Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin to my prepared comments, I want to say thanks to many people who have provided some inspiration and insight to help me do this. This was not done alone and there are some special people I wish to thank. Although I don’t have time today to thank them all, I do want to give acknowledgement to Nola Nallugiak, Marie Speakman, Terry Villeneuve, Paulina Roche, Della Green, and although there are many more, there is one in particular I do want to mention and a special thanks to Besha Blondin, a special lady in my life and many of the lives of our Members here.

Without their inspiration and support, it makes it tough to make a motion that is written right and the right direction. You want a motion that is meaningful because this is an important issue.

This is more than an important issue. I want to stress that in a lot of ways this is a tragedy. We must do all we can to help solve this problem. By doing nothing, in some ways I would point it as we are allowing this tragedy to continue.

I read this motion today and I am very proud to be what I like to think is trying to fight to find a solution.

I do this because I believe in the hope that we can do more.

Thinking about this issue, to be honest, actually causes me great pain. I grew up in Fort Simpson and I often think to myself: could this have been a friend of mine or could this have been my friend’s mother, could it have been a sister? It actually does cause me great pain because I know one of the ladies on the list – I grew up with her – who has been lost in the Northwest Territories.

This motion gives me hope because I believe as many Members here will say today, I think, that they too will support a solution. We must find a way. As a Canadian, I really believe we can do more and, as a person, sometimes this makes me mad, but I am also hopeful, as I have said. I think everyone should be a little upset about this issue, if not furious, because this is an important one.

I know I don’t stand alone and I do think about those lost souls, those families that have struggled through this and every day they continue to struggle. Although they may not have a candle in their window, hoping their loved one will come home, they do in their hearts.

Why isn’t more being done? I want to give credit to our Premier because he certainly does deserve credit. He will be leading our national dialogue on this one, and with his vision and his ability, I am sure we will get far. I welcome the first step of what I hope is many steps. Again that gives me hope.

Many people out there who I have talked to have lost loved ones and they want more to be done. Wouldn’t you want more to be done if this was your family member? Wouldn’t you want more to be done if this was a friend of yours? Do you not think these people deserve dignity? I think of the great opportunity that this provides. This is not just about blaming people or blaming the system, blaming the police or blaming the government, but what this is, is pause for us to say to ourselves, we could do more.

I believe in the system and I believe the system can do more. This is about respect that we should have. Did people lose respect somewhere along the way? I have always been taught that people should be born and given respect, and we must find every way to lend strength to that. That respect should never end. This motion is part of the solution. It may not be the only solution because I know that there will be more. But this motion is about speaking loud, clearly, saying that action must be taken.

So many Aboriginal women and girls have been unfairly targeted. The statistics point that way and they are very clear. They are clearly in contrast to other statistics and it causes people like myself to wonder why. This is not fair. These women, these girls, these families deserve more, they deserve our collective support.

Mr. Speaker, I am confident, I am hopeful my Members and my colleagues will be in favour of course.

In August our Premier was part of a collaboration of other Premiers that called upon Ottawa to act. We need to find ways for our Premier to keep that going forward. I certainly will be standing on every call of action he needs support with.

This helps keep their spirits alive. There may be loved ones gone, and in some cases we may not know where those loved ones are, but their spirits will always be with us. I strongly believe these women deserve more and these families deserve more.

We need an inquiry that drills down and is honest about the problem. Is the situation, as we know now, honest? I am not saying in the context of being dishonest, I’m just saying have we brought the true facts, the true stories and the scenarios together and looked at ourselves and said, have we done enough? Has the system done enough?

We cannot let these Aboriginal women and girls to be targeted in this way and stand with inaction. We must find ways to be relentless for them. That’s why we’re here. We’re not here as legislators, we are here as people, we are here as family members, we are here as friends. A roundtable I welcome. It is a first step, and I would describe it as a first step in a journey that will lead to a better solution.

There are those who may say this may cost too much. I will respect them by saying there will be a cost, let us not be fooled, but is the cost too great by not doing this? Is the cost too great to those who have lost so much?

I recall many moments in my life where I have been taught about equality in Canada. It all started at my home and by my friends, all shared throughout here. Are we demonstrating equality by not supporting this? Are we demonstrating equality in the best way we can? We must do this. We have to do this.

The reality is we do this sometimes not because it’s easy but because it’s hard. I don’t expect the answers to be simple. These women, as I have said, are people. They have been personally attacked. We must end this ignorance of letting this happen. We must find ways.

I believe Canadians deserve more and I believe our government can do more. When I mean our government, I am talking about the Canadian government because I know our government will do what it can. This is a disgraceful and objectionable situation on every level.

When I read the statistics that five times the number of Aboriginal women attacked and killed and murdered than non-Aboriginal women, it makes my gut feel terrible. It makes me think, how can this

happen to a group of women and there not be a national crisis and people screaming, what’s going on? We are hearing voices, but we must now raise them to the level of Ottawa and ask the other Premiers to support this.

Because, Mr. Speaker, these are women, they deserve more; these are girls, they deserve more. Not one of them is anonymous. In some way, some of them were mothers, sisters, daughters, friends.

This motion is about a future, though. Don’t let those mothers, sisters, daughters and friends be lost. This is about trying to find a way we can do more. This is for the families. This motion is for the living. This is for the future for that young unborn girl that we want to know she has a safe life ahead of her and to know she is going to be treated and respected.

The system may not be working perfectly and some will say it may have been failing, but we could do more. As I said, it is not about blaming others, but the numbers say something is wrong and we must do all we can. The numbers tell the true story. If we have them in front of us, I think everyone else will be upset, if not angry and mad.

How deep is this problem? We must do the work to turn the page to find out how deep it is, not ignoring it, but confronting it. I hope this isn’t a problem based simply on culture because I do not find that acceptable in any way. These are people. I would expect something more if it was my family member, and I don’t blame every single person out there who expects more as well. In some ways it disturbs me.

There are ample reasons why we must do things in life, and today I think this is a historic moment where we can all get behind and say something more must be done. Loved ones have been lost and their future has been robbed from them. Hoping they will come back can’t always carry the day. We can try to prevent further tragedies by doing more.

I’m going to close my opening comments, but I will say, it would be a mistake not to mention that many Aboriginal men have been lost too. We must be asking ourselves, have we done enough. An inquiry might not be the easiest way to do this, but I think it’s one of the ways to bring significant change and that’s why it’s so important, that we have to create change by doing something. Thank you.