I appreciate your concerns about dealing with these issues as a community, as opposed to dealing with them as either male or female issues. One of the things that I have tried to emphasize in the report is why some of the issues that were raised may particularly affect women, particularly the issues surrounding domestic and sexual violence. These issues must be addressed in a larger context. By that I mean not only in the larger context of the administration of justice but in the larger societal context. I do agree that men are indicating concern to a greater degree, and in the situations you referred to within your communities and your culture, they have participated and carried concerns about the health of the community and the members in it. It is not a concern which is borne only by women. I will reiterate my comments, though, that many of the issues that have been raised do particularly affect women. How the court system and the administration of justice deals with some of these issues, and how that system is the product of a western-European philosophy, as opposed to a philosophy that has input from aboriginal people or input from women, is a matter of grave concern.
When we were conducting public meetings in the communities, many members came out and said that one of the difficulties they have with the court system is that they do not understand it very well. Our discussions often indicated that not only did people have difficulty with the administration of justice because they did not understand it very well, indeed, how could they understand a system that is not conducted in their language and that is foreign to their culture, but that this system does not reflect many of the values that are maintained by people who live in this jurisdiction, be they men or women.
One of the things that the report tries to emphasize is, as with issues of aboriginal culture which have a very important role to play in how we develop the administration of justice in this jurisdiction, so too do women have a culture as bearers of children and as nurturers of families. Their very gender brings with them a culture. Our administration of justice must start to recognize cultures, be they women's cultures or aboriginal cultures, that extend beyond that of white Anglo-Saxon males. It must do this in order to properly serve the needs of people in this jurisdiction. The report emphasizes the perspective of women and the culture of women because that was what I was asked to do. That is the question I was asked to examine. Your comments, with respect to those concerns applying in a broader context to aboriginal people are very well taken. Thank you.