moved that Bill S-11, an act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act in order to add social condition as a prohibited ground of discrimination, be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Mr. Speaker, it is with emotion and hope that I initiate today the second reading debate on Bill S-11, an act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act in order to add social condition as a prohibited ground of discrimination.
I would like to be able to start my presentation by stating that we have every reason to be proud of living in this country because Canada is internationally recognized as one of the leading proponents of human justice, as a country whose society is said to acknowledge every human being's right to dignity, respect and equal opportunities. Unfortunately, I cannot make such a statement because nothing could be further from the truth.
As governments in this country concentrate their energies on reducing the budget deficit, the equality deficit caused by poverty in the form of discrimination is being overlooked. While being increasingly recognized on the international scene as a human rights issue, poverty remains one of the main barriers to equality in Canadian society.
Indeed, Canadians who, because they are poor, are excluded from the social, economic and cultural life the rest of us enjoy are often treated like second class citizens. The everyday reality of many Canadians, living in poverty generally means lack of food, substandard housing, increased vulnerability to illness and systemic barriers to schooling and employment.
But, to add insult to injury, there is more to this horrific state of affairs.
In addition to having to endure the material hardships that accompany poverty, poor Canadians are always having to face ostracism and negative stereotyping in their dealings with financial institutions, owners, businesses and their staff, officials, the legal system, neighbours and strangers and in the media.
Canadian society is indeed intolerant of the poor. This disparaging treatment is in part fed by the generalized obsession with the debt and the deficit, as I mentioned.
Canadians who depend on social programs in order to live are disparaged and humiliated by taxpayers as a whole. The conclusion is self evident. Disparagement of the poor promotes discrimination against them. In other words, I would say they are faulted in a way for being poor.
Despite this general attitude, I am convinced that many Canadians would be upset to see how financial institutions treat the poor.
Although I recognize the recent efforts by the banks to give disadvantaged clients greater access to basic services and to treat them fairly and courteously, I feel they have a long way to go when I hear that some people are still having trouble cashing their government cheque.
As recently as last month, the media in Quebec were talking about how difficult it is for welfare recipients to obtain services in federally chartered banks as well as in the provincially regulated caisses populaires.
A simple amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act would prohibit discrimination against the poor and would give these people an effective recourse when they are discriminated against, for example, when they are denied housing or the possibility to open a bank account.
Let us not kid ourselves. There are still people in this country today who are victims of discrimination when they do such simple things as apply for a job, look for an apartment or open a bank account. Add to that the feeling of shame from having to stand in line at the soup kitchen and the feeling of anguish from not knowing if their children will have a roof over their heads and food on the table the next day. Members will certainly agree with me that these people unquestionably need to have their right to respect and to dignity protected under the law.
I am talking about the protection of a right since Bill S-11, which supports both the intent and the purpose of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, does not grant any special privilege to the poor in Canada. Its sole purpose is to ensure explicit recognition of poverty and its related attributes, such as being a welfare recipient, and to prohibit discrimination against the poor in areas under federal jurisdiction.
Need I remind members that the Canadian Human Rights Act does recognize that some people in our society are considered vulnerable and must be protected against discrimination. The prohibited grounds of discrimination include race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, marital status, family status, disability and, since not too long ago, sexual orientation.
Bill S-11 simply proposes to add the words “social condition” to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 2 and subsection 3(1) of the act. And the reason for that is very simple: one-fifth of the Canadian population does not live the same way you and I do.
I know this concept is hard to grasp for those of us who have never had to face the human misery associated with real poverty. Let me ask you to follow me for a few seconds on an imaginary trip that might help you measure the magnitude of the terrible social and human problem that poverty is.
Imagine yourself coming home to announce to your family that you just lost your job, a job in which you poured all your talent and energy, sometimes at the expense of your loved ones, because there was just not enough time.
Now, you have all the time in the world, but what are you going to do with it? You just did not think this could ever happen to you. In the weeks that followed the initial shock you started looking for work, knocking on every door and meeting every employer who might need your services.
Unfortunately, the labour market is saturated. While being apologetic and polite, employers constantly explain to you that they have to face the new economic realities. They simply do not need you.
Weeks have gone by. You have used up your savings and your retirement fund. You must now sell the car, and you will soon have to do the same with the house, because you can no longer pay the mortgage.
