Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to speak on this bill that my colleague brought to the House a while ago. My colleague from Cariboo—Prince George has been stalwart in support of first responders in the Prince George community in northeastern B.C.
I know the member meets with firefighters from Prince George, as I do. We hear their stories, the first-hand accounts of firefighters who signed up to fight fires but are now dealing with overdoses. That is the vast majority of what they are doing. Sadly, some of the stuff that comes along with that response to the drug side of our community is violence against them. It is really sad. It is a shame that these people who sign up to protect us and keep us safe are having to deal with violence.
Maybe I will start off by saying that most Canadians expect this House to protect our first responders. For me, there are really a couple of aspects to this that I think about. It is one thing for our first responders to be assaulted while they are trying to help us. First of all, they sign up for their entire lives. They put years into university and all that training basically to serve their fellow men by providing health care. My daughter wants to be a doctor. She is studying to do that as we speak. My to-be daughter-in-law, my son's fiancée, is studying to be a nurse in the Philippines as we speak. I know this comes out of a servant heart. They really want to help their fellow Canadians, their fellow persons. The sad part is that when they do that, when they get into serving and taking care of us, that is when violence is committed against them.
The expectation of most Canadians, as I was saying before, is that it is one thing for them to be assaulted, but it is another thing for us to not do anything about it. We are in opposition, and the government is across the way. Canadians are looking at us and saying the Liberal government, the former prime minister Justin Trudeau and the current Prime Minister, are responsible for protecting these first responders. They had the opportunity in the last Parliament to do it, and for some reason, they sort of shoved it to the corner of the desk.
I saw my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George working tirelessly, putting hours and hours into this, and our first responders sitting in the gallery waiting for this to be passed, all to just be ignored. Again, what Canadians are expecting of us, and what first responders are watching for, is what they have been asking for, what this member has been working on. They have been coming to him and saying they need help, that they need help to really deal with the gap in legislation where this violence is being allowed to continue.
What is worse is that these people have sacrificed everything to serve us, and the government is looking the other way. That is just not cool on our watch.
I am just going to read the preamble to the bill. People hear about different bills, and they hear the titles. This is what the preamble to Bill S-233 says:
Whereas there are an increasing number of incidents involving violence against persons who provide health services and first responders; Whereas assaults on persons who provide health services and first responders have both a physical and a psychological impact; And whereas persons who provide health services and first responders, who care for and protect others, deserve to feel protected and valued by the justice system;
I think the most important line in the whole bill is that last line. They deserve to feel protected and valued by the justice system. That tells me that right now it is maybe a question sometimes. They are being assaulted. They are doing their duty as a doctor, nurse, ambulance worker, police officer or firefighter, and they are being assaulted in different ways. It is mentioned in the preamble too. It is not just the physical aspect of it but the psychological aspect of that kind of assault too. Again, when that assault goes on unabated, they probably start to question whether or not they are valued by this government.
Again, I applaud my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George for doing this.
As the member of Parliament for Tumbler Ridge, I cannot say enough about the first responders and the police officers who responded. Many of the stories of how they really stepped up and helped have not even come out yet. There is the police officer who was first on scene who lifted an injured girl off the floor and brought her to the hospital to give her care. She is alive today because that first responder acted.
The story is known by most people in Tumbler Ridge, but Maya is alive today because a first responder listened to a bit of advice from her classmate Addison, who I chatted with just last week. There was, of course, all the tragedy that had happened in the school. The police came, and Addison pointed out that Maya's finger had moved. He said, “Her finger just moved.” Part of the reason Maya is still alive today is that the police officer responded, picked her up and took her to be cared for.
To me, that is an amazing story, but it is a first responder's story. Here was somebody who had just signed up to be an RCMP officer in a very beautiful town, the normally peaceful town of Tumbler Ridge, and in the moment that we needed him, he stepped up. Maya is alive today because of it.
I will expand on that story a bit. Many people have been watching Maya's story, how she keeps improving, on social media. She has a long way to go, but I will take the time today to send our appreciation to the nurses and doctors in British Columbia who have taken Maya under their wing and are providing her with first world service. It is just incredible.
Maya is still in B.C. There have been a lot of stories saying that she was going to go elsewhere, but she is in British Columbia now. She is still recovering, more on the long-term side. I cannot say enough about the immediate service that she got from the police officers and from the nurses and doctors, both in Tumbler Ridge and then at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver.
It goes without saying that these services are here. Sometimes, that is what it is, is it not? We just expect the services to be there, and we do not always appreciate the men and women who work in those services enough. This bill is meant to recognize that service. It would be a good shot in the arm to say to responders that, even though someone may not be assaulted physically or psychologically, we would recognize what they do for us in our communities. Maybe it would be the morale boost they need. Members can imagine the issues we are seeing with some first responders. Even going back to Tumbler Ridge, the long-term effects of responding to that kind of a tragedy are profound.
I have another story. Even a person involved in the funeral aspects is dealing with the trauma of the situations. I remember talking to Kaylee, one of the morticians up there. I said, “Well, I guess you are used to this.” She said, “Nobody is used to this.” It is just a tough situation all along, even for the folks who deal with this on a regular basis.
I wanted to have the chance to speak today, first of all, to support my colleague and what he is trying to do. I also want to say to our men and women, whether they are a firefighter, those who work in an ambulance every day, a doctor, a nurse or an RCMP officer, and I am sure I am forgetting somebody, that whoever they are, we appreciate them and we care about them. That is what Bill S-233 is about. It is to make them feel protected and valued by the justice system, just like we do on this side of the House. My hope is that the government will decide to proceed and that we will get this bill passed as soon as we can.
I thank all those who listened today and, again, I give special appreciation to my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George. It is a great bill.