Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd also like to thank each and every witness who agreed to appear here.
I'd just like to pick up on what our chair had to say in terms of the time limitations we were given. This is something that was extremely important to the Status of Women committee, and the reality is.... I want to touch on something Mr. Bourret had to say about educating Canadians: I think that has to start with our own government officials. When I say “government”, I'm not referring just to Conservatives; I mean all sitting members. Because the reality is that to get this done.... It's something we wanted to do, and on behalf of my party I would like to apologize sincerely for the five to seven minutes, because this is a huge issue.
I think we need to be educated. In order to get this done.... We were declined the money to even go on the road; we thought it was important not to do it by teleconference. We thought the visuals were important, very important: we had to see and hear. It's a lot easier for us to get here than for a lot of people.... I was particularly interested in wanting to speak to the women, not just to the groups that do speak for them. That was of great interest to me, because that's where we learn.
Now, Mr. Bourret, with respect to what you had to say about educating Canadians, I couldn't agree with you more. In what form do you see that education coming?
We need to know what has happened in the past. I do commend the Conservative government for the apology that was recently given; it was very touching. But we have to build on that and we have to change it and quit talking. We've talked about this for decades, so could you give me an idea of what you see as a good educational start for the rest of us?