There’s a significant difference between provincial and federal healing lodges.
That’s according to Nena LaCaille, Executive Director of Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Learning Centre in Victoria Harbour.
MyParrySoundNow.com reached out to LaCaille to discuss the issue after the uproar caused by Terri-Lynne McClintic’s transfer from prison to a Corrections Canada Healing Lodge earlier this year. McClintic pleaded guilty back in 2010 to killing 8-year-old Tori Stafford of Woodstock.
LaCaille says making a distinction between the federal correctional institutions called healing lodges and the provincial ones is important for the community. In the province, there are 10 healing lodges not affiliated with Corrections Canada and they are not remedial correctional institutions in any way.
“We are a provincial response to the effects of intergenerational trauma from residential schools, family dysfunction, needed therapies and responding to post-traumatic stress. We’re healing and wellness from a holistic perspective, often adult and family-focused. There is very little to no connection to anyone who has been convicted of a sexual offence.”
Provincial healing lodges are funded through the Ministry of Community and Social Services.
LaCaille says healing lodges that are federally funded and run by Corrections Canada can often be on First Nations territories. People who qualify for these lodges is determined by Corrections Canada.
“I think some of the work done in a federal healing lodge is similar in dealing with root causes of past childhood trauma,” LaCaille said.
LaCaille said that provincial healing lodges are issued funds earmarked for First Nations people, Metis, Inuit and the Indigenous category but do take a softer line for blended families who are of a non-Indigenous background for longer-term programs.