Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-12-06 14:00

Mr. Speaker, 32 years ago, 14 women were killed at École Polytechnique in Montreal. We remember Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz.
We must end misogyny, end patriarchy and stop violence against women.

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“All Canadians should take a moment to pause and reflect on the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre when 14 women were brutally killed and another 13 wounded by a crazed gunman in Montreal on this date in 1989.”

“We mourn the loss of these women and we must take action to end gender-based violence.”

“Facts concerning Aboriginal women are especially troubling: they are almost three times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to report being the victim of a violent crime, including spousal violence. It is also estimated that over 75% of non-spousal incidents of violence against Aboriginal women are not reported to police. The Green Party fully endorses the demand by the Native Women’s Association of Canada for a federal inquiry into this ‘epidemic of violence’.”

“We can end violence against women. We want to live in a country were everyone can live without fear.”

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“Few people realize that violence against women is the world’s leading human-rights violation and, sadly, Canada isn’t immune to this tragedy,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands. “More than half of Canadian women and girls are victims of violence at some point in their lives. How can we as a civilized society accept this?”

Younger women experience the highest rates of violence generally, and the rate of violence by their current and past partners is on the rise. The scandalous number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women reveals a gender-based anger and racism that Canada must deal with immediately. The Green Party endorses the Native Women’s Association petition campaign calling for a federal inquiry into this “epidemic of violence.”

Along with the broken or lost lives, violence against women costs more than $4 billion annually, including medical and court costs, social services, and lost productivity.

May conveyed her support for the YWCA’s national Rose Campaign and their Ottawa press conference on Monday, November 26. The Rose Campaign was established 22 years ago to commemorate the shooting deaths of 14 young women at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6 – now Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

“After the deliberate murder of these young students, many Canadians rallied to bring guns under greater federal control to prevent such crimes in the future,” said May. “Sadly, two decades later, the Harper Conservatives have eliminated the long-gun registry and voted against international gun control. In other words, they are making women’s lives more perilous.”

Since 1981, November 25 has served to raise awareness of this social catastrophe, as it marks the 1960 assassination, ordered by dictator Rafael Trujillo, of the activist Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic.

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Speaking more generally to the bill, I remember where the bill came from. We all recall the killings at École Polytechnique and the great demand by Canadians from coast to coast that we act to take greater steps to control the use of weapons in crimes of violence.

One of the witnesses before the committee back in November of last year, Nathalie Provost, was one of those who had been shot at École Polytechnique. I wish to quote from some of her evidence:

I was injured on December 6, 1989, at the École Polytechnique by a shot with a semi-automatic rifle while other more seriously wounded students died around me. Long guns are dangerous, as I know only too well.

If we pass this bill, we will abandon a lot of work done by many Canadians who were friends and families of the victims, but more so, those across the country who recognized the risk and realized we should take action.

That is not to say that the long gun registry has been perfect. It is not to say that it was implemented in ways that made all Canadians confident in the system. I believe there would have been, had there been an occasion for compromise, an opportunity for those who had legitimate concerns to see changes made to this bill.

Here, I recognize that for members of the Conservative party, and for two members of the New Democratic Party who chose as a matter of conscience to vote with the Conservatives on this bill, there are aspects of the way the long gun registry has been created that create concern. For members of the Green Party, I have heard from a lot of people in rural areas who would like to see the legislation changed. However, the circumstances were such that we were forced to be for or against the bill, with no compromise. There was no room for us to see how we could maintain a registry so that we would know where semi-automatic weapons were, and know which guns were used by snipers, and know if they were sawed-off shotguns, so that we would know where these arms were and that if they were legal weapons in Canada that had to be registered, we could maintain that registry.

I am afraid that in the haste to kill the long gun registry, because it has been such a rallying cry for the Conservative party, it has moved too fast. This is not the first time they have done that. It has moved so fast that it has ignored the implications confirmed to us by the RCMP, that in removing the long gun registry we are now moving backwards to a point farther back than where we were before this bill was passed. We are going back more than 30 years and losing the requirement that a person who buys a weapon must ensure at the point of sale that the purchase is registered, so that the police will know that someone has a weapon. We have absolutely wiped out the registration for a whole category of weapons, including the kind of gun that was used at the massacre at École Polytechnique and the kind of weapon that was used at the CEGEP at Macdonald College.

Moving too rapidly like this, and not thinking things through because the goals have become much more geared by spin doctors than by criminal law analysts, is leading to our having bad legislation passed. I think we should now ask at report stage that we rethink this. The opportunity is a brief one: it comes down to 10 amendments put forward by members of the official opposition, the Green party, and the Bloc, as seconded by members of all parties on the opposition benches. They are saying that we should just take this chance to think this through whether we can, by deleting the sections that create unacceptable situations, and provide a way to lessen the negative impact of this legislation.

