I call to order meeting number 28 of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
This meeting is being recorded on CPAC and will be on air at a later date. Today, of course, is a national day of remembrance and action on violence against women, and that has been acknowledged in the House by all of us.
We will begin our meeting. Before I do, I want to remind all the members you should have received, in a brown envelope in your offices, a copy of the draft report that was sent out. I received it about two hours ago, so I believe it was all sent out at the same time. That is my confirmation from the analysts and the clerk. So everyone should have it. If you would take the time in your busy schedules, prior to tomorrow's meeting, to go over it carefully, we'll have our three-hour meeting tomorrow, and I hope we'll get through that report at the end of the day.
We will now move into our open forum. We have a variety of witnesses with us today. We have the National Council of Women of Canada, represented by Catharine Laidlaw-Sly. We have the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Leilani Farha; the National Association of Women and the Law, Andrée Côté; and the Native Women's Association of Canada, represented by Sherry Lewis, the executive director. We were to have the National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of Canada, but regrettably, they had to cancel.
I will ask that we now go into the forum. You each have five minutes and then we will have rounds of questioning by the members.
We will start with the National Council of Women of Canada, Ms. Laidlaw-Sly.