Thank you, Madam Chair, and to my colleagues.
To the witnesses, thank you for your words today.
Just by way of a brief introduction, I've had an opportunity to interact with some of the witnesses here today to some degree, and just so my colleagues know, we have Christine from Lac Seul First Nation, whose territory we acknowledge being on today in Sioux Lookout.
Dawn, I appreciated your words with respect to the unique challenges that are faced by isolated communities. Very briefly, I spent the better part of eight years, Mrs. Pierre, as a nurse working in isolated first nations communities across Canada. Six of those years were spent in more than 20 communities in the riding of Kenora. I can assure you that I have a rich understanding of the issues structurally, the superordinate drivers of these unfortunate events, but also the more recent literature and the initiatives by a couple of governments, as Mrs. Simson pointed out, and you, Mrs. Pierre, and that this transcends or goes beyond political stripes. Like a number of other large first nations files, including the Indian residential schools file, which I was an associate lawyer for, representing more than 900 people in the Kenora riding--it was high time that it was dealt with, irrespective of who actually gave the apology.
That said, I also share your concern that seven minutes could never be enough. You're not alone in that regard. We've heard that from our colleagues. I'll try to start with some higher-level questions and maybe drill down to some problematic stuff in a second.
Mr. Barrett, you and Mrs. Pierre talked about a listening exercise that you felt was needed. I've made a thoughtful review of the literature, certainly with respect to the Sisters in Spirit recommendations, and more precisely what their stories tell us in Voices of our Sisters in Spirit. Perhaps in the second round I'll talk about their two-stream approach and get your thoughts on that.
I'll just ask you both very briefly, how do you envision that listening process taking place, outside of what's already occurred, for example, in the Sisters in Spirit recommendations that came from those literature sources?