Status of Women committee  Definitely. I think one piece I would like to see is a 24-7 response for indigenous women. That's what's needed in this country.

Status of Women committee  Definitely. When we look at the situation referenced out of Winnipeg, I think.... That's most recently on our minds. It shows evidence that we haven't invested enough in indigenous women's safety, and it's not acceptable. We have to make this change now. It has to be long-term, sustainable funding.

Status of Women committee  I think that was me. When we look at barrier-free access, when the woman needs the service, she gets the service. We have to change our systems to meet her needs, as opposed to her meeting our needs. A lot of times, when you need help, support or access to a service, and when there are multiple things involved, you get a referral.

Status of Women committee  I do agree with you. I agree with Melanie and you that this is a tool that's needed. I think it's a great idea. It's something that we would support in the implementation. Particularly around jurisdiction, I think we have to remember that violence doesn't know jurisdictional bounds, whether it's first nation, whether it's urban, whether it's rural or whether it's across the province or across Canada.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Definitely, the first thing that policing needs to do is believe the woman and provide that trauma-informed response to her. They have to be able to do that. But we're also dealing with a systemically racist system, and that's where we have to look at changing that system and breaking down and removing that bias and racism, so they're able to respond to the women and girls and connect them to programming and services in the community that would be able to help support them.

Status of Women committee  Yes. The survivors have told us that they need barrier-free access to services, and to the services where it's safe for them to have these conversations. This is why, when you're looking at indigenous women's agencies and when you're going to an indigenous women's agency that has cultural programs and supports that have been designed and developed by you, for you, that's the change piece right there.

Status of Women committee  Yes, definitely. I think if we get down to the root cause of it, we need to invest in indigenous women's safety. That's the bottom line. We know that the issue is there. We know there are business cases to be built. We know there's data and there's a lack of data, particularly when you're looking at the root cause of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in that we don't have the data around the entire story, like the death story, for instance.

Status of Women committee  Yes, definitely. First and foremost, it was designed and led by survivors. We went to the women who are the experts on this issue. They've designed and developed the entire strategy. It's a survivor-led strategy within the province. It was comprehensive: We included everybody in our engagements.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. Definitely, when you're looking at statistics, I know they're all over the place. I was listening to the earlier session around the lack of data around this issue because of.... It's the tip of the iceberg in the stats we're seeing. In some communities, I would imagine the numbers are probably even substantially higher.

Status of Women committee  Good afternoon, Madam Chair and committee members. My name is Coralee McGuire-Cyrette and I am the executive director of the Ontario Native Women's Association. ONWA is the largest and oldest indigenous women's organization in Canada and has the largest indigenous-led anti-human trafficking program.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes. We definitely need to look at investment in indigenous women specifically and in indigenous women's safety. That's really clear and concrete for what's needed: not only safety but also healing. Those approaches are what work, because even when Courtney spoke to you on how violence against non-indigenous women has decreased, there is a direct correlation to the investment that was made in non-indigenous women and their safety and healing.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, it doesn't go far enough, unfortunately, because it doesn't take into account and consideration the parents and the mothers. Once again, the most successful programs we've seen are where we're able to help support mom being mom, dad being dad, or grandma being grandma. If we don't include the parents in this conversation, we're going to continue to spin our wheels.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can jump in there, if that's okay. We do have one of the first pilots. Ours is called the Courage for Change program. We started it locally here in Thunder Bay. We just did an expansion provincially in order to ensure that we have those on-the-ground supports for survivors of human trafficking.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I agree. That's a really good question. What we're seeing is that there definitely are different northern realities and different interventions needed. I do agree. What we're seeing and hearing is that childhood sexual exploitation is happening so young, and we're not addressing it in our communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, there are statistics showing the increase in demand. That's really what we're looking at. You have to decrease that demand. Here in Ontario, we finally started to build into anti-human-trafficking strategies and making it illegal. We have to enforce those laws. Our statistics have greatly shown....