Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I am.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I want to apologize right off the bat. I have a terrible case of laryngitis and I've been dragged from my sickbed to come here today. That's how committed I am, but I apologize if I'm not as clear as I could otherwise be.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We do our best. I wanted to briefly start off by letting you know that the Ontario Native Women's Association began back in 1971. This date was actually very historic. If we look back at that era, that was the particular timeframe when aboriginal women across the country were wo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I like the way you ask questions; it's like my mother does. She tells me what to say when she asks the question. She knows the answer.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It makes my job easier. That said, of course we have been fighting for and demanding the repeal of section 67 for a great many years. We are now faced with criticism that now that it's happening we're dragging our heels. That certainly isn't the case. As we said, this has gon

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Actually, I appreciate the opportunity, because it's very easy to tell you what the consultative process is not. It is not going out and asking the chiefs, even the regional chiefs or even, with all due respect, President Jacobs or any other president of our PTMAs. It needs to

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Actually, this is a fabulous question, and I would like to assure you, absolutely, every given opportunity I have. But as I mentioned, even though we are a provincial organization overseeing services to over 10,000 aboriginal people, I am a volunteer, and we do not have the funde

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd like to respond to that in conjunction with the previous question. While this notion of a website and all of that is a good start, it's not a dialogue; it's one-sided—a good start, but there needs to be interfaced dialogue. But I'm very glad you picked up on the onus of the g

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Not to my knowledge, but I'm a relatively young person.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I consider myself a fairly well-educated person. I will have a doctorate in August. It was not until well into my studies that I realized section 67 even existed. Many people do not realize until it affects them personally. So a large portion of our community is that way. You'll

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would like to say that nobody has ever yet asked for my opinion on what I think amendments should be, so I am not yet prepared, but I'm positive we have some that we will certainly look at and be able to forward. On the concept of gradually enforcing human rights, I really str

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Actually, I find this very interesting because I do know a lot about what a consultative process is not or what a bad consultative process is. My mother's experience when she went to court was that our women in our communities had to ride Greyhound buses, they had to bake cookie

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I always find it very interesting that the last community, the real hold-out community, that is fighting legally right now to not have to take back those women is not a poor community. It's not Muskrat Dam. It's not somewhere where they really would have hardship in their communi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What I see as a good thing is aboriginal people and aboriginal communities having recourse, having the ability to address human rights abuses. I don't necessarily see forums of airing human rights abuses to be.... It's a means to an end, and that's what we need to focus on. Con

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I suppose that is the million-dollar question, isn't it? If I had the answer to that, I would be the superstar. I guess the point, really, is that it's not so much about sitting here and defining what that is going to be as saying, let's at the very least take that step of remo