Thank you.
Thank you all for being here. You're obviously very strong role models and great women in your community, and I've had the pleasure to work with Adeena before in the past as well, so I do welcome you here.
I'll start with saying first of all, I think for most people when they try to come here, we expect them to have good, strong, solid marriages where women do integrate, where they're given that freedom to learn the language, to get a job, to make friends, to create a social group, to work within cultural communities because this is a nation of diasporas. We all have our cultural communities and those are important to us, and that's all well and good. But from my point of view there's absolutely no reason for a man to beat a woman. That's not honourable and when I hear of things like honour killings, there's no honour in that. That's simply criminal. It's a criminal act and that's how I view those things.
Ms. Poregbal, while I hear what you're saying, that some people say had they only known, when you come from another country that's as stark as Iran or Afghanistan and you arrive in Canada and you've been here for a while, you do acclimatize to the differences in the laws. We do have “Discover Canada”, the citizenship guide that lays things out.
What I'm hearing is that there are a lot of informational pathways that we can take to strengthen how women, before they get here, regardless of what the type of arrangement is, but they're coming here to be with a spouse, to join a union, and to enter into a new life.... You have suggested that before they get here information should be provided to them in their language so they have a full understanding, a full briefing of what they're entering into. An earlier witness also suggested they sign a document saying, “I understand”. Would you agree that's a pathway to take, a pathway that would apply to men as well, by the way?