Thank you. That's an incredibly comprehensive question with a very long answer.
Clearly the history of colonization, sexism, and racism has gotten us here. I think we have to acknowledge that we are inheriting policy that has been divisive ever since the country was formed. There have been significant disparities in terms of all kinds of things that have contributed to this condition, but in particular in terms of women. Women in general are more at risk, and they haven't traditionally been valued.
We celebrated the 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote in Manitoba last month and will celebrate that anniversary next year across Canada. Well, indigenous people didn't receive the right to vote until decades and decades later, in the 1960s. These are some of the things that I think have contributed to the situation, and we certainly heard those things. It was not so much in that historical context, but we heard about the disparity of income, the disparity in opportunities for education and in people's living situations.
In terms of the effect this had on my colleagues and me, it was incredibly moving. It was very difficult work, even for people like me, people who have spent some time in the trenches. The sheer desperation of families to have answers to where their loved one is, to know what has happened to their loved one, certainly creates a profound responsibility for all of us—and I mean all of us—to act on this issue and to move forward and to make sure that we honour their trust in us in repeating those stories.