Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the legacy of Shuah Roskies, a long-time resident of Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park, who died two years ago and would have turned 50 years old this month.
After a childhood living in New York, Fiji, Israel, Papua New Guinea and Wales, Shuah settled in Toronto in her mid-twenties and trained as a lawyer, focusing on the most neglected in our society: young people in the child welfare system. Shuah worked through the Office of the Children's Lawyer to represent children and teenagers who otherwise had no family and no voice. She later worked at a policy level to bring together advocates from across North America to find new solutions for teen homelessness.
Shuah should have been robustly recognized, but she had little interest in big awards. She cared about and drove positive change for people, the kind of positive change she expected us to deliver in this House.
That Shuah is not with us anymore is another stark reminder that some of the people who care so much for others need care themselves, even when they do not ask for it. She is beloved and remembered by her husband and children, Andrew, Jonah and Mira Sepiell, and by the family members and young adults she touched, because she loved them and Canada so deeply.