Irene Mathyssen

[Strengthening Aviation Security Act, February 18th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank and congratulate my colleague from Hamilton Mountain. I think she set out the reality of Bill C-42 in a succinct and very clear way.

It terrifies me, and I know it terrifies my constituents, because I began to hear from them when news of this bill first emerged about a year ago. They absolutely recognized the danger of allowing other foreign capitals to have the information that we have always regarded as key to our security in this country.

The member talked about the long form census and she made reference to the secrecy of the government.

It is interesting, but we have just been exposed to one ludicrous crime bill after another. The government seems desperate to make criminals of Canadians. In the course of doing so, it keeps talking about victims. However, with Bill C-42, it seems to me that it is victimizing the citizens of this country, exposing them to whatever might possibly happen to them from the release of sensitive information to the likes of Mexico and Panama.

We know what happens in Mexico and the violence and insecurity that travellers experience there. We know from this new trade deal the government has signed with the government of Panama that we will be exposed to the lack of support and security that Panama provides its own citizens.

So how on earth are we going to expect that government to support the citizens of Canada and protect them?

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 14th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, today, women have gathered from across Canada to plead with the government to fund Sisters in Spirit. Sisters in Spirit brought hope to many communities facing unacceptably high rates of violence committed against aboriginal women.

Now the government is playing games with the funding and has left the organization in limbo. It had to let staff go and important projects have been put on hold.

As a gesture of basic decency, will the government commit to funding the important work of Sisters in Spirit?

[The Economy, February 9th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago the Minister of Justice was all smiles when he came to a London manufacturing plant for a media event promoting corporate tax cuts.

Employees at IPEX are not smiling. Workers who had been used as a backdrop for the minister's photo op received layoff notices yesterday.

Over the last five years London has lost over 15,000 good paying manufacturing jobs.

When will the government start caring about working families instead of its reckless corporate tax cuts?

[Petitions, February 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from a group of Canadians concerned that Status of Women Canada is not enshrined in Canadian law and could be disbanded at any time and that the mandate of Status of Women Canada has been significantly altered in the past five years and is no longer addressing systemic women's equality issues.

The petitioners call upon the Parliament of Canada to support Bill C-581 because it would enshrine Status of Women Canada in law and ensure that its mandate would advance women's equality in Canada in the spirit of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

[Petitions, February 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present to the House today.

The first petition has been signed by a number of Canadians of all ages and walks of life who genuinely support and value the contributions of our veterans. They regard a veteran as a veteran regardless of where or in which deployment he or she may have served.

The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to extend the mandate of veterans hospitals to include veterans who have served in conflicts and peacekeeping operations since 1953, end the clawback of veterans' pensions; eliminate the reduction of veterans' pensions at age 65, change the widow's benefit to a non-taxable benefit, create a veterans advisory panel to provide input on the selection of future veterans' ombudspersons, and ensure that Veterans Affairs Canada remains as a stand-alone department.

[International Co-operation, February 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, despite an ongoing 40-year partnership between the Canadian Teachers' Federation and CIDA, the minister rejected CTF's recent application to help train teachers and develop curriculum aboard because of “an unspecified technicality”. This, after 18 months of working with CIDA on the proposal.

Why will the current government not support Canadian teachers who want to share their skills and help countries in the developing world?

[January 31st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, lots of words and lots of talk but absolutely nothing in terms of real and concrete measures to improve the lives of women in Canada, nor does the government have any sort of long-term plan to advance women's equality.

Today we learned that aboriginal women make up one-third of all federally incarcerated women in the federal prison system. That is a 90% increase since 2001. We know that women in prison are twice as likely as their male counterparts to suffer from mental illness and as many as 80% have been victims of sexual abuse.

Women in Canada are in crisis. Canada needs to recommit itself to women's equality. We have the tools, we have the reports and we have the know-how. What we need is political will. Unfortunately, I can only conclude that the government does not care.

