Mr. Speaker, when growing up, I still remember my member of Parliament, Svend Robinson. coming out for the first time. I was in grade eight. I remember the impact it had on me and everyone else in his constituency.
I knew him very well. As a young child I helped with his campaigns. It was a big learning experience for me to converse and talk with him to find out why he had not done it before, why he came out later, what the social implications and difficulties were. I remember explaining that to many others, specifically to my community, the South Asian community, which were not familiar with a lot of these principles, thoughts and identities. They did not relate to them at the time.
It is more imperative that we learn about these and protect those who are in that young age, still trying to figure things out and having challenging thoughts. Society has come a long way now. I hope we as a government can help facilitate that and give people a safe environment to do so.