Status of Women committee  Similar to what Margaret said, it's all of it. In the education system, we know that for grades kindergarten to 12 it's critically important that our children start experiencing success, at least at the same rate as other Canadians, and go on to post-secondary. That will be part of what supports them and us to have our good life, our bimaadiziwin.

Status of Women committee  Okay. We have a framework now that's been passed by all nation-states in the world, and that's the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. That's our standard. That's where we go. That's where we move. That's where we get out of this situation that we're currently in.

Status of Women committee  Just indirectly specific to the whole funding regime, one thing that's good about the Status of Women Canada funding is that it's multi-year funding, so you can do a project within a particular timeframe. Lots of federal funding does not permit for multi-year funding. So I would recommend that this would be a policy change in some of your other systems.

Status of Women committee  Okay. Sorry.

Status of Women committee  With respect to the question around funding, it's a crazy, huge issue. I want to ask another one of my partners to address that. With respect to the historical and contemporary manifestations of colonization, I want to reference a study that was done by Drs. Chandler and Lalonde, two sociology professors from the University of British Columbia.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. It's Ka Ni Kanichihk. It's a Cree word that means “those who lead” or “those who go forward”. I want to welcome all of our members from out of town to Treaty 1 territory this morning and to our beautiful but cold Winnipeg winter. And of course, to the members of Parliament from Manitoba, welcome home.

Justice committee  I'd like to comment that symbolically it may have.... Obviously people had different responses to it. I think it can only be made meaningful with real social change, with a real, significant difference in Canada's policy with regard to indigenous peoples. Again a symbolic gesture is to finally accept through the House of Commons the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Justice committee  We were very much supportive of Ms. Smith's efforts to pursue this legislative agenda within the House of Commons. With respect to consultation, we were involved last fall in a conference that was put together by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the member of Parliament, Joy Smith.

Justice committee  That is absolutely a place where we need to look, and we have been looking. We have a small program for women at Ka Ni Kanichihk called the self-employment project for aboriginal women. We look at social economy as an economic alternative. We'd like to really build on that, but the resources to try to build that piece are quite limited.

Justice committee  The resources I would like to quote are Victor Malarek's books, called The Johns and The Natashas. He has done a really good job in terms of analyzing this. In my very limited understanding, the Swedish model criminalizes the demand side, and there is no criminalization for the women who are prostitutes.

Justice committee  I know my sister, Jackie, has been working on this for many years. I don't know if you want to add something around the Swedish model.

Justice committee  Yes, I believe it's developing. First of all, women have come together. Lots of women have come together. We know that's important. It has spread to northern Manitoba, northern Ontario, southern Manitoba. Grandmothers are coming together. So it's catching on. It's always been there, but I think women are organizing in a much more visible way.

Justice committee  A couple of things. At Ka Ni Kanichihk, we are reliant on provincial, federal, municipal, and United Way Foundation dollars. We know that we have to go into many pots to run an organization. Our federal portfolio is the most difficult to manage. I will give you a couple of examples.

Justice committee  I would like to add two points. I think education is one way to break these cycles. There are different ways, and there isn't one thing that is going to do it. Continuity of services will make that difference, because it isn't just one issue. It is not just housing or lack of jobs; it's everything.

Justice committee  I just want to talk very briefly about the work the Grandmothers Protecting our Children are doing. It's been a voluntary commitment of love by a group of women. About four years ago, there was a newspaper article about an elder from a northern Manitoba community who was incarcerated at the time for incest on his granddaughter.