Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Ms. Patterson and the women across the north for having come up with the report on the gender issue.
However, my concerns are the same as those about which my colleagues have spoken, and I find that there are rarely any recommendations placed in the traditional aboriginal concept. It does not do a good job of clarifying that the problems leading to gender inequality have been imposed by the Euro-Canadian social framework. Aboriginal people did not ever split community concerns into men's issues and women's issues; they faced them together as a community. The report can be criticized because it does not reflect that philosophy clearly enough. Even though many of the recommendations are good, the special advisor seems to feel that men are not interested in solving these problems. That is not true of our elders in the small communities. What does the special advisor think of that?