Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies, I'm going to pursue a similar theme so you will have an opportunity to expand on your answers.
Many of you have mentioned the outside non-aboriginal, sometimes well-organized, sometimes financed, and sometimes international groups that prey upon and exploit aboriginal women and young people.
A few weeks ago, I was on a plane from Ottawa to Toronto and there was a woman sitting beside me who works as a nurse in Pangnirtung on Baffin Island. She was on her way back from Baffin Island. She is of aboriginal heritage herself, from a nation in southwestern Ontario. She was telling me about the health problems that are caused by drugs in the community of Pangnirtung, which has about 1,500 people, a remote community. I asked her where the drugs came from and she said there were three full patch members of the Hells Angels in Pangnirtung. So I asked if they were local people and she said, “No, they're from Montreal and they're supplying the people in Pangnirtung.” They sat down in their clubhouse in Montreal, looked at a map of Canada, and asked themselves where they could find new customers. And believe it or not, they're going to Pangnirtung. There are three flights a week and these guys must be easy to spot.
Secondly, yesterday we heard from a very courageous woman in Edmonton who herself had been on the street. She told us the story about how she had been preyed upon by a biker gang organization. This was quite a few years ago, but she had been abused and put on the street by a biker gang organization, who then exploited her and lots of other women like her who she knew. She's now working with those women to try to help them get off the street.
So my question to you is, who are these groups that are preying upon indigenous people and youth? How should we deal with them? How would life be different for aboriginal people in Canada if we could eliminate or drastically reduce the number of these outside criminal organizations that are preying upon our indigenous young people? I ask specifically Ms. Redsky and Ms. Omelan to address that, and if we have time, some of the others as well.