SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
May 15, 2024 09:00AM
  • May/15/24 10:10:00 a.m.
  • Re: Bill 180 

I would think that the member from Eglinton–Lawrence would like to repeat what she just said on the record. Would you like to repeat that on the record?

So, in the short time that I have left, despite the interjections—which I can only assume are because this is an uncomfortable subject for the government because we know that this government has failed women and continues to fail women. It took you years, kicking and screaming, to maybe consider declaring intimate partner violence as an epidemic in this province.

Oh, and we had a bill coming forward that was a very proactive bill that would represent the women who didn’t have justice served to them in your justice system, then you discharged that bill—the second time they have been denied justice by this government.

You talk tough on crime, but you’re more concerned with Land Rovers than you are concerned with victims of sexual assault in this province. It’s shameful. So I would suggest that you need to look at this budget through the lens of sexual assault survivors, through people that are seeking justice from this government and are denied time and time and time again.

What I would like to end with is by saying, what does this government really have against women? Because we see you underfunding women’s services time and time again. You’ve cut sexual assault agencies, their funding. You did not want to declare intimate partner violence as an epidemic in this program. You spend all kinds of money on highways and helicopters, but you are allowing rapists and sexual assault perpetrators to walk free. You’re denying them justice, and you use this Legislature to victimize women and sexual assault survivors a second time.

So I would say—

Interjection.

Let me once again say how absolutely outraged and disappointed this side, the opposition and women and women’s agencies across the province are in your cowardly move to shut down debate in this Legislature—

337 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
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