Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on behalf of all New Democrats in remembrance of that terrible day, December 6, 1989, when 14 women were killed by a man who hated them because of their gender.
Even after 30 years, it is still horrific to think of these deaths, how young the women were and how much promise their lives held. What continues to hit me today is how ordinary violence is, and the message that it sends to women. We need to stop putting the responsibility of being safe on women and girls and start putting the responsibility of respecting women on men.
The hatred of women that fuelled the shooter that day 30 years ago has not gone away. It still exists and every two and half days a woman or girl is killed in our country, often by someone she knew.
It is here when women walk home at night with their keys in their hands and a friend on speed-dial to make sure they make it home safe. It was in Toronto last year, when a bitter young man with a violent hatred for women ran down 10 people with a van, and it is here every single day when indigenous women and girls are dehumanized, stolen from their communities and murdered.
Thirty years after Canadians said “never again” in the wake of the École Polytechnique tragedy, we must all acknowledge that we have a long way to go to keep that promise.
Systemic change begins when governments take male violence against women seriously, recognize that it is an epidemic, and bring in a national action plan to end gender-based violence.
It means calling out damaging language that blames women, dehumanizes survivors and excuses men's brutality wherever it appears in our media or our justice system. It means listening to women and believing them when they share their experiences. It means men working every day to become better feminist allies and holding other men to account for sexism and misogyny. It means making sure that when a woman, girl or trans person needs access to counselling or a shelter it is there for them with no wait, no matter where they live.
It means that groups providing these services on the ground have stable funding so that they can focus on helping women to escape violence and rebuild their lives, instead of on scraping by until the end of each funding cycle. It also means all of us in the House naming this epidemic for what it is: men's violence against women.
Today, 30 years after that terrible December 6, we remember the 14 women who were killed because a man hated feminists and we mourn them. I hope that 30 years from now, we look back on this time as one when we as a country said “enough is enough”.
There is no such thing as an isolated incident of violence against women. There are only choices that we make as Canadians. Today we say that one death is one too many, and that toxic masculinity hurts us all.
Every woman and girl has the right to humane treatment, safety, happiness and freedom and they have the right to have ambition. We support that choice through the actions taken in memory of the thousands of women and girls killed by violent men. On this day, we owe them nothing less.