House of Commons Hansard #12 of the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was judges.

Topics

Business of the HouseOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Conservative

Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC

Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, as per tradition, I am pleased, happy, honoured and enthusiastic to ask my counterpart on the government side to tell us what parliamentarians will be working on in the coming days.

I remind everyone that next week, all 338 Canadian parliamentarians will be back in their ridings. We will not be on vacation.

Business of the HouseOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Honoré-Mercier Québec

Liberal

Pablo Rodriguez LiberalLeader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question and for the clarification. Indeed, we will be in our ridings, not on vacation.

This afternoon, we shall continue debate on Bill C-3, an act to amend the Judges Act and the Criminal Code.

Tomorrow, we will begin second reading of Bill C-7, an act to amend the Criminal Code with regard to medical assistance in dying.

When we return after our constituency week, we will resume debate on Bill C-7. We hope we can begin the debate on Bill C-5, an act to amend the Bills of Exchange Act, the Interpretation Act and the Canada Labour Code regarding a national day for truth and reconciliation. This bill has to do with Orange Shirt Day.

Lastly, I wish to inform the House that Tuesday, October 20 and Thursday, October 22 will be allotted days.

I wish all members a pleasant week in their ridings. I hope members will take care of themselves and their loved ones and come back in good health.

The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Judges Act and the Criminal Code, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Judges ActGovernment Orders

3:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

Resuming debate. The hon. member for Mégantic—L'Érable has two minutes for questions and comments.

The hon. member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier has the floor to ask a question.

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3:10 p.m.

Conservative

Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech by my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable.

From the beginning of this debate, I have picked up on a strong interest from the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois in protecting women and bringing in rules to make sure judges have the necessary tools and skills.

I have an 18-year-old daughter. I think we need to make sure we have every tool we can think of to protect women. I listened to what my colleague had to say, and it resonated with me.

Does my colleague for Mégantic—L'Érable interpret the lack of interest from the government and the Liberal Party the same way I do?

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3:10 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

Mr. Speaker, I have one minute to answer my colleague's question.

It is a very pertinent question. He has a daughter, and I have two daughters. Obviously, when we debate subjects like today's, we want to rise to defend our daughters and wives and improve their quality of life.

I am extremely surprised and disappointed that the Liberal government has silenced all the Liberal women and fathers who wanted to express their views about the bill being debated today. I do not even know how long it has been since a Liberal member spoke on the bill. The bill is extremely important for women and girls, but unfortunately, the Liberal members have been prevented from rising and speaking.

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3:10 p.m.

Conservative

Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in the House today to debate Bill C-3.

This is a bill that is obviously getting an enthusiastic response from all those who take the time to read and appreciate it. Why? It is because it was drafted with common sense. Even better, it sends a message to women, especially those who are victims of crime. It tells them that they will be taken seriously and treated with dignity. Above all, it tells them that judges will be well trained.

If the bill is passed unanimously, and it seems that it will, new judges will be required to undergo training on how to handle sexual assault cases.

It is very sad that we have to address this issue, but it is the reality. What we have seen these last years is that sometimes judges do not have the skills necessary to address some difficult issues, such when a woman has been assaulted by other people. That is why the hon. Rona Ambrose tabled this fantastic piece of legislation, not last year, nor two years ago, but in 2017.

On February 25, 2017, the hon. Rona Ambrose, at that time the leader of the official opposition in the House of Commons, tabled that important piece of legislation as a private bill.

The bill introduced in 2017 by the Hon. Rona Ambrose, the then leader of the official opposition, requires judges to receive training so they are properly equipped to rule on sexual assault cases.

Judges will be required to participate in training and to be familiar with the issues surrounding sexual assault from the victim's perspective, in order to fully appreciate the consequences it can have on the lives of young women who are assaulted.

This bill also seeks to ensure that victims are treated with dignity and respect. Judges will be required to provide rulings in writing and make decisions in writing to fully explain the reasons for their final verdict and, above all, to ensure greater transparency.

In addition, the bill requires that an annual report be produced to assess the effects of this policy and to provide a record of rulings made in sexual assault cases.

