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 …
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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…
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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 →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 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…
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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 →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 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 →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 →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 →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, 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 →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, 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 →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…
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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 →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to finish that thought. Vaccines do convey natural immunity. Where do people think immunity comes from? Someone gets antibodies in response to an antigen. In this case the RNA of the virus will actually cause someone to develop antibodies. Our bodies develop antibodies. The point is there are many people who are immunocompromised. There are many people with chronic illne…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is very important to know what the plan of action is. A plan of action is not one that tries to second-guess a virus, which we cannot do because it has behaved very erratically, and viruses do that. The bottom line is to ask how many people we can prevent from getting this virus. We need to look at vaccination as a first step in a plan; the plan is vaccination. The next plan is to …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague for her really excellent speech. It was pointed and it was factual. The member talked about people saying that we need to learn to live with the virus. A lot of countries have been quoted as saying, “Oh, look at how this country is living with the virus.” Today there was a graph put out by some of the health authorities globally that showed that Den…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that was an excellent speech. Everything the member said was true. It was factual. Everyone is talking about lifting vaccine mandates and getting back to taking care of ourselves, and we have seen—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to answer that question. Viruses are unpredictable, as we have seen with this virus. Omicron wants to get to as many people as it can to spread itself. Its spread has been decreasing with vaccinations. Fewer and fewer people are getting it. Its spread therefore has become more mild mostly because a lot of people are already vaccinated and have had booster shots. There…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, in this House we listen to partisanship constantly. We listen to people yelling at each other, calling each other names and ignoring the issue on the table just in order to be partisan. The hon. member for Vancouver Kingsway made me proud tonight. He was non-partisan. He was clear. He talked about the science. He talked about the facts. He smoked out all of the partisanship and the hy…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will answer that question. However, that is an example of what I was talking about and what the hon. member from Vancouver Kingsway was talking about. Once again, it is the politics of the thing. It is, “Oh, look at the coalition. Look at how they are getting into bed.” This is science. Everywhere one goes, regardless of their political party, if they understand the science, they wi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I think this is hilarious. In the first instance, the member spoke tonight about provincial jurisdictions. The provinces are being given these rapid tests. They are being shipped to them. We are actually seeking in this bill to get them shipped directly to provinces, so provinces can distribute them. If the hon. member cannot find them in her province, she is going to have to ask her …
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…
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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 →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Black History Month is a time to reflect on the many contributions the Black community has made throughout history to shape Canada into the nation we are today. We must empower Black voices and Black experiences to face the challenges that prevent them from contributing fully to a diverse, prosperous and inclusive Canada. This means taking action against systemic discrimination and an…
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…
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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…
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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, 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…
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…
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