I rise in the House of Assembly today to honour the memory of 14 young women who were killed during what we now refer to as the Montreal Massacre.

It will be 20 years ago on Sunday, December 6, that the lives of these women were taken at Montreal�s Ecole Polytechnique. These women were working toward futures in engineering when a man shot and killed them because they were women.

Now, two decades later, this horrific event is a chilling reminder of the devastating effects of violence against women.

In 1991 in memory of these women, the Federal Government designated December 6 as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. On Sunday, flags at Confederation Building will be at half-mast from sunrise to sunset to mark this day.

Far too many women in our province live with violence every day. Our two police forces reported over 4,300 incidents of violence against women in the two-year period between 2006 and 2008.

Equally alarming is the fact that of the 218,000 women over the age of 15 living in this province, more than 100,000 of them will experience at least one incident of sexual or physical violence in their lifetime.

Another shocking reality is that only 10 per cent will report these incidents to police.

These facts represent a huge societal issue that we all have a responsibility to address. Through our six-year, $12-million Violence Prevention Initiative, our government is proactively working with communities and volunteer organizations to identify long-term solutions to preventing violence against women.

Our violence prevention efforts are currently focused on preventing male violence against women. Our Respect Women campaign includes a website of information and resource materials, as well as print and television advertisements. It is designed to draw attention to the important role and responsibility men have in nurturing the young boys in their lives.

In this campaign, we are using positive messages to encourage men to teach young boys how to respect women. By doing so, we are addressing the very root of violence, which is inequality. We hope that this campaign will help in nurturing today�s young boys to grow up respecting women.

The purple ribbon on your desk symbolizes the memories of women we have lost to violence. Let this ribbon also symbolize the hope that comes from our collective efforts to end inequality and violence against women.

As a reminder to us all of the events of December 6, 1989, I want to read the names of those 14 women who died that day into the record of the House of Assembly:

I encourage all members and residents of the province to learn more about what you can do to help bring an end to violence against women. To learn more about our social marketing campaign, please visit our website at respectwomen.ca.