Mr. Speaker, today is a day of remembrance.
Today, we reflect on the tragic December 6th, 1989 when 14 women died in the prime of their lives. Today, we also want to reflect on the thousands of women who face violence as a daily reality.
It was also 25 years ago tomorrow that the royal commission on the status of women tabled its report in this House.
The report was a landmark study of the status of women in Canada. It contained 167 recommendations ranging from equalizing women's opportunity in the workplace to recognizing the equal contributions of both partners in the division of family assets upon marriage breakdown. Most of its recommendations have now been implemented. For example, sex discrimination is now prohibited under all of Canada's labour laws. Minimum wages are the same for both men and women. Maternity leave and parental leave benefits can be claimed.
The royal commission, however, did not identify violence as a major issue, but its members had a vision about what it would take to achieve equality. They predicted that as we uncovered the root causes and consequences of women's unequal status new issues would emerge that would need addressing, and they were right. In the last 25 years we have uncovered a close relationship between a woman's lack of equality and her vulnerability to violence, and we have brought it out of the shadows.
At the fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, Canada made a commitment to implement the conference's platform for action, a powerful global agenda for the advancement of women. Among the 12 main themes it contains a plan of action to address violence against women. The global platform reaffirms that violence against women is not a private concern and that states must exercise diligence to ensure that violence is not occurring in homes, in schools, in the workplace or on our streets.
Another commitment is the federal plan for gender equality, released in August. The plan is a framework for federal action to bring about equality for women in Canada.
We created the plan in conjunction with our preparations for the Beijing conference, and it includes several commitments to address violence against women.
There have been significant changes since the royal commission report. At that time, only one woman was a member of the House of Commons, Grace MacInnis.
There are now 54 women in the House. Whatever our political persuasion, we share a debt of gratitude to the royal commission, for without its vision the road here would have been longer and harder. Women's voices are now heard in the Chamber. Violence against women is now openly discussed. Women and men are working together to find solutions. I am confident that together we can find solutions at all levels of society.
Today in particular I wish to commend the House for its support of the historic legislation on firearms control. The weapon used at l'École polytechnique will soon be banned.
All of us want to make the country safer for women. We will succeed with the help of our partners, the men in the House and the men of the country, the NGOs, individuals, labour, business and other levels of government.
In memory of the women who died six years ago, let us pledge to continue our campaign against violence to prevent such tragedies and to give women and girls their rightful place in society.