Honourable senators, this past Friday, Senator Saint-Germain and I had the honour of presenting at the conference entitled "The Need for Justice and Equality for Indigenous and All Women." It was co-hosted by The Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec, l'Association canadienne des Sociétés Elizabeth Fry and l'Université de Montréal.

We were welcomed to the unceded territory of the Mohawk people by Kanehsata:ke Elder John Cree; and Ellen Gabriel, a cultural consultant for the Kanehsata:ke Language and Cultural Centre.

The conference included a message from Senator Murray Sinclair and presentations by Dr. Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director, First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada; and six courageous indigenous women, five of whom have experienced marginalization, victimization, criminalization and imprisonment.

Two attended residential schools. All experienced the intergenerational impact and, against all odds, are now building their lives as they integrate into communities across this country.

The youngest was born in prison and is graduating from high school this month and commencing her studies at the University of Saskatchewan this fall.

To each of them, to Joey, Yvonne, Odelia, Lisa, Kaila and to Haley, I say meegwetch. Thank you for your bravery, resilience and strength. Thank you for surviving some of the most unimaginable horrors. Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to walk with you, learn from you and advocate with and on behalf of you.

Dr. Blackstock spoke about the extreme lack of funding allotted to First Nations communities for the education of children, one third less than any other Canadian child living off-reserve. In fact, only one in six of those children have grown up with clean drinking water.

Colleagues, I ask you to imagine for a moment that if only 16 of us in this chamber could drink water from our taps.

It was Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella who once observed:

We have no business figuring out the cost of justice until we can figure out the cost of injustice.

Honourable senators, it was also Gord Downie who said that when it comes to the poverty, racism and discrimination suffered by Aboriginal people of Canada, we have been trained to look away.

I urge each and every one us to stop looking away.

Dr. Blackstock concluded that we must act now to ensure that future generations of indigenous children don't have to recover from their childhoods, and future generations of non-indigenous children don't have to say they're sorry. Thank you. Merci. Meegwetch.