Hi. My name is Jackie Fletcher. I'm a member of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Women's Council.
I'm pleased to say there are nine members on the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Women's Council. We don't have a hierarchy. We don't deal with a president, vice-president, all those kinds of things, and it works really well. We are all equal at that table. That's a very important facet of how we used to be as aboriginal people before contact.
What I want to talk about on MRP has been said already by the three gentlemen—and I'm very pleased to see gentlemen here at this table. I'm not sure who all are on the standing committee, but I understand there are 12 females, which is not very good representation, because this is not just a women's issue, this belongs to the community. As well as not being gender-based, we have same-sex marriages, we have men and women. We can't just have a cookie-cutter approach to this issue.
I also want to talk a little bit about the checkerboard effect. For example, if a non-native woman marries a native man and they separate, under this legislation the house goes to the female, who is non-native. You could end up with all non-native people on a reserve, so it doesn't make sense. I'm very concerned about that as well.
We appreciate the effort that is being put forward to address this issue. It is a very extreme issue in our communities, but we need the resources, as Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler talked about. We need the legal people there. I can't even understand a lot of this information that has come forward. We need to educate our people in the communities, and every community is different. We can't just say we'll put in this blanket solution for all the communities. I know some communities are using their housing policy now to address MRP. So it's up to the individuals.
I would also invite you to come to sit with us so we can come up with the solution. We are tired of being talked down to.
I have four sons right now, and they're all living on their own. When they move into their own houses, I don't go and say, “Okay, you have to live like this. You have to make your bed like this. You have to do this.” They're living their own lives, yet they'll allow me to come in and give them some suggestions. That's what I would like to see this government do, come to hear what we have to say. Come to the communities and see what it's all about. It's very easy to sit in an office in Ottawa and make rules when you don't know what's going on in the communities.
As I said, I appreciate that this issue is being addressed. I would like to have more resources. There are three languages: Oji-Cree, Ojibwe, and Cree. We need to have the translation done. We need to go into the communities and consult with the communities.
Thank you.