Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following three reports: the report of the Canadian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, respecting its participation of the 24th winter meeting in Vienna, Austria, on February 20 and 21; the report of the Canadian delegation to th…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, as November ends, let us look back at the tragic data on men's mental and physical health in Canada. Too many men are dying young from preventable causes. Men account for 75% of suicides and 72% of opioid deaths. They are at higher risk for cardiac disease, chronic lung disease and many cancers. However, stigma and pride in being macho prevent them from seeking help, and 65% of men sa…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the following report. It is from the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly respecting its participation in the election observation mission in Washington, D.C., and other regions of the United States of America from…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Health entitled “Saving More Lives: Improving Guidance, Increasing Access and Achieving Better Outcomes in Breast Cancer Screening”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the following reports: the report of the Canadian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly respecting its participation at the 31st annual session in Bucharest, Romania, from June 29 to July 3, 2024; and the report of the Canadian…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Vancouver Centre residents for putting their trust in me again, for the 11th time. I will work hard to represent them. I speak to them now, though, not as an MP but as a physician. I fear for the health of our children. Canada faces an outbreak of measles as has been unseen in decades. We eliminated measles in 1998, and now it is back. Measles is the most contagious of…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, respecting its participation at the 22nd autumn meeting in Dublin, Ireland, from October 2 to 4, 2024.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 16th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Future of CBC/Radio-Canada: Challenges and Opportunities”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report. I would like to congratulate the committee on all sides for the most remar…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following two reports of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. The first is the 14th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Harms Caused by Illegal Sexually Explicit Material Online”. The second is the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “The Holding of a Nat…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, two reports of the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, with one respecting its participation at the 23rd winter meeting in Vienna, Austria, from February 22-23, and with the other respecting its participation at th…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage entitled “Tech giants' intimidation and subversion tactics to evade regulation in Canada and globally”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 12th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Safe Sport in Canada.” This is a report everyone should read because it tells us about the deplorable state of safety in sports in Canada. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to the rep…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in relation to Bill C-316, an act to amend the Department of Canadian Heritage Act on the court challenges program. The committee studied the bill and decided to report it back to the House with amendments.
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Vancouver has a vibrant and innovative cultural scene known for its firsts in Canada. Ballet BC ranks number three in North America. The VSO, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, featured students playing solos and complex pieces alongside the professional orchestra on the Day of Music last weekend, with five free venues across the city. Now they plan to merge performances of dance, symp…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, as a family doctor who delivered close to 500 babies, I am concerned about access to reproductive choice. Claiming to support reproductive choice is not enough. We must pass legislation that makes it fully accessible to all. The pharmacare act is a start. It would provide free contraception to over nine million patients. Unfortunately, our Conservative colleagues oppose it. They also …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Black Mental Health Week begins next week. It is a time to amplify Black voices and support equity in mental health. It is time to correct the disproportionate lack of Black health researchers, so we can deliver culturally appropriate mental health solutions. It is time to act to improve the wide gap in health outcomes for many Black Canadians that is the result of historical and syst…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I wish a happy Black History Month to residents in my riding of Vancouver Centre. I want to highlight their contributions to economic development and job creation in B.C. I also want to give a shout-out to the Black Business Association of BC, an umbrella organization for small businesses that works to help Black entrepreneurs thrive and expand despite the systemic barriers they still…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, sexual and reproductive health touches all aspects of human health and well-being. It affects physical and mental health. It impacts social participation. It ensures healthy reproductive organs, family planning, pre- and post-natal care, the delivery of healthy babies and safe abortion. There is a push globally to limit access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health care. …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge. I am standing here to speak against this motion. It is a motion that is so based on ideology. It would do great harm to Canadians. A carbon tax is regarded by a majority of economists and policy researchers to be the most simple and powerful tool to limit carbon dioxide emissions. It is based on a premise that the pol…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is very clear that we do not just have a price on pollution. As we can clearly see, we are investing in green technologies across the country. In Quebec, B.C. and across the country, we are helping to build new industries. We are giving them start-up funds, we are moving them forward and they are growing extremely well. That is one of the things we are doing. At the same time, so…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think I said it all in my speech, but I will reiterate it. BC Stats and Statistics Canada say that the B.C. economy rose by 12.4% when other economies in Canada were going down. They said that 300 new companies, since the tax took effect, are now moving into B.C. to work in green technology. We are looking at about 130,000 new jobs in B.C. and about $90,000 per capita. I have no i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I do not think the Liberals are doing that anymore. They have moved to stop helping oil and gas companies. When I talked about British Columbia, one of the things that happened was that fuel usage went down by 16%, so it is not using as much fuel. We are investing in electric cars. Across the country, there is a whole highway that allows for the use of electric cars. We are putting …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, once again, I think that is a good question, and I want to thank the member for bringing it up. We need to remember one very important thing. While it is very important to look at standards of care, with the huge death toll we saw in long-term care homes, in fact, it is not a federal jurisdiction to do those things. Long-term care is provincial jurisdiction. We are, at the moment, n…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. Madam Speaker, this is a simple bill. Everyone has heard about it. In simple language, the bill states that throughout Canada, each and every year, March 11 would be known as “pandemic observance day”. There are about three reasons to do this. The first is to remember that, to date, 57,000 people in Canada have actually died from COVID-19, to …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be concurred in.