Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to speak today to Bill C-332, an act to amend the Criminal Code, introduced on May 18 by the member for Victoria. This bill seeks to achieve the critically important objective of greater protection from coercive and controlling conduct in intimate partner relationships.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Victoria for her work on this very important legislation. The member mentioned that other jurisdictions have already implemented similar legislation. What we have heard from those jurisdictions is that, while the legislation is good, the implementation has had some difficulty because members of the justice system did not always know how to implement the new law.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), in response to the unprecedented challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada acted quickly in providing $300 million of emergency funding to over 1,400 organizations, such as women’s shelters, sexual assault centres and other organizations that provide critical supports and services to those experiencing gender-based violence, GBV.

Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education  Mr. Speaker, we are coming to the end of Women's History Month. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight a woman in my riding of Hamilton Mountain who has dedicated her career to improving the lives of her tiny charges, their families and our entire community. Ala Mohamed is the manager of child care at YWCA Hamilton.

Youth Employment  Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise for the first time in the House as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth. Our government does great work empowering our next generation of leaders through programs such as Canada summer jobs, youth employment and skills and Canada Service Corps.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, this government really believes in supporting journalists and sticking up for them in the face of intimidation tactics by tech giants.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, I completely agree that journalists and small media outlets need support. At the same time, Bill C‑18 gives them the autonomy to negotiate directly with major tech companies. Some do not want money from the government. We must continue to talk about all the ways in which we can support journalists, but I believe that Bill C‑18 is a good start.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, that is a very important question. I did meet with stakeholders who were indigenous journalists. They told us about how important it was for them to tell their stories in their own way from their own voice and to not have a definition of journalism imposed upon them that would not feel natural for their lifestyle.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, I agree that Canadians take their news in all forms. Like many people, I enjoy reading lots of news from online journalism sources. What people need to know is that the government is not getting involved in censoring the Internet. There is nothing like that at all.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, I am very happy to rise today to speak to Bill C-18, the online news act. As members have heard, I am a former broadcast and newspaper journalist, and I am also currently a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Therefore, this bill really is important to me.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to answer the member opposite by saying that yes, I have worked in newsrooms. For more than 20 years I worked in newsrooms. I also sit on the heritage committee. I know that this legislation is possible because it is already working in a similar form in Australia, supporting small local news outlets in Australia.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, my colleague is also on the Canadian heritage committee. I really love that he highlighted how well this legislation worked in Australia to support smaller news outlets and how the big tech companies fought back with intimidation tactics. We are even seeing similar intimidation tactics here in Canada from those same big tech giants.

Online News Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague. I very much enjoy working with him on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. I enjoyed his description of journalists and what they do for our society. I wanted to ask him what he thinks will happen if we do not adopt Bill C‑18 and if we do not support our journalists.

Diversity and Inclusion  Mr. Speaker, around the world we are seeing the rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ people being restricted. Even within our own borders, we are seeing extremist groups callously using innocent trans and non-binary children as political targets. The Minister of Labour recently represented Canada at the UN International Labour Organization in Geneva, where he raised this issue.

Canadian Japanese Cultural Centre  Mr. Speaker, this Seniors Month, I would like to recognize the Canadian Japanese Cultural Centre in my riding of Hamilton Mountain. Founded after the Second World War, CJCC initially gathered its members in homes and churches before establishing their centre on Hamilton Mountain, where I am proud to say it still thrives today.