Jagmeet Singh

[Diversity and Inclusion, May 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, today we learned that the Prime Minister sent the Canadian Forces to spy on Black Lives Matter protestors and that he used the pandemic and the health care crisis as an excuse. That makes no sense, because there is no connection. The BLM movement is about racial justice.

Did the Prime Minister send the Canadian Forces to spy on other protestors demanding racial justice in other provinces, such as Quebec?

[Diversity and Inclusion, May 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, let me get this straight, the Prime Minister takes a knee at a Black Lives Matter protest, and then turns around and sends the military to spy on those protesters.

We just learned that the military spied on protesters to learn how protesters organize, who the major actors were and what the core narratives were all the while using the pandemic and the crisis in long-term care as an excuse, which makes no sense.

These are people who are concerned about systemic racism killing Black people. Why did the Prime Minister send the military to spy on concerned people who are raising their voices about systemic racism and how it kills Black people?

[Books of Remembrance, May 10th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I also rise today in the House to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The Books of Remembrance contain more than 118,000 names of Canadians who paid the ultimate price.

We remember those we have lost in the line of duty. We must remember the members of the Canadian Armed Forces who served our country in peacetime and in war.

That is what the eight Books of Remembrance are really about. We must never forget.

Today, nine Canadian Armed Forces personnel killed in 2020 will be added for the first time to the Book of Remembrance for service. I want to state the names because I think it is important for us all to continue to remember them: Leading Seaman Eric Anthony Keen, Master Corporal Matthew Alexander Cousins, Sub-Lieutenant Abbigail Lillian Cowbrough, Captain Kevin Matthew Hagen, Captain Brenden Ian MacDonald, Captain Maxime Miron-Morin, Sub-Lieutenant Matthew Kendall Pyke, Captain Jennifer Rose Casey and Master Sailor James Richard McCourt.

I pay my respects and offer my condolences to their families and friends. I assure them that they will never be forgotten.

Canadian Armed Forces members have always been there to help Canadians.

The most recent example of service was during the COVID-19 pandemic under Operation Laser, when the armed forces rushed to help our loved ones in long-term care. They were there to support northern and remote communities, including first nations. They were there to help with contact tracing efforts in Ontario and on first nations reserves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They were there to ensure that the teams of nurses, medical technicians and long-term care staff in Ontario and Quebec had access to personal protective equipment in order to stay safe.

We honour those who served us and continue to do so. Canadian veterans have made untold sacrifices for our country.

Today we recognize those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us. We must offer them the best care and services possible when they come home. Veterans tell us that they appreciate commemorative events, but they need supports that reflect that recognition from their government. We must listen and we must deliver, as they did for our country and as they did for us.

Veterans need reliable services that meet their needs. Veterans need one person they can call who knows them, their history and their story. Instead, they are forced to repeat themselves every time they seek support from the government. This can be traumatic, as it triggers veterans to retell stories about their injuries. It is wrong to make them relive their pain and suffering. We must be better equipped to support them.

All members of the House receive calls from veterans for help navigating Veterans Affairs Canada. We must do better for our veterans. They deserve what they are entitled to.

The New Democrats will keep fighting to ensure that the government offers the best services possible to our veterans. We will keep fighting for their rights, as we have done for a long time, since the CSC fought for pensions for veterans. They deserve no less.

On behalf of all New Democrats, we want to express our gratitude to those who have served and continue to serve our country and people all around the world during tough times.

[Health, May 6th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the United States has already made a clear commitment that it will be supporting the suspension of patent protection. My question is very clear. We are in a global pandemic and we need concrete steps. Poorer countries are asking for a patent waiver so that they can produce vaccines and save lives in their countries.

Instead of protecting the profits of big pharmaceutical companies, will the Prime Minister support the patent waiver so that poorer countries can produce the vaccine and save lives?

[Health, May 6th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we are in a global pandemic. We need to vaccinate all Canadians, of course, but we also have a responsibility to help people around the world. Poorer countries need the COVID-19 vaccine patents to be waived.

Will the Prime Minister commit to supporting a waiver on COVID-19 vaccine patents, instead of protecting the profits of big pharmaceutical companies?

[COVID-19 in Alberta, May 5th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, we need to follow the advice of the public health experts when it comes to where we need to be protecting people and the measures we need. We need paid sick leave at the federal level. The program is there, it just needs to be improved. That would significantly help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces.

[COVID-19 in Alberta, May 5th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, in a crisis we do everything possible to help. That means lining up the support, saying here is our plan and here is how we can help, and getting on the phone to tell the provinces what we are providing. What we can do immediately, and the member knows this because the experts have said this, is improve access to paid sick leave. There is a federal program. The government has already admitted that there is no jurisdictional issue because there is already a program. Let us make it better so workers do not go to work sick.

These are two concrete steps I have just laid out that could happen right now.

[COVID-19 in Alberta, May 5th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the plan was that everyone should be vaccinated by tomorrow. Of course New Democrats think that should happen, but it is a little cynical to say that when it is not the reality. That is not happening. That is not the case. Canadians have felt that politics have become cynical because people say things that are just not achievable.

I want folks who are listening to pay attention to the comments from Conservatives. They are talking about things in the past and mistakes that were made. Those are legitimate things to talk about, but not when there is an emergency. When a person's house is on fire, does the individual want to talk about whether the wiring, the plumbing or the connections were bad? No, that person wants to get people out of the house to safety and security. They want to get family and loved ones out of the fire. Afterward, people can figure out what happened, but right now we are in an emergency. Why are members talking about what happened in the past when we should be talking about helping people right now?

