Thank you, Minister, for being here.
Before I ask my question, I want to say that I have a University of Ottawa student shadowing me today: Henry Mann. I'm very proud that he's here to witness the committee meeting, but I'm really disappointed in the lack of civility that he is seeing at this table. It's unfortunate that our young people are witnessing this kind of lack of civility amongst colleagues.
My question, Minister, has to do with intimate partner violence and firearms. The Ontario coroner's death review panel showed in its most recent report, in 2016, that 26% of intimate partner deaths involved firearms. A woman wrote on my Facebook wall that she could withstand the psychological and physical abuse, but when he put the bullets in the shotgun, then she knew true terror. A study in rural Atlantic Canada found that two-thirds of women whose homes had firearms said that when they knew that firearms were present, they were less likely to come forward.
I'm just wondering if you can comment, Minister, on the correlation between firearms and intimate partner violence.