The stat that I always go back to is, again, 70% of female offenders are mothers with children under the age of 18.
We do a lot of work in our riding with different organizations that deal with women specifically, Elizabeth Fry, Coverdale and others. Young women...women are more severely impacted by this. There's no question about it, because there are so many barriers I find—we all know this—for women trying to move ahead. There's that ball and chain, if you will, of $631 when they are trying to move forward.
Brenda Murphy of the Saint John Women's Empowerment Network holds classes, work sessions and what have you with women who are trying to better themselves, who are trying to move forward, single mothers on the system, and you can go around the table as to how many women have that record and can't afford to remove it.
Again, without naming names, some of them say to me, “Wayne, I can't afford $631. I can't afford it. I'm going day to day now with social assistance,” or the Canada child benefit, or what have you.
To me, it's compelling. There is a gender impact for sure.