Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to this motion. I would have preferred never to have to rise on a motion like this, and I believe everyone in the House is of the same opinion.
I will start with some statistics by way of background. Police data from Quebec for 2012 show that women accounted for 80% of victims of offences committed in a domestic context, 96% of sexual assault victims and 93% of spousal homicide victims. These data come from the Fédération des femmes du Québec.
According to the Canadian Women's Foundation, the cost of domestic violence against women was approximately $7.4 billion in 2009. This figure includes unexpected costs such as emergency room visits and loss of income, tangible costs such as funeral expenses, and intangible costs such as pain and suffering.
It has also been reported that half of all women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. In addition, 67% of Canadians say that they have personally known at least one woman who has experienced physical or sexual violence.
According to 2014 figures, on any given night in Canada, 3,491 women and their 2,724 children sleep in shelters because it is not safe at home. On any given night, about 300 women and children are turned away because shelters are already full.
I should mention that I will be sharing my time with the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.
According to the RCMP, there were 1,181 cases of missing or murdered indigenous women between 1980 and 2012. However, according to grassroots organizations, the real figures are much higher. Indigenous women are killed at six times the rate of non-indigenous women.
Among seniors, women are at greater risk than men of experiencing violence from a family member. Women account for 60% of senior survivors of domestic violence.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which consistently record the highest provincial rates of police-reported violent crime, had rates of violence against women in 2011 that were double the national average.
Ontario and Quebec have the lowest rates of violence against women.
Cyber-violence, which includes online threats, harassment and stalking, has emerged as an extension of violence against women. Young women between the ages of 18 and 24 are most likely to experience online harassment in all its forms.
The Fédération des maisons d’hébergement pour femmes reports that 25% of female victims have been beaten, 20% have been choked, 13% have been threatened with a weapon and 20% have been sexually assaulted.
There is a very big difference for men, for whom the percentages are 10%, 4%, 8% and 3% respectively. This means that three times more women have been beaten than men, five times more women have been choked, twice as many women have been threatened with a weapon, and seven times more women have been forced into sexual relations.
Why am I giving all of these statistics? Today, it is more important than ever that women who are victims of violence have full confidence in the justice system. Women must not be afraid to go to the police to file a report. Women need to have confidence that their assailants will be tried.
The word “confidence” is very important. If we want to eliminate this scourge, women need to have confidence in the justice system. That brings me to today's motion.
That the House: (a) condemn the decision of the Parole Board of Canada that led to a young woman's death by an inmate during day parole in January of this year; and (b) instruct the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to conduct hearings into this matter, including a review of the changes made by the government in 2017 to the board's nomination process, with the view to recommend measures to be taken to ensure another tragedy such as this never happens again.
Changes were made to the appointment process. The confidence I mentioned earlier was destroyed. Why anyone decided to appoint people with no experience to the board is beyond me, but the fact remains that a mistake was made in 2017 and, sadly, a woman has now paid the ultimate price for that mistake.
Is it partisan to say that a mistake needs to be fixed today? The answer is no.
That is far from being partisan. We must fix the mistake that has resulted in board members not having the necessary training to make a decision like the one that was made. That is the real issue.
Once again, I will repeat that it is a matter of confidence. How can we address this problematic situation, which affects all of us directly or indirectly, if women who experience any form of violence do not have confidence in the system?
That is the reality, and that is why we are having this debate today. We believe that it is important to investigate this matter and this mistake so that this never happens again. We want parliamentarians to be able to put the right questions to all the people directly affected by this decision.
We cannot respond to this type of situation as we would respond to a simple theft of paper and pencils. Had we caught an official stealing paper and pencils, we would have asked his manager to look into it and find out why he did it. That is what is known as an administrative review. Paper and pencils can be replaced. A life cannot.
A serious mistake was made by the system. The system did not work, because it did not protect Marylène Levesque, and that is incomprehensible.
It is normal for parliamentarians on this side of the House, and from all parties, to want to ask questions. We should all want to know what happened so that we can do everything we can to ensure it never happens again. There is nothing partisan about asking questions.
We cannot ask people who are part of the system that created the mistake to investigate their own mistake. Certain questions will not be asked. That is human nature. Humans are bound to protect themselves and their sector, their office and their department. They will inevitably turn a blind eye to certain things. They will not see all the mistakes that have been made. That is where it differs from an external, independent inquiry conducted by a parliamentary committee. Such an inquiry will allow us to ask the questions that these people may not want us to ask.
We are here today to request the support of all parties in the House in order to shed light on these events.
We have talked a lot about the case of 51-year-old Mr. Gallese. In 2006, he was convicted of murdering his wife with a hammer after stabbing her repeatedly. He was granted day parole with conditions that I never thought I would see in my entire political career. He was given permission to use the services of an individual to have his sexual needs met in exchange for money, even though his record indicated he was likely to reoffend. He was given permission to do something illegal. The absurdity of the situation is unbelievable.
I have heard from many people who simply cannot understand what happened. They do not understand how the Parole Board members could have made a decision that put a woman in danger, when most ordinary people would have been capable of understanding that this man had a problem with women and that there was a risk that something could happen. Women, Canadians and parliamentarians put their trust in the two board members who allowed this tragedy to happen.
I would like to offer my condolences to all the victim's family and friends, as well as to all sex workers in this country who do a job that no one here would want to do. Whether they do it by choice or not is their business. Today we owe them respect and answers.
The government must adopt this motion to shed light on this situation to ensure it never happens again.