status of Women Council of the NWT executive director Lorraine Phaneuf, left, and YWCA executive director Lyda Fuller field questions from the federal Standing Committee on the Status of Women at the Yellowknife Inn last Thursday. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

Northern women leaders, including YWCA executive director Lyda Fuller and Status of Women Council of the NWT executive director Lorraine Phaneuf, sat before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women at the Yellowknife Inn, and were asked what the federal government could do to help decrease violence against aboriginal women.

"Identify one thing that we as federal politicians can bring through or do for you," said committee member Anita Neville, MP for Winnipeg South Centre in Winnipeg, Man.

Fuller identified lack of housing and the resulting overcrowding as a factor but said the federal government could give more resources to the NWT's other communities so the women do not have to come to Yellowknife to find a women's shelter. She said women come even from Nunavut to Yellowknife "because there are more services, more housing" though she added there is "certainly not enough housing" in the city.

Phaneuf echoed the need for more resources in the smaller communities.

Fuller said "colonization" and addiction are at the root of some of the violence, but poverty is a huge issue that causes not only spousal abuse, but elder abuse.

Pauktuutit manager of abuse Sandra Tucker recounted an example of an Inuvik woman who was hospitalized by her son for not giving him money when he asked, and said these abuses are common all across the territories.

"Typically it's the older person whose name is on the lease, has more income coming in," said Tucker.

She also noted that though the diamond mines technically produce a lot of money for Northern workers, a lot of the time that money does not make it back home as the worker makes "pit stops" and spends much of the money immediately upon leaving the mining camp, a lot of the time to feed alcoholism or drug addictions.

The southern MPs told the room they were impressed with Yellowknife and the women leaders they encountered.

"There seems to be something different in this community that we have not experienced, have not heard about it," said Neville.

"There seems to be a distinguishing characteristic here and we need to find it, bottle it."

Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington was also at the meeting. Though he does not sit on the committee, he filled in that day for Irene Mathyssen, MP for London-Fanshawe, in London, Ont.

"Quite clearly the witnesses that were presenting in front of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women were all saying housing is very important," Bevington told Yellowknifer.

He said he and his party, the NDP, are trying to get the government of Canada to create a national housing strategy that will provide public, subsidized housing across Canada - something he said the government has not been involved with in "10 or 12 years."

Bevington said the committee members will create a report after they visit more regions of Canada, and then the government will either respond to it or it will be debated in Parliament.

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