If women's voices were heard, if government representation in the House of Commons were 50% instead of 21%, and if the most marginalized women's realities were reflected in the policies and priorities of the government, we wouldn't all need to be here at all.
I think that really speaks to why advocacy is necessary and why many organizations, like the ones I represent, are so concerned about the removal of the word “equality”, because that suggests that the government is now even more resistant than ever to the kind of work that is necessary to ensure that women do in fact realize substantive equality, not just legal equality on paper.
I also want to say that I regret the amount of attention that has unfortunately been focused in this past hour on one particular group. There has been a lot of misinformation. I would love to have had more opportunity to respond to that.