Madam Chair, I want to especially thank the hon. member for Toronto—Danforth for sharing her time with me and for her kind words.
Tonight's take-note debate has been mentioned several times as being historic. I have to say I was surprised to find that this is the first time in the history of this Parliament and in the history of this place that we have had a take-note debate on the issue of women murdered by their intimate partners. Violence against women is so prevalent in our society that it strikes me as strange that this is the first time Parliament has taken up the debate, but I also want to say that I am impressed with the speeches, with the sharing and with the non-partisan commitment. I regret the extent to which partisanship crept in now and then, but I think it is important to recognize that we are all in this together.
We recognize that we are in a society that is, whether we want to face it or not, a patriarchy that is, to its bones, sexist. We also live in a society in which we have to acknowledge systemic racism. We have to acknowledge that a lot of work needs to be done.
What prompted tonight's very important take-note debate was the tragic killing of seven women so very, very close together in time in Quebec, but we recognize as well that over the course of this pandemic, 160 femicides have taken place. One hundred and sixty women have lost their lives to intimate partner violence.
Many of the references have been to urban centres. There could not be a place in this country more idyllic than Saanich—Gulf Islands. I am so honoured to represent the community here, but we had, in one of the most idyllic places within my idyllic riding, a case of a woman murdered by her husband in June of 2020.
I want to say her name: Jennifer Quesnel. She had three little boys. She left her husband of 18 years because she was unsafe and only went back to the home because she was certain he was not going to be there. He was there. He murdered her and then he took his own life. It left the community reeling, but it happens far too often.
There is lots of good evidence and there are lots of good studies showing that men in some situations are jealous, do not want their wives to find happiness, and Jennifer Quesnel's family gave a statement to the media to say that he had killed her because if he could not be happy, he did not want her even to live.
Margaret Atwood is credited with something as a quote that actually was a longer commentary in which she said:
Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
This is how we live our lives. I was taken by the fact that Global reporter Mercedes Stephenson wrote a long thread on Twitter within the last number of days about what it is like in the normal course of our days as women to navigate dark places, to get from where we parked the car to where we are moving through a dark place. She describes step by step what she does unconsciously, looking around to see if she is in a safe place. Other women have mentioned this tonight. Is the area lit? A woman clutches her keys in her hand in case she needs to lash out to protect herself.
What I found striking was not her relating to everyone what a woman does day to day to navigate safely in spaces that are public; tonight we recognize the most dangerous spaces are the private ones. What I found astonishing was how many of her male colleagues posted comments to say how shocked they were. “This is how you live your life?” Yes, this is how we live our lives.
We should do things differently. Let us celebrate those movements and those men who want to make a difference, like Paul Lacerte, his daughter Raven and the Moose Hide movement. Let us end violence against women and children. Let us have men step up and say what is acceptable and what is not. Let us fight patriarchy by saying we are equals at all times from our birth, baby boys and baby girls, and let us make sure that as babies they get a fair chance, that they are not subjected to trauma themselves. This is a societal project.
This is a societal project.
It starts tonight.