I'm new to the committee. I want to thank the committee members for being here. I'm sorry, I thought Ms. Mathyssen was going before I was, but I'm glad to speak to the witnesses today.
I want to say meegwetch, first of all. I know many of you from a couple of different hats that I wear. It's a proud moment for me to see you here with the courage that you have, speaking about how we can change this horrible system our women have lived through. I have to acknowledge some of the things you've said, because you're absolutely right, money isn't going to be the only thing that solves this. It's collaboration and it's cooperation between different people and different agencies, including the government. The government is here today to find out what is working and what's not working.
Leslie, when you said there were non-aboriginal-led organizations asking for your input, that is not right. Those reports you submit, once the funding is done and your projects are done, are so important. That piece of information ultimately should lead decisions to go another way. Right?
I would ask--and I don't want to put you on the spot here today, Leslie, but I would love to know, perhaps through a written submission to the committee--how that happened, the story of that, and which organization that was. Because when we get applications for funding--and the Government of Canada gives more money to this issue than it has ever before in the history of Canada--that is the reality. When you ask for money, and if there are 20 organizations that ask for a pot of money that might be able to support only 18, those pieces of information you've just provided are really important. So I encourage you to work with us so that we know exactly what worked and what didn't work. That's what I'd like to focus on.
I heard many of you say that aboriginal women's rights have not been observed on reserve or off reserve. I understand that the funding is important. When the Native Women's Transition Centre asks us for $72,650 they get the $72,650, and we expect that it all goes to the project that it was supposed to sustain. But what do we do outside of money? Because that is an important piece. You've all said something about rights. At this point, we have bills before the House. That is a big part of what the Government of Canada does and what all the MPs sitting here do. We put bills before the House to help manage and to help protect the people in Canada. One of those bills is the matrimonial real property bill. As Elder Sutherland--and I want to acknowledge the elder here today--and of course Suzanne Chartrand said, they didn't have any rights when they came off reserve. They didn't have any rights to keep the marital home. Yet all other Canadian women across this country, as Sharon Morgan said, have the ability to phone the police and get a protection order or a prevention order and have safety for them and their children while the violence and the situation dissipate and everybody calms down. Yet aboriginal women on reserve don't have that.
There's a bill before the House called the matrimonial real property bill. I'd like to hear from you, Elder Sutherland. How you think that bill might help or hinder? If we have time, I'd like to hear from Suzanne as well, seeing as you've both suffered from having no rights on reserve.