It is always a tremendous privilege and weighty responsibility to be among such dedicated and accomplished women as those of you gathered here, and even more so in light of the pressure to ably and adequately represent the views and interests of the women with and on behalf of who I have the tremendous pleasure and daunting responsibility to work. I join you today in the spirit of extending equality to all women.

This year we celebrated the 73^rd anniversary of the Person's case and the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- although we all know that we women did not enjoy full legal equality for another couple of years thereafter. It is no accident that many women, especially working class and Aboriginal women, did not enjoy legal entitlement to personhood for many more years. Indeed, we know that all women still do not enjoy equality - certainly too many women in prison do not even know that they are supposed to have equal protection and access to the law and equality.

Nor is it any accident that Person's Day on the 18^th of October is immediately preceded by the International Day for the Elimination of Poverty on October 17^th. Both were last week, and coincidentally, also fell during the first week of the Inquest into the Death of Kim Rogers, the 40 year old, 8 months pregnant, poor woman with disabilities who died last August at the height of a heat wave in Sudbury. She was imprisoned in her house because she dared to try to escape poverty by getting an education with the assistance of state resources. An "A" student, described as an excellent advocate with a bright future, she came up against the sledgehammer of the state… and she died…

In the interests of interfering in other similar situations -- before others die -- we need to discuss the broader issues here regarding the context in which Kim was set up to fail, regardless of her tragic and absolutely avoidable death ... She was essentially sentenced to death for welfare fraud ...

I am referring of course to the fact that she was criminalized in the first place because of "welfare fraud". This label and resulting punishment were applied because Kim attempted to get an education while still on welfare. As part of the process, she also sought and received student loans. Although everyone knows that it is impossible to live on welfare without some supplemental income/support, to be caught doing so means an almost certainty of criminal prosecution.