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House Hansard - 263

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 6, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 263 - Dec/6/23
Ms. Lisa Hepfner (Hamilton Mountain, Lib.)
  • Dec/6/23 2:24:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on this day in 1989, a man entered a quiet university library in Montreal and deliberately murdered 14 women because they were women. Decades later, we are still holding vigils for women and girls murdered because of their gender. There were 184 femicides in Canada just last year. That is one woman or girl killed every 48 hours. My city of Hamilton, like more than 40 other Canadian cities, has declared gender-based violence an epidemic and not just physical violence, but psychological abuse and economic coercion. These affect a woman's ability to provide for herself and care for her children, and they lead to more homelessness among women. Women's shelters in Canada are overfull. Our government's national action plan to end gender-based violence directly supports frontline organizations. We are making housing more affordable, and we are addressing mental health. We are bringing men's voices into the solution, because gender-based violence is not a women's issue.
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