I'm fine. I just get a little choked up when I talk about that part, but I'm okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I want to address some major concerns that I have in working with women on a daily basis in Prince Albert. When women come into my office and are prepared that day to leave a situation and I can't find any shelter space, this has to be one of my major concerns. When somebody is in a place where they're ready to finally leave that abusive situation, sometimes that window of opportunity is very small. Maybe they go back into the home, where they continue to be dominated, and it's not safe for them to come out until some time later. So when those opportunities come when somebody is ready to leave, and they want to leave now, it's really imperative that we have some place to place them.
What usually happens is I will get a lady who comes into my office and she's fearful for herself and her children. Maybe her partner has her children at that point and he's looking after them, so she can't leave at that moment because she won't leave without her children. When women leave without their children, they become separated, and then there's the whole issue of child apprehension. So they won't leave without their children, and they end up going back. They are put on long waiting lists. We have the YWCA in Prince Albert. If I can't get somebody into the shelter--and the statistics show that the shelter is full 99.9% of the time. So at any time there's never really any space available. You end up being put on a waiting list, and then you just have to keep calling daily, maybe a couple of times a day, just to see if a space becomes available, because there's so little space available.
As I said, there's the YWCA. They house women and children. And they have Our House, which is attached to the YWCA, and it's for both males and females. That space doesn't help children, though. Unless they can get into the YWCA, they will basically have no place to go. So it's really important that something happen with the shelter space in Saskatchewan.
As Shirley Henderson mentioned, first nations women need that space where they can feel welcome, where their language is spoken, where their food is being served, where they can feel comfortable and safe and secure.
There are other programs that need to happen. There needs to be funding for cultural ceremonies and programs to deal with those barriers when women get into those relationships.
The other major thing I want to talk about is sexual abuse. A lot of women come forward and tell me they've been dealing with sexual abuse for a number of years, and they don't have the resources to continue fighting. Sometimes their children are left in those homes and they are told it's a custody issue. They go to doctors.... They just can't get the support. There needs to be more education and support around sexual abuse.
One of the biggest things I deal with is when children are apprehended and there is no place for the women to really go to get the support they need. They're victimized. I think it has to be looked at, as to what is happening when children are apprehended when there's violence in the home. I don't think it's agreeable to have the woman be further victimized by having her children apprehended because she's with somebody who is abusive. I think we need to deal more with the abuser.
Thank you very much.