Okay. I'll go to my recommendations.
We would suggest, in terms of violence issues in particular, that violence against women has yet to be taken seriously. We already have legislation that says we are not supposed to have violence against women. We already have legislation in the form of the charter that mandates equality for women. What we really need is that to be lived and not to have property and men privileged over those.
There are four main things that we could see implemented. When we got rid of the Canada assistance plan in this country and virtually eliminated national standards for social services, health care, and education, we immediately increased the vulnerability of women and other marginalized groups. We need to look at reinstating national standards. We need to ensure we have a guaranteed livable income for all people, but particularly for women and those who are most vulnerable. We need to ensure that we shore up our education, our housing, our social services, and our health care initiatives in this country.
Now, yes, many of those fall under the jurisdiction of provinces and territories, but they could be directly influenced by the national standards that could be developed, and the United Nations has repeatedly sanctioned Canada for not looking at those kinds of national standards or for reducing them. In short, in order to limit women's vulnerability to being victims of violence, we need to ensure that they enjoy more equality.
I would also like to say that in particular for aboriginal women we know that there is a need for a national inquiry. We support the call of the Native Women's Association of Canada and the calls for action. This action, as I say, needs to be much more systemic in nature. We applaud the preventive efforts that are being taken by many groups, but we also need to see the reinstatement of resources for rape crisis centres, women's shelters, and women's services that have been cut historically, and we encourage you to do that.
If there is anything else we can assist with, we'd be happy to do that.