Pauktuutit ‘saddened’ by opposition to Ottawa Inuit women’s shelter
National Inuit women’s group issues statement supporting proposed shelter
Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada is expressing support for a proposed Ottawa city land transfer of a vacant lot to the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition for an Inuit women’s shelter to be built. The shelter, which is facing opposition from some residents, would be constructed on at 250 Forestglade Cres. in the city’s Hunt Club neighbourhood. (Image from Google Maps)
Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada is expressing support for a proposed Inuit women’s shelter in Ottawa that is facing resistance from residents.
In a statement Wednesday, the national Inuit women’s organization said that “in response to recent reporting about the proposed women’s shelter in Ottawa’s south end,” it supports the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition’s efforts to build the facility.
Ottawa’s Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Jessica Bradley held an information session for residents Tuesday over a proposed transfer of a vacant city-owned lot in the Hunt Club neighbourhood to the coalition.
The lot would then become the site of a new shelter dedicated for Inuit women and children fleeing violence.
“This sanctuary will provide Inuit women and their children with a safe, healthy, and culturally appropriate place to live and heal in a welcoming family-oriented neighbourhood with great access to schools, parks, and greenspace,” Bradley said in a news update posted to her website.
However, a report from CTV Ottawa on Wednesday said the meeting became tense at times when some residents voiced opposition to the shelter, citing security concerns and a lack of public consultation.
Pauktuutit’s statement said the organization “saddened to see implicit and unconscious biases creating barriers to safe spaces for Inuit women and children in need of shelter.”
It cited its own research that shows Inuit women experience some of the highest levels of violence in Canada “and have the least access to shelters.”
“More than 60 per cent of Inuit communities do not have shelter services; this means that many women are forced to leave behind their communities, language, culture, and lands to find safe shelter.”
The Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition is an alliance of 10 urban Indigenous organizations that provide front-line programs and services to Indigenous people living in the National Capital Region.
Member groups include the Inuit Non-Profit Housing Corp., Tungasuvvingat Inuit and the Inuuqatigiit Centre for Inuit Children, Youth and Families.
Discussion of the proposed land transfer is expected to be on the agenda at the city’s finance and corporate services committee meeting on May 7 and again at the Ottawa city council meeting on May 15.
People interested in expressing their opinion about the proposed land transfer can register to speak at the May 7 meeting through Bradley’s website.
The vacant city lot at 250 Forestglade Cres. is in the same city ward where the planned new facility for the Larga Baffin medical care home will be built, roughly four kilometres away at Hunt Club Road and Sieveright Avenue.
Boy, it sure sounds like that neighborhood of Ottawa has a racist bunch of people. First trying to block the medical boarding home, now a women’s shelter.
Your parents must be proud.
.
You should speak to some of the residents who live close to the existing medical boarding home about all the mismanagement and constant craziness with drunk escorts causing mayhem. Even the medical patients themselves complain to no avail.
Then talk to the residents who live close to the NS student residences and hear about all the drunken parties and fights spilling into the street at all hours of the night.
It’s time we took a closer look and maybe acknowledge that there might be some foundation for the residents’ concerns.
It’s so easy to cry racism but it takes actual leadership to assemble the facts and take action.
Sadly, we’re still woefully short on that.
Classic move of playing the race card. Doesnt matter if it’s a inuit shelter or a non-inuit shelter, it’s normal to not want that kind of business and the troubles that it brings beside your house.
Have you spent anytime at or around a Larga? Of course no one wants these around their homes, it’s extremely disruptive to their neighbourhood where they paid market value for their homes in a location that did not previously have these disruptors.
Its not racist when factually the Largas have a significant amount of disruptive incidents, typically involving alcohol, drugs or both of which is reported on if you ever attend a KIA/KitIA/QIA AGM. There’s absolutely security concerns that are 100% valid, It’s not biases when quite clearly shelters, boarding home facilities, etc. bring issues that previously were not in a location where they weren’t regardless of what ethnicity uses those facilities.
You must have your head in the sand and give your head a shake, not everything is racist, you just want it to be so you can scream about it online.
Classic bullcrap. I have stayed at Larga in Ottawa and Edmonton many times for my family’s medical appointments. You, like the objecting neighbors, are prone to exaggerating the problem. I know that if there is a patient or escort that is causing a disruption, the police are called and the person is removed from the home. It does not happen as often as you and your friends suggest, but it does happen and Larga responds appropriately. I can only assume it is because you don’t want visiting Inuit or First Nations around your area. (NIMBY syndrome) and to me that is racist.
