Debates of Sept. 29th, 2023

Decorum

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

It is not something that I heard. I am sure we can double-check the record and come back to the House if need be.

The hon. member for Winnipeg Centre has a point of order.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, certainly emotions run high here when we are debating. September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and I find it really abhorrent that we are using this time, when we are supposed to be lifting up survivors, to get into petty political arguments on the backs of survivors. I am encouraging members to stop this behaviour.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I appreciate the point of order that was raised, but, again, I think it falls on debate.

I want to remind everyone that we should be respectful of each other in the House. There are ways to debate our different points of views, and we have to be mindful of the occasion that we are going to be marking.

The hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George also has a point of order.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Speaker, I rise with a heavy heart as well. As many know, my family is first nations as well.

The comments that came from the member for Sydney—Victoria on a day before truth and reconciliation day are indeed damaging. I remind the House that not only did the member for Sydney—Victoria use disparaging remarks toward indigenous women prior to his elected life, but our Prime Minister also heckled indigenous protesters and thanked them for their donation.

Madam Speaker, through you, I ask for unanimous support to table a document that highlights that our Prime Minister thanked indigenous protesters for their donation when they were protesting his inability to fight the potable water situation in our first nations communities throughout our country.

This is shameless. I seek unanimous support to table this document.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Lakeland is rising on a point of order.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Madam Speaker, I wrote my undergraduate honour's thesis, 21 years ago, about harm and responsibility in the residential school system, and called for apology and compensation from government, among many other measures. I forgot, when you allowed me the time earlier, to ask for unanimous consent to table documents that show the Prime Minister's pick for indigenous-Crown relations making misogynist and anti-indigenous comments.

To the comment from our colleague who talked about how she is urging people to not make political points, I agree. That is the point of me rising and I hope I am taken in good faith. She should definitely talk to her Liberal cabinet minister colleagues—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I just want to remind members that if they want to table a document, I do not know that they have to go into in-depth detail about what the document is.

All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Winnipeg Centre is rising on a point of order.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, I am very saddened by what is occurring. Again, I am going to urge all parliamentarians, if they have any level of decency, to stop using residential school survivors for political games. This is inappropriate and it is violent.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I appreciate all of the points of order that have been made. If members could please be very respectful in the language that they use, that would allow the House to function much better.

Graduate Students

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Madam Speaker, it is my duty to table a petition on behalf of Canadians, particularly post-doctoral researchers and graduate students.

The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to do the following: increase the value of tri-agency graduate scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships by 50%; increase the number of tri-agency graduate student scholarships by 50%; increase the number of tri-agency post-doctoral fellowships by 100%; and increase the tri-agency research grant budget provided to faculty by at least 10% per year for the next 10 years, to allow for increased graduate student and post-doctoral pay.

This petition was signed by 1,841 people.

Carbon Tax

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to table today.

I am tabling a petition from constituents in Kelowna—Lake Country and surrounding area. This petition talks about the combination of carbon tax 1 and carbon tax 2, which will mean Canadians will pay an extra 61¢ for each litre of gas.

The petition refers to making life more expensive for Canadians, and a cost of living crisis, by implementing a second carbon tax, demonstrating how out of touch the Liberal Prime Minister is, and how the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed that both carbon taxes will have a net cost of up to $4,000 per family, depending on the province in which they live.

Therefore, the petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to recognize this failure and to immediately cancel the clean fuel regulations.

Health

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Madam Speaker, I have a petition from residents in Kelowna—Lake Country and surrounding area that refers to Health Canada proposing to significantly change natural health product regulations. Natural health products include basic everyday products used by Canadians as part of their proactive health care. According to petitioners, these regulations will cause consumer prices to rise significantly and consumer choices to decline drastically, and that is a major concern.

The petition calls on the Minister of Health to work with the industry to accurately reflect the size and scope of the industry. The petitioners ask that the new regulatory changes only be considered once the self-care framework is adjusted, backlogs are cleared, operations are running efficiently and policies and procedures are in place to ensure that stable operations and selection of natural health product choices continues for all Canadians.

Old-Growth Forests

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

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to present a petition today on behalf of residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands concerned about the multiple threats the highly endangered forest- and sea-dwelling bird, the fantastic little marbled murrelet, face. I will not digress into my experiences with marbled murrelet chicks, but it is quite the story. They are endangered because their habitat is being logged. They specifically dwell only in nests in old-growth forests.

