Debates of Oct. 2nd, 2020

Judges Act

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Rona Ambrose, as those in the House will well know, is very special. I am so glad she brought this bill forward. It has been delayed a lot, and we will see what happens in the coming weeks, days or hours.

I am extremely worried about the indigenous community, particularly women and girls who often do not get a second chance. I wonder if we have looked at this bill closely enough. I talked to our attorney general in Saskatchewan, because Saskatchewan, like P.E.I., really endorses the bill, but we have issues on the indigenous side of it.

Women and girls in that community often do not get the second chances. Have we done enough consultation with the indigenous communities on the bill?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, frankly, I share the member's concern with respect to the impacts of the bill and how we could start to address the very acute needs of those who are in our criminal justice system, as complainants in this context, particularly indigenous women. That was a subject of some interventions I made with respect to how this dovetailed with what we found with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry, which shows that sexual violence is disproportionately large against indigenous women. It is something we are cognizant of in Saskatchewan and across the country.

Have consultations occurred? Yes, they have. The position on this side of the House is that we should get this back into committee as fast as possible so any further fine tuning with respect to the concerns he rightfully raises can be made with proposed amendments at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls to justice notes that apathy from police forces is also indicative of ongoing colonial violence, racism and sexism, re-victimizing indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples.

Will the Liberals commit to also extending the proposed sexual assault and social context to police services? This certainly needs to be looked at and I hope the government will consider it right now in light of the conversation we have been having in Canada. I hope I get a response.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as a procedural matter, that proposal, as valid as it is, would be beyond the scope of this bill, which is targeting judges. There is a lot of validity in what he has raised. I point him to the fact that the Minister of Public Safety's mandate letter talks about the need for cultural competency and unconscious bias training for law enforcement agents. Should that type of training be occurring with our federally regulated law enforcement officials? Absolutely, it should. As the MMIWG rightfully identified, this is part of the problem with systemic racism and discrimination against indigenous communities.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to put a few words on the record about this very important legislation, which really means a lot to the women in the country and sets an example for the world on what we should be doing to train our judges.

I want to congratulate Rona Ambrose, who is a personal hero of mine. It fills me with a lot of pride to know this is a Conservative initiative. This change will benefit so many women for generations to come.

I also believe the training should be beyond judges. We should be educating young men as well. This is not solely an issue with judges, this is something of which all Canadians should be made aware.

For example, I have always been a strong-willed person, but when I was growing up, I was not necessarily aware of what my rights were. Now any man who wanted to take advantage of me, or say anything inappropriate, or touch me inappropriately or whatever might have been done in college or at a party, which I have seen countless times, would rue the day they would dare do that.

However, when I was younger, I did not necessarily understand that I could say no, that it was unacceptable. That education is really important for women and men, the education that they have rights, that they have the right to consent and that when it is no, it is no. This proposed legislation ensures there is a greater conversation in Canada about the right to consent, and the education for judges is just the beginning for this conversation.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what the developments will be in the coming years.

[The Deputy Speaker, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Kildonan—St. Paul will have eight and a half minutes remaining in her time when the House next gets back to debate on the question.

It being 2:30 p.m., the House stands adjourned until Monday at 11 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 2:30 p.m.)