I’m very pleased to rise today to recognize the month of November as Woman Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario. Like the members of this House, many Ontarians show their support during November by wearing a purple scarf, like the one I’m wearing today. Since 2013, this symbol has gained recognition through the annual Wrapped in Courage campaign, which is organized by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses to shine a spotlight on the issue of violence against women. The purple scarf is a symbol of the courage it takes an abused woman to leave an abusive partner, seek safety and essentially start her life over. By wearing this scarf, we can help raise awareness and support survivors.

Sadly, most Canadians, Ontarians and members of our communities know someone who has been abused. That is because one in three Canadian women will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. To put the severity of this issue into perspective, approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. These tragedies happen in small towns, big cities and rural communities here in Ontario, across the country and around the world.

According to the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, 58 women were murdered from November 2020 to November 2021.

Among these tragic losses are the three women whose deaths were the subject of the Renfrew county inquest earlier this year. Tragedies like these have a devastating impact on individuals, families and communities. We are deeply grateful to the community jury members in Renfrew county for taking part in this difficult inquest and for their important recommendations. We’re working across government on a collaborative approach to consider the recommendations—because every woman has the fundamental right to live safely and securely in her home and community. We honour and remember these three women, as well as the many others who have been killed, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with their friends and families.

November 25 marks the beginning of the globally recognized campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. It begins on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day. This campaign, led by the United Nations, calls for global action to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls. Woman Abuse Prevention Month and the 16 days of activism are opportunities to draw attention to this very important issue, but reducing violence against women takes ongoing action and commitment.

That’s why our government is working to prevent and address violence against women in all forms, including human trafficking, by providing wraparound supports to help the women who have survived these crimes to heal and rebuild their lives.

Last year, we invested $11 million in violence prevention initiatives and nearly $200 million in services and supports for the survivors of violence. This investment provides critical services such as crisis lines, sexual assault centres and emergency shelters for women and their children. It also funds programs that connect women who have experienced violence with a wide range of supports, like safety planning, counselling, mental health services, supportive housing, and culturally responsive healing programs—and this is in addition to the $307 million that we are investing over five years to support our anti-human trafficking strategy.

We know that many young women and girls are at risk for human trafficking, especially those from Indigenous and Black communities and youth in care. The average age of recruitment into sex trafficking is just 13 years old. At 13, young girls should be focused on a math test, looking forward to an upcoming soccer tournament, or planning a trip to the movies. They should not be focused on dealing with the horrors of being sex-trafficked.

The province’s anti-human trafficking strategy takes a comprehensive approach to combatting human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children and youth. It is the largest investment in anti-human trafficking initiatives in Canada’s history among all levels of government. Under the strategy, $96 million is going directly to community organizations that support victims and survivors through the Anti-Human Trafficking Community Supports Fund and the Indigenous-led initiatives fund. These organizations are providing wraparound trauma-informed supports and culturally responsive care to help survivors heal and rebuild their lives. Many of these programs are focused on children and youth, as they are at increased risk of being targeted, lured, groomed and manipulated by traffickers due to their young age and vulnerability. These community supports also include programs that are led by survivors and designed by and for Indigenous people.

Speaker, I mentioned earlier that Indigenous women and girls experience increased vulnerabilities to being targeted by traffickers and being trafficked. Indigenous survivors, stakeholders, communities and front-line personnel have emphasized the need for dedicated Indigenous-specific responses to human trafficking. That’s why we’ve worked with our partners to embed culturally responsive, Indigenous-specific elements into initiatives across all pillars of our strategy. This holistic approach to partners responds to the specific needs of Indigenous victims, families and communities.

It is critical that we continue to work together to support culturally responsive interventions and solutions, not only to human trafficking, but to broader issues of violence against Indigenous women.

Indigenous women are three times more likely to experience violent victimization than non-Indigenous women, and they are two and a half times more likely to experience spousal violence. To address this startling fact, we are investing $80 million in the Indigenous Healing and Wellness Strategy. This strategy supports a continuum of Indigenous-designed and Indigenous-delivered holistic programs that focus on reducing family violence and violence against Indigenous women and children, and improving Indigenous healing, health and wellness. Working with our partners, Ontario is committed to healing and reconciliation that is guided by Pathways to Safety, our strategy in response to the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This important work must and will continue, as will the work to end violence against women across the entire province.

I would like to acknowledge the release of Canada’s first National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence earlier this month and our government’s endorsement of this plan. The plan was developed collaboratively by the federal-provincial-territorial status of women forum and is a historic milestone in fulfilling a long-standing commitment of all levels of government to work together towards a Canada free of gender-based violence.

In closing, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the professionals who are working on the front lines to support and comfort survivors of domestic and sexual violence and to help them redirect their lives. It is difficult and often unsung work, but it is life-saving and life-changing.

I look forward to working together with the dedicated network of agencies and professionals to achieve our mutually shared goal of an Ontario that is free of violence and full of opportunity for girls and women to be connected with their community and to live the life they choose.