Well, the big picture.... An area of expertise I work in is aboriginal corrections and the justice system. When you talk about violence against aboriginal women, there is the much bigger picture of community breakdown and violence within the community, which then, of course, is showing itself in corrections. Recognizing that aboriginal women are the victims of violence and recognizing the context, it's also important to note that, in terms of corrections, they are highly overrepresented as offenders in the federal system. They're also highly overrepresented in the commission of violent crime, which of course is not to suggest that aboriginal women are inherently more violent, but that there's a bigger picture there. I don't want to say a culture of violence, but there's a community breakdown as a result of the factors that have been talked about: residential schools, colonialism, and some of the Indian Act provisions.
With respect to corrections, I definitely think that offering adequate programming and trying to deal with the root causes and rehabilitating offenders, who are often going back to their communities--because the reality is that most offenders are coming out--is actually an important part of the agenda of dealing with violence in aboriginal communities.