Status of Women committee  I have lived experience in British Columbia and I research all other areas. In British Columbia in particular, I find that there's talk about the old boys' club. I'm staggered by the corruption.

Status of Women committee  I would add that I actually think that all of this is a federal issue, whether it's education or sport or anything beyond, because it's actually about health, mental health, substance abuse and self-harm, including suicide. It's far larger. It's really a public health crisis and a safety crisis at the highest level across the entire country.

Status of Women committee  I went to school administrators first and reported the abuse I was hearing directly. They asked me to take testimonies from students, which I did, at their request. I helped the students go and have interviews with them, and then they turned everything around. Very quickly, they went from acting like they were supportive of victims to actually trying to cover it up.

Status of Women committee  Thank you spending time on this critically important and urgent issue. In the 1980s, from 13 to 17 years old, I was abused by teachers in a Vancouver public school. Today, in fact, sexual abuse by school personnel is on the rise. When I was abused, that was 40 years ago, and I cannot believe that nothing has changed to better protect children and all individuals from abuse.