Élaine Michaud

[Nicole LaViolette, June 18th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise today to recognize the passing of my aunt, Nicole LaViolette, at the young age of 52. She passed away on May 22, 2015, surrounded by her family, including her partner, Lisa, after a long battle with cancer.

A law professor at the University of Ottawa, she won many awards and earned international recognition for her research on sexual minority refugees, which even inspired some of the work done by the United Nations Refugee Agency. She was also a founding member of the Capital Rainbow Refuge, an organization that sponsors and welcomes LGBT refugees in Ottawa.

I will always remember my aunt Nicole for her warm smile, her love of dogs and her passion for politics. She knew everything there was to know about the Hill, since she worked as a page here during university and later as a parliamentary assistant to Svend Robinson.

Like me, she was a staunch New Democrat, so we shared the same vision of a fairer, more united country and the same hope for a better world.

Nicole, you are an inspiration to me and to everyone who ever knew you. You will be sadly missed.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, June 17th, 2015]

With regard to government funding in the riding of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier since 2011-2012 inclusively, what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans to any organization, body, or group, broken down by (i) name of the recipient, (ii) municipality of the recipient, (iii) date on which the funding was received, (iv) amount received, (v) department or agency providing the funding, (vi) program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, (vii) nature or purpose?

[Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, June 16th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I listed carefully to my colleague’s speech. She has raised some valid points. In fact, I think that all members in this House, regardless of party, want to take action to combat violence against women. These are important actions. However, I still am unable to understand why her party refuses to act on the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. This is a crucial issue. These are women who live in our provinces and need our immediate assistance, but the government is refusing to act. I am hearing a lot of fine words here, but very little is being done about this.

In any event, I would like my colleague to explain further why her government has once again refused to listen to the comments of the experts who tried, at committee, to propose important improvements to the bill. Those proposals were completely ignored once again. This is an attitude I am unable to understand. I would like to hear my colleague’s comments on that subject.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, June 16th, 2015]

With regard to government funding granted by the Department of Infrastructure, including the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, in the constituency of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier since 2011-2012 inclusively, what are the details of all grants, contributions and loans to any organization, body or group, broken down by (i) the name of the recipient, (ii) the municipality of the recipient, (iii) the date on which the funding was received, (iv) the amount received, (v) the department or agency providing the funding, (vi) the program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, and (vii) the nature or purpose?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, June 16th, 2015]

With regard to government funding granted by the Department of Employment and Social Development, including the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, in the constituency of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier since 2011-2012 inclusively, what are the details of all grants, contributions and loans to any organization, body or group, broken down by (i) the name of the recipient, (ii) the municipality of the recipient, (iii) the date on which the funding was received, (iv) the amount received, (v) the department or agency providing the funding, (vi) the program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, and (vii) the nature or purpose?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, June 16th, 2015]

With regard to government funding, provided by the Department of the Environment, in the riding of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier since 2011-2012 inclusively, what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans to any organization, body, or group, broken down by (i) name of the recipient, (ii) municipality of the recipient, (iii) date on which the funding was received, (iv) amount received, (v) department or agency providing the funding, (vi) program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, (vii) nature or purpose?

[Justice for Animals in Service Act (Quanto's Law), June 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech. I would like to tell the House again that no one is opposed to the bill, and I believe that it may even be adopted unanimously. Every member in the House recognizes the important role that service animals play, whether they work with law enforcement officers or people with a disability, for example.

However, I believe that my colleague may have left something out of his speech, or he did not want to mention it, and that is this government's recourse to minimum sentencing once again. The government seems to be telling our judges that they do not have the discretion to make their own decisions and enforce the law.

I do not have a problem with amending the Criminal Code in order to impose sentences on people who injure or kill service animals.

However, could my colleague explain why his government makes minimum sentences mandatory, and why it does not let judges do their job as they should?

[National Defence, June 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the postponing of the decontamination at CFB Valcartier is another sign that the Department of National Defence is broken.

Although DND had assured the people of Shannon that work to clean up the water table would begin this summer, we have since learned that nothing is going to be done any time soon. Will it be in 2016? 2017? The minister does not even know.

How can the Conservative government continue to bury its head in the sand when the health of the residents of Shannon is in danger?

[National Defence, June 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the Deschamps report, which was released a month ago, exposed the problems of sexual harassment within our armed forces.

To fix the problem, one of the recommendations was to recruit more women to join our troops. We have learned, however, that instead of taking the report seriously, the government is about to quietly reduce the minimum number of women to be recruited into the ranks.

When did the Conservatives decide that having fewer women in our armed forces is the solution to the problems of harassment in the military?

[National Defence, June 3rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of National Defence said that our request for an apology for the discriminatory policies against LGBT members of the CF was new to him. However, over a year ago, a motion was moved to that effect and the NDP informed the minister about this several times. Clearly he is not top of these issues.

Will the government finally acknowledge the unacceptable policies that were in effect in the army for 25 years and apologize to the LGBT members?