Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House as the representative for my riding of Mississauga—Erin Mills in this 44th Parliament. I am so proud of my team of volunteers and my family and friends, who have marched with me from door to door receiving support and feedback from residents. I would not be here without them, and they have my profound thanks for their faith and their dedication. My j…
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Madam Speaker, I am not sure if I can give a brief answer to this question. It is something that is very close to my heart. However, Bill C-2 does commit to continue to provide support. I really respect our restaurant owners and all the hoteliers in the tourism industry, understanding just how gendered that impact is within the tourism industry, and how much more support we need to provide. I look…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member on her election to the House in this 44th Parliament. We have been quite nimble, as I mentioned in my speech. Absolutely we provided supports for individual Canadians and for small businesses, but also at the discretion of the regional recovery fund, which we instilled across the country to continue to provide that support for sectors that may not have fit …
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Madam Speaker, I watched them filibuster for hours and hours in the House and also in committees. We know what Canadians want and we are very committed to getting that done.
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member on his election to this Parliament. Over the past year, I witnessed the opposition parties continuing to hinder the work and the supports that we as a Liberal government tried to hand out to Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House in this 44th Parliament. Early on in the pandemic, when the provinces first went into lockdown, a constituent reached out to me for help. She could not work because of public health lockdowns and she was worried about how she would take care of her children without an income. When we introduced CERB and enhanced the Canada child benefit early on,…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights entitled “Elder Abuse: Identifying the Issue and Combatting All Types of Abuse”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee is requesting the government table a comprehensive response to this report. I will take this moment to thank all of the members of t…
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Mr. Speaker, budget 2021 outlines $236 million dedicated to combatting and eradicating sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. If that is not taking the issue seriously, I would love to hear his opinions and ideas to ensure that both women and men are safe as they serve our country.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for sharing stories of his personal recollections of his father and others, like the former member for his riding. I will ask for the member's opinion. In 2012, the previous government axed nearly $5 billion from the budget that was available for defence. It had let $10 billion of approved funding go unspent since 2007, and this included nearly $7 billion in DND's…
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Mr. Speaker, I remind the member sexual misconduct and abuse of power in the Canadian Armed Forces is not something that came up with the Liberal government. It has been ongoing for decades and decades and decades, and it is about high time we listened to those women and stopped using them to score cheap political points in trying to defame a very honourable minister and the whole institution of t…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to help the member understand the impact of the words of this motion and how it impacts the minister's respect. The motion states “that the Minister of National Defence has clearly lost the respect of members of the Canadian Armed Forces, including those at the highest ranks” and then lists a number of reasons. The member spoke about leadership and accountability. I would…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for sharing his life story and his birth date. I was born a couple of decades after he was, but I can assure him I share those same sentiments about how much our Canadian Armed Forces have continued to support us, to work for the safety of Canada and Canadians here and abroad. I want to pick up on one point the member talked about. He said we cannot afford to demora…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Kingston and the Islands. I want to rise in the House today to speak about the Minister of National Defence in light of this very unfair opposition motion. I want to talk about who he is as a person and what he has done to serve Canada alongside so many others. Like so many of our friends and neighbours, the Minister of National Defence ca…
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke about the paralyzing of Parliament due to points of orders being raised, which really stop debate on issues important to Quebeckers. On that note, I will give my condolences to the member with respect to another femicide that happened in Quebec very recently. We are hearing about women in Quebec who are the victims of domestic abuse, almost every week. When the memb…
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Madam Speaker, I really was paying attention to the member's speech, and he talked about how this House does not belong to us. He said that it belongs to the people who trusted us to come here, represent them and do the work that they require us to do to move this country forward. Therefore, why is the member's party preventing legislation that would provide support to local businesses in Canada a…
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Madam Speaker, I did not really understand what the member had to say, especially with the hon. parliamentary secretary's question about the Conservative campaign commitments with respect to decreasing foreign aid. With what the member is saying right now, there seems to be a kind of duplicity. Can the member clarify for us if he believes that Canada needs to provide more aid or not, based on his …
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Madam Speaker, we have all been sent here by our constituents, Canadians across the country, to do the work that we promised them we would do through our campaign platforms. That is part of the democratic process. How does the member think Canadians across the country feel, whether in the western provinces, in the Atlantic provinces or in the agriculture sector, when they see members wasting time …
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Mr. Speaker, it is 2021, yet there are still those who would debate a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body. Today we will be voting on a Conservative MP's bill, Bill C-233, which is yet another attempt to police women's bodies. It is an attack on women's autonomy over their bodies by the Conservatives. Canadian women need to know. Will the Prime Minister stand against Bill C-233 an…
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Madam Speaker, violence in the home is an unfortunate reality for too many women in Canada, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more frequent and more severe. There has been much focus from our government to tackle this tragic issue: having an emergency debate in the House, my tabling of a report with recommendations by the justice committee, and budget 2021 investments in combatting gender-base…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the ninth report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights entitled “The Shadow Pandemic: Stopping Coercive and Controlling Behaviour in Intimate Relationships”.
