Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, October 21st to 27th is Family Violence Awareness Week. The focus of this week is to bring awareness to the crisis of family violence in the Northwest Territories, and, to that end, I thank all of my colleagues on both sides of the floor who have spoken about this issue.
I also have to commend the members of the public who are speaking out about their experiences with family violence. I can't imagine it is easy to do so, and I thank them because I know that their words can help others in similar situations.
Early today, I read a post on Facebook from a resident who, because it is Family Violence Awareness Week, was offering support to others and raising awareness by sharing her experiences. The post was only a few sentences, but it was powerful. There is a line in there that will probably stick with me forever. She said, "The only solution is to leave. I was a jammed clip and two seconds away from becoming a statistic. Don't be a statistic."
The post generated a lot of positive comments and prompted others to share their experiences, and I have to believe that it gave hope to someone who is in a similar situation.
While I hope that our efforts here today help raise awareness about the crisis of family violence in the NWT, the Members of this House have the power and responsibility to do more than just raise awareness.
Mr. Speaker, I have now twice referred to family violence in the territory as a "crisis." The mandate of this Assembly refers to family violence as a "crisis." The statistics that show that the NWT has rates of family violence nine times the national average screams that this is a crisis. Mr. Speaker, it is time that we start mobilizing like we are dealing with a crisis.
The Member for Yellowknife Centre just spoke about task force recommendations to help address this issue from 33 years ago that still haven't been acted on. At some point, we have to stop patting ourselves on the back for recognizing that this is a crisis and start tackling it head on. I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
