Mr. Speaker, because of every 100 incidents of sexual assault in Canada, only six are reported to the police; because 57% of aboriginal women in Canada have been sexually assaulted; because women workers in Canada earn an average of 67ยข for every dollar earned by men; because 45% of Canadian companies have all-male boards and only 26% of the people in this chamber are women; because in this decade more than 140 million girls will become child brides; because women are murdered in honour killings; because women's sexuality is seen as something to be repressed, hidden, and punished; because thousands of Yazidi women are being held as sexual slaves in Iraq; because half a billion women around the world are malnourished; because menstrual stigma prevents millions of girls from going to school; because people deny that women's rights are fragile. Because, because, because.
We need International Women's Day. We need feminism. Most importantly, we need action.