How does it feel to be the Center of the universe? You do know that people can have different experiences than you, right? And that different people can experience the same event, but be affected by it in much different ways? And, of all people, you suggest others are exaggerating! 🤣 The irony in that 🤣. And, to save you the need to say it, no, I am not using my actual name.
Thank you for highlighting that the word ‘racism’ has multiple meanings and interpretations. That is part of the challenge of these sorts of conversations, there is no agree upon definition.
Suffice to say, I find your opinion in this matter to be completely wrongheaded and without much merit. However, I full respect that it is a meaningful opinion to you.
Some would call segregated housing in this day and age racist, especially when there is already a shortage of housing and there are women of all backgrounds in need.
Yes, people in residential neighbourhoods just love seeing police cars coming to pick up people. They know how much it boosts their property values.
Well given you clearly have experience where cops are called then there’s absolutely valid security concerns.
Thank you for highlighting everyone’s point John and completely killing your own point of view all at once.
Where do you see racism? Give a concrete example please.
There are approximately 1300 Inuit in Ottawa. By population, Inuit in Ottawa are about equal in size as the town of Smooth Rock Falls. The nearest women’s shelter to Smooth Rock Falls is in Kapuskasing, which is 60km away. That shelter also serves as far as Hearst, Ontario, which is another 90km past Kapuskasing.
The populations of Hearst, Kapuskasing, and Smooth Rock Falls is approximately 15,000 which does not include all the other towns in the 150km stretch in between Hearst and Smooth Rock Falls.
Why is it that the population of 1300 Inuit in Ottawa need their own women’s shelter (as opposed to Interval House, Cornerstone Housing, Nelson House, Harmony House, Chrysalis House, Evelyn Horne Young Women’s Shelter, Oshki Kizis [literally an Indigenous Women’s Shelter], all operating in Ottawa), as well as 3 organizations specifically existing to help and provide. The amount of money flowing to this population of 1300 is huge on a per capita basis.
I’m guessing they will offer country food and ulus. Otherwise , no difference to the other shelters. Just another waste of $$$$. What’s next, womens shelter for Puatugi in iqaliot ??
This article fails to mention what is mentioned in a CTV article, which is that the CMHC would contribute $8.8 million to this 30 bed shelter. That’s over $293,000 per bed, not including land.
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Also, the population of the Hunt Club neighbourhood is about 13,000, around 10 times the total Inuit population of Ottawa. And yet they somehow don’t have their own shelter yet.
No women’s shelter in Ottawa? Think you may want to google that before you make any more misinformed statements like that
Hunt Club, Paul. I was clearing referencing that the neighbourhood of Hunt Club has no women’s shelter despite that neighbourhood alone having a population 10 times the Inuit population in all of Ottawa. The comment 2 above mine clearly states numerous women’s shelters in Ottawa, however the Hunt Club neighbourhood is over 10km away from downtown.
Have Pauktuutit even examined the chosen site? It’s really not suitable. I doubt even the future residents would want to be there. It’s not walkable to anything but a Tim Horton’s and an A&W (15 minutes away, along a busy road with nothing on it), it’s not well served by public transit, and it’s out in the middle of nowhere in a really remote residential community. Over an hour walk to get to South Keys, the closest shopping centre. Residents would have to get cabs or Uber everywhere. The kids would have nothing to do there and would probably get into trouble from boredom. It’s not racism when a site just isn’t suitable. It’s such a bad location that most of the women would probably go back to their violent partners rather than live way out there.
I’d be curious to hear from the people who downvoted this comment, what they like about the site and why they think it’s suitable. Honest question.
So you are saying that the women who can access this shelter (if it was built) would rather go back to an abusive household because it’s an inconvenient spot that doesnt have shopping access?
If organized properly, the shelter could provide scheduled rides to areas where the residents could spend some time window shopping or snacking. An open space would be great for kids if a playground was built. A stocked kitchen or pantry can provide food.
Sometimes an isolated area is better – you can see who is coming before they knock on the door and try to convince a woman to leave with them.
Your comment is a disservice to abused women.
It cited its own research that shows Inuit women experience some of the highest levels of violence in Canada “and have the least access to shelters.”
There is no point running a shelter in a town of 1500 people. The abusive partner would know where the victim is. Instead of fighting crime, substance abuse issues that lead to the violence let’s ship the victims to Ottawa.
What happens when the partner decides to find them and violence spills out in the streets around this shelter?
Does sending people ill equiped to deal with a culture foreign to their own out them at risk of becoming a statistic of missing and murdered indigenous women?
I Identify as a North American indigenous. Not an Aboriginal.
Me, EARTHLING, from the Milcky way .
