I believe that part of what needs to happen is creating safety for women to be able to report. Police are not a safe place for women at this point in time. It's a shame, but that's the reality of the story that we live. We need to create spaces that are safe for people to report, so that when they are reporting, they don't become victims of the systems that are supposed to be there supporting them.
I would tell you that the other issue is racism. It's an issue in this country and that's evident whether we're talking about human trafficking or missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. People don't want to see the numbers. They're afraid.
Look at what happened when the report came out about the 215 graves in Kelowna. Everybody was so surprisingly shocked. There had been a truth and reconciliation report that had clearly identified that this had been going on. Story after story had been told to the TRC. Why should it have shocked anybody, if they had been paying attention? It's because people don't want to really acknowledge the numbers, even the information from the police, and then reporting and tracking isn't happening.
Thank you.