Status of Women Committee on April 2nd, 2019

[Hannah Martin]

My question has to do with Bill C-262, which is the private member's bill on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As you know, the Government of Canada spoke at the United Nations in 2016, officially declaring that Canada would be adopting this piece of legislation without qualification. I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Personally—and this is the belief of many indigenous people in Turtle Island—I believe this document has to be presented and legislated as a full box of comprehensive rights. It can't be chopped up and divided, or it's going to lose its essence as a piece of legislation.

I would like to hear from anyone who's willing to speak to this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We have the opportunity for one speaker at this moment. We have to keep it as brief as possible. I recognize it's very long.

Irene, good luck. You can do this, Irene.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I have to say we're very proud in my party to have Romeo Saganash. He was one of the writers of this piece of legislation, and you're absolutely right that it has to be a part of everything we do. We have to make it integral to our decision-making and respectful of the needs of indigenous people.

Almost 10 years ago, I was on this committee and we travelled and talked to indigenous women about the reality of their communities. We went to the north. We talked to Inuit women. I wanted to come back to this. In regard to their needs and the needs of their families, they said, “We know what has to be done.” That's how we respect the entire issue of reconciliation. We listen to the people who have experienced a trauma and we respect their solutions.

[Hannah Martin]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. Thank you so much.

Megan, we're going to give you the floor.

[Megan Linton]

I'm hoping to direct this towards the Conservative Party, which mandated and followed this, and specifically to you, Ms. Leitch, as a physician. How do you justify the use of forced segregation in prisons despite its having been decreed a form of psychiatric torture by the United Nations and many physicians?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Kellie, did you want to take it?

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I'm happy to answer the question. I'd have to have more specifics, particularly around what piece of legislation or what piece of programming you're speaking about.

As a physician, I think that mental health is an issue that has to be addressed for all Canadians. As minister of labour, I spent a significant amount of time working on mental health issues in the workplace. I'm happy to speak to you or anyone else about what you may know that I don't know, because my knowledge is not all-encompassing with regard to the legislation of any government. I don't even know if I was elected at the time this piece of legislation came forward. I'm happy to talk to you about it.

To the points you made on the panel and today around mental health issues, obviously, as a physician, I think they're exceptionally important, and I have published on these issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You'll also find that there is a published paper that we've done, from the status of women committee. It's a study we did on indigenous women in the correctional system. There may be some information you could find in there. You may want to look at some of the testimony in there as well. You may find that very helpful.

Moving on, we have Corina.

[Corina Picui]

I want to direct this to the chair. According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, article II, which defines the term “genocide”, there are many examples of what would constitute genocide, including things like “[f]orcibly transferring children of the group to another group”, “[i]mposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”, “[c]ausing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and many others. Given that reality, it seems pretty clear that Canada isn't committing cultural genocide, but rather genocide, period.

What are you, individually, doing to prevent this, especially given the fact that women experience very harmful consequences of forms of genocide?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's a great question. One of the things I'm doing right now is sitting down and speaking with families. When we talk about families going through a crisis, as I said yesterday, we're talking about intergenerational trauma that some of our first nations persons have gone through. It really gave me the understanding that the decisions the chiefs were making yesterday are not decisions for today but decisions for seven generations from now. Those are really important things. To be honest, we have to sit down and we have to understand more and stop putting our lens on it—as in, Karen Vecchio's lens. We need the lens coming from everybody else who has actually been impacted.

Those are some of the biggest things that I think we have to look at.

[Corina Picui]

To clarify, would you agree that the Canadian government is committing genocide against indigenous peoples in Canada?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I really can't go there on this one. I appreciate that question, but I really can't go there.

We're now going to move on to Charlotte.

Charlotte, you have the floor. Please be very quick.

[Charlotte Scott-Frater]

This question is for Ms. Mathyssen.

I'm really interested in the national housing strategy; I think it's critical. I just wanted to know how the national housing strategy is going to address sustainability. Would it address green or grey urbanism, densification and that sort of thing?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you very much, Charlotte.

I want you to know that some years ago, we did have a national housing strategy. It was terminated in 1993. It utilized CMHC revenues in order to build co-op and not-for-profit housing. I have 14 co-ops and not-for-profit housing projects in my riding alone. The Government of Ontario, between 1990 and 1995, built 50,000 units, and they became communities; they're very important communities. We have to get back to that. We have to make sure that the funding is there, that the vision is there, that the capacity is there and that the will to invest in that housing comes from the federal government, and not in some distant future.

We have to start now, because in the last 20 years, the erosion of housing has been criminal. There are a million people who suffer because they don't have adequate housing, and we have to change that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. We'll now go on to our final question, from Claire.

[Claire Belliveau]

Thank you.

My question is for any woman who would like to jump in and address it. I'm not asking for a specific story, instance or experience, but I would like to ask you this: As a woman in Parliament in Canada, do you feel that the harassment policy is effectively followed? What I mean is this: If you or someone you know were to be harassed, whether you go through your party, through Parliament or however you go about it, do you feel that those procedures are effectively being followed? If not, will you champion for those to improve?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'm trying to stay the chair, so I'm trying to stay neutral.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

My answer is no, and I'm happy to champion it. I have gone through a leadership campaign where people aggressively pursued harassing me. I've also had that happen on Parliament Hill. To your point, I think it's important that women in leadership roles have a voice and actually act as a voice for others. I'm happy to talk to any of you about that, and I'm happy to talk to young women outside this room, in order to make sure they feel they have a champion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We have bells. We have a vote in 15 minutes. For anyone who wants a group photo here, I'm willing to stay 10 seconds. If we want to do a group photo, that's fine.

The meeting is adjourned.