Official Languages committee  Not necessarily, there are Francophone fathers with Anglophone women.

Official Languages committee  As far as children are concerned, the reaction is to say that it's important that we keep our language. Before having children, people will tend to use English and speak French from time to time, but it's not really a priority. However, once they have children, they suddenly realize that--

Official Languages committee  Even surviving can be difficult. We were talking about social justice earlier, and services for seniors and people in difficulty. If you only speak French and you have to explain something to an ambulance attendant or police officer, without any ability to speak English, then everything stops there.

Official Languages committee  Actually, we're very lucky in the Yukon in that regard. When there were major cuts to Status of Women Canada, the Yukon government released funds to maintain some of the services offered to women's groups. So, we received a core programming grant from the Status of Women Branch in the Yukon.

Official Languages committee  We receive $35,000 a year.

Official Languages committee  There is an Anglophone women's centre. It is obviously larger than ours. We work with them to ensure that they also offer activities in French. That centre actually provides equivalent services in English.

Official Languages committee  I don't think so. The reason we received a federal grant is because we are Francophones. It is possible that Status of Women Canada does so, but it is always provided on a project basis. Starting very recently, every project began to be funded, even those already underway, but there is no core funding provided by Status of Women Canada.

Official Languages committee  Well, it's a long story. It's not Russian, it's not… Actually, I don't really know.

Official Languages committee  As an organization, Les EssentiElles tries to give workshops in the schools about violence prevention, feminism or other topics. But they are few and far between, because we do not have a lot of resources and the schools are very busy. However, we do try to do some things in the schools.

Official Languages committee  According to Statistics Canada, it's all across Northern Canada. In the territories, there is three to four times more violence against women. An Aboriginal woman is five times more likely to be a victim of violence.

Official Languages committee  Not necessarily. I don't think there are any statistics on Francophone women, but in general, there is a lot more violence. We were thinking that among Francophones, there is less violence, but Francophones are also married to Anglophones…

Official Languages committee  It's an additional challenge for Francophone women, because it's a small community. If there is violence, those women will have fewer resources and, as everybody knows, if the information comes out, everyone will know.

Official Languages committee  There are one or two of us. Ah, ah! It's me, and on occasion, part-time employees, depending on the projects we are able to secure.

Official Languages committee  I would just like to add one positive point: at the present time, our officer in Edmonton speaks French.

Official Languages committee  For example, Anglophone families have access to a program at the Canada Games Centre that is offered on Tuesday afternoons. They can go there to play games, obtain information to help their children learn to read, and so on. There is currently no such program in French.