Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for your attendance here today, Mr. Vurdela, Ms. Marynuik, Ms. Byers, Mr. Dufresne and Ms. O'Donnell.
Ms. Marynuik, hearing you speak reminded me of the story of Oliver Twist. It was very bleak, and I could see the difficulties women who work in these occupations may face, especially when they have to get to the docks in the morning, and so on.
It reminds me of when we, the 60 or so women who work in Parliament, arrive here. We experience the same thing. So, it does not just apply to people who work on the docks. When we get to Parliament, we realize that it is a men's world, that things are changing at a very slow pace and that we ourselves have to make that change if we want to improve the situation.
What I find strange is that both sides seem to want to have more women working as longshoremen. However, you have different ways of going about it. The union would like to implement measures to better welcome women into these occupations. The employers seem to want to hire a group of 200 women with no experience and no training, who do not know what they are getting into, simply in order to increase the number of women working in this field. However, the request was made after the union filed a harassment complaint. I am having some difficulty understanding and following the issue.
Ms. O'Donnell, can you tell me what you felt as you listened to Ms. Marynuik's testimony?