This is a human piece of legislation. This address has no partisanship. We are not on the right or the left. We are not separatists or federalists. We are no more or less Canadian. We are all Canadian, but first and foremost, we are human beings. When we see that someone has been the victim of a sexual aggression, the least we can hope for is for them to have a fair treatment by our judiciary system.

Unfortunately, some people have a major lack of confidence in the justice system when it comes to sexual assault. Eighty-three percent of sexual assault victims will not report what happened to the police. That is one of the most heartbreaking statistics there is in terms of justice, fairness and respect for human beings.

Anyone who has experienced the horror of a sexual assault will be scarred for life. The very least we can expect and hope for is that the victim will be treated with the dignity all human beings deserve. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Members will remember the movie Mourir à tue-tête, which was filmed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It is extremely painful to watch because it tells the sad story of a woman who was the victim of sexual assault and all of the problems that she had to deal with. Some will say that that is how it was in the 1970s and that things have changed since then. Unfortunately, that is not true.

The Hon. Rona Ambrose introduced this bill so that, at that very least, victims would feel safe when it comes time to testify in court. That is the very minimum.

When we think about this, we think about our mothers, our sisters and our daughters. This bill is focused on women, and that is why it is so important. In the last decade we have seen so many women who were afraid to talk about it and who did not have the courage to talk about it. However, it was not their fault. It was because they did not have confidence in the judicial system. This piece of legislation is for those women. It is there to make sure our judicial system can be trusted.

We are very proud to point out that this bill was originally introduced by the Hon. Rona Ambrose in 2017. I had the pleasure of serving in the House for more than three years under the leadership of Ms. Ambrose, who, members will know, had quite an impressive political career.

Ms. Ambrose was elected as member of Parliament for Edmonton—Spruce Grove in the mid-2000s. She immediately put her talents to work for Canadians. I have some notes here to help me remember the main responsibilities she held within successive Harper governments.

Ms. Ambrose started as Minister of the Environment. She then became Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Labour, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, and Minister of Health. She led six departments, and no man can top all that Ms. Ambrose managed to achieve during the nine years of Conservative governments, which, as my colleagues would agree, were great and wonderful years for Canada. Canada was lucky to have had Rona Ambrose serving the people of Edmonton—Spruce Grove and leading some major departments within the government.

I had the fortune of working alongside her every day while she was the leader of our party and our parliamentary leader here, in the House of Commons. I have a little anecdote to share. After Ms. Ambrose was chosen by our peers as interim leader of the Conservative Party, I ran into her not far from here, just on the other side of the door at the Confederation Building, where my office was located. I obviously expressed my best wishes and congratulations to her.

I said, “Madam Ambrose, I am very pleased to...”.

She interrupted me and told me to speak to her in French. I then told her that I would speak French from then on. I took my leader's correction very seriously. This shows that this woman from Alberta cared about Canada, in all of its diversity, and about our two official languages, English and French.

It has been a real honour and privilege to serve under the strong, fantastic and very impressive leadership of the Hon. Rona Ambrose when she was our leader and the opposition leader in the House of Commons for almost three years. Ms. Ambrose is still very involved in Canada's future. She is involved in some companies, yes, but she is always involved in seeking the best future for this country.

We are very proud to tell the House that even though she is no longer an MP, the individual who introduced this bill, the Hon. Rona Ambrose, is still working for the good of Canadians, in service of the Canadian government, and is putting all of her talent and experience to work for Canada. All members who wish to do so will have an opportunity to speak to this bill. We are very proud to support such an important bill that will give women a justice system they can trust.

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3:20 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Madam Speaker, I do believe that Rona Ambrose has done a great service for all Canadians. In fact, when she raised the issue here in Ottawa through her private member's bill, it was not very long before she was able to get virtually unanimous support for the legislation. In terms of its impact, it has already had an impact in least one and possibly a couple of provincial jurisdictions that have looked for action at the provincial level. We see that as a positive thing.

We have now had the bill in different forms. We would like to see it passed. The member is very much aware of the House tactics that might be at play, as am I.

When does the member anticipate that we will be able to see the bill pass? I believe it is a unanimously supported bill. Imagine what it would take when a bill is not unanimously supported, in terms of the opposition coming from the Conservatives.

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3:25 p.m.

