Madam Speaker, it gives me great honour to stand before you and the members of this Legislature to speak about International Women’s Day and what it should mean to all of us in this chamber.

We must always find opportunities to impact the lives of women and young girls by showing up for them and giving them a shot at having equal opportunities. This year’s UN-designated theme is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress,” so let us aim at tackling this empowerment that comes with gender inequality.

International Women’s Day is never to forget to celebrate the achievement of women, whether small or great. Awareness of our triumphs must not only be raised on this day, but every day. We must encourage a world that is diverse, equitable and inclusive; a world where we all value and celebrate our self-worth. We must come together collectively at all levels of government, corporations, institutions, to collectively work towards an inclusive and equitable world for women and young girls. We must raise awareness about discrimination, gender-based violence and gender parity, including this chamber, where only 47 of our 124 members are women. This is 2024. Gender parity is non-negotiable.

I hope that this government chooses to reflect on why they initially chose to deny us Liberals the right to address the chamber today and that they only relented after public pressure and media attention. I know that Ontarians noticed that the Conservatives chose to make International Women’s Day a partisan issue, instead of a moment for all of us to come together and celebrate women.

I wanted to start today championing women, because that’s what I love to do and that’s what I live for. Instead, I was forced to fight for my right to speak up to men, like countless women before me. I want to give one last shout-out to my caucus colleagues and other independents, as we stood side-by-side to call out this government for preventing us from speaking. I thank you.

To the member from London West: Thank you for standing in solidarity with us as well.

To the women in the governing party: I sincerely hope you felt our pain and raised your voices to the men who stood in our way, because loyalty to your party should never come second to standing up for all our women and our young girls.

I’m standing here very proud, representing my daughter—her name is Rayan Hazell—and all of our daughters today. I’m here fighting for their future and for their freedom of speech. I will always stand up for women, equality and women-inclusiveness. I want to always encourage every one of you in here today to stand-up for women and young girls, to help break barriers, inspire change and shape our society.

The people of Ontario elected us to represent them. They matter to all of us. May this message be delivered very strongly to our young girls who are tuning into this session, who are listening to us, who are looking up to us to lead them through these challenging times that women and young girls face on a daily basis just trying to be women. May this be a lesson learned: that collectively we will always be stronger, collectively we will inspire change and collectively we shall all overcome.

Madam Speaker, it gives me great honour to stand before you and the members to speak about Black History Month. Black History Month is celebrated during February across Canada to acknowledge and understand the contributions and achievements that Black people have accomplished, despite the historical roots of racism, oppression and slavery. This month is an opportunity to celebrate and honour the past and present contributions of Black people in Canada—amazing—while embracing new opportunities for the future.

The roots of Black people in Canada date all the way back to the 1600s. In 1800, over 30,000 Black people came to Canada through the Underground Railroad, as a way to escape the slavery and racism experienced in America.

For centuries, Black people have been enslaved and oppressed in Canada, which came to an end on August 1, 1834. Since the 1800s, Black Canadians have had a positive impact on the Canadian life. From the stage to the halls of Parliament, from the union halls to Bay Street, Canada has always benefited from its Black inhabitants beyond the role of inexpensive manual labour. Those achievements are often dismissed, not recognized, erased from texts or left undocumented, creating a vacuum, which is often filled with negative, fictional tales.

In 1995, the House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month, and we all know who is responsible for that. It’s the trailblazer Jean Augustine. We have since then recognized Black people for their accomplishments. There are many citizens who have notable accomplishments, such as the Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander—we’ve heard that from Associate Minister Charmaine Williams, in her speech—who was the first member of a racialized community to serve as the Queen’s representative in Canada; and the Honourable Dr. Jean Augustine, who is a trail-blazing politician and is the first African Canadian woman to be elected in the House of Commons.

These notable figures have paved the pathway and opened many doors of opportunities for the advancement of Black people in this country.

Black history is important to Canada, because Black communities have been a long part of shaping Canada’s heritage and identity. I want to end by saying—because I didn’t have a lot of time—I would like to recognize the Black MPPs in this House: MPP Jill Andrew, MPP Patrice Barnes, MPP Sarah Jama, MPP David Smith and MPP Charmaine Williams. We are all trailblazers. We are the leaders now. I’m very proud of you all, and congratulations.