Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good morning. I'm Rosemarie McPherson. I have Marc LeClair with me. We are going to be representing the Métis National Council. I'd like to thank the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development for inviting the three national organizations that represent first nations, Inuit, and the Métis Nation to make presentations on Bill C-292 today.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  --a collaborative effort to address the shameful conditions that aboriginal peoples face in this country today. I did not even want to address the issue that because the Kelowna accord was not formerly signed it cannot be implemented. Governments make political commitments that are implemented all the time.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  [Witness speaks in her native language] I will repeat what I said. I said, “Thank you very much for inviting me.” My name is Rosemarie McPherson. I am the spokesperson for Women of the Métis Nation. I reside in Dauphin and live in Dauphin. My real job is as an aboriginal court worker.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For Women of the Métis Nation, I guess it's a little different. Most of us who belong to our organization are all volunteers. When we put our weekends together, giving up our weekends so that we can prepare policy papers and stuff like that, we don't do it lightly. We do it from here, where it counts.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, Women of the Métis Nation attended one of the first gender-based meetings. We were invited by Status of Women Canada and we really appreciated the fact that we were invited. We didn't really know what it was all about. When we attended the meeting, it became clear to us that it is a good tool to use to get women to start speaking up and really know who they are and what they want.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If you don't mind, I'd like to touch on the NAWS a little bit. I'm proud to say that we received $30,000 from your government to send ten women to Corner Brook. It took a lot of that money to go to Corner Brook. We're proud of the work we did. I worked weekends and so did everybody else.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that women across the country, whether they're first nations, Inuit, or Métis, when there is a common goal tend to work together. I get into a lot of trouble because I call a spade a spade. I have to say I hope NAWS 2 will recognize the Métis women a little bit more than they did in NAWS 1.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We just found out about this gender-based information. We attended a meeting. We're in the process right now of trying to go into the regions in each province to start doing some work on it. We haven't done anything so far, but the plans are out there.