Thanks, Madam Chair.
I want to thank you all for participating in this today. I've had the chance to participate today because our critic in this area, Irene Mathyssen, was unable to attend, but I'm very pleased to be here as well, because of course as a lifelong resident of the Northwest Territories I have experienced these issues every day throughout that time. I'm seeing the effects of it.
I want to touch a bit on preventative work that has been done. I remember when I was mayor in Fort Smith in the late eighties and we had the first “Take Back the Night” march. I remember that the reaction of some men to that was really quite extraordinary, they felt so threatened by it. But as the course of those “Take Back the Night” marches went on, that disappeared.
What can we do throughout the north to continue the work to raise the awareness of men about their roles, their responsibilities, about their interaction with women in society? Is it something we should take up more in the schools? Is it something that should be a national campaign of awareness for men across the country, continuing to do that work?
What are your answers there about the preventative work that we need to do?