The marbled murrelet is protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, as the petitioners point out. They call on the federal government to act to protect this critical habitat for the marbled murrelet by working with the provinces, but particularly British Columbia, to protect the last remaining old-growth forest in British Columbia, which is still being logged.

The Environment

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I rise to present a petition.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned us repeatedly that rising temperatures over the next two decades will bring widespread devastation and extreme weather. Petitioners are certainly feeling the impacts in Canada today with increased flooding, wildfires and extreme temperatures. Addressing the climate crisis requires a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, the federal government committed to cap and cut emissions from the oil and gas sector to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to move forward immediately with bold emissions caps for the oil and gas sector that are comprehensive in scope and realistic in achieving the necessary targets that Canada has set to reduce emissions by 2030.

Criminal Code

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Madam Speaker, it is a real privilege to stand in this House and bring the concerns of Canadians to this place.

I want to present this first petition on behalf of Canadians who continue with their concerns in this regard. It is well established that the risk of violence against women increases when they are pregnant. Currently, the injury and death of preborn children as victims of crime are not considered aggravating circumstances for sentencing purposes in our Criminal Code of Canada. Therefore, petitioners indicate justice requires that an attacker who abuses a pregnant woman and her preborn child be sentenced accordingly and the sentence should match the crime.

Human Rights

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Madam Speaker, the second petition I am presenting is on behalf of Canadians who certainly believe they have the right to be protected against discrimination. We all do.

Canadians can and do face political discrimination, and it is a fundamental Canadian right to be politically active and vocal. It is in the best interest of Canadian democracy to protect public debate and the exchange of different ideas. Bill C-257 seeks to add protection against political discrimination to the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Therefore, these petitioners and residents of Canada call upon the House of Commons to support Bill C-257, which would ban discrimination on the basis of political belief or activity, and to defend the rights of Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to present this petition on behalf of Canadians who are very concerned about the rise in discrimination against political belief and activity. They are calling on the House of Commons to pass Bill C-257, which will enshrine in the Canadian Human Rights Act that political belief and activity are not subject to discrimination.

The petitioners believe that as we live in a world where fear of political retribution is leading to increasing polarization, in order to preserve Canada as a peaceful and strong democracy, legislation like this must pass.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to table a number of petitions in the House today.

The first petition is in support of private member's bill, Bill C-257, a bill that I put forward, along with a parallel bill, Bill S-257, that has been presented in the Senate by Senator Ataullahjan.

This bill would add political belief and activity as prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act. We are seeing an increase in incidents where individuals are discriminated against or threatened with discrimination on the basis of their political views. Not only is this an unjustified form of discrimination like many others, but it has a chilling effect on democratic deliberation, according to the petitioners.

Petitioners call on the House to support Bill C-257, which bans discrimination on the basis of political belief and activity, and defend the rights of all Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions.

Criminal Code

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the second petition notes the elevated risk of violence that pregnant women face, the absence of specific targeted protections for women in this situation and the fact that the current law does not recognize the impact if an active assault results in the death of the preborn child.

Petitioners call on the House to legislate that the abuse of a pregnant woman or the infliction of harm on a preborn child is an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes in the Criminal Code.

Falun Gong

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the next petition deals with the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Petitioners note that Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that consists of meditation exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.

Petitioners describe the campaign of persecution that has been targeting Falun Gong practitioners for more than 20 years, as well as the work that was done by prominent Canadians, David Matas and the late, great David Kilgour on revealing the forced organ harvesting that has targeted and is targeting Falun Gong practitioners.

Petitioners are therefore calling on the House and the government to take additional action to support Falun Gong practitioners to do more on organ harvesting, as well as to publicly call for an end to persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

International Development

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the final petition that I am tabling for today deals with the government's so-called feminist international policy. Petitioners note that the Muskoka Initiative, launched by the previous Conservative government, involved historic investments in the well-being of women and girls around the world. This initiative emphasized value for money but also ensured that investments were in made priorities identified by local women.

Conversely, the Liberals' so-called feminist international assistance policy, according to petitioners, has shown a lack of respect for the cultural values and autonomy of women in the developing world by pushing organizations that violate local laws and pushing certain objectives at the expense of international development priorities that local women have, such as clean water, access to basic nutrition and economic development.

The petitioners also note that the Liberals' support for international development for women and girls has been criticized by the Auditor General for failing to measure results. Therefore, petitioners call on the Government of Canada to align international development spending with the approach taken in the Muskoka Initiative, focusing international development dollars on meeting the basic needs of vulnerable women around the world, rather than pushing ideological agendas that may conflict with local values in developing countries. They also want to see the government do more to measure outcomes.