Conservative

Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC

Madam Speaker, the bill is tabled based on the fact that we should respect our institutions and we should give our institutions all the tools necessary. This is why the bill addresses the information provided to judges and would make it an obligation for each and every judge to have information about sexual assault.

The member asks how we could reach an agreement on each and every bill in the House, but our responsibility as parliamentarians is to take a stand for or against a bill. In this situation, yes, we do agree that everybody will support the bill. This is why we want to give the opportunity to each and every member to speak to the bill. This bill is in our hearts so that is why we want each and every member who wants to talk about it to have the chance to do so.

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3:25 p.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague's speech was heartfelt and touching.

I was delighted to hear that women are well positioned and are capable of great things. I am acutely aware that many women need to be listened to more when they are in such vulnerable situations.

My question is very simple. How will this bill help increase the confidence of victims who have to go through the whole judicial process?

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3:25 p.m.

Conservative

Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC

Madam Speaker, I was very touched by my Bloc colleague's comments. Her very presence here illustrates the fact that we live in a great democracy, where this elected woman can fully assume her responsibilities because we can all feel confident in this place.

When women unfortunately become victims of aggression, we want them to feel confident when they appear before a judge. Unfortunately, this trust has not always existed in years past. The purpose of this bill is to ensure that victims who have experienced unfortunate, delicate, horrible and atrocious situations, such as sexual assault, will feel confident because they will know that the judge will have had the appropriate training to deal with such intolerable situations.

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3:25 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Madam Speaker, first, I have great respect for my colleague, for his speech and for his comments, but we have had a lot of time to debate the bill. Rona Ambrose put the bill forward. It is a good bill. It is important. The member talked about responsibility and it is our responsibility to protect victims, to protect women who are vulnerable. Delaying the bill any further means there are more women out there that might be before a judge who does not have the training that is necessary. This died in the last Parliament at the hands of the Conservatives in the Senate.

Does my colleague not agree that it is important that we move this forward now, especially given that it is a minority Parliament, and send this to committee so that we can get it to the Senate and support it? It seems everyone is on board, but it died on a unanimous consent motion to move it to the next level because of the Conservative Party. Maybe the member could speak to that.

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3:25 p.m.

Conservative

Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC

Madam Speaker, the point is that, when the people decided to have a minority government, the people of Canada asked parliamentarians to work together. At least, we should have a chance to do our job. Who were the ones to decided to prorogue the House of Commons, our legislature? It was the Liberal government.

Obviously, yes, we would like to address this issue. We would like to talk about this issue. We would like to proceed with this piece of legislation. The right to talk about an issue as a parliamentarian is very important and I want to keep it as long as possible.

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3:25 p.m.

Green

Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Madam Speaker, it is an honour and privilege today to come to the House from the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation to speak about Bill C-3, an act to amend the Judges Act and certain aspects of the Criminal Code.

I agree that we are going to have unanimous consent moving the bill forward. It is a very important piece of legislation. Judges need to be educated about sexual assault and about these issues. However, I would put it to the House that the issues that have come up with judges asking inappropriate questions of women who have been sexually assaulted, those questions would not be asked of white women who are the daughters of judges, mayors, chiefs of police or members of this chamber. Those questions are asked of women who are marginalized, women of colour and indigenous women.

The speech I heard from the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre talked about the sexualization of indigenous women and girls, and how that perpetuates violence against indigenous women. We need to do much more than amend this act. The missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry has called for a task force to deal with a whole range of outstanding cases. Even to get before a judge to talk about sexual assault, there is the need to have the RCMP or police force investigate the case properly and bring forward charges, and then have those charges approved by a prosecutor.

I want to talk about a case that happened in my community. This is an 18-year-old case of a 21-year-old woman named Lisa Marie Young. In 2002, on June 29, she went out with friends, drinking, partying in town. She was at a local nightclub. At the end of the evening, she went to another party and then off to get something to eat. She was driven away by a young man in a maroon-coloured Jaguar.

She called friends to tell them that this person was not letting her go and that she wanted to leave. However, her friends, who were intoxicated, did not think to call the police or to raise attention.

The next day, Lisa Marie Young was nowhere to be found. She had very close ties with her family, her mother and father, Joanne and Don, and with her friends. People phoned the RCMP right away, and they started to raise awareness about her being missing. An RCMP officer came by and had a discussion with them, but then went away. He was away, off duty, for five days. When they talked to someone else, that person said they should give it 48 hours. They said it was an extremely unusual situation. She had actually phoned a friend and said that she was being held against her will.

