Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one morning in the summer of 2011, an Aboriginal man took his young daughter moose hunting near the Highway of Tears. Spanning from Prince George to Prince Rupert, B.C., the Highway of Tears received its name because of the dozens of women who have gone missing or who have been found murdered along its route. As the man watched his daughter skinning the moose they took that day, he thought about those women and how much he wanted his daughter to live a life free of violence. Together, with family and friends, the man and his daughter cut the moose hide into small squares, like the one I am wearing today. He began distributing the squares to men to inspire them to get involved in a movement to end violence against women and children. This is how the Moose Hide Campaign began. Wearing the moose hide signifies your commitment to honour, respect, and protect the women and children in your life and work together with other men to end violence against women and children. This campaign has spread across the country and is well on its way of reaching its goal of distributing one million moose hide squares by 2020. Family violence usually happens behind closed doors. That allows it to be ignored and to continue. Wearing these patches helps bring the issue into the public sphere and allows us to start conversations. That is how we begin addressing the issue. The campaign is a way for men to stand up to violence and say, “no more.” We also need to realize that this issue is bigger than what goes on behind closed doors. While trauma suffered by abusers is often the catalyst for violence against women and children, we must also recognize the systemic discrimination that women face from a very young age that devalues them in the eyes of males. We need to eliminate behaviours that our society passively accepts, such as objectification, cat-calling, and a “boys will be boys” mentality. We must also actively support our mandate priority of getting more women engaged in politics because, despite all our good intentions, laws, and organizational structures, they are designed almost exclusively by men and are necessarily biased. In the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, all Members stood in solidarity with the Moose Hide Campaign by wearing the moose hide square while the House was in session. I have squares for the Members of this Assembly and in the future would like us to do the same. Mr. Speaker, I encourage men across the NWT to stand up to end violence against women and children and be part of this desperately needed change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Members’ statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
