House of Commons photoLost her last election, in 2021, with 31% of the vote.
Criminal Code May 24th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I wonder if the member could expand a little on some of his concerns. He drew on some examples that we have issues with and are problematic in the bill. Perhaps he could discuss a little about the implications of the poorly drafted section on routine police evidence being able to be admitted by way of affidavit.
Human Rights May 24th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, over two years ago at an event I hosted, the foreign affairs minister of the day, Stéphane Dion, announced that the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture would no longer be optional. It is two years later and nothing has happened.
I would like to reiterate that torture is abhorrent, illegal, and flies in the face of all of the international norms and conventions we have committed to. When will the government finally stand unequivocally against torture and ratify and implement the OPCAT?
Human Rights May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, over the weekend, Saudi Arabia arrested seven women's rights activists, some of whom visited Ottawa for the One Young World Summit in 2016. As Canada continues to ship arms to Saudi Arabia and as the government appears to be celebrating its Canada-Saudi Arabia relationship, who is defending human rights in Saudi Arabia? Is there anyone on the Liberal side who will speak up for the rights of Saudi women to live without fear of their government?
Visitability April 30th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise in support of the member for Tobique—Mactaquac's private member's Motion No. 157, because it will help to launch an important debate that needs to take place in this chamber on the concept of visitability in housing development and our obligations to persons living with disabilities, as laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities when we ratified it.
I salute the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies, whose excellent work on this subject has been central to my understanding of it. Visitability, for those not familiar with the term, as my hon. colleague has explained more succinctly, is a movement to change home construction practices so that virtually all new homes would offer a few specific features that would make the home easier for people with different mobility challenges to live in and visit, hence the name.
Key features of visitable housing are one level, no step entrances, wider doorways and hallways, and a wheelchair accessible bathroom on the main level. It is important to note that visitability designed homes are not fully accessible homes; they address basic needs on the main floor so that someone visiting in a wheelchair, for example, can visit.
In some cases, there are guidelines in the United States right now for a five-foot turning radius, let us say, in a washroom, but this does not address issues of full accessibility, as was mentioned. With full accessibility, for example, a bathroom would be constructed with reinforced walls around a toilet so that there could be grab bars. This is the differentiation we are making. Visitability designed homes address basic needs and encourage inclusive neighbourhoods.
Former NDP governments in Manitoba have been at the forefront of the visitability movement in Canada. Visitability is being applied to construction of all new units that receive financial assistance from Manitoba Housing, with 10% of all such new units designed to meet accessible design criteria. The Bridgwater neighbourhood, in Winnipeg, as my hon. colleague also mentioned, is one of the first communities in Canada to incorporate visitable housing as one of its key features.
The woman who launched the visitability movement is an American by the name of Eleanor Smith, and she is held in high regard in my office. Stricken with polio at age three, Eleanor has been leading the movement for disability liberation for several decades. She helped to found the organization Concrete Change, the first visitable housing advocacy group. In 1992, she wrote and helped pass an Atlanta, Georgia, ordinance, which was the first law in the United States requiring a basic level of access in certain dwellings. Since then, she has helped advocates in many locales press visitability issues, both legislative and voluntary. In 1996 she was founder of the national umbrella group the Disability Rights Action Coalition for Housing, which gives me a lot of information that is informative in my advocacy work. She was also instrumental in helping to craft the first national visitability bill. Its drafters named it in her honour: the Eleanor Smith Inclusive Home Design Act.
As for the motion being debated here today, my support comes with a few qualifications. There is no doubt in my mind as to the member's good intentions, yet the motion remains strangely insubstantial. It does not require the government to do much of anything. It emphasizes and encourages, rather than directs. It invites the government to address visitability, rather than calling on it to do so. It encourages the Minister of Science and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities to address the topic of visitability in her upcoming accessibility legislation, due, we are told, to be tabled as early as June, instead of directing her to address it.
If the member intended something more substantial, he might have had his motion direct the minister to do something such as establish guidelines similar to those in Manitoba. Other governments have developed accessibility and visitable housing guidelines as well. This is certainly an area where we can do better.
At the very least, the motion debated today could direct the minister to launch a study of possible financial incentives, such as tax breaks and such, the federal government could deploy to promote visitable design elements, such as in housing construction and development in Canada. That kind of study would be within the acceptable parameters of a private member's bill, as it would not cost the government anything but would nevertheless result in something tangible. I am perplexed that the member did not take this route, particularly as he is a member of the governing party.
I am genuinely appreciative that the work of the member for Tobique—Mactaquac is bringing this important subject for debate in the House today.
Since the government plans to bring forward ambitious accessibility legislation as early as June, I do not see why a visitability bill, such as I have referenced, could not be enfolded into an accessibility bill. The NDP position regarding an accessibility bill is that it should be nothing less than enabling legislation for Canada's commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These obligations would fall under a Canadians with disabilities bill, and though the government has chosen the phrase “accessibility bill”, we fully expect it to fulfill the obligations we agreed to under the convention. Canada ratified this treaty in 2010, and persons living with disabilities—and we have heard that there are six million persons living with disabilities—and their families and friends, have been waiting for the government to act.
