Thank you.
I want to thank you, as well as Ms. Neil, for being here today. Appointing a deputy commissioner for indigenous people in Corrections was something that I can't tell you how happy I was to see, and it's great to have you here at committee.
I want to talk a bit about coercive control and give you some examples.
Emily O'Brien is a woman who founded Comeback Snacks. She went on a holiday to the Caribbean with her boyfriend at the time, who took her passport and told her that she needed to smuggle drugs back to Canada or she would be staying at the island. He had her passport. She smuggled the drugs. She went to jail. She was caught in mandatory minimums because there was no ability for the judge to give any discretion on her sentencing. She fully acknowledges that she did wrong, She served her time, and she's been doing really well.
I met a woman at Buffalo Sage Healing Lodge who assaulted her abusive partner. She, too, was subject to mandatory minimums and ended up being sentenced to jail.
At the Edmonton institute for women, two women I spoke to had been trafficked by pimps and were selling drugs. Again, mandatory minimums sent them to federal institutions.
I think all of us would agree that coercive control was responsible, and that jail was probably not the best place to send these women. They did commit an offence, but giving them a criminal record and making their lives hard to find housing and a job and everything else when they get released.... I'm proud that we've removed mandatory minimums on sentences like these women got.
You mentioned a bit about coercive control. What kind of programming do you have for women when they're sent to prison and have been in this situation? In my experience, the women I've met are there because of coercive control, addictions or mental health issues.