Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the right to vote is an important piece of what it means to be Canadian. Voting is not just a right guaranteed to you in our democratic system, it is also a responsibility that comes with receiving the benefits of that system. All the services, all the freedoms, all the good things that you enjoy every day, all come with a price: the responsibility of voting to ensure the strength of our system.
Mr. Chair, it wasn't long ago that the right to vote wasn't extended to all Canadians. Up until 1951, women were prohibited for running for their bands' councils under the Indian Act. Only in 1960 Indigenous people in this country were given the right to vote in a free election. 1960 is the year I was born. I consider the right to vote my birthday gift, and I do not take that gift for granted. Many of my relatives older than I remember not having the right to vote.
The right to vote comes with the freedom to be able to vote for the person in your community that you believe is the best person to represent you. It gives you the right to make a decision, to support a candidate that you have faith in to represent you, and to fight for the people that they represent.
Mr. Chair, limiting the rights of an individual to run for office for five years after a conviction for a criminal offence is a step in the wrong direction. What this will do, Mr. Chair, is limit the rights of voters to choose the best candidate. Who are we to do that? The Legislative Assembly is not the criminal justice system, and a ban of this nature limits the rights of our residents to make decisions on their own about which candidate they should and shouldn't elect.
Mr. Chair, as a voter in the Northwest Territories, I want to be able to make the decision myself. I want to be able to look at someone who has been convicted of an offence and judge them for myself whether they have been able to heal. If we restrict their ability to be a contributing member of society even further, we are limiting their right to be on a healing path. We are all human, Mr. Chair. We all deserve the right to follow that path.
Do not get me wrong, Mr. Chair. I do not support family violence. We have a serious family violence problem in the Northwest Territories, one that requires the time and attention of this government, stakeholders, and our communities to help bring change. As the committee stated in its report, men make up 82 per cent of all domestic violence cases in the Northwest Territories from 2008 to 2012. These numbers are troubling. If we want to help men find the path to healing that I spoke of earlier, increasing their punishment is not the answer.
Mr. Chair, the committee stated in its report that they heard from residents that a truly rehabilitated offender might be capable of leadership and their transformation be assessed by the voters. We know all too well the impact domestic violence has, but, Mr. Chair, why are we trying to take the right from our communities to make these assessments on their own?
Voting connects citizens with the political process, Mr. Chair. It helps choose our leaders; those who share our views and those who may inspire us. The simple act of marking a ballot tells our leaders what we think about decisions that affect our lives. Marking a ballot also tells our leaders that we believe in them to be the person who we trust to lead us forward. Putting a limitation on who can run for office will take the power away from the voter and the right to make that decision on their own.
Mr. Chair, today I wear my Metis sash in honour of the day my people were granted the right to decide for ourselves; the day we got the right to vote. As a Metis woman and a Member of this Assembly I cannot, in good conscious, support a motion that would inhibit self-determination achieved through the democratic process nor the rights of candidates and voters to engage in it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.