Order, please.
I want to say thank you to all those who have come to present to us today, folks from Beendigen; the Catholic Family Development Centre; Nishnawbe Aski Nation; the Ontario Native Women's Association, NWAC; and Robinson Superior Treaty Women's Council. We're very grateful that you've agreed to meet with us. I want to thank you for your time and thank you in advance for the good advice and the wisdom that I know we're going to hear today.
I'd also like to say thank you for the kind welcome to the Nishnawbe Aski traditional territory. We're very pleased to be here.
As you can see, this is an all-party committee. We have Madam Michelle Simson, a member of the Liberal Party; Madam Nicole Demers, a member of the Bloc; and my colleague, Bruce Hyer, who is the MP for Thunder Bay—Superior North, a New Democrat; and, of course, Mr. Greg Rickford, who is a member of the Conservative Party.
Our mandate is to look at violence against aboriginal women. We want to know the root causes, what you see as some of the reasons that women and their families suffer from such violence, the nature of that violence, and the extent of the violence. Finally, what we really want is a sense of the solutions, because we firmly believe that the community is the source of solutions to a problem that we've been struggling with for far too long. So I want to thank you again.
Before we begin, I'd like to ask the indulgence of the committee. Since I'm chairing, I would be happy to take the first round, the seven-minute round, but, with your permission, perhaps Mr. Hyer could ask questions in the second five-minute round. That way I won't muddle things as badly as I usually do, and I can focus on chairing.
Is that all right with the committee? Are there any objections?