The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women is hoping to put an end to violence against Aboriginal women in Canada.
It is travelling all across the country, meeting with groups to try and discover the roots of the problem.
On Wed., it was in Prince Albert to begin their tour of Western Canada.
Hedy Fry, chairperson, said many groups have tried to raise the issue and bring about change, but none have succeeded. She said they are hoping to dig deeper to find the answers.
“There have been so many things aimed at decreasing violence against Aboriginal women, and it hadn’t seemed to work, it just seems to keep going on. So all the parties agreed we would look at this, but we wanted to go into greater depth,” said Fry.
They discussed various topics during their conference in Prince Albert, such as education, poverty, and housing.
“What is it that people are saying to us that would be the best way to address this from a preventative program to help to rehabilitate, etc., so we can eventually look at ways of stopping all the forms of violence against Aboriginal women,” said Fry.
However, one thing was evident during the afternoon's discussions, and that was that aside from a few officials, there weren't any men present.
“Men don’t seem to be there, which is kind of sad, because a lot of solutions to this problem has to deal with dealing with the men, helping the men to learn anger management, helping the men find themselves again, and helping the men be re-educated,” said Fry.
The committee will take the results from their visits and create a report and recommendations for the federal government.
rpilon@panow.com
