Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for articulating the situation very well.
I assure her that in the past two years the government has taken many concrete and positive steps toward reducing and preventing violence against women and children. Our strategy is multi-faceted just like the problem of violence which is particularly costly socially, psychologically and economically to our society.
We also took a number of legislative measures, starting with the firearms bill.
I wish to urge the members of the other place to pass this bill immediately. They cannot remain insensitive to the distress call sounded by the families of the victims of events at the École polytechnique and by the individuals my hon. colleague just mentioned. Two thirds of the people killed by their partners are women and one third of all victims of homicide are women.
We have introduced amendments to the Criminal Code to make peace bonds more effective in keeping abusers away from women and children. As of January 1, 1996 Bill C-41 will require tougher sentences for crimes involving abuse of trust or those motivated by gender based hate.
The government supports community based solutions. For example, more than 2,000 projects have been funded through the family violence initiative, which has been extended for another year. Status of Women Canada has made available community kits on violence against women, a step by step guide to community action. I hope many communities will write in to get copies of it and use it, as many have already done.
At the recent fourth United Nations world conference on women in Beijing Canada was active in securing strong wording on violence against women. The final agreement states that violence is never a private matter, that the state has an obligation to legislate against violence against women and to prosecute and punish those who commit violence.
In the interest of our women and our children and the men in our society we must reduce violence in our society. In Canada the government is working to fulfil that obligation.