Don’t be sad, find land near your office at 350 Sparks St. Suite 805, Ottawa. Its downtown, close to everything and these women can access services at your office when needed. Why put a shelter in a residential area? If anything, this parcel of land should be a playground? or a rec centre? Try putting a shelter or larga close to Rockcliffe neighbourhood, it won’t be long enough to make the paper as it will be shot down right away.
NIMBY eh! Your parents must be proud. You all are just acting the same way they did. Same attitudes.
My parents were wonderful people, and I can only hope that am half what they were.
I do thank you for the compliment, but I can’t take credit for standing on the shoulders of such giants.
As for you, do you feel that you are living a life that would make your parents proud?
Bingo, and Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition holds $350 million in assets. Very profitable for a “non profit”. This is about transfer of wealth and nothing more. Ottawa city councilor Bradley said this was about reconciliation. Still think it is a good idea? They should put the shelter next to 24 Sussex.
Clearly many of you have no idea what reconciliation means.
Reconciliation: the state of being resigned to something undesirable, or the process of achieving this state; acceptance.
I have resigned myself to the willful blindness of many the comments on this topic and their belief that everything undesirable in their minds is ‘racism’.
That’s racist
A lot of us dont know. We do knos that It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot.
In theory it should mean finding a balance between the traditional and the modern , but it seems like it has turned into a word used as a way to shame governments into throwing endless money at stuff, in the name of reconciliation.
Ottawa loves changing street names into Algonquion names in the name of reconciliation
– IF there is a valid case to develop a dedicated Inuit-women’s shelter in the Ottawa region, it’d be difficult to find a less appropriate place than 250 Forestglade Crescent.
– Besides being in a relatively remote, high-density residential part of Ottawa, there are no public or commercial institutions or facilities anywhere near there. Looking at a map of the Ottawa region it is clear that ANYWHERE else would be a better location than the Hunt Club subdivision.
– Anyone who is part of suggesting that location is doing so without regard for the proposed residents or the current ones. At least there’s no apparent classism or racism in that regard!
– Some commenters (including those at Pauktuutit, Ottawa’s Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Jessica Bradley, and many here in the NN let-off-steam room) seem to think that labeling anyone who disagrees with their views as being classist and racist. THAT response is shallow at best, polarizing, and reeks of aggression.
– If that is the cohort which is advocating for a tribally-based shelter whose need hasn’t even been confirmed yet (in the middle of a relatively remote, high-density residential part of Ottawa, without any public or commercial institutions or facilities of any kind nearby) then we have to question the validity of their support for the shelter and whether there is any case for the shelter itself.
Where do you think the shelter should be if not at 250 Forestglade Crescent ?
Thanks alex. It’s good you are engaged.
Most importantly, one should not assume that there is a foregone need for another women’s shelter. As you know there are negative outcomes to shelters – for those who use them, for the local citizenry, and for society in general. There are benefits also. That’s the way it works. If in fact a facility is warranted, one should assess the needs which it will fulfill and for whom, the needs of the community and of society in general. Social and economic costs must be weighed. The most important role of citizenry, scientists, and adults in general is to have a healthy distrust in experts.
IF a shelter is deemed useful, it’d be best located where it’d be best located. The location decision should be well thought out – for the benefit and safety of users, staff, support services, and the surrounding community. There is too much whimsy, too much compliance, too much complacency, too much consensus.
I’ll ask again, Where do you think the shelter should be if not at 250 Forestglade Crescent ? Specifically stating you could think of any less appropriate place, humour us and name 1 more appropriate place. Put your money where your mouth is, im curious.
Thanks again, Alex; itès encouraging that you remain engaged.
IF it’s determined that an ethnically-segregated women’s shelter is needed in Ottawa it’d be sensible to locate that where similar facilities already exist. That would include other shelters, hotels, hospices, hostels, even hotels and motels.
Those facilities house people who are residing temporarily, often don’t have private transportation, and are in need of integrated social-support, ethnic and medical services.
I’m sure you’ll agree that it is shameful for anyone to suggest building a women’s shelter that is ethnically distinct from other shelters. Besides being racist to Inuit, deeming them as inferior, it also continues to plant the seeds of inferiority to children of all cultures and races, whether Causcasian, Asian, Slavic, Negroid, Indian or Arabic.
I understand your position, you can stop repeating the story about the shelter existing or not, clearly they are beyond that since they’ve secured the funding, you’ve made your point clear.
The reality is they already secured the funding and are now locating a space, they lobbied and gotten support from a councillor for the ward for land at 250 Forestglade Crescent.
