Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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The commission also mentioned the period of six months. It is a long time since I read the report and I did not read it page for page at the time because it was large. The commission would not have set some sort of assessment test that stated six months was an accurate number. We are taking an arbitrary number from the commission and using it without any sort of assessment of what is considered unduly long or what is considered trauma.

We will hear from witnesses in this afternoon's session. I have explored trauma for a long time. We know there are different types of trauma. There is big trauma caused by a one-off event. That can happen in the space of five minutes, not six months. There are also little traumas caused by the consistent, everyday chipping away at somebody's sense of safety and what that means in the world. The idea that it is in any way related to childhood trauma is premised on a shaky bed of accuracy. Trauma can be caused by a one-off event. One can witness an accident. A child could have witnessed violence against her mother in the first month or two of life and heard the mother wailing beside her every night. There are many things that can happen in a moment that have nothing to do with a point in time. I struggle with the six months and the designation as unduly long and that type of thing. It does not make sense when we consider the trauma piece.

We know many records have been falsified. What types of hoops are we going to put mothers through in terms of them proving they were in for six months? We know that not every piece of documentation we have is accurate. How do we know the information we have is true with regard to the six months?