Garnett Genuis

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

Respectfully, I was having a look at the clock during the repeated interruptions and points of order from the government.

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, having concluded the Venezuela petition, I have one more petition to table, and this is with respect to proposals to extend euthanasia to include minors.

The petitioners raise concern about a proposal to allow babies from birth to one year of age who have come into the world with severe deformities and very serious syndromes to have euthanasia. The petitioners say that the proposal for the legalized killing of infants is deeply disturbing to many Canadians. They call on the Government of Canada to block an attempt to allow the killing of children.

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, if the member for Kingston and the Islands had run for Speaker, he certainly would have been somewhere on my ballot. I will not say where, but he would have been somewhere on my ballot.

I believe that it is important to summarize petitions and that we can read individual words, but we cannot read the petition into the record in its entirety, and that is precisely the rule that I have followed.

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Garnett Genuis Mr. Speaker, I am reading the names of political prisoners. I did not have them memorized. Can I read off the page?

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I will finish summarizing this one, and I am almost done. I know that we do have limited time here, and there are a number of other members who will table petitions.

The petitioners note that at least three of 257 political prisoners have close family members here in Canada.

The petitioners call on the government to advocate for the release of political prisoners in Venezuela with close ties to Canada. In particular, they mention the following names: Ígbert José Marín Chaparro and Oswaldo Valentín García Palomo.

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the rules are, as I think the member knows but misstated, that members cannot read an entire petition. Members are to summarize the petition, and in the course of that, reading from prepared notes that one has that relate to the petition is perfectly allowed. Historically, there was a time when members could not read anything in the House of Commons—

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I am doing my best to summarize. People have put a lot of work into a fairly lengthy petition on a very serious international human rights issue, and they were waiting throughout the government's—

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with the human rights situation in Venezuela, a situation that many members of Parliament have spoken about over the years.

The petitioners say that the current government is aware of crimes against humanity by the Venezuelan government and has created a family-based humanitarian program for Colombians, Haitians and Venezuelans suffering under current country conditions. The petitioners note that Canada was one of six countries that submitted Venezuela to the ICC, denouncing crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute.

The petitioners note that several international organizations, including a Canadian NGO, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, led by former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler, have recognized the unjust incarcerations, torture, forced disappearances and political persecution—

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with euthanasia, or medical assistance in dying.

The petitioners are concerned that allowing medical assistance in dying for those with disabilities or chronic illness who are not dying devalues their lives and tacitly endorses the notion that life with disability is optional and, by extension, dispensable. They note in this petition that many disability advocates in Canada have expressed opposition to allowing MAID for people with disabilities.

The petitioners' ask to the House today is to protect all Canadians whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable by prohibiting medical assistance in dying for those whose prognosis for natural death is more than six months.

[Petitions, June 5th, 2025]

The government House leader does not want to hear this, but it is an important petition. I hope he will take note of it and support this important bill.

The petitioners call upon the House of Commons to adopt Bill S-210, which is now Bill S-209, the protecting young persons from exposure to pornography act.