Status of Women committee  Thank you. Quebec entitled its status of women policy “Pour que l'égalité de droit devienne une égalité de fait” [So that equality in law can become equality in fact], because that is where we stand today. In fact, women are not yet equal to men, as the figures I cited earlier prove.

Status of Women committee  I can tell you that four out of 17 regions in Quebec have had their applications suspended. Right now, the applications are at Status of Women Canada, and everything has been suspended following the changes in criteria. Already, these are four regions out of 17, and the applications of the network in general do not meet the criteria right now.

Status of Women committee  Allow me to cite three statistics: women earn only 70% of what men earn, have only 30% of political representation, and 80% of the victims of violence are women. I believe these figures clearly show that there are collective rights to defend. We are not talking about individuals, nor are we talking about specific women, we are talking about all women.

Status of Women committee  We are talking about a critical mass of female representation of 33%. We are still very far from this target. It is obvious that women working within the structures may have a hard time changing the agenda. That is why we are working very hard to increase women's representation.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Yes. Pardon me, I thought you were asking me to speed up. Very well. Is this all right?

Status of Women committee  Good. We must stop minimizing the need to fight against discrimination against women, assuming that systematic discrimination against women is a thing of the past and that it only remains to help those who are weaker and less well fit to cope with their problems, as some people still believe.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I appear before you today on behalf of the Réseau des tables régionales des groupes de femmes du Québec. This network comprises 432 member groups and 241 individual members working under 17 coordinating committees. We are a women's rights collective that addresses women's interests and rights issues.