Mr. Speaker, what goes through a man's mind when he pulls out a gun to kill a woman simply because she is a woman? What goes through a man's mind when he orders young women who are strangers to him to line up against the wall, simply because they are women?
We have been asking the same questions for the past 32 years. The questions pile up, but we still have no answers. What goes through a man's mind today when he puts his hands around the neck of a woman he once loved? What is going on in his head? How did he get to the point of killing a woman? I do not understand. What goes through the minds of all these men when they read a newspaper or watch television and see that there have been 18 femicides in 2021? Do they feel the same fear, shame and anger that I do, that we do? Do they also feel like screaming, crying and vomiting? I think so. I do not understand.
A total of 14 women were killed by one man at Polytechnique in 1989. In 2021, 18 women have been killed by men. Are things getting any better? Does anyone think things are better? What lessons have we learned from Polytechnique? Honestly, what have we learned?
Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault and Annie Turcotte: how many times will we have to name these young women before things change? Nothing changes. The tragedies continue, and the deaths, the candlelight vigils, the commemorations and the lists keep growing. Elisapee, Marly, Nancy, Myriam, Carolyne, Nadège, Rebekah, Kataluk, Dyann, Zoleikha, Lisette, Nathalie, Elle, Andréanne, Anna, Romane and Elle: every name is a tragedy, every name reminds us of pain, suffering, and our responsibility.
When a person, an individual, does something once, then it is their personal responsibility and we do not need to shoulder the burden of a one-time incident. However, when that thing keeps happening over and over, once, twice, 10 times, 18 times, ad infinitum, and we anticipate the inevitable next occurrence that will come every year, without fail, then the responsibility for these hundreds or thousands of individual acts is no longer individual, but collective. We owe it to these women to do something about this. We have an obligation.
As parliamentarians, we all have individual responsibility. We have a duty to take action, because we are in a position to take action.
Not many people have this power, but we do. I do not believe in unicorns, and I am not saying that if the House took action, that would be the end of violence against women. I am not naive. However, if we restrict access to guns, if we better protect victims from their assailants, if we take the situation of women in the army and indigenous women seriously, if we put our minds to it, maybe we could save one woman, then two, then 10, then 18, or maybe not, but we will have really tried.
I do not know what goes through a man's mind when he takes out a gun to shoot women because they are women, but I do know that we need to limit access to guns.
I do not know what goes on in a violent man's mind, but I do know that we must do everything we can to help a woman who feels threatened by him get away from him. I know that there are millions of men who read the papers or watch the news and feel ashamed. They fear that men will kill, hurt or break women simply because they are women. There are men who want to scream, cry and vomit out of fear for their sisters, their daughters, their mothers, out of fear for all women.
All of us, men and women, must come together to take action on behalf of the young women of École Polytechnique and all of the women who have died since. We can and must do something.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois and, I would think, all members in this House, I want to say to the young women of École Polytechnique: “We will not forget you. We will not forget our obligation and our responsibility to you.”
Now is the time for action.
