Mr. Speaker, immigrant and visible minority women in Canada, who experience domestic abuse, are condemned to suffer in silence, yet the government continues to ignore their plight.
This week another study by the Canadian Council on Social Development underlined the acute need for culturally sensitive proactive services for abused immigrant and visible minority women, echoing previous UN criticism of the lack of federal leadership in this area.
Instead of a comprehensive federally led effort to reach out to women in their own languages, women are faced with a patchwork of services that in many communities do not exist at all. This abandonment leaves it up to advocates for women and struggling immigrants to piece together an organized response to fill the void.
One exciting example is in my own constituency of Winnipeg North where the Philippine and Laotian communities are working with the Mount Carmel Clinic to meet the needs in their communities and are addressing, with sensitivity, the serious matter of partner violence.
That this responsibility still falls on victims of abuse and already overworked community organizations is appalling. We call on the government--