The government held lengthy consultations with Canadians between July 2016 and February 2017, and important stakeholder groups, such as the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, Barrier-Free Canada, and around 50 others, provided excellent input on what the legislation should look like. We also have existing legislation from other countries under the treaty.
For the CCD, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, the immediate priority of an accessibility bill should be investments in disability-related supports. As they have observed:
Over two million Canadian adults with disabilities, or two thirds of the disabled adult population lack one or more of the educational, workplace, aids, home modification or other supports they need. The lack of these supports results in poverty, unemployment and exclusion from workplaces, schools and communities.
Along with the NDP, the disability community has been calling for a long-term disability strategy. An excellent way for the federal government to show real leadership on disability issues would be by regularly bringing together federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of social services to ensure that the establishment of supports became an ongoing priority for joint action. As such leadership would be a massive undertaking, the government should create a single agency for all federal accessibility standards and enforcement, which, as Barrier-Free Canada has recommended, could be called the office of the accessibility commissioner.
Bringing Canada in line with these obligations will require real leadership from the federal government and a sustained and ongoing sense of national mission. This formidable but vital undertaking cannot succeed if we accept the kind of half-measures or tinkering at the edges for which the governing party is notorious.
I hope this motion can bring our government to face our real responsibilities in this House.
Visitability April 30th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his effort in trying to foster a more meaningful discussion about the issue of visitability and helping us differentiate between visitability and accessibility. I would like to get into that a bit more, but right now I am more curious to hear about something else. Obviously this motion is aspirational, as it does not direct the government to do anything. There is an accessibility act coming, and we do know that we have a role and an obligation with regard to this under the UN treaty to which we are signatories.
How does the member see this motion, which is without direction to study or create guidelines, as a significant tool in fostering the work that will be needed for the accessibility act?
Status of Women April 26th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, women with mental health or cognitive-related issues are four times more likely to report experiencing sexual violence. The government's response to this shocking reality has been with Bill C-65 and social development programs. This is woefully inadequate, due to the harsh reality.
I would like to hear the government explain to us today why it is not taking this issue seriously and what it is actually going to do now.
Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1 April 23rd, 2018
Madam Speaker, it is always interesting to hear people in this place fill themselves up with their own rhetoric and the arrogance that comes with it. It is very disconcerting. The more I hear the heckling in this House, the more it shows me how out of touch these people are with real Canadians.
In particular, in the 500-some pages there is nothing that addresses our seniors' conditions today, here and now. When the Liberals talk about advisory committees or money that is going to be allocated at some future date, they are actually insulting people who cannot articulate in a very candid fashion the way they are struggling, because it is embarrassing. We have had two different governing parties for 150 years that have provided the narrative, “Shame on you. If you are struggling, you made bad choices.”
I want to know exactly what you are doing in this budget, right now, to address struggling seniors who cannot afford their pharmacare and who cannot afford—
Events in Windsor—Tecumseh April 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, it was another inspiring weekend in Windsor—Tecumseh. I salute Sho event studio, fostering local arts, Kim Kristy and Pat Jefflyn of Canadian Arts Productions in making a film about civil rights activists Viola Desmond and Harriet Tubman, based on the original stage work of Leslie McCurdy, daughter of the late MP, Howard McCurdy, a distinguished trailblazer to whom my colleague from Windsor West recently paid tribute.
The Essex Region Conservation Authority's Earth Day celebration reinforced the work it and its foundation do all year long. It is clear, when speaking to people at varied events, that we know our natural environment cannot survive without a regulatory environment.
I applaud my colleagues, the member for Courtenay—Alberni for his pmb on ocean plastics; the member for Essex for hers on safe water; and our NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, who has been outspoken on eliminating single-use plastics. I also applaud the caring Canadians in my riding who want to hold bold action now to protect our future.
Events in Windsor—Tecumseh April 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, it was another inspiring weekend in Windsor—Tecumseh.
I salute Sho event studio, fostering local arts, Kim Kristy and Pat Jefflyn of Canadian Arts Productions in making a film about civil rights activists Viola Desmond and Harriet Tubman, based on the original stage work of Leslie McCurdy, daughter of the late MP, Howard McCurdy, a distinguished trailblazer to whom my colleague from Windsor West recently paid tribute.
The Essex Region Conservation Authority's Earth Day celebration reinforced the work it and its foundation do all year long. It is clear, when speaking to people at varied events, that we know our natural environment—
Foreign Affairs April 17th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, we have heard nothing since the final report by Bob Rae, Canada's special envoy to Myanmar. He argued that Canada should take a leadership role in responding to the Rohingya crisis by leading an international effort to investigate and collect evidence of crimes against humanity, ramping up humanitarian aid, and welcoming more Rohingya refugees. We have heard nothing.
Will the government respond to these calls to action, and will there be more targeted sanctions?