Good morning, and thank you for coming.
We really appreciate your being able to tell us some of the things we're seeking to find out. This is a committee that's looking at violence against aboriginal women. While we know all of these things, I think we're finding that with the reiteration of how all the issues are impacting on the real lives of people in a practical sense, it's getting worse.
We're looking at the nature, scope, and extent of violence against aboriginal women in Canada. We're going to every region to see how it differs. We're also looking at the root causes. Many of us have been told that we know the root causes, but the problems that we face in getting some kind of shift in what seems to be an increasing amount of violence against aboriginal women in this country are what we're hoping to get to grips with here. We're looking for what you can tell us to make a practical difference, how you see our looking at this from a national or a local scope, and what the things are that you think need to be done.
Normally in a meeting like this we'd give you ten minutes to present, and then everyone would have a short timeframe in which they could ask you questions. However, we've found that as we go into communities, it's been working better to have a discussion that allows everyone an opportunity to talk to each other. What I would like to do, then, is ask each of you to present a three- or four-minute synopsis of what you want to bring to the table, and then we can open it up to be interactive. What do you think about that?