Debates of May 2nd, 2016

Justice

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present two petitions today.

The first petition calls upon the House of Commons to pass legislation which would recognize preborn children as separate victims when they are injured or killed during the commission of an offence against their mothers, allowing two charges to be laid against the offender instead of just one.

Physician-Assisted Dying

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from over 200 petitioners who are calling upon the Government of Canada to enact clear conscience protection for health care workers and institutions with respect to the physician-assisted dying bill that is before the House.

Justice

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want Parliament to know about the tragic story of Cassandra Kaake, who was 31 weeks pregnant when she was murdered in Windsor, Ontario. Tragically, there will be no justice for Cassandra's unborn baby girl, Molly, who was killed in that violent attack. That is because in Canadian criminal law, a preborn child is not recognized as a separate victim in attacks against their mother.

This petition calls upon Parliament to pass legislation to allow a separate charge to be laid in the death or injury of a preborn child when that child's mother is a victim of a crime.

Canadians want justice for victims like Molly.

Insecticides

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present two petitions.

The first is from residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands, from Pender, Salt Spring, Saturna, Victoria, and Saanich. They are all calling for the current government to act to protect pollinators and health by following Europe's lead and banning neonicotinoid pesticides in Canada.

Genetically Modified Foods

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from residents throughout Ontario, but particularly from the Thunder Bay area, who are calling for the government to act to label all products containing genetically modified organisms.

Palliative Care

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition on palliative care. The petition highlights that in the Carter v. Canada decision of the Supreme Court, competent and consenting adults can request assisted suicide or euthanasia. The petition then states that it is impossible for persons to give informed consent who do not have access to adequate palliative care to deal with their suffering. The petitioners are therefore calling on Parliament to establish a national strategy on palliative care.

Questions on the Order Paper

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, the following question will be answered today: No. 72.

Question No. 72

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

With respect to the sharing of entry and exit information at land based border crossings with the United States: (a) has the government made the United States government aware that some Canadians who cross in to the United States at a land crossing subsequently leave the United States, usually within a few days, to cross by land in to Mexico, or by air for some other destination; (b) has the United States government indicated how it plans to avoid incorrectly identifying such Canadians as overstaying their visas; (c) what paperwork and information should be kept by Canadians who spend the winter in Mexico after crossing in to that country by land, in order to satisfy United States representatives that they have not spent the winter months in the United States; and (d) is there any plan by the United States or Canada to introduce border crossing entry and exit information sharing with Mexico that could make the United States aware when a Canadian leaves the United States to enter Mexico?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, in response to (a) and (b), the government has not specifically raised this scenario with, nor requested this information from, the Government of the United States. In the “Entry/Exit Overstay Report Fiscal Year 2015”, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security notes that it collects exit data for travellers departing the U.S. through air and sea ports.

Exit information will be used by both Canada and the U.S. to support the identification of potential overstays. Additional measures will be taken to further validate the accuracy of the information and prevent the wrongful identification of travellers. In this regard, Canada and the U.S. will work together to identify and assess potential scenarios which may result from the sharing of information, including implications for Canadians temporarily visiting the U.S. who may depart the U.S. via the southern land border into Mexico.

In response to (c), all questions regarding the paperwork required by the U.S. should be directed to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In response to (d), Canada has no plans for such an initiative at this time. The CBSA cannot address current or potential arrangements between the U.S. and Mexico.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, if a supplementary response to Question No. 53, originally tabled on April 11, 2016, as well as Questions Nos. 71 and 73 could be made orders for returns, these returns would be tabled immediately.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Question No. 53

