Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, Ms. Collins. Thank you very much for putting forward this private member's bill.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge your advocacy, especially in light of your own sister's lived experiences and in light of the many other racialized women and indigenous peoples who have been victims of the kinds of coercive control that I think your bill attempts to address. I want to express my gratitude to you for this work.
It does, indeed, build on a prior study of this committee, as I think you alluded to, which had a report called “The Shadow Pandemic: Stopping Coercive and Controlling Behaviour in Intimate Relationships”. I think the title speaks to the need for raising awareness, so if nothing else, you are doing exactly that.
I want to start by asking what the nature of your consultations were, particularly how your conversations went with women's groups and indigenous community organizations. How did those conversations inform the language and intent of this private member's bill?