This afternoon, we were supposed to be debating my private member’s bill, Lydia’s Law, and this government chose to silence the voice of survivors.

The justice system is failing survivors, especially of sexual violence. In 2022 alone, 1,326 cases of sexual assault were thrown out before the trial date. Behind this number are survivors who will not get their day in court.

For a government that claims to be “tough on crime,” this government has denied justice to so many survivors and their loved ones. They have deliberately starved the justice system. For the survivors who have the courage to come forward, court backlogs, unavailable courtrooms and staffing shortages mean that many do not get their day in court and never see justice.

A few years ago I received a desperate call from Lydia’s mum. She was reaching out to help her daughter. She told me, “My daughter was sexually assaulted. One of the bravest things she ever did was come forward about it and file a police report.”

Lydia asks this Legislature, “How do we expert young girls and women to have faith in the system? Why would they report, knowing how painful the court experience is?”

Our goal with this bill is to answer Lydia’s question of what can we do to help, so that Ontario’s justice system no longer fails survivors, because every survivor deserves justice. They say you can curse the darkness or light a candle. Lydia’s Law was that candle.

I would like to welcome, from my riding of Waterloo, Sara Casselman, who’s the executive director of the sexual assault support centre. Welcome to your House, Sara, and thank you for participating in the press conference.

The House leader knows full well that if the government was going to vote for that bill, it would have ended up in justice committee anyway.

Months ago, a young woman named Lydia and her mother came to me and they shared their experience of navigating Ontario’s broken justice system. It took Lydia two years to get justice. She told me that she did not want any other survivor to go through what she went through and asked what I could do to help. I learned through stakeholder consultations just how broken and underfunded and retraumatizing the justice system is for survivors.

Lydia’s story represents the story of so many survivors in Ontario. Speaker, sexual violence disproportionately impacts women, girls and gender-diverse people.

To the Attorney General: You have silenced survivors in the court system, and now you are silencing female voices in the Legislature. What are you hiding from?

Interjections.

Speaker, if this government won’t listen to me, maybe they’ll listen to Lydia’s mother. She said:

“The most difficult thing a parent can ever experience is watching your child suffer. Throughout the over two-year court process for this trial, my daughter’s mental health suffered immensely ... due to court backlogs.

“With every delay, every setback in court, my daughter’s mental health deteriorated. She was revictimized and traumatized over the course of two years, in which during this period of time the accused (who was found guilty of all charges) was free to live his life”—but not Lydia.

To the Attorney General: Why are you attempting to silence voices like these and trying to prevent them from getting the justice that they deserve in this Legislature, in this province?

Interjections.