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 →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is always interesting to watch when someone is trying to be personal and nasty. People can make assumptions. My headset was plugged in. It just did not work for that moment. I just wanted to say that there was a great deal of misinformation and, may I say, disinformation that went on with the hon. member's speech. If the hon. member will recall, the hon. member mentioned the clau…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, excuse my voice. I have asthma, and I am suffering from the pollution syndrome right now. I just want to say that there was some misinformation that went on in this House, and I want to correct it.
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 sixth report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Main Estimates 2023-24”.
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 →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, 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 →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
moved that Bill C-295, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (neglect of vulnerable adults), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to stand for the second reading of my private member's bill, Bill C-295, which would amend sections 214 and 215 of the Criminal Code to include penalties for the neglect of vulnerable adults. What this amendment would do is a…
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 →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is pretty simple: The federal government does not have jurisdiction for credentialing any health care worker. This is purely provincial legislation and provincial jurisdiction, so the provinces make a decision about whether or not someone can work as a licensed nurse or physician. At the same time, the colleges of nurses and physicians are the ones that decide what credentials a …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I think we need to do both. We need to have the carrot and we need to have the stick. We know long-term care workers are the lowest-paid health care workers in all of the health care jurisdictions. We know that. We know they are not registered. Many of them are not fully trained. What we need to do is talk to provinces, as I said earlier on in response to my colleague who asked a qu…
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 29th annual session in Birmingham, United Kingdom, from July 2 to 6, 2022.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today, on the 30th anniversary of the end of the LGBT purge in Canada, we acknowledge the painful impact it has had on the 2SLGBTQI+ movement and its fight for realization of human rights. Since then, Canada has made strong progress on LGBTQ rights, but there are still gaps in access to safe, equitable and inclusive federal workplaces for this group. To mark this day, let us commit to…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I agree with the hon. member. We need to remember all those people who passed, all those people who are now chronically ill, and all of those people who were overworked, overwrought and burned out, as we are seeing right now in the system. This is about remembering all of that, but it is also about remembering what we must do and what we did not do, and about learning lessons. There…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, at the heart of what I do as a physician and what all physicians and nurses and health care professionals know is that we have to learn from our mistakes. We have to reflect on what went on and what we could do again. The word post-mortem is a much bandied-about word, but it means looking back and seeing what one did. Was it good? Could we have done better? What would we have done d…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I understand the logic behind the hon. member's question. However, the thing about remembering is that when we do not remember, we do not learn. This is not just saying, “Let us remember.” It is saying let us look at what we build to protect ourselves the next time around. One of those things is obviously going to have to be to shore up our health care system. One of those things is…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that Bill S-209, An Act respecting Pandemic Observance Day, be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to move and speak to the bill on pandemic observance day. It was moved in the Senate by the hon. Senator Marie-Françoise Mégie, and was adopted by the Senate on May 12. I know we all have “days of everything”, but I want to talk about why this is impor…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the pan-Canadian early learning and child care system is up and running from coast to coast to coast with all provinces onside. In British Columbia, parents would be able to work, contribute to the economy and make life more affordable for themselves, thanks to our federal government's investment in child care. Could the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development update the…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I address this House on behalf of the Canadian Association of Parliamentarians for Population and Development. Today, on International Safe Abortion Day, I want to recognize the tireless efforts of health care providers and community groups across Canada and globally who work to support the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health and human rights. Globally, 45% of abortions ar…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Arts, Culture, Heritage, and Sport Sector Recovery from the Impact of COVID-19”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-295, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (neglect of vulnerable adults). Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce my private member's bill, an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding neglect of vulnerable adults, and I want to thank the member for Alfred-Pellan for seconding the bill. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed clear evidence of abuse of seniors in care facilities acr…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a report in both official languages. This is the second report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in relation to Bill C-11, an act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other acts. The committee has studied the bill and has decided to report the bill back to the House with amendments. I want to give …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved that Bill S-209, An Act respecting Pandemic Observance Day, be read the first time. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present this bill in the House of Commons, introduced by Senator Marie-Françoise Mégie, as a way to commemorate the efforts Canadians made to get through the pandemic. Bill S-209 seeks to designate March 11 as pandemic observance day. I want to take the opportunity to thank S…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the memory of John Halani, a friend, a businessman and a benefactor who helped immigrants settle in Canada. John came to Canada in 1972 as part of the Ismaili exodus from Uganda, expelled by dictator Idi Amin. He worked as a salesman, but was an entrepreneur at heart and later became a hotelier and head of the Ethno Business Council of British Columbia. John was…
