We get to do this work because other people fought for us, mentors who believed in us, women and men and gender-diverse peoples who have gone out of their way and experienced significant hardships so that we have the right to vote, the right to be here; so we can have choices, whether on the careers we pursue or the people we hang out with, or on when, if, and how many babies we have, and with whom. These are hard-won gains.
Especially right now, at this moment in time, we need to double down on our diligence to protect these hard-won gains. We owe it to the courageous silence-breakers who came out through the Me Too, little girls like my nieces and the little girls and the little boys in your lives and the ones questioning their gender identity right now, to keep pushing back against the push-back, and to find ways to be kinder to one another, because this work is hard, and despite our differences, we all want the same outcome. We owe it to them to make sure that, as Canadians, we continue to set a standard for equality and women's empowerment.
A point was made earlier around the transition from Status of Women to Women and Gender Equality. We worked really hard to advocate for the department to become so. I was particularly proud when Bill C-86 passed. I worked really hard on that. I reached out to many who had been working on this for years. The fact that I was able to push it through has a lot to do with the fact that I have a Prime Minister who sees the value in gender equality as the right thing to do, and as the economically advantageous thing to do. The fact that I get to do it is because I have a team around me, in this room and beyond, and colleagues who, in their communities, get that courage and that reassurance from Canadians that we need to do more—that we can't go back. We see what's happening all over the world with women's rights, and we cannot for a moment allow Canada to follow the path of places that are once again questioning the right to having a safe and legal abortion.
A lot of work has been done that we can be proud of, but there is a lot more work ahead of us.