Canadian Heritage Committee on April 9th, 2019

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

We do, and thank you very much for that question. It's something that is a priority, not only for me but for all of us, for the government and the people in the department. If you will allow me, I will concentrate for just a couple of minutes on fighting racism.

As you know, there was an anti-racism strategy in the past that was cut by the previous government. We thought that it was necessary to have one again. Why? It's because we feel that there is more racism, discrimination, than before. Social media carries a lot of things that shouldn't be there. We need to stop that. We need to fight racism. Fighting racism is not something that you do just like that. It's short-term, mid-term and long-term, but you have to start somewhere, and this is what we're doing.

To build a strategy, we've had 22 sessions across the country in the last few months. I participated in the majority of them. My parliamentary secretaries were there, and there were many MPs and ministers. There were 600 participants from 400 different groups. We were in your province a couple of times.

This allowed us to build this national anti-racism strategy, for which we got $45 million in the budget, which is pretty much $15 million a year for three years. Now, I will be able.... I'm not in a position now to share all the details of the strategy, but I can tell you that fighting racism in all its forms, fighting systemic racism, needs different types of actions, and this is what the strategy will include.

It will also include—I can mention it because it was in the budget—a secretariat that will be in Heritage and will coordinate everything that is done across government. More than “coordinate”, the word I always use and want to use is “leadership”. We want to be very proactive on this. We want to show leadership and make sure that all departments are complying and things are changing, because we have to do it for our country and for our children and our grandchildren.

I'm very proud of all the work that brought us here, and I'm really looking forward to presenting the national anti-racism strategy.

[Gordie Hogg, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you for that. One of the issues I have is that if someone of a particular religion or tradition commits a radicalized or terrorist event, the religion is often attached to them. I think we have to move away from that, because radicalization can happen in any culture, with any background and any history. I think we have to move away from that and find ways to.... That's why I think we should be talking about the sameness, because that can happen in any culture.

I'm going to turn my time over to Mr. Boissonnault.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

You have an hour and...I'm sorry. You have one minute and 15 seconds.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Wow. An hour and 15 minutes would be great.

Minister, I have two quick questions.

First, I love diversity in all its forms. How important is it to you, and what's the commitment of the ministry in making sure that we have equitable funding for arts organizations across the country?

Second, how important is it for us to have access for the LGBTQ2 community to celebrate Pride and other events through existing funding? Can you see this increasing in the months and years to come?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

It's extremely important and extremely important—for both.

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Bravo.

Thank you.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Was that short enough?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

You still have 50 seconds.

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

How does giving the LGBTQ community access to funding from Canadian Heritage reflect our fundamental values?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

It is fundamental because it is part of our social fabric and who we are. We recognized that these differences are our strength. We have to provide funding while respecting differences and out of a sense of inclusion and a willingness to and the beauty of working together. As I said, this budget has a lot more money for large and small festivals. These are opportunities for celebrating a host of things, including differences and inclusion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Thank you very much.

We will now move on to Mr. Blaney for five minutes.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Welcome, minister.

Of course we are open to allocating more money for festivals. You talked about the budget. The fact remains that there is a deficit in the tens of billions of dollars, which will be a burden for future generations.

You have a bigger problem than that, minister. Your Prime Minister is caught up in ethics violations involving an unprecedented political interference scandal. I also want to come back to the Norman scandal. The Davie shipyard—

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Point of order. That's out of scope, Mr. Blaney.

Madam Chair, this has nothing to do with the matter at hand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

I agree.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Chair, I hope you didn't deduct this intervention from my speaking time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

That's good.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Chair, I would like Mr. Boissonnault to let me get to my point.

The government is currently in trouble. There are no two ways about it. Last week, the Prime Minister sent an intimidating letter to the leader of the official opposition—

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

I rise on a point of order. He is off topic again.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Mr. Blaney, I would like you to stick to today's topic of discussion.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Chair, if I weren't constantly interrupted I could get to the point I'm trying to make.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

We stop the clock every time.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

What is the government trying to hide? While the government is embroiled in scandals, in intimidating threats against our leader, a minister—

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Madam Chair, you made a ruling.

Mr. Blaney, it is quite clear. You have been off topic three times now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

We have stopped the clock again. I ask that you to stick to talking about—

Canadian heritage and multiculturalism, supplementary estimates (B) and the budget.