Well, the point you made about shelters is interesting because there have been a number of witnesses before the committee that studied S-2 and on this particular issue. One was Jojo Marie Sutherland, who's a staff member at the Native Women's Transition Centre. She appeared before committee in January of 2011 and she said: On the reservation in the seventies, family violence was an everyday thing. You married the guy and you had to stick with the guy. The band house gets given to you. The band house doesn't belong to the female, it belongs to the male. If you decide to leave, you have to leave the house. That's what happened to me.
She talks about the real, practical issues that women are faced when, predominantly, it's the man who has title to the house. So if he's able to sell the house without her permission and keep all the money or ban her from the house, or no judge can order an emergency protection order to remove him from the house if there's spousal violence, you can only imagine what that means for women.
This really is a question of justice. It's justice for aboriginal women and children who do not have the right to protect themselves in these kinds of situations, when it's either a situation of family violence or a dissolution of the marriage. So without this proposed legislation, aboriginal women cannot go to court to seek an exclusive occupation of the family home or apply for an emergency protection order while living in their family home on reserve.
This bill does not propose anything new; rather, it will provide access to the same rights. So it's not different, it's just providing the rights and legal protections that we all have access to. They're already available to every other woman in this country.
The current situation provides no legal certainty on the dissolution of the marriage and of course, Bill S-2 will allow individuals on reserve to apply to the courts to negotiate the division of their matrimonial real property.
We understand that aboriginal women are often in remote areas with limited access to the courts and transportation. Importantly, the issue around emergency protection orders is acting quickly and needing to enforce and apply an emergency protection order quickly.
This bill does one thing that's unique. It allows an emergency protection order to actually be done by phone or e-mail because of the remote locations. A peace officer or any other appropriate person can apply that way on behalf of a spouse or a common-law partner if they live in a remote location. In a situation of abuse or violence where it's often dangerous to signal an intention to break off the relationship or to seek the protection of the police, the ability to have a peace officer or other appropriate person make the application for an emergency protection order can keep the victim from having to confront the violent spouse and possibly placing themselves in further danger. Again, it's very important for the protection of women. Perhaps it's something that Minister Valcourt will speak to in more detail later.
Bill S-2 also provides for the creation of a centre of excellence, which Minister Valcourt alluded to a number of times. I recognize that implementing any legislation where there isn't a great deal of capacity will require support, and we're committed to that. We're committed both in our department and in Minister Valcourt's department to support women who need access to building this capacity and to communities that need to build this capacity. At the end of the day we need to move forward.