Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much to all the witnesses for being here today.
It was challenging testimony to hear. I know that this committee hears a lot of very difficult topics, heartfelt stories and real traumas. I just would like to thank you for your courage in being here in the first place and in sharing your stories. I think it will have a very lasting impact on members of this committee—certainly speaking for myself.
Thank you very much for your raw testimony. It's deeply helpful to us, as policy-makers, to hear what you've experienced and how you feel that laws should be changed and that funding should be moulded in a way that may prevent deaths of loved ones, such as those in the stories you have shared today.
Ms. Irons, I'm deeply sorry about the loss of your daughter. Thank you for sharing her story. In your opening comments, you mentioned that her killer had not been physically violent but had been otherwise violent: verbally, using coercive control. Is that correct? Where were the shortcomings in legislation that could have provided some sort of roadblock? From what I understand about the way that a lot of intimate partner violence laws are written, someone has to be physically violent to get an electronic monitoring bracelet, for example. Are there other shortcomings? Also, with your knowledge of the laws and as an RCMP officer, can you speak to where those holes are and how the law could have better supported the protection of your daughter from this man?