Status of Women committee  We have copies of the other half-hour of our presentation.

Status of Women committee  There are a few things I wanted to mention. Number one is that it's important that we remember--and from everybody around, I kind of heard inklings--that not all aboriginal women and not all aboriginal people live on reserves. In fact, in Ontario it's arguable that over 80% live off reserves.

Status of Women committee  If I could just add to that, there was something you brought up earlier in terms of education. The average Canadian citizen--either immigrant or born, raised, and educated in this country--has no idea of the situation of aboriginal peoples. Everything they know comes from Walt Disney movies: the Indians were conquered and they all live on reserves somewhere in the north in teepees.

Status of Women committee  I would ask the same question.

Status of Women committee  Some of the real strengths, absolutely. We are working to reach women at the community level. Often people are not seeing them as women who are looking at governance or looking at what we see as higher-level issues, but it's those women at the community level who need to be reached, who need to have the information, so that they can understand and have meaningful....

Status of Women committee  I think it is all three things that you've said. It absolutely is ignorance, a lack of understanding of the situation that many of our native women are in--the extreme poverty they're facing, the barriers they face in getting education and getting access to a real means of providing for their families.

Status of Women committee  Certainly within the Native Women's Association of Canada I would have to allow you to go and I would not dare usurp the speaker's position over there. But certainly here in Ontario, one of the biggest barriers, as Christine has mentioned, is language, remoteness, and bringing our women who very often can't afford a taxicab or bus fare to get to your workshop.

Status of Women committee  With regard to governance?

Status of Women committee  In fact, when you read our full presentation, you will see that the comments have been out there on that. The statistics show there are more children now in the care of children's aid than were ever in the residential schools, so absolutely, an apology will have to be issued 20 or 30 years from now.

Status of Women committee  One of the things we had been proposing when we were at the announcement in Ontario for Jordan's Principle and the understanding that the needs of the child come first was that you can do your jurisdictional wrangling later, after the fact, but make sure the needs are met immediately and that nobody should be sitting waiting while the levels of government decide who is going to be responsible.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much to the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women for inviting me here today. In our communities, violence--whether it be physical, mental, social, spiritual, or sexual--can cause harm to the individual and the community by diminishing the basic human rights that other women and other citizens of Canada experience freely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Actually, I have two points to make on that, the primary point being that we are talking about human rights. We are not talking about Wikwemikong humans or Toronto humans. We don't divide up that way. That's why it is important to have some kind of overarching.... We are all human beings and can all expect some basic standards: living free of fear of discrimination, the ability to pursue the best life in the way you see fit.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What I see as a good thing is aboriginal people and aboriginal communities having recourse, having the ability to address human rights abuses. I don't necessarily see forums of airing human rights abuses to be.... It's a means to an end, and that's what we need to focus on. Continually focusing on the problems and the abuses...we know they're there.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I suppose that is the million-dollar question, isn't it? If I had the answer to that, I would be the superstar. I guess the point, really, is that it's not so much about sitting here and defining what that is going to be as saying, let's at the very least take that step of removing this barrier, something that we know is a barrier, something that is causing hardship, that is preventing aboriginal community members from seeking restitution or resolution of their problems.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I always find it very interesting that the last community, the real hold-out community, that is fighting legally right now to not have to take back those women is not a poor community. It's not Muskrat Dam. It's not somewhere where they really would have hardship in their community because of lack of resources and having to share.