On the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, PSAC recommits to ending gender-based violence in all forms.

December 6 marks the anniversary of the Montréal Massacre, where 14 young women were murdered at École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989. 

Since then:

• a woman has been killed by her intimate partner every six days in Canada.
• over a third of women have experienced domestic violence.
• thousands of indigenous girls and women have been murdered or gone missing – with many of their cases remaining unsolved.
• more than 7% of Canadians are currently in abusive relationships.

Taking action to end gender-based violence

Today, PSAC is launching our 10 Paid Days Now campaign. We call on federal, provincial and territorial governments to afford 10 paid days leave for workers experiencing domestic violence so that they can attend medical appointments, meet with lawyers, access counselling or move homes. We continue to educate our members about domestic violence in the workplace and bring the issue to the bargaining table.

PSAC welcomes the federal government’s inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and remains hopeful that it can help to deliver justice and healing for families. We are encouraged by recent legislation to strengthen workplace harassment procedures at the federal level and hope to see a redress mechanism for systemic sexual harassment. Finally, PSAC calls on the Government of Canada to establish a national action plan to end gender-based violence.