Schools Settlement Agreement.7 Further discussion of the TRCC is found under Indicator 8 in this report. B. Impact of conflict on women Since the theatres of operation of the Canadian Forces are geographically far from Canada, the conflict has minimal impact on Canadian women other than the individuals deployed and their families. The main impact is one of national budgets, where funding allocated to overseas military operations and to greater security-spending at home to combat threats arising indirectly from our overseas engagement is not available for health, education, and other services. Arguably, involvement in the “war on terror” has also resulted in a shift in culture towards more national security-focused ways of thinking and prioritizing, to the detriment of democratic and human rights values. Women have been involved in peacebuilding as part of numerous organizations for peace, mediation, and non-violence at the national level, as well as internationally-oriented development and advocacy non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The longest running women’s peace NGO is the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), founded more than 50 years ago. Many peacebuilding NGOs are members of Peacebuild, the Canadian peacebuilding network.8 More focussed work on promoting the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions is shared among a number of organizations that are now largely volunteer-driven, due to funding cuts – including the Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group (GPWG) of Peacebuild and the Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada (WPSN-C). Many development NGOs are members of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), which has been active on peacebuilding and humanitarian responses to development challenges in conflict countries (especially Afghanistan, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). However, the recent defunding by the federal government of the CCIC and of numerous women’s organizations will make their continued engagement in conflict and peace issues more difficult. On September 26, 2013 it was announced that the Pearson Centre, which, over the past two decades, has trained over 18,000 participants from police, military and civilian communities from over 150 countries as part of its mission to support establishment of conditions for a more peaceful world, is closing.9 In 2012, the Pearson Centre, with DFAIT (DFATD) funding, supported the police and gendarmerie services in Burkina Faso and Benin to develop gender policies to guide deployments in peace and security operations, and supported Sierra Leone’s police in conducting a review of their policy on peace and security operations from a gender perspective.10 In her testimony invited by the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights on 7 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Mandate, accessed October 2, 2013, http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=7. 8 Peacebuild, accessed October 16, 2013, http://www.peacebuild.ca/en/. 9 Statement by Kevin McGarr, President and CEO, Pearson Centre, accessed September 30, 2013, http://www.pearsoncentre.org/article254#.UIO-vsfD-M-. 10 Testimony of Dr. Anne Livingstone invited by the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights on May 6, 2013, Issue 26, pg. 61, accessed September 30, 2013, http://www. parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Committee/411/ridr/pdf/26issue.pdf.
May 6, 2013, Dr. Anne Livingstone of the Pearson Centre, while endorsing Canada’s commitment to spend $CAD 5 million to address sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) in conflict in 2013, urged the senators to consider what is required to end a culture of impunity: Ending impunity cannot be achieved if police are not trained in proper response techniques, such as securing a crime scene, taking witness statements, keeping notes, and knowing how to respond to the victim’s and survivor’s emotional state. If investigators are not fully trained in the art and science of forensics and investigative techniques, they will not be successful in having evidence to give to courts. If courts do not have legal codes at the domestic level that articulate sexual violence as a crime, it is difficult to prosecute. If corrections facilities are lacking and if detention for sexual violence crimes is not a punishment available to the courts, then the perpetrator is freed, and the victim and survivor often confront their attacker on a daily basis. How do we end a culture of impunity when the justice chain is broken or, at the very least, poorly trained?11
Conflict sequelae within Canada In a domestic context, the conflicts in Canada related to the residential school system have given rise to sequelae damaging to individuals, families and communities of Aboriginal peoples, including sexual gender-based violence targeting Aboriginal women and girls. The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) documented over 582 occurrences of missing or murdered Aboriginal women and girls. NWAC has declared, “We know that there are more cases that have not been documented. We also know that this epidemic of violence is continuing to claim more lives and irreparably harm more families every month.”12 NWAC has called for a national inquiry as a crucial step in implementing a comprehensive and coordinated national action plan to address the scale and severity of violence faced by Aboriginal women and girls in Canada.13 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, recently stated, “Another aspect of the long shadow of residential schools, combined with other historical acts of oppression, is the disturbing phenomenon of Aboriginal women missing and murdered at the hands of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal assailants, whose cases have a much higher tendency to remain unresolved than those involving non-Aboriginal victims. ...I concur that a comprehensive and nation-wide inquiry into the issue could help ensure a coordinated response and the opportunity for the loved ones of victims to be heard, and would demonstrate a responsiveness to the concerns raised by the families and communities affected by this epidemic.”14 11 Ibid. 12 Native Women’s Association of Canada, NWAC Petition - A National Inquiry is needed!, accessed September 30, 2013, http://www.nwac.ca/nwac-petition-national-inquiry-needed. 13 Ibid. 14 James Anaya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Statement upon conclusion of the visit to Canada, 15 October 2013. http://unsr.jamesanaya. org/statements/statement-upon-conclusion-of-the-visit-to-canada accessed Oct.16,2013
345