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 Canadian Heritage entitled “The Rogers-Shaw Merger: Bad News for Local News.” 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 first is the report of the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly respecting its participation at the autumn meeting held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from October 3 to 6, 2018. The second is the …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, with over 90,000 Canadians diagnosed with the disease. MS is three times higher among women, and COVID-19 amplified the income insecurity faced by women with disabilities. Diagnosed with MS in 2008, Michelle Hewitt shares how difficult it is to make ends meet. She says, “I regularly speak to women who are no longe…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, lack of affordable rental housing is a major concern for my constituents in Vancouver Centre. In February, I joined the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion to announce federal funding to redevelop 157 units of permanent affordable housing for seniors and persons with physical disabilities. Could the minister tell us about the impact the national housing co-investment fund …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I must say that I have been embarrassed for a long time about what has been going on in the country, especially in Ottawa. I have had a lot of friends across the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe who have been calling me, asking, “What is going on in Canada? You guys are such a great democracy; what's happening?”, and so I have been embarrassed. They were in shock a…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, this is interesting. If the Prime Minister had run out and imposed the Emergencies Act at the beginning of this, everyone would have asked him what he was doing and said that he was a bully. They would have asked him why he was not trying other methods of dealing with it. This is what he did. He talked to provinces and municipalities and tried to work it out with them. He had round ta…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, that ability to bring in the tow trucks being asked for by a province and municipality is still provincial jurisdiction, and they do not have the powers to do that. The Emergencies Act gave them the authority to do that. We should ask ourselves why tow truck drivers are afraid to do this. It is because they are intimidated by their own so-called trucker convoys. They have protected th…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, judges are currently engaged in looking at those who have been arrested and are actually speaking out and saying what must be done. They have been speaking out loudly about it and saying that certain things must be done. That is going on right now. The point is that Alberta wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, saying that it could not cope and did not have the resources within its mu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I am so excited to participate in this debate. I think my colleague just said it all. We talk about a crisis. A crisis sounds like something existential. This is real. In my province of British Columbia, 6.5 people a day are dying from preventable deaths. This is a mental health issue. This is a mental health problem, and there is a way to deal with it. We can talk about decriminaliza…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, decriminalization does have something to do with it. It removes the stigma. We are already moving forward with that as a federal government. We have asked attorneys general, federal and in every province, not to give criminal records to people who are using certain amounts. The City of Vancouver is willing to work on this. I am in support of it, but the thing that saves lives, which i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will start by saying that we actually opened up safe injection sites, safe consumption sites, across this country, which were blocked and stopped for 10 years by the Conservative government. That is the first thing we did. Second, we made naloxone available, which can immediately save someone who is dying of an overdose and prevent them from dying. We have been giving access to drug…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, Canada is at the table with NATO playing the role that it can and that it is asked to play around that table. Canada is at the table with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is made up of 57 nation-states. Canada is well respected and trusted at that table. These are the people who are talking about the steps to deal with Russia. These are the people who li…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I am talking about the word “trust” here. We trusted a government that told us it would be going into Czechoslovakia and it would not do anything else, and then it moved to take over Europe. I do not know the bottom line of Putin's agenda, but I do know that he showed himself not to be trustworthy when he went into Crimea, when he armed his warships in the Baltic Sea, and when he thre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I want to speak to Canadians out there and constituents, because I have noted that many of them have been asking why Canada is worrying about this country. It is so far away up there in Eastern Europe, why are we bothered? We are bothered because this is not just about us. It is not just about Ukraine. It is not just about NATO. It is not just about Europe. It is about the fact that o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I have been listening with a great deal of interest to all of the speakers and I think I want to speak to constituents out there. We all understand the issue. We know the regional—
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Surrey—Newton. I ask my colleagues to spare a thought, or even a tiny tear, for my poor, beleaguered province of British Columbia. First there were heat waves in the summer, then there came fires, and it was only two months ago that we were able to deal with putting out those fires and repairing the damage after what went on. Now we face f…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, that is an interesting question. I did speak about adaptation actually. I talked about protecting and preventing, putting back climate change to 1.5°C, and that we need to talk about it to get there. We need to therefore stop arguing about it, stop debating, and stop blocking it. Let us move forward to help it. I also wanted to say that it is little acts of kindness that are going o…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I think this is really important to the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. One of the most important things in our hospitals and our intensive care units is that the resources working in those areas were completely beleaguered by COVID and the heat waves. We now see what is happening with the floods. The important thing, as Theresa Tam, our chief public health officer, has said w…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, that was a question from a true British Columbian. There is an understanding of the problems that we face in British Columbia and an understanding of our culture and the iconic salmon. I think, in talking about indigenous communities, this government has stepped up and is working very closely with Minister Rankin in B.C., in getting water, food and medicines, and in protecting the i…
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