Hon. Donna Dasko: Your Honour, I’m so pleased and proud that you are our new Speaker.

Honourable senators, in a national survey I commissioned in 2021, violence against women was seen by Canadians as the most important issue facing women in this country.

As we continue to search for ways to deal with this significant problem, I rise today to highlight one of the most simple, yet innovative, approaches in recent years. It was created right here in Canada three years ago, and just this year, it received a Governor General’s Innovation Award.

What is it? It’s a simple hand signal, a gesture, that can be used by women and others in distress situations to signal that they are in grave danger. I will explain the signal in a moment, but first let me describe the origins of this simple invention.

It was created by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, or CWF, a national foundation headquartered in Toronto, which funds vital community programs across the country that advance gender equality, address root causes and assist women in need. I often think of the foundation as a kind of United Way for women, since it raises funds from donors and distributes them to those in need. But, in fact, CWF is one of the largest women’s foundations in the world. Since 1991 it has raised more than $100 million and funded almost 2,000 programs right across Canada.

In 2020, prompted by reports of increased domestic violence during the pandemic, the foundation began working with an ad agency to develop a way for women who might be in distress at home to send messages about their situation to outsiders, especially via online video. Together they researched movements, gestures and international sign languages to find something unique that would not cause confusion across languages and cultures. They came up with a simple hand gesture that involves using one’s thumb under one’s fingers as a metaphor for being trapped.

Launched in April 2020, the Signal for Help has been taken up in over 45 countries, won numerous international awards and gone viral on social media. It has proven its worth well beyond the pandemic, and it is helping to save lives.

Here is an example. On November 4, 2021, a motorist in Kentucky contacted police with a licence plate number after observing a girl in a car who was using the hand gesture, which the motorist had seen on TikTok and recognized as a distress situation. Police caught up with the vehicle and arrested the driver, who was charged with unlawful imprisonment and possession of sexual matter concerning a minor. The 16-year-old girl in the car had been reported missing from North Carolina. That girl’s life might have been saved by the motorist who knew what the signal meant and took appropriate action.

Colleagues, I could provide other examples, but let me conclude by saying that an important goal is to increase awareness of the signal: palm up, thumb in, fingers over. Now we can all be part of the solution. Thank you.