This young woman and the stories swirling around her have all been brought back to light because of a podcast put out by a journalist, Laura Palmer, called “Where is Lisa?”

It is very clear that the police did not respond in a proper way. This was a young indigenous woman. The police did not do a ground search until September 17. She went missing on June 30 and the police did not engage in a ground search until September 17. It was members of her first nation, the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation of the Tofino area, those family members, who conducted searches on their own, without the aid of the RCMP.

The RCMP did not interview anybody from the nightclub this young woman was at. They did not interview some of her friends. They did not do a Crime Stoppers video until 2009. The family had been asking for a Crime Stoppers video about Lisa's disappearance, and they did not go through with that until 2009. They made sure there was a good likeness of Lisa on that Crime Stoppers video, but the young man in question, Chris Adair, who was driving that Jaguar, a preppy-looking kid from a privileged family, was made to look like a street tough. They botched that.

The police handling of the car used to drive Lisa to her death location is another issue. The Jaguar reportedly was not examined by the RCMP until after the owner, a well-known realtor in Qualicum, had it steam-cleaned and detailed. If this young woman had been the daughter of a judge, a mayor or a member of the House, that would not have been the case. The police would have been all over this right away.

The RCMP dismissed an urgent call from a witness who is believed to be an associate and accomplice of Lisa's killers who called to alert the Young family that Lisa's body was being moved at the moment it was being moved from the original location. The RCMP ignored that call, basically saying that she was not a credible witness, mainly because she was tied to criminals, there might have been drugs involved and she might have been street-involved.

As I said, the people at the Jungle Nightclub where Lisa was last seen were not interviewed, neither were the staff. The RCMP failed to respond to other members of the public seeking to provide information on Lisa's disappearance or murder. In some instances, police have entirely failed to respond. In other instances, their response has been delayed.

One informant, a former associate of the prime suspect believed to be Lisa's killer, one of several responsible in her death, called the RCMP in 2006 to report details of Lisa's murder, a videotape of the crime and more. What people have said about this case is that Lisa was taken to make a “snuff” film. They said she was drugged, sexually assaulted and then killed by accident, that it was not the intention to actually go through with the whole process, but she apparently died in the process. The people who know about this have come forward to talk about it, but because they are all associated and known to police, and known to people who are known to police, it has not been investigated properly.

It is also suspected by people in this community that the prime suspect in this case was a police informant. This echoes what happened in Nova Scotia. The killer in Nova Scotia was suspected of being a police informant, and police have no obligation to release any of that information or to talk about that information.

There are multiple issues of concern with this case. The prime suspect did a polygraph, which the police said he passed. Lisa Marie's mother, Joanne, was taken to the Parksville Police Station to take part in an interview with Chris Adair, who was the last person known to see Lisa alive. She was told by the RCMP to hug Chris. Who does that? How does this happen?

This is an outrageous case, and Laura Palmer has outlined all of this in a seven-hour podcast. Once the podcast was released this summer, the RCMP started actually doing some interviews of people. However, this case just goes to show why the missing and murdered indigenous women's inquiry has called for a task force to be looking into these cases to find out why the RCMP and other police forces have not gone through the proper procedures of ensuring that these cases are investigated properly. These young indigenous women who have been murdered, mothers, daughters, sisters, have not had their cases taken seriously.

We need to do a lot more than educate judges. We need to deal with bringing justice to our justice system for all, because it is not justice for all right now. This is a system that prioritizes people who count in the eyes of the justice system. If Lisa Marie Young had been a white woman and a daughter of a prominent business person in this community, that case would have been investigated properly.

I am challenging the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations to get this process going with this task force to look into these cases of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. I invite them to come and talk to me. I will bring this family forward, and they can tell them their story. They can give them all of the information that they know, and the names of people involved in this case. This is an outrageous case, and I know that there other cases like this across Canada.

I am thankful for this time to be able to speak about this.

