Thank you, Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses I had the opportunity to hear this morning in regard to this bill.
It is a step in the right direction as far as prevention goes to intervene at a stage of coercive control before physical violence takes place. However, in conversation around this with the previous witnesses as well, there was talk about that prevention. It just brought to my mind the fact that the perpetrators whom The Redwood witness was talking about needing assistance as well to deal with their issues...takes us back to where this really all begins. There are negative factors in our society that create the behaviours that encourage intimate partner violence.
For example, very dear to me is something that we've been working on in the House of Commons: dealing with the ease of access to pornography in our society. It scars and impacts attitudes towards women from a very early age in life when exposure to pornography exists. I had a meeting with the provincial YWCA of my province. They were very discouraged to see how easy it was to get that access. I'm wondering if the witnesses—perhaps someone from the police perspective and then the others as well—could comment on how important this is and if it would be a factor that they would see as important for the government to address.