Mr. Speaker, Canada's anti-poverty groups are in Geneva today briefing UN officials on Canada's utter disregard for the conventions of the UN covenant on social, economic and cultural rights, a covenant that calls on government to work to ensure basic social rights like the rights of shelter and adequate nutrition.
Anyone committed to social justice now awaits what is sure to be a devastating UN rebuke. The central government has become adept at ignoring the cries of outrage emanating from within Canada's borders. The question is when that condemnation comes from the UN will it still be ignored.
We in the NDP are calling on the finance minister to commit today to using the $10 billion budget surplus, a product of his continued attacks on the poor, to at least meet the basic requirements agreed to in the UN covenant.