I will call the meeting to order.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), this committee, the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, is going to study violence against aboriginal women. It's a unanimous decision by the committee to do this.
What we are looking at are the root causes of violence against aboriginal women. We're looking at the extent of violence. We're looking at the types of violence. And we're looking at ways in which to resolve that violence, because I think the committee believes that for a very, very long time various levels of government have done all kinds of things in a well-meaning way, but they have not achieved results.
We feel that by talking to aboriginal communities, and not only to leaders but to community groups and NGOs, we might be able to find a resolution that will work this time. When the committee finishes with its study, it will present a report, with recommendations, to the House of Commons, to Parliament itself. The government of the day will have 90 days within which to respond as to what it intends to do with regard to the report and the recommendations.
Now I'll begin. We have two groups today. From the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia, we have Tracy Porteous and Marilyn George, and we have Asia Czapska from Justice for Girls.
What we do normally is give each group ten minutes to present.
Tracy and Marilyn, you can decide if you want to split it five and five, or if one of you alone will present, because you will get an opportunity to answer questions later on.
Asia, of course, you have ten minutes.
Now, you don't have to use the whole ten minutes--I'm just telling you--and I will give you two-minute and one-minute indicators so that you can wrap it up and we can move on to the questions.
Now we'll begin. Who's going to speak for your group, Tracy?