Women's Legal Education and Action Fund

For the intervener, Da-David Asper Center for Constitutional Rights, Jessica Orkin and Adriel Wei-Weaver.

For the intervener, Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, Virginia Lomax, Alyssa Lombard.

For the intervener, Queen's Prison Law Clinic, Nicola Lengil.

For the intervener, Akwes-- Akwesasne Justice Department, Nia Chug and Anne-Marie McElroy.

Virginia Lomax.

Thank you, Justices and Chief Justice.

I appear today on behalf of the intervener Women's Legal Education and Action Fund.

We observed in yesterday's proceedings as a recurring theme of questions, what is a sentence severe enough to deter and denounce abhorrent violent crime? We ask this court today to consider alongside of that question the following: Who decides what is severe, and in whose perspective or perception does severity manifest sufficient to deter and denounce? And further, what practical impact does perceived severity of sentence have on the long-term safety of Indigenous women? Deterrence and denunciation are products of perception.