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am getting very good questions here. I want to point out that we are talking about the COVID pandemic, but let us remember that measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and small pox had all gone and died. They were not occurring anymore. They are coming back now because of vaccine deniers, people who are not vaccinating themselves. We are going to see polio once again, with children s…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I think that is a very important point, and I think we know that zoonoses are on the rise. Once again, it is that people are in contact with the animal world more than we used to be in contact with them. We are visiting game farms. We have the ability to meet wild animals in the wild. What we learned and must remember in this pandemic remembrance day is that zoonoses are very import…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly respecting its participation in the 30th annual session, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from June 30 to July 4, 2023.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the seventh report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in relation to Bill S-202, an act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (Parliamentary Visual Artist Laureate). The committee has studied the bill and has decided to support the bill back to the House, with amendments.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliament Assembly respecting its participation in the 22nd Winter Meeting in Vienna, Austria, from February 23 to 24.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to mourn the passing of the Honourable Selwyn Romilly. He was the first Black student to graduate law at UBC, the first Black provincial court judge and the first Black justice on the B.C Supreme Court. Indeed, he had many firsts. Three years ago, at 81, he was the first Black retired justice to be handcuffed in public by the Vancouver Police who had mistaken him for a 40-year-…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Tuesday was World Contraception Day. As access to sexual and reproductive services comes under attack globally, more voices are calling for the right to universal free contraception. My province of B.C. set an example this April by implementing the policy. It is time for all of Canada to follow suit. Preventing an unwanted pregnancy is vital to reproductive health and gender equality.…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, no, I do not see that it has any relationship to this bill. The MAID, medical assistance in dying, bill is very clear in terms of what it is supposed to encompass and how it is supposed to encompass that. This has nothing to do with that. Before MAID even came about, there were institutions that looked after vulnerable adults. We want to make sure that we do not have a repeat of wha…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, that is a good question. If someone did not provide the necessaries of life and was responsible for doing it, and we penalized them either with fines or jail time and prohibited them from being able to even volunteer in such institutions for three years, I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they may have learned some lessons. It is important, therefore, for peop…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be concurred in.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. Madam Speaker, for those who do not remember, I just want to quickly refresh them. This bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code under section 215, to ensure that there is a clear duty of the persons responsible for providing the necessaries of life to vulnerable adults to do so. It is very clear. I want to thank the House. All of the parties hav…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, that was a very leading question. I think it is important to note that the criteria and guidelines for medical assistance in dying for people suffering from a mental illness are very clear. I co-chaired the committee that looked at MAID for a year and a half. It was a joint committee with the Senate. We heard so many witnesses who told us that there is a very clear distinction betwe…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, that is a very interesting question that the hon. member posed. What we have to remember is that these institutions are under the jurisdiction of provinces. What we know is that the Canadian Standards Association set very clear guidelines for what is meant to be the best care to provide the necessaries of life. Based on that, there is an opportunity, if we want to look at a long-ter…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, this last weekend marked 20 years since the first North American safe injection site, Insite, opened in Vancouver. Since 2003, it has proven to be a lifesaver, with 1.7 million visits. I want to give a shout-out to those who looked at the positive evidence of harm reduction seen in Europe and took a chance on a pilot project with the Portland health society that proved successful. The…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I inadvertently voted nay. I would like to vote yea on the last vote.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's parliamentary assembly, respecting its participation at the 20th autumn meeting in Warsaw, Poland, from November 24 to 26, 2022.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Liberal governments have done more to advance equality for the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Canada, and globally, yet we continue to see an alarming rise in hate directed at this community, both here and abroad. From 2020 to 2021 alone, there was a 64% increase in hate-motivated violence against this community in Canada. Queer and transgender Canadians are subjected to harassment, threats, …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Strengthening the Status of the Artist in Canada”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Madam Speaker, Wednesday was International Women's Day, but it is not too late to reflect. In fact, we should never forget them: the millions of women who live in conflict areas, displaced by war and without home or family. These women are often the victims of rape, trafficked or forced into sexual slavery or servitude, and girls are forced into early marriage just to survive. Many have no access …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to thank those members in the House who spoke so passionately and eloquently in support of this bill. The bill was brought forward, as was said, by Senator Mégie, who is a fellow physician from the Senate. I then brought it to the House. The need to remember is very important. With Bill S-209, we want to remember, and we want to learn. Remembering means that we learn from our…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services is the greatest cause of women's disability, disease and death globally. It was declared a human right in 1995, at the UN conference on women in Beijing, but it is still an elusive sustainable development goal. Recent WHO data shows that 200 million women lack access to contraception, 300,000 still die each year in childbirth, …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all members who spoke in favour of this bill. As a physician for 22 years, I saw negligence in seniors home. I saw an inability to provide the appropriate protocols of cleanliness and the right kind of care. I saw actual abuse as well. What COVID-19 did was expose this for people other than physicians like me and for Canadians, who now see the vulnerability within the …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, February is Heart Month, and yesterday was Valentine's Day. What better time to discuss a matter near and dear to my heart, women's cardiac health? Forty per cent of Canadians are unaware that heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of premature death in women. In fact, only 11% of women can tell if they have had a heart attack. Most cardiac research is about men: chest pain go…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in relation to Bill C‑18, an act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada. The committee has studied the bill and has decided to report the bill back to the House with amendments.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would say not necessarily. We are talking about a specific component of health care under the Canada Health Act, which is what the federal government has as its ability to provide universal health care. Long-term care facilities are not part of the Canada Health Act, so transfers to provinces in any way, shape or form are going to have to be tied specifically to quality of care, t…
Read full speech →