Thank you, Madam Chair.
The committee's most recent studies have been difficult. We studied cases of intimate partner violence. Committee members also met despite the pandemic expressly to study the disproportionate effects the pandemic was having on women. We saw that in terms of domestic violence and violence against women, the number of femicides in recent years has been alarming.
The pandemic seems to have exacerbated violence against women. That is why we also wanted to follow the recommendations in the Quebec report entitled “Rebuilding Trust”, which looks at cases of violence. There have been calls for the federal government to take steps to ensure that people accused of violence wear a tracking bracelet, as Quebec and other provinces have done to counter the rise in cases of violence.
I'm trying to take as broad a view as possible.
We hear about assaults on public transport and in public places, but there are other forms of violence too. Over the summer, people in my constituency in Quebec asked me to broaden our thinking to include different types of violence. I'm referring here to the study and motion on coercive control tabled in committee.
Sexual assaults on public transport are horrifying, but it's just as horrifying to see women controlled by their partner and unable to break free from the cycle of domestic violence. Violence can sometimes be very subtle. There's sadly as much work to be done on hidden and discreet violence as there is on horrific assaults in public places.
I hope the committee will set itself the goal of looking into as many types of violence as possible. We could shorten our current study to begin the study on coercive control. This was also discussed by the committee. We need to determine how we can study the different forms of violence that still affect far too many women.