Madam Speaker, as the member of Parliament for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, home to Canada’s largest army base, I am honoured to stand up for the women and men who serve their country as members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
On International Women’s Day I asked the Minister of National Defence a simple question: Who was the minister trying to protect, himself or the Prime Minister?
It was the Prime Minister who shut down the investigation by the Standing Committee on National Defence into the appalling record of this government in defending gender equality for women serving their country in the military. That is the answer the minister was silent on. That silence was a roar to Canadian women. Female MPs such as the one for Pickering—Uxbridge should be ashamed when the name of the leader of the Liberal party is used in the same paragraph as Harvey Weinstein's and Jeffrey Epstein's to make the point that Canada is going backward, not forward, when it comes to making progress and combatting sexual misconduct and violence against women in all its ugly faces.
Kathleen Finlay is the founder of the ZeroNow Campaign to combat sexual trauma and gender-based violence. She recently had this to say about the self-titled feminist Prime Minister:
When [the] Prime Minister...was asked on March 30 if he had any knowledge in 2018 about allegations of sexual misconduct involving then General Jonathan Vance, he gave a sharply self-satisfied “No” to Global National’s Mercedes Stephenson. That “No” was punctuated by a loud echo. No concern was expressed about sexual misconduct in the military. No reassurance was offered to victims. Just “No.” It was more than a brusque reply to a reporter’s question. It was a huge sign of disrespect to countless women who wonder if they are ever going to be protected from the plague of gender-based violence and sexual harassment that has infected Canada’s military, law enforcement and federal public service.
When is the Prime Minister going to stop disrespecting women?
It is time for the Prime Minister and the Liberal party to take lessons from the opposition when it comes to actions in support of gender and minority rights. I am proud to be a member of today’s Conservative party, which encouraged strong women such as Leslyn Lewis to run for leader of our party. She would be a fine addition to the House of Commons.
I am proud of Conservatives like the late Lincoln Alexander who, in addition to being the first Black cabinet minister and lieutenant-governor of Ontario, was a bigger man than racists who dress up in blackface. The honourable Lincoln Alexander was actually called too sensitive by the leader of the Liberal party when a Liberal MP used an obscenity after Mr. Alexander defended the unemployed.
The Prime Minister has an outrageous record of making bad decisions when it comes to Canada’s military. This policy failure of the Prime Minister and his government, and his failure to deal with sexual harassment in the military, can be traced to his treatment of women. It is no different from the way the Prime Minister treats women in his own party, such as the former justice minister during the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
This is what a former female Liberal MP and member of the Prime Minister’s caucus had to say:
In a feminist government, throwing [female members of Parliament] under the bus, I didn’t appreciate that, especially at a time when we’re saying that we believe in women.... You believe in them when it’s convenient and you leave them when it’s not. So there were just a number of different instances that just didn’t sit right with me and the principles that I hold dear, and I wanted to make sure that I was able to look at myself in the mirror the next day.
It is a time when Canadians are being exposed to more dangerous variants. We will continue that long after.