Status of Women committee  You bring up a good point there, because this piece of legislation would need support. It would need moneys allocated to, like you say, women's shelters, or for women to be able to access the court system. Even with this law, it's still going to come to some court in the provinci

Status of Women committee  Yes, that's why we support this legislation. It's one of the first times that you're actually speaking of a process to address breakdowns and the division of property. More important, we are talking about a process that can address the immediate support and protection of women wh

Status of Women committee  Also, what's good about the bill is that it actually talks about something that is important in our culture. We tend to take care of our parents, grandparents, aunts. If there are other people to be provided for, the legislation speaks to taking that into account also.

Status of Women committee  I was going to say—I didn't finish—in my experience both on and off reserve, there are not enough women's shelters. It's unfortunate in our society that we're talking about there not being enough women's shelters in Canada.

Status of Women committee  When we examine the bill in detail, we see that it makes a priority of the protection of children as well as their connection and continuity within the community. The bill emphasizes safety for children and their connection to the community, which should not be severed.

Status of Women committee  No, I didn't.... My circumstance is quite unique, because under Bill C-3, which is a brand-new piece of legislation for people to get their status back, it's going back to discriminatory actions against aboriginal women, which is how my family lost their status. So this is not ju

Status of Women committee  I don't know, but from my experience in almost every community I've worked near or on, there is access to shelters. Unfortunately, I know from my own experience—

Status of Women committee  With this legislation they would have to.

Status of Women committee  When I made my presentation earlier, I said there's no perfect piece of legislation; even this piece of legislation is not perfect. In a perfect world they would talk about some of the support systems that women need, but lacking that, I don't think you should jeopardize the whol

Status of Women committee  I'll speak to the first question about legal aid. In my experience, there are not enough legal aid systems all across Canada. The provinces haven't stepped up to provide a significant amount of legal aid. I've known people who were turned down for legal aid; they couldn't acces

Status of Women committee  In almost every aspect of being on reserve and being an aboriginal person in Canada, you have fewer services. But I will still speak in favour of this legislation, even if it doesn't speak to the totality of what we're talking about. If you're talking about legal aid and shelters

Status of Women committee  By reading the act, you at least have some rules and some process to address this. What I really like about this piece of legislation, and it's not a perfect piece of legislation—no legislation is perfect—and it doesn't speak to the issue of—

Status of Women committee  It doesn't speak to the issue of communal land, and that's very complicated. What it does is put in place emergency processes so that you can have support for a woman who's a victim of violence and some interim orders so they can at least have custody of the matrimonial home.

Status of Women committee  I come at it from two points of view, I think. Our organization believes there has to be put in place protection for these women. We have to have some way of speaking to this. It's an issue that's been talked about and put forward. There's no legislation that speaks to it in a si

Status of Women committee  I would like to speak to that, but, first of all, there's an urgency that has to be talked about, that this legislation speaks to. It's speaking to safety issues. I think you have to put that as paramount when you're thinking about this piece of legislation. That's one thing. Th