Absolutely. In my research role I'm involved with a program called the Fourth R, which has developed school-based prevention programming that's in 2,000 schools around the country. As well, I have a Public Health Agency of Canada innovation strategy grant to work with communities in the Northwest Territories in particular, so I have been able to spend time in Yellowknife and Behchoko, and I've seen first-hand how different the barriers are. Certainly poverty is a huge barrier. Certainly in some of these communities, the rates of sexual abuse experienced by girls are much higher than what would be the national norm. There are also some of the things that the other witnesses spoke about today. For example, when you have to make a decision to leave your community at a certain age to get further schooling, there are obviously big barriers associated with that as well. Obviously there is also the question of economic prospects in general.
On March 28th, 2012. See this statement in context.