Mr. Speaker, November is Wife Assault Prevention Month in the province of Ontario.
Statistics Canada says that one out of every four rural Canadian women is beaten. My riding of Lambton-Middlesex is primarily rural in nature. The fear and sense of isolation that every abused woman feels is compounded for abused women living in Canada's rural areas simply because rural living is more secluded and women feel they cannot leave the farm and farm business in which they are partners.
There is help for abused women in Middlesex county. The Women's Rural Resource Centre of Strathroy & area, which has offered protection for 200 area women over the last year, is also
conducting a rural outreach program for farm wives who are the victims of domestic violence.
In addition, the centre in conjunction with the Middlesex Board of Education is offering the services of a violence prevention counsellor for the children attending Strathroy's elementary schools.
We have to hope that proactive efforts like these will one day break the cycle of unacceptable domestic violence in Canadian households, both rural and urban.