[Minister spoke in Ojibwe, Anishinabe and Arabic as follows:]

Boozhoo, aaniin, as-salaam alaikum.

[Translation]

Madam Speaker, it is a great privilege for me to stand here on traditional Algonquin land.

Fifty years ago on this day, a report was tabled in this House. I will be tabling a copy of this report in both French and English here today. The report was tabled after three years of hard work, heartbreaking testimony and courageous conversations. It was a report that was tabled in this House long before there was a charter of rights and freedoms, long before the famous phrase, “women's rights are human rights” was ever uttered, long before a gender-balanced cabinet and long before an intersectional and gendered lens being applied to the budget.

The Royal Commission on the Status of Women was chaired for the first time by a woman. CBC journalist Florence Bird took the helm. She took the lead. While the commission was mocked at first, it became really difficult for journalists to mock women's first-account experiences of rape, incest and challenges in the welfare system. I would like to thank those who pushed for this report, Florence Bird, Judy LaMarsh as the only woman in cabinet at the time, Laura Sabia and the two million women who threatened to march to Parliament Hill if the commission was not granted. I would like to thank all those who made it happen and all those who have pushed relentlessly for the progress that has been made.

The report was tabled at a time when a woman could not qualify for a mortgage without her husband's signature on the mortgage application. We have come far. We owe it to those who have come before us to ensure we protect the progress they struggled and fought so hard for. We owe it to those who have come before us to protect the fragility of the progress, but also unite a sisterhood of feminists to ensure we finish the unfinished business of that report.

Here we are 50 years later. When that report was tabled there was only one woman in this House. Today, for the first time ever, there are 100 of us in the House of Commons and gender parity in the Senate. There are more women at the table than ever before. I would like to think and work together to see what we can achieve together.

Though we have come far, when the report was tabled the gender wage gap was at 40¢ between women and men; we are now at 87¢. When the report was tabled, none of the 167 recommendations mentioned violence against women. Yesterday, though we were not able to come together as a country and mourn École Polytechnique and the Montreal massacre, we were still able to mourn together in solidarity. There may be seats for women and gender-diverse folks across the country, but only 5% of Canada's CEOs are women, and of those women at those tables, they earn 68¢ on the dollar that men earn for the exact same role.

We may be applying an intersectional and gendered lens to our budgets. We may be creating and enhancing tens of thousands of child-care spaces. We may be moving forward with the universal early learning and child-care system. However, COVID threatens all those hard-won gains. Of course, so does the inevitable backlash that comes with every step we take forward in advancing equality, women's rights and gender justice.

Today, we get to stand up in this House, one after another, all of us women working to better the lives of everyone in Canada. I hope we can reflect on that unfinished business, commit to working together in unity, focus on ensuring women are safe, their families are cared for and they are working and paid their worth. We owe it to those who have come before us to ensure that we make things better.

Yes, progress has been uneven. It has been slow. At times, the movement we all belong to, a movement that has existed long before any of us existed, a movement that will continue long after we are gone, has been divided. We owe it to stay together, stay united, focus on the common denominators, ensure we do right by those who have come before us and ensure this great country reaches its potential.

I encourage Canadians to mark this anniversary by recognizing women of impact in their own communities, women like Lynn Zimmer, who helped start the first women's shelter in Canada. She did so three years after the report was tabled in this House.

Individual actions matter. When she opened that shelter, she had no idea somebody like me would end up staying in one of her shelters some day, and I would not have known that somebody like me staying at a shelter would go on to support women's shelters and Canadians across the country.

All of us are here because someone has opened the door for us. All of us get up every day because we want to make things better for the young and the young at heart. All of us have worked tremendously hard, particularly during the pandemic, to make the most of the opportunities these seats have provided.

As we move into the next 50 years of the history of the feminist movement, let me thank those who have struggled and let me thank those who have opened doors for us. Let me thank our male colleagues, allies, accomplices, cheerleaders and mentors who have enabled the rest of us to step up and do what we can.

I will know we have reached gender equality when women are safe, including politicians who put their names on a ballot in the pursuit of duty and care. I will know we have reached gender equality when we close the gender wage gap. I will know we have achieved gender equality when women and gender-diverse folks can go outside without fear for their lives.

Maryam Monsef

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