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Madam Speaker, as I go through the budget, I see it as definitely an equity-seeking one, whether it is through the luxury tax on vehicles or a more robust system for ensuring we catch tax evaders. The difference between the Canadian economy and other economies around the world is that we are not a quid pro quo system where Canadians put in money to get something back for an individual service. The…
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Madam Speaker, over this past year, we have seen that Canadians expect a team Canada approach. They do not want to see these partisan politics. They do not want to see this pushing, pulling and tugging among parties, saying someone did this or someone did not do that. Ultimately, Canadians want all of us, all parties, each and every one of us as individual members to be there and have their backs.…
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Madam Speaker, I will start by sharing the story of Sandy, a constituent of mine. She has a really good education, but her struggles are those of many Canadians around the world. She gave up her career to start a family, and she continued to stay away from her career because child care in Ontario was too expensive and the waiting list was too long. Now, as her children are age five and seven, she …
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Madam Speaker, when we talk about creating child care spaces and a national child care plan, it is not just about having adequate spaces. It is also about affordability and ensuring there are enough quality, educated workers to run these spaces. It is about providing and facilitating access to the economy and safe early learning for children and families as we grow and rebuild past COVID-19. To be…
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Mr. Speaker, the past year saw low-wage workers, youths, racialized Canadians and women leave the workforce in disproportionate numbers. Businesses in my riding have been clear: a robust economy depends on increasing labour force participation and budget 2021 addresses this. Could the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance update us on how this budget will make gener…
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Madam Speaker, I join Muslims in my riding, across Canada and the world in observing the month of Ramadan. As we fast from sunrise until sunset, and yes, even from water, Muslim Canadians will again this year have Iftars at our homes, isolated from others, missing out on gatherings with loved ones and praying at mosques. Ramadan is a time to do our part to help those most in need, and I am thinkin…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to participate in the second reading of Bill C-11, the digital charter implementation act, 2020. I will be splitting my time today with the member for Davenport. When Canada's privacy law was introduced in 2000, Parliament intended that it would achieve two objectives, which were privacy protection for individuals and the growth of electronic commerce. Over 20 years lat…
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Madam Speaker, in 2019, during the summer, I was very surprised to receive a text message on my government cellphone from a volunteer from the Conservative Party of Canada, asking me if I wanted to vote Conservative and to reply back via text. Some members from the New Democratic Party and the Green Party would like Bill C-11 to apply to political parties. What does the member have to say about th…
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Madam Speaker, I have the honour today to present, in both official languages, the eighth report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to Bill C-218, an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding sports betting. The committee has studied the bill and has decided to report the bill back to the House with amendment.
