Thank you, Madam Chair.
On behalf the NDP, I'd like to express our opposition to Bill S-2. This government is not listening to first nations on a nation-to-nation basis, and we stand in solidarity with the Assembly of First Nations, the Native Women's Association of Canada, and many nations and experts across the country who have opposed this bill.
This bill will not solve the problem that it seeks to address. We know this because we have heard from the women, from the communities, and from the families whom it will affect. This bill has nothing to do with ending violence against aboriginal women, as it provides no effective, timely access to remedy. Women in remote communities have to wait for a judge or a whole court to be flown in, or have to travel hundreds of miles to a courthouse.
The New Democrats will not support any matrimonial property legislation that is not accompanied by non-legislative remedies to serious problems that, despite strong recommendation from experts such as Wendy Grant-John, are not included in the final version of Bill S-2. These include timely access to remedy; ending violence against aboriginal women through a national action plan; addressing the housing crisis on reserves, including funding for women's shelters; better access to justice, including increased funding for legal aid, especially for remote communities; lack of financial resources and time to support first nation governments to actually implement the law; and access to alternative dispute resolution.
The legislation does not respect first nations' jurisdictions and the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Canada is a signatory.
We acknowledge once again that proper nation-to-nation consultation has not taken place. We are also very concerned by the process the government has insisted on following throughout this committee. We are opposed to the way debate was shut down time and time again. We oppose the fact that so many witnesses were not able to make it here, because this government insisted on bringing in time allocation on a very important bill. We oppose the fact and consider it gravely disrespectful that the Native Women's Association, for example, was only given eight minutes to speak to this committee without any time for questions and answers, something that was unfortunately a pattern faced by so many organizations coming to this committee.
We acknowledge that the government witnesses often received far more time than witnesses who had grave concerns and who represented a constituency that is deeply impacted by Bill S-2. We stand in opposition to Bill S-2 as it is, and we believe it is a grave injustice by this government to first nations across Canada.
Thank you.