Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would first of all like to thank all of you for the kind invitation to attend today. In particular, I'd like to acknowledge that you do have an incredible justice department. I'd particularly thank Ken Bednarek, Nancy Baker, and François Dél

Justice committee  It's a great question, and it's a question that we have debated in our office as well with the women we serve, and our board and volunteers and staff. First of all, I'm very hopeful that we will see the women decriminalized. I'm hopeful that there will be an amendment to that. We

Justice committee  It's interesting that you ask that question because there is this amazing project that actually started in Europe, the Invisible Men project, and it was actually released yesterday in Canada on social media. It's this phenomenal project that shows the invisible man, the white mas

Justice committee  Thank you so much for that question. The London Abused Women's Centre's philosophy is that we would never tell a woman what to do. We would always offer her choices, explain the options available to her, and then support her in whatever option she decided. We are a voluntary ag

Justice committee  No, I understand that. We also do depend on our partners in the community. Our budget at the London Abused Women's Centre is around $850,000 per year. As I stated earlier, we serve about 3,300 women. We have a staff of 11. We're very busy, as you can imagine, serving that number

Justice committee  I'm sorry.

Justice committee  Further to that comment and as you know, I think the delegates who have appeared before you are almost unanimously recommending that women not be criminalized. In addition, there will be no big, miraculous differences tomorrow morning, or once the bill is passed. This is about lo

Justice committee  Yes. In fact, we believe the $20 million is to accommodate the exit programs, the police training, and the public awareness campaigns.

Justice committee  It is a really important question, and what I would like to see is governments at all levels, and all parties, investing more in equality rights for women. That's the very reason we are all here advocating for the passage of Bill C-36, with the exception of those amendments we've

Justice committee  Well, I think there could never be too much of a good thing, of consultations. Clearly I'm of the opinion that the chairman today only gave me five minutes and not the full ten. I had that speech timed to the minute, but—

Justice committee  Oh, I'm just teasing.

Justice committee  Many of us did have the opportunity to meet with individual MPs in advance of today, many around this table today. We've also had numerous phone calls and things like that. But, of course, we would like many more hours of consultation to convince you of our views.

Justice committee  I'm so glad to come back to you on that because I had one squeezy little answer on your choice thing too. Prostitution is inherently violent. We've heard that consistently from every woman we've worked with. It will not make it more violent to criminalize johns and pimps. Again,

Justice committee  I'm sorry.

Justice committee  Thank you. I appreciate that.