Yes, there was an article put out in response to a study that was carried out by Ms. Mann, I think, and it did identify what you just said, that a disproportionate number of aboriginal women are incarcerated.
Although we haven't done any work in this area for quite a few years, we do know that aboriginal women have serious mental health problems. We do know there are no specific programs--not that we're aware of anyway--to address their mental health issues. We also know and believe that general health programs do not always respond to the specific needs of aboriginal women. Many of our aboriginal women will respond to culturally appropriate healers, or what have you. Especially when it comes to mental health issues, you can't apply the same set of tests or the same therapies when it comes to aboriginal women.
We're hoping that article will encourage the government maybe to approach us because we're always ready to work with the government to improve the health and well-being of our aboriginal women. Our arms are open on this issue to work with them to develop some programs that will really meet the needs of the incarcerated women.
I'm sure that the more we delve into this issue we'll find a lot of very bad scenarios, whereby a lot of these aboriginal women are probably in isolation. They're not connected to their families and they're not connected to the people in their communities. So I think it's an issue that has to come to the fore and has to be addressed.
And I reiterate that NWAC would be more than willing to work with the departments on this issue.