Thank you.
For Status of Women Canada, the international and national days of commemoration are important levers we have to increase awareness of the significant events and milestones for women in Canada, and on the last page we have a number of them.
One we'll be celebrating this year, which will be of interest to the committee, is the first International Day of the Girl, on October 11. We're in a period now for developing materials and trying to increase the awareness across Canada. Minister Ambrose, when she was in New York, was also talking about the International Day of the Girl to increase awareness of this day at the international level as well. But we also have other commemorative dates that assist in terms of commemorating and have a component that could relate to girls. There's International Women's Day on March 8, which we have just had, and we see a number of events that take place across Canada from the government side, from provincial governments, from the private sector as well as public non-governmental organizations, that do take International Women's Day but also use it to promote activities that relate to girls.
The number of those activities has increased over the course of the last number of years. I had, during International Women's Week, a list of probably over 500 I know of that took place across Canada, but there were probably more that we were not able to document.
The International Day of the Girl this year will take place in October, which is in the context of women's history month. It will be also in the same month as Persons Day, which is October 18, which is also the period when we have the Governor General's awards in which five women are nominated by organizations or individuals from across Canada for an award in commemoration of the Persons case.
There was also put in place a number of years ago a youth award where youth, girls under the age of 25, are eligible to be nominated for an award to commemorate their work but also to encourage them to continue with their work towards equality for girls and for women.
The last one of the year is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Each commemorative date creates unique opportunities for stakeholders to reflect on the particular date, identify issues and concerns that require action, review progress that has been achieved, and identify areas where further work is required.
I think I will leave it at that point.