Public Safety Committee on Dec. 5th, 2024

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Wow. I'm very sorry that's happening in your community.

I had heard some of the statistics of what we're seeing. As you may know, according to the data, Canada has seen a 75% increase in sexual assaults against women over the last nine years, a 120% increase in sexual violations against children, a 50% increase in violent crime and a 116% increase in gun crime. It sounds, unfortunately, that your community is not safe from this either.

This is the public safety and national security committee. Do you think the issue of intimate partner violence and the violence we're seeing against women and children generally would be worth studying?

[Patrick Brown]

Absolutely. We have some leaders in the Peel police who I believe would have a lot to offer if you had that study.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

We would very much like the opportunity to bring them here. In fact, I have made many efforts to bring forward that issue at the public safety committee. Of course I feel, as do my Conservative colleagues, that this epidemic is one of the most pressing issues that Canada is facing. Many municipalities—in fact, 94, including yours, and the entire province of Nova Scotia—have called intimate partner violence an epidemic. We are making every effort to bring forward that study here. Unfortunately, I think the Liberals would rather talk about the questions we saw in the last round with you, so I believe there are some misplaced priorities in that regard, but they can talk about whatever they wish. That is up to them.

Mr. Brown, just to conclude, I know you said you're a man of action. You want to take action and not play politics. Can you just outline in our last minute a few things for the committee that you think could be done to address intimate partner violence in addition to the things you've already said?

[Patrick Brown]

We need a greater capacity to respond in Canada. I think one thing that's not necessarily appreciated is that in many big cities, there are more 911 calls than there are officers able to respond. One thing I found alarming, from the Peel police union, is that intimate partner violence calls go unresponded to simply because there's no manpower—no human resources—to keep up with the volume of priority one calls. Each year, more priority one calls get pushed to the back burner and I find that alarming.

Knowing how stressed police resources are, what can we do to better equip police forces to deal with this growing volume? There are things the federal government can do. I look at the amount of work we deal with in terms of repeat offenders. That's an area where I think the Government of Canada could certainly help.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqwinder Gaheer]

Thank you.

Ms. O'Connell, you have five minutes.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mayor Brown.

It's not surprising that the Conservatives can't seem to come up with questions about foreign interference when it involves India. I have sat through many studies on foreign interference where they thought it was the most important issue. Now, however, when it involves India, they can't even fill speaking spots for it.

You confirmed today that a sitting MP, Michelle Rempel Garner, was contacted by the consul general of India about terminology around the Sikh nation. It was described as a 45-minute debrief during an angry phone call. That was expressed to you. Your campaign ultimately changed that language.

You mentioned that some of these interactions have been aggressive and have not made you comfortable. If, in fact, some of the allegations in the media reporting are true, you acknowledged they would have constituted foreign interference. Conservatives don't seem to be worried about that one bit. I think that's pretty telling in itself.

I'll get to a question for you, Mayor Brown, about something my colleague Mr. Gerretsen asked you. What specific event in your community were you invited to and then disinvited to, which you acknowledged was accurate?

[Patrick Brown]

It was for the Republic Day event they have in January each year.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

When were you informed that you were no longer welcome at that event?

[Patrick Brown]

It was probably a few days or a week before. It was in regard to, I think, disappointment over my attendance at the Deep Sidhu vigil.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Who told you that you were no longer invited as a result of you going to the vigil?

[Patrick Brown]

It was one of the members of the organization that ran the event.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Did they mention to you whether anyone had contacted them from the Indian consul general because of their displeasure over you attending that vigil?

[Patrick Brown]

No.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

It was the organization itself that uninvited you over attending a vigil in the community.

[Patrick Brown]

They never mentioned to me whether or not they received correspondence from the consul general's office.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Then it's not to say they didn't. They just never mentioned that to you.

[Patrick Brown]

That's correct.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you.

Were there other events that you were uninvited to as a result of your positions that, also correlated to what you said, the Indian government did not appreciate?

[Patrick Brown]

I'm sure there were some other events I wasn't invited to by organizations that do advocacy on behalf of the Indian government in Canada. I'm sure there are a few Canada India Foundation events that I—

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Being disinvited is a big issue. You're a leadership candidate in a federal party. To be disinvited to something is quite significant.

[Patrick Brown]

No, there isn't another example of one, that I'm aware of, that I was disinvited from.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

In regard to your campaign structure, I would assume that, for most leadership campaigns and even nominations, the selling of memberships is a priority. You would have captains, I assume.

Did you have captains based in different community groups, diaspora communities and neighbourhoods? This is usually how it's done. Did you have any captains specifically selling memberships in diaspora communities? If so, what were they?

[Patrick Brown]

Absolutely. That's the nature of leadership and nomination campaigns, as you referenced. You have membership captains in different professions, cultural groups and faith groups, and in every province and city, so it's absolutely—

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you. I'm running out of time.

Did it ever reach you, through your team, that any diaspora community captains said they were no longer comfortable.... It's just like the event you were uninvited to. Did anyone relay to you that there were captains who would no longer continue selling memberships for you?