Thank you so much.

I'm a lifelong advocate to end male violence against women. When I last appeared before you, on July 31, I outlined how dire the situation is for women and girls in Canada. I spoke about femicide and told you that between 2019 and 2023, 840 women and girls were victims of femicide. That number continues to increase, and will do so until it is recognized as a criminal offence.

Femicide must be named as an offence in the Criminal Code. Naming femicide will help families heal; it will help with data collection, and it will help raise community awareness, which is so desperately needed so that the community knows what questions to ask if they suspect a woman is being abused.

I was an affiant in the 2023 Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Reform v. Attorney General case. Superior Court Justice R.F. Goldstein wrote in that decision:

Some women and girls report being victims of torture, gang rape, mutilation, whipping, and waterboarding at the hands of [their sex] purchasers and exploiters.

He also wrote:

The violence employed by exploiters can include aggressive grabbing, open or closed hand strikes, kicks, choking, or burning victims using cigarettes or curling irons. Violence can lead to significant visible injuries. It can also [cause] death.

We live in a country where, due to the failure of government to act, it appears that some in government may consider women and girls to be nothing more than objects to satisfy the porn-fuelled fantasies of men. While Justice Goldstein used the term “sex work”, I do not refer to any part of the commercial sex industry as work. It's not work. It's torture and can lead to femicide. Non-state torture must be added to the Criminal Code as a distinct crime.

If we are a country that truly wants to help women and girls to be safe, we need to invest in women and girls. They need a guaranteed living income, housing, counselling, education and other support services, and men need to stop torturing, raping and killing women.

Section 15 of the charter states:

Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Women and girls are denied these rights. We are discriminated against based on sex. We are victims of femicide, killed because we are female. We are raped, assaulted, strangled and victims of non-state torture because we are female. Our homes are the most dangerous place we can be, a place where we are beaten and killed because we are female. We are objectified in every area of our lives because we are female. We are kept in poverty because we are female. We are denied opportunities because we are female. We are denied equal pay for equal work because we are female. We are denied justice in the legal and family courts. The courts ignore our evidence and call us liars because we are female.

The government has failed women and girls. It is the responsibility of the government to promote equality by creating legislative changes that comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to guarantee that women and girls are equal before and under the law. My heart aches every time a woman or girl becomes a victim of femicide. Today I am thinking about Cheryl Sheldon, Breanna Broadfoot, Tiffany Gates, their families and all victims of femicide, including Alison Irons' daughter. Femicide is preventable. These women should be alive.