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A new government will be installed at Queen's Park on October 6th. Ontario political Parties have made commitments in the past to advance work to end violence against women. We need to hear the next steps they will take if elected to run Ontario for the next four years. The Step it Up Platform for Parties lists those measures a new government could, and should do in that time period. Ontarians should hear responses from parties and candidates about what their party will do. Women in Ontario have been working to expose violence against women and have it stopped for more than 35 years. Most of the 10 Steps we support could have been accomplished in that time if the political will had been there to do it. Isn't now the time? Since 1990, more than 450 women and 57 children have been murdered in the context of intimate relationships and violence within the family alone, and many more have been murdered by men in other situations. These killings are only the tip of the iceberg. Half of women will experience criminal violence by men in their homes, communities, workplaces and schools in their lifetime. Many women more will live with fear, threats, humiliation and control that aren't recognized officially as crimes under Canada's Criminal Code. Women whose ancestors lived on these lands before "Canada" was born, whose skin isn't white, who have a disability, who are new to the country, who are young or whose first language isn't English, will be more in danger of this violence than other women. Isn't now the time to stop this?
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