The Native Women's Association of Canada has received funding from the court challenges program on more than one occasion to advocate on behalf of aboriginal women victims of violence. Indeed, research funding from the court challenges program was instrumental in getting the Sisters in Spirit program launched. The key research done for that was funded by the court challenges program.
In this area, as Ms. Jacobs will tell you, we are nowhere near equal. There needs to be a tremendous amount of work done to develop the meaning of the phrase “equal protection and equal benefit of the law”. And we were just starting—just starting with the help of the court challenges program—to develop a program of work to litigate these issues when the funding was cut off.