Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on a human rights and humanitarian crisis in Palestine and Israel. I thank my colleagues for tabling this motion. I encourage all members in the chamber to not turn a blind eye to the current ethnic cleansing happening and the serious violations of international law in Palestine. As members of Parliament, we cannot forget that our decisions have wide-reaching con…
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to acknowledge, as somebody with a similar history, that what is going on right now in Palestine and in Israel is very painful and brings up for me a lot of intergenerational trauma. I want to acknowledge that as a fellow human being in the discussion. One of the comments the member made was in response to providing military arms and technology to Israel on a case-by-case …
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Mr. Speaker, I actually visited Anne Frank House when I was in Amsterdam. My dad was a Dutch Jew from Holland, and when I went, a number of years ago, to visit Anne Frank House, I was really moved. Human rights are human rights; human beings are human beings, and the suffering of one is the suffering of all. I cannot discriminate between whose suffering was worse, that caused by the Holocaust or w…
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Mr. Speaker, that is one of the reasons we are calling for an immediate arms embargo. Why are we providing arms to a state that is being investigated for a potential genocide? I know what genocide feels like. I know what genocide feels like because of my father, because of my grandmother, who survived Auschwitz. It destroys families. It rids people of histories. I know what genocide looks like in …
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Mr. Speaker, we talk about how a national child care strategy benefits women. I totally agree, and I find it troubling how the Conservatives are trying to stall the legislation. However, I ask where the worker strategy is. If we want to talk about being a feminist government, we know that the majority of ECE workers are women, primarily from immigrant and other BIPOC communities, but we also know …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona for her very pointed intervention. I also want to thank my hon. colleague for Nunavut for her previous intervention. The member for Edmonton Strathcona just spoke about a workforce strategy. The current government talks about being a feminist government, yet it continues to fail to put good workforce strategies forward for professions th…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague. There has been a total lack of funding for nutrition north. I want to ask about the economic reconciliation I often hear the Conservatives talk about. I just want to translate what that means: It is economic reconciliation if one believes in their economic and political agenda, but if one does not, they will send in militarized police, as many people recom…
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Madam Speaker, my thanks for your guidance today as I start my speech on Bill C-318. This is a very important bill. I want to congratulate the member of Parliament who put forward this bill, as well as all the family members and advocates who pushed to make this a reality today. This was a very good bill in its original form. However, I was deeply disappointed that the amendments to the bill, whic…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today in support of this bill, Bill S-205, which was first introduced by Senator Boisvenu in 2021. First, I want to acknowledge his hard work and effort in putting this bill forward, as well as his courage in sharing his story about how gender-based violence impacted his own family. With that in mind, I think it was critical for him to ensure this bill passed t…
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Mr. Speaker, I am always humoured when I see some of the Conservative males talk about the plight of the single mother. I actually was one. In any case, he spoke a lot about unpaid care work that is done by women, and primarily by women, as I would agree, such as child-rearing and looking after aging parents. One of the reasons I put forward a guaranteed livable basic income was to provide income …
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Madam Speaker, I rise today during Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Week to emphasize the importance of menstrual equity, access to contraception and abortion rights for Canadian women and gender-diverse people. I am happy to see my colleagues join me in celebrating the critical gains made by Canada's feminist movement in its fight for women's sexual and reproductive rights, but we cannot …
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Madam Speaker, it has been two weeks since I asked the health minister for his plan to address the closure of Clinic 554, Fredericton's only health care provider offering safe abortions. This government has done nothing. While Conservatives push backdoor legislation, violating the right to a safe abortion, the so-called feminist Liberals failed to address access. Why is the government denying acce…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in support of the Senate amendment, which the Senate adopted to clarify that funding for official language minority child care would be delivered through bilateral agreements with provinces and indigenous governing bodies. We know, as I have learned from my meetings with different francophone groups, that there is a severe shortage of French-language child c…
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Mr. Speaker, like with any business, I certainly am not against a small business; I want to be very clear about that. However, I do believe that public monies need to be used for public, not-for-profit child care. If somebody wants to have a business, I totally support that, but if we are going to use public money, it needs to go into public institutions that are regulated. We know through researc…
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Mr. Speaker, if this so-called feminist government wants to support women, then it has to do whatever it needs to to make sure women can work. We need a workforce strategy to recruit people, which includes money for training, and it includes transfers that ensure livable wages are paid. This is not just a gender issue in terms of people who are working. It is also a gender issue in terms of limiti…
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to work with my colleague across the way. One of the concerns that led to an NDP amendment in committee was to include the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples on decisions impacting their children. The Liberals voted against it. We are in EI legislation and, once again, the Liberals are trying to throw out amendments that would make sure th…
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Mr. Speaker, I work with the hon. member on the status of women committee, and we have gotten some things done in that committee. I appreciate that very much. My colleague mentioned Andrea Hannen, who I know has been very critical of the national child care program, but here is the thing: Provincial licensing requirements are a floor, not a ceiling. We know that the research consensus is that non-…
