CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Good morning.
I grew up on a farm in northern Alberta. We had guns on our farm and we still do. As on many farms across our country.
If there were bears around, my dad would keep a gun in his truck.
And sometimes he'd hunt prairie chickens on his way home for supper.
And you know what? Neither my dad, nor any other farmer I knew then, or have known since, owned an assault rifle or an assault-style rifle.
That's because those weapons are not for hunting. They aren't for shooting a prairie chicken or scaring off a bear.
They're designed for only one purpose. To kill people and to look like they can kill people.
And when we reflect on the massacre of 14 women at the École Polytechnique in 1989; or the Dawson college shooting in 2006; or the horrible tragedy in Portapique, Nova Scotia just twelve days ago. Those heinous acts strengthen our resolve.
And that resolve is to close the gaps in our gun control laws, and to keep the most dangerous firearms out of civilian hands.
We neither need, nor want, such weapons in our homes, in our pickups, in our communities, or on our streets.
These guns make it easier to commit mass murder. And the culture around their fetishization makes our country inherently more dangerous for the people most vulnerable – and that is women and girls.
Every woman and girl listening today remembers a time when she was made to feel unsafe, vulnerable, or in harm's way. We all know what that's like. It's unacceptable that in 2020, gender continues to be a determining factor in whether you feel safe in your home or on your street.
During this pandemic, we are particularly concerned about the rise in gender-based and domestic violence. Front line organizations have seen a surge in appeals from women and children fleeing violence. British Columbia's Battered Women’s Support Services has received 300 per cent more calls since the beginning of the pandemic, and a Toronto-based shelter has seen a 400 per cent increase in demand for shelter.
And unfortunately, this isn't new.
From 2010 to 2015, according to statistics compiled by the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative, there were 418 cases of domestic homicide in Canada with 476 victims. Of the 427 adult victims, 79 per cent were women. Let that number sink in.
In 2019, according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory For Justice and Accountability, 118 women and girls died violently in Canada. On average, one every three days. Again, let that number sink in.
We all know the availability of assault-style weapons puts vulnerable populations, women, queer and trans people, Indigenous peoples, and people of colour at particular risk. The missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people are, for me, one of the starkest and most tragic examples of systemic violence in our society.
Tackling systemic violence is our collective responsibility – one that requires us to challenge our attitudes, strengthen community support, ensure accountability for perpetrators, and, critically, keep deadly weapons out of their hands.
Femicide has long been a scourge in our society. It remains a scourge, and we must stop it.
In saying “no” to assault-style weapons, we are putting feminist ideas in to practice. We are acting to ensure that our sisters, our mothers, our grandmothers, our daughters, and ourselves, indeed that all women who have been victimized, frightened, threatened, harmed, brutalized, and killed by gun violence, have not suffered in vain.
Enough is enough.
Thank you.