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

With regard to the Translation Bureau (TB), which falls under the responsibility of Public Works and Government Services Canada: (a) since 2013-2014, broken down by year, (i) how many translator, interpreter, terminologist and reviser positions has the TB had, (ii) how many client institutions has the TB had; (b) what is the total amount billed to the TB’s client institutions for (i) translation or revision services, (ii) interpretation services; (c) what are the estimated costs of implementing a machine translation tool as of April 1, 2016; (d) what studies were undertaken on (i) the justification for implementing a machine translation tool, (ii) the impact of a machine translation tool on bilingualism in the public service, (iii) the quality of the texts translated by a machine translation tool, (iv) the costs associated with implementing a machine translation tool; (e) since 2005-2006, broken down by year and by department, what has been the total value of the contracts sent to external suppliers rather than the TB, broken down by contracts for (i) translation, (ii) interpretation, (iii) revision; (f) what financial and human resources, in terms of staff working in full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, has the TB devoted to developing its machine translation tool; (g) since 2011-2012, broken down by year and by department, what financial and human resources, in terms of FTEs, have been devoted to external suppliers and allocated to (i) contracting with suppliers for translation and revision, (ii) management of the contracts referred to in (i), (iii) quality assurance for these contracts; (h) since 2005-2006, broken down by year and by department, how many words have been translated by external suppliers rather than the TB; (i) since 2005-2006, broken down by year, how much has the TB paid suppliers of translation services with which it has contracted; (j) since 2005-2006, broken down by year, what financial and human resources, in terms of FTEs, has the TB devoted to (i) contracting with suppliers for translation, (ii) management of these contracts, (iii) quality assurance for these contracts; (k) since 2013-2014, broken down by month, how many words have been sent to the TB by client institutions and (i) translated by translators who are indeterminate employees of the TB, (ii) translated by TB suppliers; (l) has the government taken steps to hire new employees between now and 2019-2020, and if so, how many translators will be hired internally, broken down by year, (i) in indeterminate positions, (ii) in temporary positions; and (m) what is the TB’s current pricing structure?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 71

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

With regard to the government’s budgets, whether or not all the departments committed to them, as relates to the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec: (a) what was the amount spent, and what amount remained unspent, for these activities, broken down by (i) fiscal year, (ii) program, (iii) region, from 2002-2003 to 2014-2015; (b) what amount has been spent, and what amount remains unspent, for these activities during the current fiscal year; (c) what was the amount budgeted to be spent on these activities, broken down by fiscal year from 2002-2003 to 2014-2015; and (d) what was the amount budgeted to be spent on these activities during the current fiscal year?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 73

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

With regard to the government’s support for the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute (CIRDI): (a) what is the breakdown of spending to date by (i) project, (ii) country of focus, (iii) individuals who travelled for each event, (iv) individuals from host countries who participated in each event; (b) what are the detailed sources of both committed and received funding by (i) the government, (ii) foreign governments, (iii) extractive sector companies, industry associations or other private sector organisations, (iv) academic institutions, (v) civil society organizations; (c) what are the details of all documents that CIRDI has submitted to the government, including project implementation plans, performance measurement framework, baseline study reports, annual work plans, audited financial statements, initial budgetary forecast, secondary budgetary forecast, quarterly or semi-annual financial reports, quarterly and semi-annual and annual narrative reports, and risk reports, as required under the government’s contribution agreement with CIRDI, as well as the details of any other related documents; (d) does CIRDI meet or fail to meet the three conditions of Section 4(1) of the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act and how has the current government determined so; (e) what is the due diligence policy to ensure that a request received from a foreign country official for assistance is a legitimate request, based on principles of democracy, the public interest, and other principles; (f) what is CIRDI’s role in Canada’s “economic diplomacy” concept, announced as part of the 2013 “Global Markets Action Plan”; (g) what due diligence has the current government performed prior to giving and renewing its support for CIRDI’s mandate and continued funding, to ensure that its mandate and justification for funding (i) are evidence-based provided by reputable, non-partisan sources, (ii) align with the recommendations of the National Roundtables and ensure that Canada is living up to its international obligations to promote universal respect for human rights as signatory to seven human rights treaties, (iii) make due consideration of the solicited responses to the Canadian International Development Agency's 2012 Consultation Note for Request for Proposals development of the Canadian International Institute for Extractives Industries and Development, and (iv) align with what indigenous peoples, citizen groups, and grass-roots civil society organizations in host-countries have requested; (h) who from the government participates, and has participated in the past, in the advisory committee to CIRDI and what is the full composition of CIRDI’s advisory committee; (i) what are CIRDI’s activities, projects, and initiatives in (i) Peru, (ii) Ecuador, (iii) Colombia, (iv) Mongolia, (v) Ethiopia, (vi) Western Africa; (j) of the activities, projects, and initiatives acknowledged in (i), what are the details of all documentation describing (i) the rationale for each project, (ii) the inception and design of project goals, methodologies, and participant profiles, (iii) a list of project participants, their affiliations, and justification for their participation, (iv) all project proponents and any conflicts of interest, (v) project summary reporting including feedback, criticism, complaints; (k) how do the activities, projects, initiatives of CIRDI listed in (i) support mining company interests or other Canadian economic interests; (l) for each of CIRDI’s proposed, current, or completed projects, how has the long-term effect on poverty reduction and sovereignty been or is being (i) evaluated, (ii) verified; (m) what is the update on the $15.3 million project with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines, and what is (i) the full, official project description, (ii) the complete project scope, (iii) the original request from Ethiopia, and details thereof, (iv) due diligence analysis and reporting to demonstrate that this project aligns both with the Official development assistance Accountability Act and what the Ethiopian people, especially mining-affected communities and the organizations that work with them, are requesting; (n) as of May 2016, what is the current directive and mandate of the government for CIRDI; and (o) what are the government’s plans to either renew or terminate CIRDI after its five-year mandate and funding expires in 2018?

