Mr. Speaker, I would first reiterate my earlier statement that I do support the motion.
We have provided great support for projects to help eliminate violence against women and girls. Our government is addressing the large number of missing and murdered aboriginal women. The strategy's wide scope includes improving and better integrating law enforcement and police tools that will help to solve cases and track missing persons, and to support better victims' services and awareness programs for aboriginal communities.
Sue O'Sullivan, Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, commended these actions, saying:
—what we need is more government action of this breadth and initiatives that address all aspects of the issue, from prevention and prosecution to victim support. These are the kinds of initiatives that have the most impact and that we can all support.
Our government also remains steadfast in moving forward its legislation to give aboriginal women equal property rights. Our government continues to strive to pass Bill S-2, legislation that the parties opposite have consistently opposed. If the opposition is so concerned about protecting the rights and safety of aboriginal women and children, they should join us and support this legislation.
The murder and abduction of women in this country is completely unacceptable. We will continue to move forward with a vigorous criminal justice agenda to address these issues. We encourage the opposition to support our efforts. Our government has taken several key steps to date. We have established the new National Centre for Missing Persons; improved law enforcement databases to investigate missing and murdered aboriginal women; created a national website to help identify and find missing persons; supported the development and adaptation of victims' services so they are culturally appropriate for aboriginal people; supported the development of school and community pilot projects aimed at reducing the vulnerability of young aboriginal women to violence; worked alongside aboriginal communities to develop community safety plans and developed a comprehensive list of best practices to help communities, law enforcement and justice partners in future work; and supported the development of public awareness materials to help end cycles of violence affecting aboriginal people.
All of these actions, plus many more, demonstrate that over the past seven years our Conservative government has been taking concrete steps to help all women in Canada. Through our government's actions we are striving to ensure that one day soon, violence against aboriginal women and girls, and all women and girls, is a thing of the past.