Hon. Leona Aglukkaq (Minister of the Environment, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council, CPC): ``Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of points that I would like to raise. I am an aboriginal woman. I stand in this House and listen, day in and day out, to the debates and comments from the NDP and the Liberals about aboriginal womens issues. However, when it comes to taking real action, I see the opposite happen, day in and day out. I am an aboriginal woman who went to residential school. My mother went to residential school. My uncles went to residential school. My brother went to residential school. However, I also came into this House to make changes to support aboriginal women. I had a good friend who was killed in a domestic violence situation. Her husband was released from prison under the house arrest law of Canada. I still firmly believe today that she would still be alive if that law had not existed. We in this House, as a party, worked really hard to remove that section to protect women. The second point is, as an aboriginal woman, standing in this House and fighting for the right for aboriginal women to have the same rights as non-aboriginal women when it came to matrimonial rights, it was very disturbing to watch the NDP and the Liberal women fight so that aboriginal women do not have the same rights as them. When it comes to domestic violence situations, women cannot escape with property or any belongings. If they really want to protect women, they will give them the same rights as non-aboriginal women in this country.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:27:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015