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Mr. Speaker, last Sunday, the community of Carman, Manitoba, witnessed a tragedy when a mother, her three children and her niece were murdered, with her husband as the main suspect. This reminds us that we desperately need shelters and safe housing for women and families, as well as mental health supports to prevent femicide. However, the government has defunded women's shelters, while mental heal…
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Mr. Speaker, again, I will give him the same response. I do not know what the motive was or who burned down the churches. Second, because I do not know that, I cannot call it anti-indigenous violence. I have not heard him debate anti-indigenous violence when he talks about residential school denialism. I know what the motivation is for that. I know where it is coming from. They are very public abo…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague publicly on the arrival of an addition to her family. There was a lot of discussion in her speech about resource extraction. I have said many times in the House that I firmly support the human right to free, prior and informed consent. Often, I hear the Conservatives talk about nations that choose to participate in resource extraction. I …
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Mr. Speaker, I am kind of concerned with this question, because there seems to be a presumption of who has done it. I am not sure who is burning the churches and why the member is relating it to this speech, but is he insinuating that it is indigenous people? Does he have proof of that? If he does not, I would say that is a stereotype. I would also call that racist. I would first ask the member if…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not about getting past it. History is important, but I would say that this history continues with the child welfare system, and it is about justice. We cannot get past things when things are still in our way that impact our ability to receive justice. For example, the fact is that we still have a crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. Where is the justice? We…
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Mr. Speaker, we passed legislation in the last Parliament. In fact, I worked with the current Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, amending it, putting this bill forward. We have something, in fact. It is not a lack of legislation. It is now a fact of pushing for a change of colonial behaviour. We have the TRC's 94 calls to action. We have the 231 calls for justice of the National Inquiry into …
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Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed working with the minister very much on the Red Dress Alert. I have to say that I have appreciated, since he has been appointed, that in very short order he has actually pushed things forward. That is reconciliation to me. That is justice. The Red Dress Alert will save lives. However, it needs to be implemented. We have had a number of consultations to date, and we need to ge…
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Madam Speaker, I would also ask, in terms of decorum in the House, that as a white male, maybe he needs to check his privilege at the door. He is lecturing an indigenous woman about how we should feel about bringing our kids home, but maybe because he represents a riding with the highest number of kids in care, and he drops names of women in our community that I also work with, he should not objec…
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Mr. Speaker, I am just pointing out that the member did mention Winnipeg Centre. I assumed the comments were made toward me when he said my riding, but let us leave that. Going back to what I was saying, the fact that he felt a need to defend himself in the middle of my speech is another example of what I had requested in my point of order, which was for him, through you, Mr. Speaker, to leave his…
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Mr. Speaker, it is such an honour to rise today to talk about Bill C-29. I want to let the House know that the NDP wants the bill to pass. I am always very honoured to work with my good colleague, the member for Nunavut. She has put a lot of effort in to amend the legislation to make it much stronger. If we want to reconcile in this country, we must focus on children and families. I say that becau…
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, the member for Winnipeg North is referring to me, and I will take the time to respond during questions. I would just like to remind the member of his colonial behaviour. He is telling an indigenous woman that I should be thankful for his government's continued violation of our rights, including not respecting and fighting against EI amendments that would make th…
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Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague from Winnipeg North tried to boast about how much progress his government has made, especially when talking about the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. By the way, the Yellowhead Institute just reported that the government completed zero calls to action in 2023. I will go back to the amendment I proposed in committee, which would make sure …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise to intervene on a point of order raised by the member for Winnipeg North this morning respecting Bill C-318, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code, adoptive and intended parents. My colleague, the member for Winnipeg North, mentioned the committee process, where I tabled crucial amendments to this legislation that would bring the bill into comp…
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Madam Speaker, I know the Conservatives are always focused on tough-on-crime approaches and they are calling it common sense, but I think it is nonsense, and I will tell members why. We know that recidivism rates for people who are incarcerated are higher than 80%. It costs over $225,000 a year to incarcerate one woman in a federal penitentiary. It costs well over $125,000 to incarcerate one male.…
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Mr. Speaker, parents deserve affordable, quality child care, and child care workers need livable wages, but the Liberals are letting the $10-a-day child care program fail by not giving workers fair pay and benefits, leaving parents without child care spots. What about the Conservatives? They want for-profit child care. This means higher fees for parents and lower wages for workers. Liberals and Co…
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Mr. Speaker, parents deserve affordable, quality child care, and child care workers need livable wages, but the Liberals are letting the $10-a-day child care program fail by not giving workers fair pay and benefits, leaving parents without child care spots. What about the Conservatives? They want for-profit child care. This means—