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3:35 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Madam Speaker, I want to emphasize that this is a bill that is widely supported. I suspect that members will find that, when the vote does eventually take place, it will be passed unanimously. It is always encouraging when we have debates on important issues. There is no doubt sexual assault is one of those issues. I have invited my Conservative Party friends to look at the possibility of incorporating one of their opposition day motions to not only talk about the assault issues, but also other issues that are having such a huge impact on our society.

I am wondering if my colleague, and I suspect his party supports this bill, would support the Conservative Party having an opposition day motion on something of this nature, which expands upon the issue.

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3:40 p.m.

Green

Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Madam Speaker, the Green Party is, in fact, supporting this bill, and the opposition party members can do opposition days on whatever they feel is important to them.

I would ask that the parliamentary secretary bring my request forward to caucus and cabinet, that we get this task force going on the murdered and missing indigenous women and girls inquiry, and that we deal with these situations with all of these stories and cases properly, so that the families, friends and communities that are affected by these cases see justice.

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3:40 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the member's party on the election of its new leader.

We have talked about a number of themes in this debate. The member spoke about the need for action on the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women. I wonder what he thinks about some of the ideas for responding that have been put forward previously, things like having better national coordination in terms of missing persons, as well as issues around police training.

I would also appreciate his comments on the idea of whether it is too late to have training happening when someone is entering the bench. Of course, it is important to have that training if someone has not received it before, but they probably should have received it much earlier in their lives and much earlier in their careers.

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3:40 p.m.

Green

Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Madam Speaker, I believe that anybody going through law school should be educated on these issues well before they get a chance to come to the bench.

I think that educating police is also very important. We need to do a much better job of educating police forces. My sister was in the Ontario Provincial Police for 25 years and she will tell anyone that there is not enough training for people before they get to have a gun, a badge and the power to police.

We do need better national integration on these cases.

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3:40 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for outlining the case of Lisa Marie Young. She is the granddaughter of my very good friend Moses Martin, and I know that her family member, Carol Frank, organizes a walk in my colleague's riding every year, which is very important. People light their porch on June 30 every year, so that we do not forget about Lisa Marie Young.

The family specifically said that RCMP officers should have specific training on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and better access to information on cases, and that the penalty system is too lenient for not following through on that.

Can the member speak about those important asks by the family and Tla-o-qui-aht nation for these actions?

Judges ActGovernment Orders

3:40 p.m.

Green

Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Madam Speaker, I agree that everything that this family is asking for should be acted upon. We need to learn from this situation. It is a horrific case, and it needs to be looked into seriously with a task force and those recommendations acted on.

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3:40 p.m.

Green

Jenica Atwin Green Fredericton, NB

Madam Speaker, let me begin by saying that I unequivocally support this bill. As a new member of Parliament, I did not have the opportunity to state my support for this legislation in the last Parliament, so I am very thankful for the opportunity to do it now. It is my hope that, once passed and proclaimed, this legislation ushers in a new era of change, one of accountability and trust within our legal system and one of real justice for women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people facing sexual violence every day.

In the 43rd Parliament, a record number of 98 women were elected to the House. The statistics on sexual assault say that 32%, or one in three women, over the age of 15 will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime, and that is only based on the reported data. This means that as female parliamentarians we come to the House and this debate with lived experience.

I also have the lived experience of being a resource teacher for youth and of having dozens of children disclose to me the traumas they have endured in their lives: the mental anguish and stress, the inability to trust. I have sat in courtrooms where abusers had more rights than the victims, where delay tactics and games prolonged the experience until a victim gave up, until they had been worn down enough from inaction and intimidation. To think that Canadian judges, those entrusted to uphold our laws, to protect victims and to deter further crimes, could be complicit in lending power to abusers through such ignorance and gaslighting is unthinkable.

I wish to thank Rona Ambrose for having the courage to bring this issue to light with her private members' bill. I also wish to thank the Liberal government for bringing it back as Bill C-3, and thank my colleagues on all sides of this House for their words, solidarity and support for seeing this through.

I would be remiss if I did not include the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and the ongoing systemic racism in our legal system. New Brunswick's chiefs are calling for a full inquiry into the failures of our system with respect to indigenous peoples, particularly women, whose lives have not been given the respect and dignity they deserve.

