Opinion: SisterWatch initiative in question despite VPD commitment to MMIWG

By KORALEE NICKARZ

As a founding member of SisterWatch, Carol Martin had every expectation that she would discuss changes impacting the safety of Indigenous women in the Downtown Eastside with the chief of police.

But according to Martin, one of the organizers of the annual Women’s Memorial March, she was never consulted about Task Force Barrage or the $5 million dollars that Mayor Ken Sim has promised to fund it.

“Where did they come up with that plan?” Martin said.

Task Force Barrage pledges to tackle the “humanitarian crisis” of crime in the DTES. What it doesn’t acknowledge is SisterWatch’s existing mandate, which is to eliminate the disproportionate amount of violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls in the Downtown Eastside.

A Vancouver Police Department initiative created in 2010 with members of the memorial march committee, SisterWatch is a “collaborative committee” following Indigenous practices in regular meetings with community members and an event called Lunch with the Chief.

“We’re supposed to sit at the table with the chief of police and try to make changes happen down here,” said Martin.

Missing meetings

But it is not clear when they are meeting. In an email prior to publication, VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said that police regularly communicate with the SisterWatch community but would not disclose who they are meeting with or how often. He did refer to Lunch with the Chief, said to be held four times a year at the Carnegie Community Centre, as an “ongoing community initiative” though he had not been apprised of dates for 2025. He did not provide additional information or respond to specific questions.

According to an email from the City of Vancouver communications department, the “Lunch with the Chief happened quarterly at the Carnegie Community Centre with the last one being held on December 6, 2019.”

After publication, Addison sent an additional email to say that the VPD has one full time staff member assigned to the SisterWatch initiative, and said it meets quarterly, with the most recent meeting in December 2024. He declined to provide any additional information.

Martin is unconvinced that more money to the VPD will make a difference to Indigenous women’s safety in the DTES.

“Are you just cleaning up because all these big high-rises are going up?” she said.

The mayor’s office did not respond to questions. But according to the official press release, Task Force Barrage will “bring together VPD, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, bylaw officers, sanitation crews, and engineering teams to ensure clear sidewalks and community safety for residents, workers, and visitors.”

Does this mean an escalation of street sweeps?

“That’s exactly what it means,” said Coun. Pete Fry, adding that “it will have the effect of driving folks into more dangerous situations.”

Nowhere to go

In the summer of 2023, Mayor Sim directed the VPD to close encampments along East Hastings Street. Community organizations were quick to note the harm that would be done to the 34 per cent of Indigenous women considered ‘absolute homeless’, meaning they are living on the street with no physical shelter of their own.

Last Friday, the Globe and Mail reported on a leaked ABC memo from October 2024 that outlined plans to “facilitate the return of people to their home communities for those that want to move” in regards to urban Indigenous residents of the DTES.

According to Jean Swanson, who works with the Carnegie Housing Project, one-third to 40 per cent of the homeless population in Vancouver is Indigenous. In the 2023 Greater Vancouver Homeless Count, of total Indigenous respondents, 64 per cent had lived or generational experience with residential schools.

Reconciliation promises

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada calls the residential school system a cultural genocide. In 2024, the City of Vancouver released the City of Vancouver UNDRIP Action Plan. Page four of the document reads, “Our relations with urban Indigenous community members must reflect our commitments to meaningful reconciliation.”

In an open letter to the mayor in response to his plans to “revitalize” the DTES, the Coordinated Community Response Network, a diverse group of DTES organizations, partners, and individuals, states that “criminalizing street vendors, unhoused individuals, and those struggling to survive will only deepen cycles of poverty and exclusion” and that “solutions must be developed in true partnership with the community … including Indigenous peoples.”

Of the 472,665 residents eligible to vote in 2022’s municipal election, only 171,494 showed up to the polls and of them, only 85,732 voted for Sim. Less than 18 per cent of eligible voters chose our current mayor.

Is funding a task force without consultation with those who it will impact most meaningful reconciliation?

If you’ve ever worn an orange shirt, ask yourself: are you extending the same compassion for the children who were lost to the residential school system to the children who survived to have children and grandchildren of their own who may, right now, live in the DTES?

A better city must mean a better city for everyone, and especially for Indigenous women.

Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been updated to reflect the fact that it is an opinion piece, as well as the lack of clarity around the SisterWatch program. The update also includes VPD comments which were only provided after publication.