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Mr. Speaker, the government says it respects reproductive rights, but the closure of Clinic 554 means that Fredericton is without a single provider for safe, trauma-informed abortion care. Despite the Prime Minister campaigning on keeping this clinic open, he has failed to protect the charter right to abortion, and Conservatives are actively threatening this right through backdoor legislation. Abo…
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Mr. Speaker, I know it is really hard for the Conservative men to control their toxic masculinity. They do support “men gotta go their own way”. My colleague is trying to ask a question, and—
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the legacy of Canadian policies designed to kill the Indian in the child still impacts our families. There are more indigenous kids in child welfare today than at the height of residential schools. In Manitoba, over 90% are indigenous. That is why I was proud, along with my colleague Bonita Zarrillo and the NDP, to amend—
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the legacy of Canadian policies designed to kill the Indian in the child still impacts our families. There are more indigenous kids in child welfare today than there were at the height of residential schools. In Manitoba, over 90% are indigenous. That is why I was proud, along with my colleague from Port Moody—Coquitlam and the NDP, to amend Bill C-318 to provide EI benefits for kinsh…
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Mr. Speaker, first, I want to give my condolences on the loss of the member's loved one. I already kind of know what the Conservative government would look like. Under the leadership of the member for Carleton, in his nine years in government, we saw 800 affordable homes lost under his watch. He supported the Liberals in a $55-billion tax cut to CEOs. We know the number of Canadians living in pove…
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Madam Speaker, as members know, we have an affordable housing crisis in this country. Part of the issue is the current Liberal national housing strategy and the Liberals' definition of affordable. Their definition of affordable is not affordable. We need more affordable housing with rent geared to income. We need more co-op housing. I am wondering if the hon. member across from me feels it necessa…
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Madam Speaker, I have such a good time working with the member on committee. What I have heard from the Conservative leader is that he plans to cut the CPP. That would place seniors in greater poverty. My question is in regard to a guaranteed livable basic income, particularly for women. We know a lot of women work their whole lives in unpaid care work, and they are now becoming seniors living in …
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With regard to the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board, broken down by fiscal year since 2015 to present: (a) what was the membership of the Advisory Board; (b) were there any vacancies on the advisory board; (c) for each vacancy in (b), how long did the vacancy last; (d) what is the total amount of funding given to the Advisory Board for the purpose of carrying out their mandate; (e) how many t…
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With regard to the Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry’s commitment to stabilize food prices: (a) has the Minister held any meetings with CEOs or executives of companies serving Northern, rural, and remote communities where there is little or no competition in the grocery sector; (b) does the Minister’s commitment to stabilize grocery prices include efforts to stabilize prices in Norther…
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With regard to the 2 Billion Trees Commitment, and broken down by province or territory since its inception: (a) what is the total amount of funding allocated to each province and territory; (b) what amount of funding has been delivered to provinces, territories, or organizations; and (c) what is the total amount of funding that is on hold or remains undelivered as part of this program?
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With regard to the $4 billion in budget 2022 to accelerate work in closing Indigenous housing gaps: (a) what are the details of all funding allocations to support First Nations housing on reserves, including (i) name of government or project supported, (ii) amount of funding delivered, (iii) amount of units built; (b) what are the details of all funding allocations to support housing in First Nati…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague from Toronto—St. Paul's for her years of service. I did not know until today that she loves karaoke. I too love karaoke. Perhaps we could have had a Broadway kickoff at a local karaoke club in Ottawa, but I am sure we will have time to do that in the coming years. I really appreciated the hon. member's acknowledgement of the importance of territ…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government voted to recognize missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people as a Canada-wide emergency. The Prime Minister acknowledged it as an ongoing genocide. Four years after the release of the national inquiry's 231 calls for justice, how many have been completed? Just two. At this rate, it will take 462 years to implement all of the calls for ju…
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With regard to federal spending on settlement services and newcomer housing in the electoral district of Winnipeg Centre, broken down by fiscal year since November 2019: (a) what is the amount of federal funding committed for the purpose of (i) settlement services, (ii) newcomer housing; (b) what are the details of all initiatives that received funding, including the (i) name of the organization t…
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Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the hon. member for North Island—Powell River, our wonderful whip, who has been a tremendous ally. I know that there was a bill announcement today. I have to be honest that I find it absolutely bizarre that we are celebrating only 26 boil water advisories, when all the wealth and riches and most of the pollution that is happening to the water are on the backs of in…
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Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. colleague for Vancouver East for her allyship and advocacy, particularly around indigenous housing. That $150 million was provided during COVID. Now the excuse is that the government is cutting back the $150 million in funding, because it was special funding that was implemented in COVID, even though we know that rates of violence have increased since COVID. How can it …
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Mr. Chair, I thank the minister. I have worked very closely with the minister in the beginning stages of implementing a red dress alert. However, there cannot be consultations for months and months. This needs to be led and directed by indigenous peoples. We need to be honest about systems that were supposed to protect us that do not; the ongoing systemic racism, for example, in policing. How are …
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