Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to welcome the witnesses, again, to this committee of the whole. When I was very young, before I could remember anything, my mother died and it was up to my sister to look after me until the time I was old enough to look after myself. She was about four years older than I was, only about ten years old. Still, she looked after me as though she was a grown up woman. When I cried, sometimes she would cry with me. When someone was being mean to me, although she was not able to defend me, she used to try. Especially against the boys, I still have that memory very clearly in my head.

Now I'm married. I have a wife and two girls. I'm very close to my girls because they remind me of my sister when I was growing up. At least my girls have both parents. My wife is out of town and when I go back to my apartment there is something missing there. I enjoy going home when she is around. I can smell the food cooking or, likewise, I can at least cook for someone I'm very close to. I miss someone in the apartment when I have problems. When things are not going good for me in the House, I go home and we talk about it. When she is not around, I'm not able to do that. I have friends in Yellowknife. My colleagues are very close to me, but I'm not as open to them as I am to my wife, my partner.

Mother, to me, is first of all a release from all this strange environment, especially outside your home. Mother has very comforting arms, a very kind heart, we know that, very gentle hands, a doctor, someone who looked after you when you were growing up. When you get sick, she's always there. When things are going bad, she always knows what's happening. When you have problems, you didn't even have to say anything, she knows that. Each and everyone of us, all the politicians here, were one time in the womb of a mother. Mother, at times, was not feeling good because she had an extra heartbeat to look after, extra weight to carry. Perhaps when our mothers were carrying us in her body, perhaps she was abused, very likely.

We are now in the position to help women. It would be against nature, against the person who looked after us until we were able to go on our own, not to recognize the cry from women. We are now in the position to help them. I say to all my colleagues and people of the territories, let's do something concrete. Let's stop the violence against women. Nobody in this jurisdiction has more power than us sitting here, and I think it's about time we do something about it. I salute Mr. Stephen Kakfwi, the Minister of Justice, for his initiative. Now it's up to us to help the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

---Applause