Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank and congratulate my colleague, the Secretary of State (Nature).
I believe that there is no such thing as too many opportunities to talk about women and violence against women. We have the chance to talk about it here from November 25 to December 10, although we should be talking about it all year round. In fact, that is what we do at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, but I will come back to that. The period from November 25 to December 10 is a key time of year when men and women come together to look at what is happening in our communities, in our country, in our provinces, in our cities and in our towns. How are women's issues being approached? How are women being treated?
I want to share some background information about the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. There are three key dates, as my colleague mentioned. In 1999, the United Nations declared November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
There is obviously December 6, a date that is painful for all Canadians and, it goes without saying, for all Quebeckers to remember. I am the same age as the women who were murdered on December 6 simply for being women and perhaps for studying in traditionally male-dominated fields. They were murdered. My colleague called them her 14 sisters, but I would call them our 14 sisters.
There is also December 10, Human Rights Day, which celebrates the adoption of the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights back in 1948.
The news for women is not especially positive today. The picture is not completely bleak, but neither is it very rosy when it comes to women's safety. A woman or girl is murdered in Canada every 48 hours, meaning every other day. In 2024, 240 women and girls were murdered. There have been approximately 15 femicides in Quebec over the past year. These women, these people, were murdered simply for being women.
Our committee is in the middle of a study about women's safety and the Criminal Code. We have heard chilling statements from witnesses. They told us there is an epidemic of violence against women. I would go even further and call it a national crisis. I think we have a national crisis on our hands when it comes to the status of women and women's safety.
Here are some statistics. Sexual assault is up 76% since 2015. Homicides are up 30%, and violent crime is up 55%. Two or three weeks ago, the Liberal Minister of Justice said that the violent crime index in Canada has increased by 41%. According to police across Canada, the number of female victims of domestic violence has risen by 40% nationwide, which is very high. That is extremely concerning.
A number of initiatives have been implemented. Every small step, every small gesture, no matter how small, is important and brings us one step closer to being able to keep women safe.
I drew up a list of the work we have done. Perhaps some will say that the women on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and the men who sometimes attend, are hyperactive. The committee has conducted about nine studies that have resulted in resolutions, recommendations and observations that have been presented to the current government to get things moving and speed up action to improve protection for women.
Let us talk about coercive control. As I was saying earlier, the committee did a study on that topic, and the report will be tabled today.
The House passed a bill on this subject that even made it to the Senate. It was Bill C‑332, if memory serves.
This bill had to do with criminalizing coercive control. This is no one's fault, but that bill died on the Order Paper when the election was called. I would therefore like to issue my colleagues a challenge. If this is not already in the works, would it be possible to fast-track the bill to get it moving forward again? The House of Commons passed it, and it got to the Senate. It did not have much further to go.
I hope that the Chair will allow me to make a somewhat more partisan comment. I am not the most partisan person here, so I hope he will indulge me.
First, there is no full-time minister for the status of women. We know that the minister has other jobs and other portfolios to deal with. She is not just responsible for the status of women. Second, we learned in the budget statement that the funding for the department responsible for the status of women has been cut by 78%. Off the top of my head, I think that can be found on page 209 of the French version of the budget.
It seems to me that there is an inconsistency when government members who are wearing the ribbon are presenting these kinds of numbers and rising in the House to pay lip service to women's issues, while, at the same time, cutting the budget to protect women. Something is wrong here.
I would therefore urge the government to bring back Bill C‑332 and fast-track it. We all agreed on it. Let us hit one out of the park and move forward with a bill to criminalize coercive control. All of the stakeholders we have met with in recent weeks are calling for that. While we are at it, perhaps the government should also reconsider the budget it has allocated to the Minister for Women.
I will close by saying that one of the arguments in favour of criminalizing coercive control is that coercive control, as invisible as it may be, can lead to physical violence.
I am sure my colleagues know where things go from there.