Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm going to try to do mine in four to four and a half minutes, because I want to share with my colleagues and get in as many questions as we can.
Thank you for coming, Minister. First, I want to say, Madam Minister, that I find it disrespectful to this committee and to the women of Canada for us to have to wait seven months to have you appear in front of our committee, and then to have only one hour, and at this, it's not even an hour, with the presentation.
I also want to table, Madam Chair, if I could, because this is part of my question this morning, a letter that was signed by the Prime Minister making a commitment during the election that he would respect the CEDAW agreement with the United Nations. I have a copy here for all committee members, if I may.
The minister talks a great deal about women's equality and talks about programs on the ground, most of which are being done by HRDC in any case, in terms of upgrading resumés, and so on.
But let me get to the crux of it. The criteria of the department have been changed dramatically. This department was established to fight for the equality of Canadian women across this country. If it hadn't been for this department's activism and funding of equality organizations in this country, women would not have equal rights in the Constitution. As the minister very well knows, it was women who fought for that and had to march on Parliament Hill to get that right, and it was as a result of that kind of strength.
That brings me to the questions.
In this changed world where we have changed the criteria, women are being muzzled; that is, organizations, advocacy, capacity building, all that is gone. Can the minister tell me this--and I'm going to go through this, and I would appreciate it if she would be short in her answers, because the time is tight. The issue of equality is gone from your criteria. Why is that?