Debates of March 15th, 2010

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Madam Speaker, the longer I am in the House, the more I realize we have a tendency to talk past each other. I do not think the member was listening to my comments, which were simple and straightforward.

All of the organizations that I listed have applied for and received funding under the current criteria, under the current criteria, under the current criteria. I say it three times so that he might possibly hear it. KAIROS did not apply under the current criteria. It did not meet the criteria and therefore did not receive the funds.

With respect to the small $75,000 grant, any human being would have compassion for this woman and her situation, but there are six billion going on seven billion people in the world, most of whom can use Canada's aid and assistance. We need to be focused, effective and accountable to the people of Canada.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to rise and probe a little further the question I asked on March 5 of the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. To remind the House, the question was with respect to the new citizenship guide and some omissions and deletions in the preparation of it.

I will begin by saying that for me citizenship is much more than just about voting. It is actually about full participation in the life and fabric of our society. It is the way people choose to exercise that participation economically, socially and culturally that we celebrate when people become citizens.

Every month I sign anywhere between 80 and 200 certificates for new Canadians who have taken an oath, pledged their allegiance and decided to become part of Canada as citizens and take up those responsibilities. To help them in that process, the government has come up with a new citizenship guide. I want to applaud the government for some of the new inclusions in this fuller and quite beautiful guide about Canada.

The guide has included a military history, which was not there previously, and a greater focus on Canada's first nations and other aboriginal peoples, but there is a glaring omission or perhaps exclusion. That has to do with the history of gay and lesbian people in the fabric of our society and in full inclusion. That is quite a disappointment for me because I think there are two reasons that becomes important.

One of those reasons is that new Canadians can celebrate the advancements made by gay and lesbian people as part of their history when they become citizens. They could actually celebrate the human rights agenda, equal marriage rights and those things that perhaps they did not have in the country they left and this new country has. Part of the embrace of Canada is the embrace of gay and lesbian people.

We cannot be naive about this because that document is also an educational tool. It reminds people of the things they might not know about this country. It also tells us that some of our rights are fragile. The minister's own actions, with the exclusion of gay and lesbian history, is part of that fragility. It is incumbent upon the government to stand up for all people and reflect the goodness of this country and the greatness of its people.

The public record is pretty clear. Documents received under access to information have clearly indicated that the department requested that the minister include gay and lesbian history. Unfortunately, he made the decision to exclude it, which is his right. The government has the right to exclude anybody from history it would like to exclude, but it does not have the right to not explain fully how that happened and while I was not party to the meeting with the director of Egale, it is clear on the public record that the minister denied his responsibility on this and said that it was a mere omission.

It is time for the minister to own up to his responsibility. He said that he was responsible for the guide. I hope he can now take this as an opportunity to assure the House, as the government needs to and which the parliamentary secretary hopefully will, that gay and lesbian history will be included in an update to the guide, that there will be no exclusion by a minister or his or her office and that there will be no attempt to rewrite Canadian history but to give every new Canadian citizen the opportunity to know he or she is written into our history the day of arrival and will never be written out of history. That is the goal and I hope the government can make that pledge and commitment today.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Don Valley West for his question. I also want to compliment him. I just have a suit on today, but he has taken it a step further. I guess this is heightening the level of our dress required when here for a late show in the evening, and that perhaps our dress has to get even better, so I compliment him this evening for that.

This government is committed to promoting and strengthening the value of Canadian citizenship. For Canadian citizenship to be meaningful, it is of utmost importance that new and longstanding Canadians alike share a common understanding of our rights, our responsibilities, our common institutions and, of course, our history. This is how we develop and maintain a common sense of Canadian identity and pride in our country.

That process took a major step forward last fall with the launch of “Discover Canada”, a new study guide for Canadian citizenship. As anyone who has read the guide can attest, “Discover Canada” better reflects the fact that one of the requirements for Canadian citizenship is to demonstrate adequate knowledge of Canada and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

This guide was rewritten to tell the story of Canada in a more compelling way. In so doing, it will help hundreds of thousands of new Canadians better understand the values, symbols, institutions and history of our country. It will also strengthen the value of our Canadian citizenship by giving readers more information about what it means to be a Canadian citizen and by emphasizing not only the rights that citizenship confers but also the responsibilities it entails.

The previous study guide had not been significantly revised since it was created in 1995. Even before work was done on revising the guide, key individuals and organizations involved in citizenship promotion were consulted in order to find out what they felt newcomers needed to know to get a picture of Canada and Canadians. It was determined that the previous guide lacked information on Canada's history, on its military contributions, its symbols, its values and institutions, all of the things that newcomers need to know to develop a better understanding of and stronger attachment to our country.

This 1995 guide was produced under a Liberal government, and my colleague from Don Valley West outlined some of the problem with that guide from a historical perspective. The 1995 guide omitted numerous important facts about Canada and its history. The guide we replaced failed to mention the equality of men and women, residential schools, responsible government and the 110,000 Canadians who gave their lives in the world wars. In fact the old guide had no mention whatsoever of gays or lesbians.

Many respected Canadians helped the Government of Canada write this study guide over the nearly nine month process. Each one of these public figures, authors and historians contributed their expertise and unique perspectives on Canada. All input was considered as part of the challenge of capturing Canada's history, its identity and values, and of putting it all into one document.

The result is a guide that is more comprehensive in scope, which emphasizes both the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and whose popularity among Canadians quite frankly speaks for itself.

Perhaps I will give just a few examples of how our new guide was actually received. Let me just quote from Maclean's magazine of November 23, 2009:

Ottawa's new citizenship guide properly ensures every new immigrant will know what it really means to be a Canadian.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his comments, none of which I disagree with. I think this citizenship guide is a massive improvement and I have no need to defend the record of a previous Liberal government. I was not here.

What I am doing is looking to the future, and what I would hope is that the government could simply acknowledge that a group of people was left out. It was a hurtful action and it was not a just action; it was not a good action or a right action.

I do not actually even want to score political points on this. We need to lift ourselves beyond that and simply address the fact that every citizenship guide needs to be better than the previous one, and that in any new edition we have to recognize that this country is an evolving one with new people, new understandings and new ideas.

There is great fanfare that, yes, there is an Olympic gold medal winner, Mark Tewksbury, who is in it as an openly gay person, a champion; but it is simply not enough. He has said that he does not represent the broad diversity. We want a commitment that all will be included.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Madam Speaker, for Canadian citizenship to be meaningful, it is important that all Canadians share a common understanding of our rights and responsibilities.

That is why the previous study guide for Canadian citizenship, which had not been revised since it was created in 1995, has been rewritten with a broader and stronger focus on the history and institutions of Canada and our military contributions.

The new guide is comprehensive in scope. It is focused on the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship, and reinforces that citizenship is a two-way street and that newcomers and people who are Canadian by birth have both the responsibility and opportunity to build on this.

In closing, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation news release, via Canada NewsWire, stated:

It is not enough to memorize Canadian history, but rather to understand its context and meaning. This guide is a step in the right direction.

[The Acting Speaker, Denise Savoie]

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 6:58 p.m.)