Mr. Speaker, on this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, we remember the 14 women who were murdered at École Polytechnique because of their gender. We remember that, if it were not for this violent act, these women would now be in full adulthood with careers and families.
We know that as much as our society has worked to achieve gender equality and lives of equal potential, this equality has not yet been achieved while violence against women still exists.
With this knowledge, we must take action and create a society that provides support for women to immediately leave violent situations. We must solve the 500 cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women. We must create social infrastructure to prevent these situations of violence from taking place.
We owe this to the memories of those 14 women. We owe this to the thousands of Canadian women who currently suffer. And, finally, we owe this to our dream of a nation where both women and men can live equally and prosper.