Status of Women committee  Well, first of all, a lot of what LEAF has done--for example, the rape shield law--we don't agree with. I'm a lawyer, and I have another reason for that. There are legal things. There has to be equality in the defence, a mechanism, number one. In fact, I actually worked on the ac

Status of Women committee  First of all, with regard to English language training, everybody knows that immigration is a federal matter, but the education, the welfare, and the training are provincial—

Status of Women committee  Well, then why are the provinces not doing that? Why should the Status of Women be doing that—

Status of Women committee  I'm sure you do. But many women leave because they have family commitments. They don't work—

Status of Women committee  Yes. We have looked around, and we've discovered that many of these so-called organizations are a handful of women. For example, the National Association of Women and the Law received $290,000 up to September 2007, and they are a handful of women lawyers. Who do they reflect? The

Status of Women committee  Very minor funding.

Status of Women committee  It was $6,000, as opposed to millions and millions that were received by other women's groups. Our funding has been cut off entirely, from 1996, and only under enormous—

Status of Women committee  If we have a project that will help women, that will be accountable, and that will show results, we will apply. But we're not going to apply just to have ongoing core funding, because that's a waste of taxpayers' money. We certainly will apply, but we have managed to survive and

Status of Women committee  No, it's a feminist concept. We do not agree with that. We think that wages should be determined by merit, by experience, and by the training. We do not think that equal value.... How do you equate a parking attendant's job with a secretary's? It's not possible, it's subjective.

Status of Women committee  Yes. And do you know why that is? Because women work differently from men. We have a different work schedule. For example, you'll find that 59% of the medical graduates in fact in 2005 were female. And what do they take? They go into family medicine. They don't go into high-payin

Status of Women committee  Most women drop out of their professions, and it's because we don't work in the same way as men do—

Status of Women committee  That's one conclusion one gets from the statement.... I must say I'm having difficulty getting the translation. It's not coming through.

Status of Women committee  Let me give you an example. When REAL Women began, we applied many times for funding. We never got a response. They wouldn't even send us application forms. Under the Access to Information Act, we found material showing they were deliberately ostracizing us. We knew that, and one

Status of Women committee  We have a minimum of 55,000 across Canada of all backgrounds, all differences. I'm a lawyer. We have a commercial pilot. We have many homemakers. We have many immigrant women who do flock to our organization, not feminist ones. You mentioned, and I've heard a couple of times toda

Status of Women committee  Pardon? I can't hear.