Thank you very much.
First of all, I want to say to Joan Jack that I can hear the suffering and pain in what you're telling us today, and I appreciate that despite all your education and the fact that you've probably testified in many other circumstances, it still requires a lot of emotional reserves to come, and we appreciate hearing your stories.
I can take all the frustration you want to give, because you want to tell us how you've seen it, and we are attempting to hear you. So I do appreciate your coming and telling your stories.
You, too, as well, Chief Baird.
I want to talk about the fracturing of families.
Although this legislation is not a perfect panacea and it won't solve years of problems, we honestly believe that it will help to solve some problems with family abuse. I'm not saying it's going to be everything to all people, but right now the fracturing of families that we see...the women are being forced by band councils to leave the reserve when there's family abuse. They're the ones who are kicked out, who have to go the cities and find someone to live with, or stay in a shelter, and their lives are disrupted. We've heard over and over, through consultation with 103 communities and $8 million spend on consultation, that this is the best solution to the problem of housing that you talked about: give us a house. At least in this instance, the women and children would be able to stay in the house. It may not solve the fracturing of families, because the husband would have to leave, if he was the abuser in that case.
Do you really think it is better if the women and children have to leave the reserve and leave the house?