Let me understand that you believe(hypothetically if they were to build the shelter that you are questioning if needed) it is better to locate a shelter that is being self-determined by a group who has lobbied and secured funding, that represent a group of women and children escaping violence, you believe that they should locate the shelter in the area where there are other shelters, after you even stated that shelters pose risks to the users and people around them, thus potentially adding risk to the women and children escaping violence? “As you know there are negative outcomes to shelters – for those who use them, for the local citizenry, and for society in general. ” I think this is what they are avoiding for the vulnerable people they are representing. They are purposely choosing to locate this in a residential area, with green space and schools.
So they are moving forward with trying to obtain 250 Forestglade Crescent . The question was, if not 250 Forestglade Crescent, where? Care to share a civic address of the location you referring too? Perhaps they could use your help.
Hey Alex.
I know it’s damn near impossible to get solid answers from S. So I’ll put an answer forward. Somewhere like 2000 City Park Drive would be a more appropriate place. Mixed Residential/Commercial setting. Not downtown, still with some greenspace, close to amenities such as Walmart ,Dollarama, Rexall, a movie theatre, a convenience store, a coffee shop, a book store.
Good location for sure.
I guess the upside they currently likely have with 250 Forestglade Crescent. is that it is surplus city land that would be transferred to them.
2000 City Park drive appears to be commercial private land. But I agree that looks like a decent location for services surrounding.
501 Coventry Road? Good bus route, right across from St Laurent Mall.
Yes, this! The fact that in this ‘inclusive’ day and age and organization is advocating for racially segregated services make you wonder how they could be just this tone deaf.
You’re right, while were at it, why even have gender segregated services, or services for children too. Cause thats not being inclusive. If a women is escaping violence, its her fault for not being inclusive?
I have two questions:
1) If the organization that represents the interests of Inuit is identifying a need for a women’s shelter, can we not trust them? Presumably they are the best placed to know what the needs of abused Inuit women are. I know it is important to question experts etc especially when public funds are at stake and I believe it is healthy to do so in a democracy. But there are many abused Inuit women and they need help and support. Can we sometimes not just help people in need?
2) Someone commented that it may actually be good that the proposed shelter is remote as women can more easily be protected from abusers that way. That seems like a valid point to me. Isn’t it?
No, you can’t trust them, as they are just looking for an easy plot of land to acquire to get the big bucks that come along with the project, that will keep many do-gooder bureaucrats employed for some time, without primarily thinking of the women who will be using the shelter. The aboriginal industry is a lucrative one, and the people in need are the raw material that keeps the industry moving, so fixing their problems in a permanent way is unfortunately not the primary goal.
“I’m sure you’ll agree that it is shameful for anyone to suggest building a women’s shelter that is ethnically distinct from other shelters.”
There is no such thing as ethnically neutral or distinct. No matter how you build a shelter, hospital, or school, it follows a distinct worldview. It is not neutral. Just like your own theories come from a distinct worldview. To state “ethnically distinct from other shelters” makes no real sense since they are already ethnically distinct, they just aren’t from a minority worldview, but likely from a dominant worldview. It doesn’t automatically make it not ethnically distinct.
Thanks again, Alex. I’m grateful for your engagement.
You don’t need to try so hard to understand me; better yet that you try to understand and know yourself.
Notwithstanding that your heart might be in the right place, perhaps some of your premises – regarding funding, support, expertise, belief, determination, safety, costs, benefits, uniqueness, inferiority or dominance – are insubstantial or invalid. It’s worthwhile to step back and question one’s own biases. I need to do that regularly and so do you.
I practice reflexivity in my work and personal life quite a lot thanks! They make up my core ethics.
You are throwing a lot of assumption that I am trying to understand you(a little self flattering on your end). The reality is there is nothing to understand here, as for all I know, multiple people are writing under your name, so that excercise would prove futile. I simply asked you if not 250 Forestglade Crescent. You choose to simply challenge the notion that this must exist, but in doing so, you also come up with an argument about the location they chose. By stating that you could think of a least worse location, one would simply imply that there is likely a location suitable for it. That’s what I wanted to know, but I guess you are too busy trying to come up with an answer that did not state if not 250 Forestglade Crescent, where? Its a simple question that can be answered without theorizing or assuming my social location, beliefs or values. Its a direct question.
Thanks alex.
Regarding your comment “… without [me, S] theorizing or assuming my social location, beliefs or values.” it’s more interesting than not to do so, since you often put (aggressively and dogmatically) your social location, beliefs and values front and center in your comments.
The comments are in order, read back if you forgot that the question was Where do you think the shelter should be if not at 250 Forestglade Crescent ? You answered by stating I would agree about some notion of shameful to believe in whatever you spoke about, you started theorizing and assuming without answering the question.
Alex, I think you’re arguing with chat gpt