Madam Speaker, it is on March 8, 1911, that for the first time ever, many countries decided to pay tribute to the courage and tenacity of women.
This acknowledgement of women's role in our society did not happen by chance; it was due to the relentless efforts of female pioneers who had decided to fight the poverty, inequity, and violence their sisters were faced with every day of their lives.
I want to salute the relentless efforts of these women who have been and are still fighting so that equality among human beings, men and women alike, may one day be a reality.
I want to wish all Quebec and Canadian women, and especially the women in my riding of Laval-Centre, a very happy day. They can count on my unfailing commitment to promote and fight for their rights. We still have a long way to go.
Women's economic situation, in Canada as well as in Quebec, is tragic. They are the first ones to be affected by the ravages of poverty, this scourge which has become rampant in our so-called developed society.
The situation is even more tragic for women who are single parents. More than anybody else, they bear the brunt of the present economic crisis.
We can only paint a rather dismal picture of the situation. Statistics and columns of figures show the extent of the problem. However, figures do not reflect the increasingly desperate situation of these families, these women who are fighting for their survival and their children's. Spurred on by the economic crisis, the government goes to war, but instead of targeting poverty, it targets the poor.
The latest budget speech and the planned reform of social programs are blatant examples of this. The government seems to remain insensitive to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of women who are the sole support of their family and who do not have a hope to make it without the government's help.
Very often, if they work outside their homes it is because financially they have to. It is to be able to survive that these women, who support their families, have to rely on the government's assistance. According to the latest figures-