I do not know if people understand how serious this is. I do not know if they have listened to the stories or have spoken to people on the ground. Things are bad. People are getting sick and they need help. They do not need people to talk about a decision on rapid testing from four weeks ago or a month ago. They need to talk about what we are doing right now. We know the evidence is clear: paid sick leave, an all-hands-on-deck approach, giving all resources possible to provide support and help to Alberta, deploying health care workers as we saw were deployed—

[COVID-19 in Alberta, May 5th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I want to talk about the whole point of this debate, and I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Edmonton Strathcona, for calling for the emergency debate. New Democrats support this call, and we want to have a discussion about what we could do to help.

Knowing that health care workers on the front lines are stretched thin, knowing that there is a high rate of infection, and knowing that there is a high rate of positivity in Alberta, what are we going to do to help?

For a long time I have often seen, at the federal level, the Prime Minister using jurisdiction as an excuse to not act. When we are in a pandemic, when we are in a crisis, real leadership is not hiding behind excuses or looking for excuses. Real leadership is looking for solutions. We need the federal government to step up.

There is a difference between placing blame for the mistakes of the past and putting pressure on the government to act right now. We need the federal government to step up and provide more help to Alberta.

We know another concrete thing the government could do right now is to improve access to paid sick leave. Experts across this country, including medical health experts and public health experts, have all said better access to paid sick leave will help reduce the spread of COVID-19. That is something the federal government could do right now.

I want to be very clear. I am calling for improving the existing federal paid sick leave program that New Democrats fought for. What is the point of having a program that does not actually work? This emergency debate is an opportunity for us to talk about solutions.

One solution is to, please, fix the paid sick leave program so that it actually works, so that workers do not have to make the impossible choice between going into work sick or staying at home and not knowing if they can pay their bills. When people do not have paid sick leave and they do not have income coming in when they stay at home, they will not be able to stay at home. It is just not a choice that a worker can make. We need to provide workers with that support.

We need to make sure that people have the opportunity to take time off to get vaccinated. If someone is working and they need every single paycheque, and they are living paycheque to paycheque, they cannot take time off to get vaccinated. They simply cannot afford to. We need to put in place a paid sick leave program that works. That is a concrete step that the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has called for and experts across Canada have called for. It is something we could do right now. That is a concrete step we could take.

We could ensure that Alberta gets additional supports when it comes to vaccines. We could ensure that Alberta gets additional supports when it comes to frontline workers. We could look at all federal resources, including considering bringing in the military to provide support. Alberta needs help. The people of Alberta need help.

That is what this emergency debate is about. That is why the member for Edmonton Strathcona called for this emergency debate, so we could talk about solutions. What could we do right now to provide help?

It is important for us to acknowledge that the pandemic has shown us that we are all connected. When there is an outbreak in another country and the numbers increase, it impacts the entire world. When there is an increased rate of infection in our province, in a neighbouring province, anywhere in Canada, it impacts all of us. We have a shared responsibility to care for each other.

This pandemic has shown us something. When we look out for one another, when we take care of one another, we are better off, we are stronger and we have a better response. Right now, the people in Alberta need our support.

Let us look at some other solutions. Something else we need to consider is how we could deploy a national support system. What we have called for in the past is looking at establishing, wherever there is a federal building, wherever there is federal resources, and deploying assistance in a tandem or parallel vaccination site, which could be set up federally to assist in the provincial efforts.

We need to start looking for solutions. I want to find solutions to help out. We know increasing vaccinations, providing better sick leave and providing better supports would help. What are the other solutions? What could the Liberal government do right now, instead of saying that it has done its part and throwing its hands up? That is not good enough. We need to see more supports.

I have spoken with some of the health care workers who are saying that if things continue to get worse, it could get to a point where they have to decide who gets access to ventilators and who does not. This is a real crisis. I have spoken to health care workers in other provinces who have seen the numbers increase, and they are burnt out. They are in shock at the numbers that are happening with increased cases and with people coming into ICU units.

As the numbers increase, we are seeing entire families get infected. Workers who have to go into work get sick and then come home, bringing the illness back. Then entire families end up in the hospital. People are on ventilators. People are struggling to get into ICU units. None of this had to happen.

Right now this is what is going on, so we need to look at solutions. That is what we are calling for. New Democrats are saying we should provide that support and help right now.

What I have noted, and have been troubled by, is that we do not see a response in proportion to how serious things are. When things are serious, when things are really bad, we need to have an immediate response that is proportional to the gravity of the problem we are up against. This is serious. This is really bad. What is the serious response that will address the needs right now? That is what we are calling for.

I can outline what New Democrats think should happen. We have said this from the beginning. We need better paid sick leave, we need better access to vaccines, we need better supports for workers and we need to make sure there is an all-hands-on-deck approach to getting everyone vaccinated. In particular, in Alberta where people are struggling right now, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach. The federal government needs to do everything possible and deploy every resource possible to support the people. That is what we are calling for and that is what this discussion should be about.

I want to thank the member for Edmonton Strathcona for calling for this emergency debate, I want to thank the House of Commons and the Speaker for agreeing to it and I want to thank all members for participating, but let us focus on solutions. Let us focus on what the federal government can do in terms of supports right now to help people right now.

I want to reiterate that the time has come to help our brothers and sisters, our neighbours in Alberta. They need the federal government's help to deal with this crisis.

This is a serious crisis and a critical time. We have to give them the help they need, improve access to a paid sick leave program, and do everything we can to get everyone vaccinated. New Democrats will continue to apply pressure in exactly those areas. We must act immediately.

[COVID-19 in Alberta, May 5th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, we need to talk about the solutions. Let us talk about the help we can provide. We need to mobilize with an all-hands-on-deck approach. Every resource available at the federal level has to be deployed to help people. I am talking about ensuring we are providing assistance and support to get people vaccinated. We need to provide front-line health care workers—