(Return tabled)

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts (medical assistance in dying), be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Criminal Code

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to be in the House representing my community of Langley—Aldergrove. This is a very important debate we are having today.

I just want to do a quick review of how we are involved with this debate today. It was approximately a year ago, February 2015, that the Supreme Court made its ruling that Canadians who are suffering should have access to assisted suicide or euthanasia. I will use those terms because they are the terms used in the Criminal Code of Canada.

Terms like “death with dignity” and “medical aid in dying” are used when a physician is helping people in the last days of their life. They are not hastening their death. Palliative care is one of those forms of assistance, in which people are being assisted in the last days of their life. Therefore, to call it medical aid in dying really does not truly capture what we are talking about.

When we had town hall meetings, one of the terms I heard was “medically hastened death”. That more accurately describes what we are talking about. However, I will use the language of the Criminal Code, which the Supreme Court says we have to amend. Those terms are “assisted suicide” and “voluntary euthanasia”.

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the incredible member for Abbotsford, the community just to the east of Langley. He is incredible because he was probably Canada's greatest foreign trade minister and did so much for our country. I want to thank him for all his work.

When the Supreme Court made its decision in February last year, what did the previous Parliament do? It knew there was an election coming in October of last year, so it appointed an external panel. The panel was given a clear mandate to consult with Canadians and then create a suggested legislative response.

After the election, the new government contacted the external panel, which had just completed its work of consultation and was in the process of creating the legislative response. The new Parliament could have started right away, because we had until February 6 to deal with the issue.

What did the new government do? It contacted the external panel and said it had changed its mandate. It no longer wanted legislation from the panel. It would create its own legislation. Instead of Parliament being called back and creating a special committee to deal with that legislation—we had until February 6 of this year, which would have given us a few months to debate and work on it—the government changed the mandate, said it was going to create its own legislation, then dithered. For a number of months it dithered, and then it created the special committee. The special committee came up with recommendations. Then what did the government do? It dithered and delayed, to the point now that we have four sitting weeks to basically do what normally takes two years to do.

Quebec took six years and three premiers in a non-partisan environment to create Bill 52 in Quebec, dealing with assisted suicide and euthanasia. It dealt with it in a much more responsible way.

Some would say they wish we did not have this debate. I heard that when we had town hall meetings. However, the Supreme Court in the Carter ruling made that decision for Canada. It said this must be permitted, and it is counting on Parliament to come up with appropriate safeguards to ensure we protect vulnerable Canadians.

What did the new government do? It changed the mandate of the external panel, then dithered. It had a special panel, which was partisan in nature. Then it dithered after the report from that panel. Now we have four sitting weeks.

It is really disappointing the way the new government has handled this. It is too important to be rushed through, but this is what the government is doing.

There are four sitting weeks, and the Liberals are not consulting properly. They are not giving Parliament adequate time to do this properly, and they are ramming it through. It is basically legislation passed by exhaustion.

In the special joint committee, we heard from two witnesses representing aboriginal communities, and they were not consulted. However, another requirement of the Supreme Court of Canada is that we consult properly, but that is not happening with the current government, which is not transparent, not accountable.

