Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is not only Valentine’s Day, as evidenced by my colleague Mr. Dolynny, but it is also the 15th anniversary of V-Day.
V-Day is an organized response against violence towards women. Today is also the launch of a new campaign, the One Billion Rising Campaign. One Billion Rising invites one billion people, representing the number of women on the planet who have been raped or beaten, to walk out of their jobs, schools, homes, and dance. I won’t be dancing today, but maybe next year we’ll all be dancing.
The One Billion Rising Campaign can be a catalyst. It can unify and strengthen existing anti-violence efforts, and it can lay the groundwork for new educational, protective and legislative endeavours throughout the world.
Here in the NWT, family violence is a huge issue and work is being done to address the issue of family violence in the NWT. The Coalition Against Family Violence, in existence for some time now, is a territorial interagency group that brings together individuals, non-government and government agencies to share information and put in place projects in keeping with their mandate. As a collaborative, they have a strong voice and bring a vast amount of expertise and experience to the table. Some of the initiatives that have developed include Family Violence Awareness Week, Take
Back the Night, White Ribbon Campaign and the healing program for men who use violence, as mentioned by Minister Abernethy.
Over the years, the coalition has developed an action plan to combat family violence. We are now on phase 3 of that plan. The action plan phase 3, was released last year with 19 recommendations. Many of those recommendations need funding for the coalition to accomplish them and to keep the coalition’s momentum going. The coalition has accomplished a lot, but the work is far from finished.
A recent recommendation from the NWT chief coroner, following the death of Alice Black in 2009, calls for a long-term public education campaign similar to an anti-smoking campaign, to curb the culture of acceptance of domestic and family violence. These are the sorts of things the coalition is working towards. On this day, V-Day 2013, we as legislators and policymakers must remember our role in helping the coalition achieve their goal of reducing family violence in the NWT. We in the NWT can join the one billion rising. Thank you.