You managed to save face in front of your friends and your neighbours during the first few weeks of this nightmare. But now they are aware of the situation. There is no way you can hide the sad reality of your human and social decline. You are a poor and undesirable human being that one may nod to but would rather cross the street not to have to acknowledge.
For some time now, no one has come to shake hands with you and ask you how you have been. No one wants to hear bad news. It is too depressing. You may think you have reached bottom, but you are wrong. You have seen nothing yet, because now you have to find ways to survive.
So you go to your bank manager, with whom you have always enjoyed a friendly relationship, and now it is his turn to tell you, in a very official tone, that he cannot lend you money. “I am sorry, but I have to abide by the rules of the institution. My hands are tied, you have to believe me”, is what he tells you, secretly hoping this is the last time he has to deal with you.
What is next? To whom do you turn to? To a food bank? No. To the state, of course, to this welfare state that cares so much about the have-nots in our society. You will have to forget about your pride and your dignity, that is if you have any left. But you have no choice. You have to feed your hungry children, who are giving you a reproachful look, blaming you for the social stigma that will no doubt mark them for the rest of their lives.
Poverty is a debilitating scourge which strikes at random. Let us stop thinking we can be spared such a plague and let us work together towards its elimination.
“The day will come when nations will be judged not by their military or economic strength, nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their peoples: by their levels of health, nutrition and education; by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for their labours; by their ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives; by the respect that is shown for their civil and political liberties; by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged; and by the protection that is afforded to the growing minds and bodies of their children.” This quote from the United Nations report entitled “The Progress of Nations” sums up perfectly the spirit in which I am undertaking this initiative in the House today in order to give some dignity back to the poorest citizens of this country.
The Prime Minister himself said: “Canada may not be a super-power, but we are a nation who speaks on the international scene with great moral authority”. Are we really entitled to waiving our moral authority in the face of other economic world powers? I wonder. We are indeed perceived as such, but what are the facts? I willingly acknowledge that for the fifth year in a row, the United Nations world report on human development has rated Canada as having the best quality of life compared to 174 other countries.
However, in spite of this highly desirable ranking with regard to human development, according to the same report, out of 17 industrialized countries, Canada has the 10th highest level of poverty. Indeed, according to the UN human poverty indicator, 11.7% of Canadians live under the poverty line, a most embarrassing situation for a country that is so proud of its moral values.
I say that citizens of this country have a right to expect their government to take without delay the steps required to reinforce and clarify the current legislation on human rights.
The Canadian Human Rights Act, which is the keystone of our legislation in this regard, is essentially aimed at protecting citizens against discrimination and guarantees equal opportunities in federal jurisdictions such as telecommunications and banks. It also embodies the international human rights commitments Canada has made since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948. With the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and provincial legislation on human rights, this Canadian law promoted the fundamental values of equality and human dignity.
Unfortunately, this act is not currently clear or consistent. Although it is aimed at promoting equity for all Canadians, it perpetuates the discrimination it seeks to eliminate by protecting only certain vulnerable groups.
The fact that the Canadian Human Rights Act does not include social condition among prohibited grounds of discrimination is an indication of the social and economic alienation of the poor and of their lack of influence in the Canadian political system.
Until this oversight in the legislation is corrected, the poor will continue to be the victims of discrimination and prejudice. The specific purpose of Bill S-11 is to rectify the situation by building a society where everybody are equal.
That is why this bill is so important to me. The almost ideal society where everyone is entitled to the same respect and the same human dignity is now within our grasp. The poor may be the only marginalized group that has not yet been included in the Canadian Human Rights Act. It is up to us, as members of this House, to correct this deplorable flaw in the legislation.
From a practical point of view, this will tell employers and service providers under federal jurisdiction that they cannot discriminate against a person because he or she is, for example, a welfare recipient. I want to emphasize that adding social condition as a prohibited ground of discrimination would not force businesses to provide services if they have good reason to believe that the client is unable to pay or that he or she clearly represents a financial risk.
Indeed, paragraph 15(g) of the act states clearly that there is no discrimination when an individual is denied services or is a victim of any adverse differentiation and there is bona fide justification for that denial of differentiation.
Having said that, I want to mention that national antipoverty organizations that are unsatisfied with the lack of legislation on human rights have started to use the judiciary system to bring about some change. They essentially claim that marginalized groups that are not listed in the charter of rights, but who are the victims of such discrimination, must be considered on the same footing as the groups that are listed and be treated as such under the law. They only have to prove to the court that these groups are the victims of such discrimination.
