Mr. Speaker, I am starting the debate on behalf of the status of women critic, the member for Etobicoke North.
This debate concerns the instructions to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women on violence against women. It also concerns the amendment proposed by the member for Churchill.
I am pleased to speak in favour of this motion. As members know, the Liberals have consistently supported ending violence against women by any measures that would help do so, and we have also been consistent in the call for a national action plan to end violence against women. As well, since 2010 we have been calling for a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous aboriginal women and girls, which we know would very much inform any action plan in any real success in dealing with this terrible tragedy.
We will also support the subamendment moved by the member for Churchill, as the motion will be amended by replacing the words “education and social programs” with the words “education programs, social programs and policies”.
We believe that gender-based violence cuts across boundaries, cultures, religious memberships, and socio-economic status and we believe that we must all work together to end it. We believe that a study by the status of women committee could do a great deal to further better understanding of this and to put in place recommendations that would actually act on this.
Particularly at this time of year, when we are also appalled by what has transpired on the campuses in this nation, we really want to better understand how people in Canada could even talk about something as appalling as a “rape culture”.
We are upset that despite repeated calls, the government has refused to take real action, instead favouring the status quo. As we saw from the so-called action plan that the Minister of Status of Women tabled a week ago, we are only seeing a laundry list of things that the government was already doing, with no new money and indeed no real hope for a change in the outcomes based on this.
It is interesting to look to what was tabled by the UN in 2008, called Framework for Action, Programme of United Nations Activities and Expected Outcomes, 2008-2015, which we can find at http://endviolence.un.org, which I will post on my website.
The Framework for Action in 2008 identified five key outcomes as benchmarks for the campaign to be achieved by all countries by 2015. It is shocking and appalling that its recommendation for adoption and implementation of multi-sectoral national plans of action that emphasize prevention and that are adequately resourced clearly has not been done by the government.
Neither has the framework's insistence on the establishment of a data collection and analysis system on the prevalence of various forms of violence against women and girls. As we learned at the special committee on missing and murdered indigenous women, the data itself is not good enough. We look to places like New Zealand for much better data.
Also, with regard for the idea of the establishment of national and local campaigns and the engagement of a diverse range of civil society actors in preventing violence and in supporting women and girls who have been abused, we again can only be saddened by the fact that the Minister of Status of Women tabled a so-called action plan that is not what, by when and how. Neither were any partners or civil society actors named in that action plan, nor was it adequately funded, as was required in the UN Framework for Action that Canada should have understood was serious in 2008 when the UN tabled it, and which will be reported on next year.
The House needs to recognize that in the fall of 2013, the status of women critic for the Liberal Party, the member for Etobicoke North, tabled a motion at the status of women committee to study violence against women. While the motion was discussed in camera, clearly the committee has yet to study that issue.
The member for Etobicoke North also tabled seven motions pertaining to the status of women, with one motion specifically calling for a national action plan to end violence against women, Motion No. 470, yet nothing happened.
While we will vote in favour of this motion, we believe it is only one step in a multi-pronged approach to ending violence against women. We are saddened that if the Conservatives were serious about ending violence against women, they would pledge to develop a national action plan that had real action in terms of what, by when and how, with measurable outcomes and adequate funding.
We are still disturbed by the government's violent opposition to listening to these stakeholders, the aboriginal leaders, as well as all the premiers, to call a national public inquiry on violence against aboriginal women and girls. We hope this motion will act as a catalyst to take further substantial action to end violence against women and girls in Canada.
Every year in Canada violence and abuse drive over 100,000 women and children out of their homes and into shelters. According to the study by the Department of Justice, violence against women costs Canadian society $7.4 billion each year. Based on 2009 figures, the report states that the cost to victims directly is $6 billion annually, including $21 million in hospitalization, visits to doctors in emergency rooms, as well as $180 million in related mental health costs.
Furthermore, in Canada women continue to outnumber men nine to one as victims of assault by a spouse or partner. Girls between the ages of 12 and 15 are at the greatest risk of sexual assault by a family member.
We will attend the vigils this Saturday on the Hill, in Toronto and all across Canada for the missing and murdered women and girls of indigenous origin. Aboriginal women are three and a half times more likely than non-aboriginal women to be victims of violence. In 2010, the Native Women's Association of Canada estimated the number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls over the last 30 years at 582.
We know that this report acknowledged the limitations to the record keeping, as there was no national missing persons database and police records did not always indicate aboriginal status.
The initiative was led by the group, Sisters in Spirit, which was defunded by the government in 2010. That is why and when we first called for a national inquiry. It found that many victims were targeted simply because they were aboriginals and their attackers assumed they would not fight back. The 2014 report from the RCMP put that number at almost 1,200.
In February 2013, we tabled the motion calling for the special committee. The outcome of that committee was seriously disappointing, as the Conservatives used their majority to put in a series of recommendations that were only the status quo with words like “maintain” and “continue” and no real action, no recommendations for new funding and a complete betrayal of the responsibility of the government and Parliament.
During the upcoming committee hearings, I hope they will see what a real action plan on violence against women looks like.
I will put on my website today the excellent work of the Library of Parliament in its analysis of the Australian national action plan. Hopefully, for once in this country, we will get a national action plan for when and how, and we can stop this terrible tragedy.