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Madam Chair, over the last seven weeks, seven women in Quebec tragically lost their lives to heinous acts of domestic violence. This is incredibly alarming and, unfortunately, is reflected in provinces all across the country. I am reflecting tonight. A death because of intimate partner violence does not just happen all of a sudden. There is a lead-up to it. Therefore, I will invite members to refl…
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for her ongoing advocacy. It was a pleasure to work with her in the all-party women's caucus in the last parliament, and I find her advocacy to be very sincere and very compelling. With the Canadian Armed Forces, I have to say that it is not the responsibility of the survivors and women who have experienced that atrocity to be the ones who are leading that charge. I…
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Madam Chair, if I understood the question correctly, we are talking about gender-based violence on an international stage and I have to say that Canada, being the human rights leader that it is, really has a role to play. We have been playing that role in empowering other countries around the world to take into account what gender equality means for citizenry across the world. Whether it is throug…
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for her contribution to the all-party women's caucus and her great advocacy. What are the member's views on toxic masculinity and the culture of intimate partner violence and violence against women, and what would she propose we do to address this issue and take concrete action in combatting this?
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for her advocacy. How does she feel about the leader of the Conservative Party not answering her question about a woman's autonomy over her own body or the Minister for Women and Gender Equality's question about why he voted against funding the Quebec organizations that would help the very women he says that he cares about?
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for his allyship on this very important cause. I would ask the member to highlight for us the work he has done specifically in his constituency to support women who are fleeing from violence, raise awareness and build more allies within the male space to become champions of combatting intimate partner violence. What can we do collectively? I would ask the member to …
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Madam Chair, that question ties in very much with the one by the previous member about coercive and controlling behaviour. I think we are dealing with a culture within our country that accepts and condones violence against women. Until and unless we are able to really teach boys and men and really teach girls and women what consent is, what autonomy over one's own body is, what economic empowermen…
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for her very heartfelt speech. As she said, we really need to find that thorough and wholesome approach in combatting gender-based violence and ensuring equality for women. Can the member comment on how she feels about her party, the Conservative Party, voting against the special committee for pay equity in 2016, and subsequently her party and members of her party's…
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Madam Chair, in the member's speech she mentioned that there is a lot more to do to address the issue of gender-based violence. I wonder, as we find out through a holistic, all-emcompassing approach the role of a woman's autonomy over her own body, what role that plays within gender-based violence. I ask the member how she feels about the stance of her party and members of her party on the control…
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Madam Chair, I have a lot of concerns about the member blaming the pornographic industry as the sole reason for intimate partner violence, gender-based violence and toxic masculinity. I will pick up on her closing remarks when she said that women are not objects and ask her if she believes that a woman has the autonomy to decide what happens to her body. I will leave it at that.
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Madam Chair, the member is absolutely right: Violence against women is not a partisan issue. However, it continues because there is no accountability. There is a culture of impunity. All night I have been trying to get answers from certain members of the opposition to find out if they believe that a woman has control over her own body, so I want to ask the member, who gave a very passionate speech…
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Madam Chair, the bill the member refers to has been top of mind to me and members of the justice committee as we have endeavoured over the past number of weeks to study the issue of coercive and controlling behaviours as leading up to potentially lethal violence against women. I wholeheartedly support measures that we can take as Parliament to address what coercive and controlling behaviour is. We…
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Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to the main estimates 2021-22, and its seventh report in relation to the supplementary estimates (C) 2020-21. The committee has considered the estimates referred by the House and reports the same back without amendment.
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Mr. Speaker, this International Women's Day comes after a long year of combatting COVID. Women have been at the forefront of the pandemic's impact. As we move forward toward recovery, can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality update the House on how the recent launch of the feminist response and recovery fund would provide support to essential organizations work…
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Mr. Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on food banks across Canada, but that did not stop them from keeping their doors open and working tirelessly to serve the most vulnerable of Canadians. Today I want to recognize Eden Food for Change, a remarkable food bank in my riding of Mississauga—Erin Mills that has been serving the needs of vulnerable residents for the past 30 years. Over th…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of bad heckling, the stats on mental health in Canada were concerning even before COVID-19. During these past 10 months, we have seen an alarming increase in the number of Canadians struggling with mental health, as well as an increase in substance abuse, overdoses and opioid-related deaths. This pandemic has left people isolated, anxious and uncertain of what the future hold…
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Mr. Speaker, more than two years have passed since Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arbitrarily detained in China. The former minister of foreign affairs was right when he said, on the second anniversary of their detention, that these are two years that have been stolen from them. Canadians, including all members of this House, remain united in calling for their immediate release so they can…
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