Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to express my condolences to the minister on her cousin's death, her cousin's femicide, if I understood correctly.
We will never forget these women: 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. Thousands of us have their names etched in our hearts. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions of us carry their names with us. We accept the responsibility that comes with remembering them.
I see before us their friend and colleague, who is now an MP. Although she and I do not always agree, she knows that we share the same aspirations for women. She knows that we are allies in the fight that she has been waging for over 30 years. After all these years, the women who were taken from us on December 6, 1989, continue to unite Quebeckers who want to see an end to misogyny and violence against women. They have become our guiding light when we no longer know which way to turn.
We have made some progress on their behalf. Despite their memory, we have suffered some setbacks and bitter defeats, but we are staying the course. We think of them when we see women in Quebec succeed. We think about the path that these pioneers chose to take, and we see other young women taking that same path. We are so proud, as we know they would have been. We can only be grateful to them.
However, they need to know that things are far from perfect. They need to know that their memory also instills in us a duty to be outraged, perhaps too often. We are outraged, and we still rise up in anger today on their behalf.
When the firearms registry is abolished; when the assault-style weapon buyback program is met with ire; when one, ten, a thousand women are murdered because they are women; when our sisters are beaten, raped, assaulted, bruised and broken because they are women; when some give up and stop fighting; when some remain impassive in the face of violence against women; when the word “feminist” is rejected as though it has a pejorative connotation; when people move on to other matters and grow tired of hearing about these women; when their names are eroded by time and indifference, then, yes, of course we rise up, indignant.
Their names are forever etched on our hearts, and those same hearts are filled with anger. However, it is not the kind of anger that immobilizes us; it has been driving us to action for 36 years. It awakens our senses and pushes us to act.
These women, like me, understand human nature, and they know, as I do, that we will never be able to completely eradicate violence.
We are striving to contain limit it. We can restrict it, constrain it, condemn it. We can all work together to make women's lives safer, more pleasant, more beautiful. A woman who knows she is in danger is not a free woman. The fight we are waging for them and on their behalf is the fight for women's liberation.
This fight is not over. We are keeping up the fight for them too: Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte.
We will not forget these girls. Thousands of us have their names etched in our hearts. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of us carry their names with us. Thousands of us continue the fight.