For example, this was the direction taken by homosexuals rights' advocates when they got tired of waiting for politicians to act. Noting their success, other groups in search of equality are already starting to follow suit.
By amending the Canadian Human Rights Act to include social condition among prohibited grounds of discrimination, parliament will then fulfil its responsibility to abide by the Canadian charter of rights, while saving taxpayers the costs associated with court challenges in order to bring the Canadian Human Rights Act in line with the Constitution of Canada and international commitments made by Canada on human rights.
On both a symbolic and practical level, it would be important, on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, for Canada to reaffirm the commitments it made when ratifying international covenants, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
I remind the House that Canada ratified this international covenant in 1976. By signing this covenant, the federal government recognized the right of all Canadians and of their families to enjoy an adequate standard of living, including food on the table, good clothing, appropriate housing and living conditions that keep improving. The agreement also provides for periodical reviews of Canada's compliance with the covenant.
This committee is currently carrying out its third periodical review. I am afraid that, once again, as a government, we will get bad reviews. Need I remind the House that, while the standard of living has improved for some Canadians in certain areas, Canada has yet to guarantee access to the bare necessities for its most vulnerable citizens.
Food banks, which were nowhere to be found in the 1970s, now number in the thousands and can be found in 450 communities. The problem of affordable and adequate housing has now become a full-blown crisis: almost 400,000 Canadians live in substandard housing.
These are some of the issues that convinced the National Anti-Poverty Organization and the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues to travel to Geneva, in May of 1993, to appear during the examination of Canada's second report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The brief submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the testimony of these two national anti-poverty organizations, emphasized the inequities in what they ironically call “the land of plenty”. Not surprisingly, committee members were quite stunned by the information they were provided with, since they thought all Canadians enjoyed an exemplary standard of living. They were also shocked to find out about the high levels of poverty among children and single mothers, the large number of food banks, and the state of disrepair of a large proportion of low-cost housing units.
On June 10, 1993, the Committee on Economic, Social and Economic Rights tabled its conclusions, in which it expressed a number of concerns about poverty in Canada. The committee was alarmed at the persistence of poverty in the country, and at the fact that no significant progress had apparently been made in the previous decade. It expressed its particular concern that more than half of all single mothers and a large number of children live in poverty.
The committee recommended among other measures that the legislation on human rights include more explicit provisions on social, economic and cultural rights. By passing Bill S-11, we would confirm Canada's will to take these criticisms into consideration.
I also like to think that, by expanding the scope of the Canadian Human Rights Act, we are doing more than merely defending an ideal. The protection of these rights could well be one of our most powerful tools in the fight against poverty, since it promotes human dignity, justice and equal opportunities.
Since the Canadian Human Rights Act is a powerful education tool, establishing standards would help create social behaviours. A dialogue would then follow, so that institutions and the public in general might better understand what it means to live in poverty.
In another vein, I want to say that the fact that most circumstances leading to discrimination based on social condition come under provincial jurisdiction does not justify the absence of this prohibited ground from the federal act. People in this country have the right to seek remedy and redress when federally regulated institutions such as banks, airlines and telecommunications companies practice discrimination based on social condition.
Bill S-11 does not infringe on the provinces' legislative powers since the Canadian Human Rights Act only applies to areas under federal jurisdiction. This being said, it should be noted that the provinces are ahead of us and have acted in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
As a matter of fact, in eight provinces, the human rights act prohibits discrimination based on social condition, social background, source of income or being on welfare. The steps they took are aimed at protecting the poor against discriminatory practices in areas under their jurisdiction such as housing and public services. The prohibited ground of discrimination applies to every activity legislated by the provinces except in Ontario where it only applies to housing.
I am pleased to add that my home province is a leader in this area since for the past 13 years the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms has prohibited discrimination based on social condition in every area covered by the charter.
May I conclude by repeating once more that poverty is a serious threat to the right to equality, and that it has no place in an affluent country like Canada.
I urge you to consider poverty in the light of human rights. I suggest that the prejudice the poor have to face in Canada is similar to that of the marginalized groups listed in the Canadian Human Rights Act. Yet, poverty is still not recognized in the law as a direct and dominant cause of inequality and disadvantage in Canadian society.
I urge all my colleagues in the House to correct this regrettable legislative weakness. Let us stop saying it is time to act, and let us do something right now by passing Bill S-11.
