Every October, children’s aid societies across Ontario raise awareness about the important role that individuals and communities play in supporting vulnerable children, youth and families through the provincial Dress Purple Day campaign. The Dress Purple Day is about supporting Ontarians facing challenges and ensuring children, youth and families have access to the support, information and the resources they need.

Dress Purple Day is also a reminder to young people that they have the right to safety and well-being, and that goes beyond what we often think of when we use those words. It’s critical to understand that those rights extend beyond physical bodies. They have the right to be safe emotionally, spiritually and culturally.

I would like to recognize the Peel CAS, with their offices in Mississauga–Malton, for amplifying the message that it’s our collective responsibility to ensure that every child’s journey is guided by love, support and hope. Thank you, Peel CAS and all your members and volunteers, for your community service.

To all my fellow MPPs and all Ontarians, join me this year on October 27 and dress purple to show that you are part of a community that cares for children, youth and families. Let’s make sure that they all know that they have the right to the most appropriate kind of support. Let’s wear something purple to show children, youth and families that we are all here to help.

No one is alone.

Just last month, our government, through the Victim Support Grant Program, announced more than $4 million to help support victims and survivors of intimate partner and domestic violence, human trafficking and child exploitation, and $100,000 of that funding went to Halton police services, directed towards crisis intervention and counselling.

Great work is also being done across the province by women shelters, including in my own community of Oakville North–Burlington. Halton Women’s Place held its annual Hope in High Heels event, with 400-plus men, women and young people participating. They launched the Silent Witness Project, a profoundly moving exhibit of 52 life-sized purple silhouettes that lined the space, each representing a woman whose life was tragically cut short last year by gender-based violence in Ontario. They symbolize women who lived, laughed and loved among us. They were daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, friends, neighbours and colleagues. Their voices were silenced forever, and these life-sized figures, aptly named the “silent witnesses,” now stand in their memory. Let their lives and actions inspire us to reaffirm our efforts to end the scourge of gender-based violence.

I am proud to be part of a government that has provided vital support and legal protections for victims, survivors and their children, and I congratulate the Solicitor General on taking historic action on this serious issue in our communities.