We are spending a lot of time thinking about the issue of intimate partner violence with regard to a specific piece of legislation. This specific piece of legislation certainly focuses on section 810 and increasing the voices of people who have experienced intimate partner violence.
However, what we aren't doing is taking a step back and doing what the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry asked us to do, what the Renfrew inquest asked us to do, what the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls report asked us to do, and what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, particularly recommendation number 30, asked us to do: reduce the number of indigenous people in our prisons. We're not stepping back and doing that. Instead, we're spending all of our time and energy on a very tiny piece of legislation that is not going to do what we need it to do in order to address the epidemic of intimate partner violence.
Survivors will tell you that they need social workers. They need universal basic income, financial assistance, housing, culturally specific resources, mediators, domestic violence specialists, shelters, peers, community intervention or de-escalation, faith community supports, legal services, crisis prevention measures, drug and alcohol services, and mental health services. There is a raft of things we should be doing.
We should not be spending all of our time looking at this tiny piece of law that is not going to do what we want it to do.