Status of Women committee  Thank you, madame la présidente. Good morning, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. On behalf of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, I would first like to thank the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for inviting us to make a presentation du

Status of Women committee  Sure, with pleasure. If you don't mind, I would like to comment in French. You raised an interesting question. In terms of prevention, we are seeking ways to ensure that First Nations people sustain fewer injuries and make less use of the health care system. That requires resou

Status of Women committee  Would you like to start? Then I can add my own comments.

Status of Women committee  Thank your for your question, Ms. Demers. You referred to the silence that prevails with respect to violence against women. But the Aboriginal Women's Association was created several years ago. Mary Two-Axe Early, who lobbied in favour of Bill C-31, did a lot of advocacy work to

Status of Women committee  When you are at the stage where you're a prison inmate, your future is already mortgaged. You have a criminal record and it is more difficult to be reintegrated into society. Unfortunately, these individuals are often lost. But prevention programs would allow us to do something b

Status of Women committee  One of your comments irritated me. You talked about a lack of will, Mr. Pomerleau, but there is no lack of will along First Nations.

Status of Women committee  Oh, I see. The government's lack of will is easy enough to understand. We have an inherent right to self-government. I sincerely believe that the government does not want that right to find expression. But governments will have to consider the fact that the First Nations' popula

Status of Women committee  Exactly. Thank you.

Status of Women committee  I hope I will be able to answer your question. I noted that you talked about skills, so that we can provide help. I think if we actually did a diagnosis in a number of different areas, we might be better able to introduce training that would meet the needs of these individuals.

Status of Women committee  The first nation. That is why I emphasized the need for us to have our own institutions, because we know what our needs are and can then… What we are lacking are resources. We know what the needs are.

Status of Women committee  I would like to return to what we were discussing earlier. We were talking about financial transactions dealing with land use, the construction of the railroad and the white man compensating our communities. There are cases where governments had pledged to pay a certain percentag

Status of Women committee  At the Viger Maliseet First Nation, we are currently trying to reach an agreement on a modern treaty. We relied on the 1760 treaty and the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Donald Marshall, Jr. case. My belief is that we have to give future generations an opportunity to succe