I would suggest that the Liberals seriously consider what happens on June 6 if the bill does not pass. What happens in Canada if their mismanagement of this results in no legislation in Canada and we have this legal void, and then the Carter decision takes over? Then we are advocating turning over the responsibility of protecting the vulnerable to each college of physicians and surgeons, and we would have different policies being applied across Canada. It would be a very serious situation.

I am hoping we will work together. I would suggest that the government seriously consider asking for more time from the Supreme Court, because the Liberals have not managed this well, and we have ended up with only four sitting weeks left to do two years' worth of work.

I want to speak to a couple of changes that I believe need to be made in Bill C-14.

The number one thing that I have heard at town hall meetings wherever I was, whether in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, or at home, is the importance of conscience protection.

I had a young nursing student come up to me and say she did not want to be part of this and ask if she would have to be part of this. I said that, at present, the special committee that was formed is recommending that, yes, one would have to be. Also, physicians would have to provide an effective referral. However, Bill C-14 is very silent on this, and it would leave it up to provinces to come up with their own policy on how this would be dealt with.

The Canadian Medical Association said that 70% of physicians in Canada do not want to be part of this, but 30% of physicians in Canada will participate in assisted suicide. Therefore, it is not an access problem, but what do we do about conscience protection?

Bill C-14 clearly needs to be amended to make it a criminal offence to force through intimidation or coercion in any way or threaten a physician that he or she would not be able to practise medicine—or a nurse, pharmacist, or any health care professional—to force them to participate in this against their will. This is the number one thing we heard time and time again: protect conscience rights.

The Criminal Code is being amended, and Bill C-14 needs to be amended to include that type of conscience protection. Without it, we do not have a pan-Canadian approach. We would have different policies in each province and territory, potentially. Some provinces have indicated that some physicians must participate.

On the Charter of Rights protection, the Supreme Court said physicians' charter rights should be protected. However, if we go on and do not provide the legislative protection, if we do not provide proper conscience protection, I am concerned that we will see in Canada physicians leaving the practice, maybe retiring.

I met a physician recently who is 71 years old and he is still practising medicine because he loves to help people. That young student nurse I talked about wants to leave nursing school. I told her not to leave yet. Let us see if we can fix this to make sure her conscience is being protected.

However, if we do not protect the conscience rights of Canadians, of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, we are going to have people leaving the practice. They will either retire or relocate to another jurisdiction where their conscience will be protected.

We already have a shortage of physicians, nurses, and doctors in Canada. This would create a medical crisis in Canada if we do not protect the conscience rights of Canadians. It is a charter right. It is our responsibility to protect the vulnerable and the conscience rights.

There is a gaping hole in the legislation, Bill C-14. We need to fix that. I see a number of members here who are going to be on the justice committee, and we will be voting as Parliament. I hope we can deal with that.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I found it interesting that the member allocated quite a bit of debate time to how this legislation came about. It is important to recognize it is because of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in February. I disagree with virtually almost everything else the member said, in terms of his implication. The void in leadership occurred from the moment of the release of the Supreme Court decision until October 19, when we finally had a Prime Minister who recognized the importance of the issue and that the Canadian government has a lead role to play. This is something the member at the very least should acknowledge.

After listening to many speakers and in particular the ministers responsible for this legislation, I assure the member that the issue surrounding conscientious objections of health care professionals is being taken care of. I wonder if the member might want to provide some comment in terms of why it is so important that we see this legislation passed in a timely fashion so that we do not continue to have a void and we can have some common ground from coast to coast to coast.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I wish the member had answered some of the questions that I put forward, one of which is what happens on June 6, in four sitting weeks, if the Liberals are not able to pass this. After October 19, one of the first things the Liberals did was to change the mandate of the external panel. They should not have done that, but they did. Then they dithered and did not do anything. They created the problem. There was an external panel of eminent people in Canada who had consulted during the election, so we would end up with non-partisan legislation.

What have the Liberals done? They changed the mandate, created a partisan committee with the report's recommendations, many of them not good, and that is why we had dissenting reports. We had bad recommendations from that committee. We need to fix the legislation, and I look forward to working constructively.