[January 31st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, on Persons Day last year, I asked the Minister for Status of Women why the government was undermining women's equality in Canada. She did not answer my question and ignored the fact that the government does not believe in women's equality.

The Prime Minister recently gave a speech touting his accomplishments over the past five years. Even though, in his own words, “it is a long list”, none of his so-called accomplishments even mentioned doing anything for women. Of course, it is because the Prime Minister has done nothing for women in Canada. In fact, the Prime Minister has turned back the clock on women's equality.

From the moment the Conservatives were elected, women's equality was threatened. The Prime Minister's agenda was to dismantle the newly negotiated child care agreement with the provinces, and the program was immediately nullified. The court challenges program was cancelled, and then came the restructuring of Status of Women Canada. The independent policy research fund was shut down. Regional offices of Status of Women were closed and women's groups which conducted advocacy and research activities were denied funding. Next came the Conservative attack on pay equity. The government tried to hide new legislation in a budget bill of all things. That particular legislation will destroy pay equity in the federal service.

The term “gender equality” has been struck out of the policy language of the government and replaced with ambivalent and less assertive language. Then of course came the news that CIDA would no longer fund abortions internationally and organizations that conducted gender equality projects abroad were denied funding.

It does not stop there. This fall, women found out that the mandatory census was nixed, and questions regarding women's unpaid labour were eliminated. Now, although promised and highlighted in the Speech from the Throne, funding to the sisters in spirit program has been cancelled despite the successes of the groundbreaking work done by the Native Women's Association of Canada.

Since 2006, Canada has slipped on the World Economic Forum's ranking in global gender equality from 14 in the world to an all-time low of 31 in 2008. When it comes to income gap between men and women, Canada falls to 33rd place, and women are the losers. The Conservative government also has allowed the number of government appointments of women to tribunals, boards, agencies, and crown corporations to slip from about 37% to below 32%.

The list of failures goes on and on. Canada should be a global leader when it comes to women's equality, but instead it is a global embarrassment. The government has purposefully and systematically dismantled programs and policies to undermine women's equality in Canada.

The wage gap between men and women is staggering. Women in Canada still face higher rates of violence because of their gender. Aboriginal women are 3.5 times more likely to be victims in violence than non-aboriginal women. We know now, from the sisters in spirit project, that more than 600 aboriginal women have gone missing or have been murdered. Senior women in Canada face alarming rates of poverty, and immigrant, aboriginal, and racialized women are especially vulnerable.

The government needs to take action now, or generation after generation of women will continue to face the same rates of poverty, violence, and systemic discrimination as our sisters do at this moment.

Besides handing out inadequate piecemeal funding to women's organizations across Canada, what has the government actually done to help improve the lives of women? Does it have any kind of long-term plan to advance women's--

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2011]

With regard to the October 29, 2010 announcement by Justice Canada entitled "Government of Canada takes concrete action regarding missing and murdered Aboriginal women": (a) what are the initiatives of this announcement; (b) what is the description of each federal initiative; (c) by fiscal year, how much of the $10 million mentioned in the announcement will be allocated to each initiative; (d) by fiscal year, what is the planned total federal funding contribution for each initiative; (e) by fiscal year and source of funding, what funding contribution for the initiatives will be provided by other stakeholders, including provinces and territories; (f) what federal departments or agencies are responsible for implementing the initiatives of the announcement; (g) are there any third parties that will be involved with these initiatives and how much funding will they receive; (h) what is the process for reporting on these initiatives; (i) what was the consultation process prior to launching these initiatives; (j) what was the process for selecting which organizations would receive funding under these initiatives; (k) what was Status of Women Canada's role in developing these initiatives; (l) what was Indian Affairs and North Development's role in developing these initiatives; (m) what are the targets and benchmarks for each initiative; and (n) what is the result of the gender analysis conducted on these initiatives?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2011]

With regard to all federal funding in the riding of London West for fiscal years 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010: (a) how many projects received funding from a department or agency over this period; (b) what projects received funding from a department or agency over this period; and (c) what was the value of the projects that received funding from a department or agency over this period?