Yes, I'll be brief, Mr. Chairman. I think that people know that what they do is unacceptable. They know that stealing from somebody is not normal. They know that being violent to somebody is not normal. People are aware that what they are doing is not right. It is very difficult to deal with people that are related to you. It seems to me, Mr. Dent's suggestion about the Guardianship and Trusteeship Act might be something that would be useful for us for us to look at, in terms of helping people defend themselves.
What I do know is that the guardianship acts in Manitoba, British Columbia and one other jurisdiction, instead of having somebody as a real guardian -- somebody that was suddenly appointed to protect you and look after you -- the tendency is looking toward a trustee. A trusted person that you know very well who could help you and act on your behalf. Not the old fashioned guardian where you put yourself in that person's hands; it is more of a trust relationship. That has happened in British Columbia. It has also happened in Manitoba.
We are still waiting, though, to see what the government is proposing in its guardianship act. The old one was completely unacceptable to people, where you put yourself in somebody's hands to do all your thinking for you and all your planning for you. If the new act of ours has something more like a trusted person taking care of you -- where it is more of a partnership and not a slave-master relationship -- to help you resolve issues, it would be much stronger.
I realize the committee didn't have the knowledge of whatever the government is proposing, but the big issue to me is how do elders get help to deal with these problems? How do they solve it? Very often they feel very sensitive and nervous about it. Sometimes they feel weak. And they don't want to face up to a big problem they don't know how to handle. I think you can have as much public education as you want. I think people know that it is not right. The big issue to me is how elders stop this. Maybe if they got the kind of help that such an act would propose, maybe that would be the solution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.