Status of Women committee  Well, I can relate, because I started my business in hairstyling in November 2019, and we all know what happened in March 2020. I became a non-essential service, but guess what? It's the magic “P” word: You pivot. I didn't like that word then and I don't like it now, but I had to find other ways to make money, so I took on speaking engagements and became more involved in community.

Status of Women committee  I look around this room and I don't see anyone who looks like me. I'm going to walk out of this room and you're going to have discussions about me and my challenges. You're going to offer solutions. You're going to write a report. That report is going to be policy. I imagine, since there's no one who looks like me here now, that there won't be anyone who looks like me at that point.

Status of Women committee  Yes, I can, and I'd like to tell a story. I don't know how many of you watch CBC. It's Black History Month, and there is a docuseries on a lady named Beverly Mascoll. I don't know if anybody has seen that. She was an entrepreneur in the 1970s who came to Toronto from Nova Scotia and in 1973 opened the first Black-owned beauty supply store out of Toronto.

Status of Women committee  I don't really like that word “intersectionality”. Yes, I know, I know, but I feel that it complicates the basis of need, really. I feel that when we start discuss intersectionalities—yes, they are important, to an extent—we lose sight of the basics. The basics for me are really just our need as women, our need as women who are feeling lonely, our need as women who are not feeling supported and our need as women who want to do better, who want to serve, but need support to do so.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. That's a really good question. I'm going to feed off of what Fae started to speak about in regard to knowledge and the sharing of knowledge. Yes, these programs exist, but where are they? I don't know about them. Fae clearly doesn't know about them. When the minister was speaking about certain programming, as I said, I was very confused.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Also, connect it to community. We're ready to do the work. We're ready to pound the pavement, connect with each other and really just be a community, but if we don't have the leverage of knowledge and the support to do that, it's very difficult. We all just end up existing in silos, lonely and frustrated.

Status of Women committee  I'm waiting for the translation, but Fae, you speak French, so you can go.

Status of Women committee  Can I ask that you repeat the question? I didn't quite get the translation.

Status of Women committee  Well, I can speak from my perspective. I think what pushed me to get into entrepreneurship was independence and a yearning for independence. I knew I wanted to be a wife. I knew I wanted to be a mom. I knew I wanted to raise my kids and not necessarily have them be raised by anyone else in exchange for—

Status of Women committee  Yes, I wanted to be a superwoman, and I still try to strive towards that. I think most women want that independence, and it's very difficult to pursue the independence when you are on someone else's time clock. I think women are still being inspired to pursue entrepreneurship because of the yearning for independence.

Status of Women committee  How haven't we moved forward on this after 24 years? It is things of this nature.... I do have some stories to share, and I will try to share them during the other lines of questioning. That would be my response.

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here amidst all of you. I look forward to exciting conversations, questions and answers. My name is Lohifa Pogoson Acker. I'm an entrepreneur, business owner and community advocate from the wonderful city of Hamilton, Ontario. I bring you greetings from the city of Hamilton—Hamilton Mountain, to be exact.