Science and Research Committee on June 8th, 2026

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Where this question is going is highly offensive.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

MP Danko, this is getting into debate.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

I ask the member to withdraw his comments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

MP Danko, it is getting into debate when—

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Asking “What is a man or woman?” is highly offensive.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I will deal with this.

MP Ho, I request that you be respectful of everybody.

Please go ahead.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll resume.

The census asks the question, “What is your gender?” or, “What is your sex?”, so I want to understand what your view is on this to—

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

MP Noormohamed, go ahead.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

The witness is here in her capacity as the chief science adviser. Her opinion on any matter, as an individual, is actually not relevant to her mandate. I would be interested to see if Mr. Ho could reframe the question, if he so wishes, to be within her mandate as the chief science adviser.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, MP Noormohamed.

MP Ho—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

In these grant applications, it always asks—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

—just one second. I hope you will frame your questions around the purpose of this study today. Thank you.

MP Ho, go ahead.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

I'm getting to that. I just want to hear the answer.

[Mona Nemer]

Madam Chair, if—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

I'm going to ask this because the NRC president, last week—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. We have stopped the clock. She's trying to answer your question, so let her answer.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You have one minute and 47 seconds.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

All right.

[Mona Nemer]

Genetically speaking, we define female in the animal kingdom as someone with two X chromosomes.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

I ask this because we had the NRC president here at this committee last week, and he seemed to think the definition of a woman is just a check mark in a box. I wanted to get some clarity on that. Thank you for that.

You attended an event back in February about the success of women in STEM. It's important that we know what the definition of a woman is because we're celebrating the achievements of women in STEM.

Your mandate as chief science adviser claims to make sure that scientists are “able to speak freely about their work”.

If a federally funded scientist or researcher publicly opposed federal Liberal DEI top-down policies, would you support their right to speak freely and continue to advocate for funding of their research?

[Mona Nemer]

I'm a little lost about the exact question. We put forward the science integrity policy. I think both employer and employee agree that the employee can speak freely about their research, so that's—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

What if they publicly said they opposed the DEI quotas and the DEI requirements? Would you defend their right to speak freely on this matter? It goes into granting research positions and research funding.

[Mona Nemer]

Madam Chair, I think my difficulty in answering the question is because part of it actually has to do with policy. It's not a science thing; it's a matter of policy.