The issue of missing and murdered indigenous women has deep roots in the early days of colonization, where invading forces recognized the power and stature of women in traditional indigenous society. Just as they intentionally decimated the buffalo because it was the lifeblood of the indigenous economy on the plains, they decimated the population of indigenous women as the lifeblood of the people.

The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls reveals that persistent and deliberate human and indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada's staggering rates of violence against indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Testimony from family members and survivors gives context to this violence, marked by multi-generational and intergenerational trauma and marginalization. This takes the form of poverty, insecure housing or homelessness, and barriers to education, employment, health care and cultural support. Experts and knowledge keepers spoke to specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in communities and governance and that diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence and sexual assault.

Human rights and indigenous rights abuses committed and condoned by the Canadian state represent genocide against indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Given the failures of our education system to confront these realities until recently, we find ourselves in a position where the people with the responsibility to offer justice to survivors of sexual violence are from a generation when consent was not part of the discussion, when the burden was put on women to avoid being sexually assaulted rather than holding men accountable for their sexual violence, when considering how many sexual partners a woman had reflected on her worth as a person and when the intersectionality of misogyny and racism was not well understood.

This is reflected in some of the comments that have been made by judges in recent years. They wonder why a woman could not simply keep her knees together, comment that she should be flattered to receive the attention or reinforce the flawed notion that a drunk woman can provide consent. This shows without a shadow of a doubt that many judges are not well educated on sexual assault. They have the power to influence the victim's recovery, but in many cases we see the victim is left retraumatized and without justice.

Judges are entrusted with an important job that carries a number of privileges but also comes with significant responsibilities, and if they are missing important knowledge surrounding myths, stereotypes and biases, their ability to accurately interpret the facts and the law will be impacted. Until our bench more accurately reflects the makeup of our society, it is essential to ensure that judges are empowered with the education they need to do their job effectively.

Rape is not about sex; it is about power. It is our job as parliamentarians to ensure that our system restores power to those who have had it taken from them. Perhaps someday our legal system will live up to its other name, Canada's justice system, but we are not there yet.

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3:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Speaker, many important points have been raised by my colleague and by many members in the House today during this important debate. I am glad the conversation is happening. I know that when people see conversations happen in this place, maybe they are encouraged to come forward and seek counselling and support.

I wonder if the member can just share a bit more about additional steps we can take as parliamentarians. As has been pointed out, this is a relatively small step. We are requiring training for people at a fairly late stage in their career.

What more can we do to respond to this problem, to work together to address the broader, long-standing issues that the member spoke to in her remarks?

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3:50 p.m.

Green

Jenica Atwin Green Fredericton, NB

Madam Speaker, there is so much more that we need to be doing. It is such a multifaceted issue. We mentioned some of the health outcomes and education outcomes. There are so many aspects that we need to address here.

My mind went directly to the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, in particular, and the need for the actions to actually start happening. A big piece of that is for Canada to actually acknowledge the genocide. I know we have had a hard time saying that word in connection with our own country, but until we can have that truth, that reconciliation piece is not there and the justice piece is not there. That is a big thing I would like to see from all my colleagues: to acknowledge the genocide that has occurred in our country.

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3:50 p.m.

Bloc

Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Fredericton for her speech, and I congratulate her on the Green Party's new leader.

I noticed that my colleague is deeply concerned about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. That issue is near and dear to my heart, and I hope to have the chance to study it as a member of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on how long it is taking us to put this bill to the vote. I would like her to comment on the Liberals' decision to prorogue Parliament, which set the bill back because we had to restart debate on a new bill.

I would also like her to comment on the fact that the Conservatives voted against the NDP motion to speed up passage of this bill in the last session. In this case, I think we all agree that, while training judges will not fully address the important issue of violence against women, it is an important step toward achieving that.

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3:50 p.m.

Green

Jenica Atwin Green Fredericton, NB

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent question.

We have heard a bit about the filibustering or delay tactics with this bill. Again, as an opposition member, I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak to it, so it is interesting to see that come from our Liberal colleagues when Parliament was prorogued and we had a delay already of several weeks. There are games being played on all sides, and these issues are far too important for any games to be played.

I respect my colleague across the way so much because she is always fighting for the most vulnerable in her community, without delay, calling for action. I feel a lot of camaraderie with her. That is what we all need to be doing. Enough of the games, let us get the work done.