I wish we could have started this over, bearing in mind the concerns of so many witnesses before the House of Commons committee. I am reminded very much of the importance of the evidence by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. It pointed out very clearly in its evidence that there was a significant preventative and investigational value to law enforcement and the communities it serves in having the long gun registry. It pointed out that, yes, there has been over-spending. We certainly know that much more was invested in setting up the long gun registry than needed to be done. It certainly went over budget, but that money is all sunk costs. The annual functioning of the long gun registry now, as confirmed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation, and confirmed by the Canadian Association of Canadian Chiefs of Police, is cost effective.

We have a registry now that is working and that law enforcement officials have reasons to use. If we look to the most recent report of the RCMP, the 2010 report that came out after the House adjourned for Christmas and the New Year, it again confirms that this registry is being used by law enforcement officials. It is being used more than ever before. It is being found to be cost effective.

If ever there was a time for members of the Conservative Party who are concerned about crime on our streets to pause and consider, this would be it. As my colleague from the Bloc Québécois just pointed out, when the registry is functioning and a long gun has been registered, it reduces the likelihood that someone will steal it. It is traceable and trackable. It actually reduces the risk of crime to legitimate legal gun owners.

We also know it provides police with the tools to avoid a conflict when responding to a domestic violence situation if they know there is a long gun present in the home. Gatineau police chief Mario Harel testified that the current registry is “a reasonable balance between the exercise of an individual privilege and the broader right of society to be safe”.

Since the House adjourned at Christmastime, there has been greater and greater evidence that this bill has moved too quickly and we are losing the opportunity to keep Canadians safe. The venerable mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion, in mid-December called for a reconsideration of scrapping the long gun registry as it became quite clear that more weapons would not be traceable at all through the failure to recreate the existing registrations that were set aside when the superior registrations under the long gun registry came into effect.

The rush to kill the registry is borne more out of a visceral hatred for the fact it was created at all than for sensible public policy. There is a middle ground. In their speed and ideological vengeance toward the previous Liberal government which brought in the long gun registry, I am afraid my colleagues and friends in the Conservative Party are moving too quickly.

It is time to do as much as we can at report stage and pass all the amendments. I would plead with Conservative Party members to pass Motions Nos. 1 through 10. This would go a considerable way toward improving this legislation. I beg colleagues on all sides of the House with constituents in rural areas, hunters, farmers and those driven by a concern for the safety of women and knowing that passing this legislation would put women’s lives at risk, to take the chance and pass these amendments.

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Survivors and victims’ families of the 1989 Montreal massacre have protested the loss of the long-gun registry.  The Province of Quebec was also opposed to the move and is fighting to keep the data on gun ownership, which the federal government has proposed to destroy.

Jessica Gal, a founder of the Green Party in Quebec and member of the party’s Quebec Wing, noted that her province is especially sensitive to these issues.  “We will never forget the terrible violence at École Polytechnique. It has left a lasting scar and on each anniversary we remember and we ask how we can reduce violence, for women and for all.” 

Georges Laraque, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada, commented, “A big part of reducing violence is to advance opportunities for women.  This means ending poverty, providing affordable child care, education, and housing.  On the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, we must consider how violence against a particular gender has an impact on our society and how we can prevent any such tragedies in the future.”

December 6th marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, which was established by the Parliament of Canada to mark the anniversary of the murders in 1989 of 14 young women at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal — Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault,  Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz — and 13 others wounded by Marc Lepine, a young man who blamed women for his life of abuse and struggle.

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The committee had been studying the abuse of older women, and hearing from witnesses on this issue, before it resumed its study on violence against aboriginal women.

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“The White Ribbon Campaign focuses our attention on violence against women. The Conservative government has pushed the clock backwards on women’s rights in Canada with the elimination of women’s pay equity rights, the failure to follow through with a national affordable child care program and the decimation of the Status of Women Canada,” said Green Women’s Critic Rebecca Harrison.  “Now we have the killing of the Long Gun Registry, despite the protests of the police force and women’s groups who use the registry to find out what weapons are in a home where domestic violence is an issue.” According to the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, 88% of women killed with guns in Canada are shot with long guns.

Each year Harrison presents to high schools during the White Ribbon Campaign.  “As a survivor of  violence, I go into high schools and share my story, discuss the impacts of violence against women and discuss healthy equal relationships,” said Harrison.  “It is very important to shine a light on violence, get it out into the open and say it is no longer acceptable.”

The White Ribbon Campaign is an international effort with a focus on educating men and boys on their role in ending violence against women. Wearing the white ribbon is a personal pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls.

The Green Party of Canada is dedicated to celebrating strong women, with a Women’s Council and a commitment to support greater engagement of women in the political life of Canada.  Leader Elizabeth May participates in the Women’s Caucus on Parliament Hill.

The Greens will vigorously defend every hard-won victory for women’s rights and for women to advance forward towards full equality in Canada. Women’s equality is fundamental to a just society.

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