Speaker, it is time. It’s time for symbolic gestures, the ones that come cheap, to be done. We stand at a crossroads, faced with an epidemic of intimate partner violence. Two weeks ago in Niagara, it took an innocent life, and just yesterday, in Sault Ste. Marie, five more. We have lost mothers, children, friends, community members, and it’s time to say, “No more.”

Speaker, I lost a friend to femicide. I rarely speak about it in this House. However, I know almost every woman in this chamber carries a similar story, a shared grief.

Last year, alongside my colleagues, strong and fierce advocates from London West, Toronto Centre, Toronto–St. Paul’s—all united, urging this government to respond to the Renfrew county inquest recommendations. When the response came, it was in half measures, refusing to declare intimate partner violence a crisis, refusing annualized funding to the sector.

Now it’s time for a real commitment to accept all of the Renfrew county recommendations—not just the easy ones, not just the cheap ones, but all of them.

My advocacy and the advocacy of my colleagues is built on the shoulders of giants, the women in the sector doing the work. It is time we support them fully and unconditionally. It is time. It really is time.