Mr. Speaker, on International Women's Day, I want to offer my best wishes to all women in Quebec and Canada, and also to the millions of women throughout the world, and particularly in Latin America.
I especially want to pay tribute to women who are union activists, who are immigrant in Quebec, and to the women in my riding of Bourassa, in the north of Montreal, who are very involved at all levels of the political, economic, cultural and community fields.
Last week, I visited several community organizations headed by women, including the Centre d'action bénévole de Montréal-Nord, which just celebrated its tenth anniversary. I feel honoured to have been asked to preside the ceremonies as honourary president and I want to congratulate the director of that centre, Mrs. Josée Aubertin, for her excellent work.
I also met Mrs. Lise St-Jean and other officials representing Halte-femmes in the north of Montreal, an organization helping women who have been or who are victims of domestic violence. Halte-femmes offers these women various activities and services such as a hot line and meetings to discuss issues, escorts to court or to visit professionals, awareness workshops on violence against women, information meetings, a documentation centre, outings, special activities for immigrant women, etc.
I also want to salute the members of the Montréal-Nord chamber of commerce who had the wisdom to elect Mrs. Micheline Gervais as their president, thus benefitting from her initiative and great skills.
Allow me to mention two more organizations which are doing a remarkable job in my riding: first the Association Entre-Parents, a support group for parents in the north of Montreal, which has set up a day care centre and a community kitchen, under the co-ordination of Mrs. Louise Cossette, and second, the Impulsion-Travail Group, which under the direction of Mrs. Johanne Joly, tries to help women with work-related problems to find a job or return to the labour market.
I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the FTQ, its labour councils and affiliated unions, as well as its status of women service. Last December, the FTQ held its biannual convention in Montreal, where I had the opportunity to speak to more than a thousand delegates.
During this convention, the FTQ approved a policy statement on violence against women, in which it mentions that, as the central labour body in Quebec, it is very concerned about the increase of violence in today's society. More and more tragedies, like the one which occured at the University of Montreal's École Polytechnique, have forced us to realize that we have to take action.
As opposition critic for citizenship and immigration, I would like to mention the significant contribution of immigrant women to the Quebec and the Canadian societies, especially those women faced with three times the challenge since they are women, workers and immigrants.
It is a well-known fact that, on average, women earn much less than men. What is not so well known is that immigrant women earn 80 per cent of the average wages paid to women in our society.
There are about 20 millions refugees in the world and 80 per cent of them are women and children. Recently, the whole world was horrified to learn that rape had become a general practice in Bosnia.
I want to take this opportunity to send a message of solidarity and, inasmuch as I can, a message of hope to those women. Today, I ask the Canadian government to be more compassionate towards the women of Bosnia who are persecuted and create special assistance programs in order to help them.
More specifically I ask the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to accept a greater number of refugees from the former Yugoslavia and to give special consideration to women who were raped.
I would also like to bring to your attention the special problem of women who request refugee status because they fear persecution based on their gender. Unfortunately, in the Geneva convention of 1951, gender is not mentioned as a specific reason for fear of persecution justifying the granting of refugee status. But in certain countries, women are in fact being harassed simply because they transgressed some rule, regulation or religious custom which is discriminatory towards women.
The religious precepts, social traditions or cultural standards women are accused of not respecting vary greatly.
Canada must do more to guarantee better protection and hospitality to those women, particularly women from countries where such dramatic situations occur. I want to emphasize that this effort should be inspired by the fact that the UN declared 1994 the International Year of the Family.
Finally, I would like to raise a very serious question concerning the mutilation of women's genital organs. I strongly support the request of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women urging the federal government to show leadership in ensuring that female genital mutilation does not happen in Canada and to ensure assistance is available here to women who suffer the long-term health effects of such a practice.
Such violence against young girls and women must be vigorously denounced. It is clearly a violation of their fundamental right to physical integrity.
Several countries, including Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Great Britain and certain American States, have already taken steps to that effect, adopting policies to stop female genital mutilation and passing legislation banning the practice on their territory.
Between 1986 and 1991, nearly 40,000 people from East and West Africa settled in Canada. In view of the fact that female genital mutilation is widespread in these areas, the risk that this cultural practice is being brought into Canada is very high.
On this issue, the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women made several recommendations which I want to repeat here, the most important of which is that the federal government introduce a specific law banning female genital mutilation in Canada.
As you can see, a lot remains to be done to redress injustices against women. Therefore, I salute the courage and tenacity of the women who are fighting this battle in Quebec and Canada and I assure them of my support and solidarity.