Jagmeet Singh

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

Madam Speaker, right now, there is a serious crisis going on in Alberta. I think about the people who I have met in Alberta, hard-working people building a life for themselves and their families. I think of the people I have met in Calgary and spending time in the city and in some of the suburbs, and going to Calgary Skyview. I met the Sikh community in the Dashmesh gurdwara. I think about spending time at my first Calgary stampede and in Edmonton. I used to visit pretty regularly. I have been to the Rocky Mountains. Throughout Alberta, there are good people who are working hard, trying to earn a good living to support their families. Right now, they need our help.

Both Liberal and Conservative MPs are talking about blame. Right now, while people are in an emergency, it is pretty disconnected of them to be speaking about blame. Right now, we need to be talking about the help for the people of Alberta.

We saw that the federal government when pushed was able to provide some support to the province of Ontario, sending in additional federal resources, sending in the military and providing health care workers.

Right now, people need help. We are seeing the highest case counts, the highest positivity rates and the worst situation in all of Canada, in fact, in all of North America. When the house is burning, help needs to be sent immediately. That is what this emergency debate should be about. How do we provide that help? What supports can we give right now to support people?

Speaking to people on the ground in Alberta, hospitals are being overrun and ICU units are filling up. We are getting to a position where people do not know how they are going to respond to the number of people getting sick.

What are we going to do about it? We need to get vaccines to the people who desperately need it. We know with the people who are getting sick everywhere in Canada, and particularly right now in Alberta, the highest rates of transmission are—

[Health, May 5th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the situation right now in India is catastrophic. It is horrible to see the images of people desperate for help. People are dying because they cannot get access to oxygen. The situation requires the entire world to come together to provide support. We need to provide support to India to help the people of India.

There is one concrete thing the Liberal government could do. What poorer countries need is for vaccine patents to be waived so they could produce more vaccine and protect more people. What we have seen so far from the Liberal government is that it is more interested in protecting the profits of big pharmaceutical companies than actually helping these poorer countries by waiving those patent protections.

Will the Prime Minister waive, or support the waiver, of those patent protections, so poorer countries could produce more vaccine, and we could get the help to India and the people of India that they need?

[Indigenous Affairs, May 5th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that those aggressive commitments continue to be broken and pushed back again and again.

Another commitment the government made was to do something about the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls calls for justice. Today is a national day to recognize the losses, reflect on those losses and commit to doing something to protect indigenous women and girls. It has been two years since the report. Why has the Liberal government not done anything to advance those calls for justice to truly honour and respect the demands and needs of the indigenous communities?

[Indigenous Affairs, May 5th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, in 2015, the Prime Minister promised to get clean drinking water to all indigenous people within six years. Six years later, he broke that promise. Now the promise is to do it in five years. Eleven years to get indigenous communities clean drinking water is absurd. It is outrageous. It is not good enough and people are fed up with excuses.

Why does the Prime Minister keep breaking promises to indigenous people?

[National Defence, May 5th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, yes, there is a lot of work that remains: putting in place the key recommendation of Justice Deschamps from 2015.

We had over 800 allegations in five years of either sexual assault or sexual harassment in the Canadian Forces, which is a staggering figure. That means over three allegations a week all while this Prime Minister was in government.

The Justice Deschamps report makes it clear. The number one recommendation was to put in place an independent process to bring forward complaints. Why has this Prime Minister, in those five years with all of those allegations, not put in place the key recommendation, which is an independent process to bring forward complaints?

[National Defence, May 5th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Justice Deschamps wrote a report on sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. She clearly recommended setting up an independent process for filing sexual harassment complaints.

Instead of launching another investigation, why does the Prime Minister not set up this independent process for filing complaints?

[National Defence, May 4th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, right now there is a chilling message being sent to women in the Canadian Armed Forces. It is that, if they raise a complaint and it makes it to the highest office of this land, they will be ignored and nothing will be done. Instead of fixing it, the Liberal government wants to put in place another inquiry, despite ignoring the inquiry from 2015 and not putting in place any of those recommendations. The Conservatives want to get into a fight about who is worse.

I will help everyone out. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have failed to protect women in the Canadian Armed Forces.

What will the Prime Minister concretely do to protect women in the Canadian Armed Forces?

[National Defence, May 4th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the situation with respect to sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces was exactly the same in 2015.

Justice Deschamps produced a report that raises concerns. She sent a clear message that simply repeating the mantra of zero tolerance without taking action to protect women was not good enough.

What did the Liberal government do?

It continued repeating the mantra without taking any concrete action to protect women in the Canadian Forces.

Why does the Prime Minister refuse to implement the recommendations of the Deschamps report?

[Labour, April 29th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked the Prime Minister whether he would be willing to improve paid sick leave. Instead of responding to the question, he responded with jibber-jabber about jurisdiction.

Here is the thing. There is already a federal paid sick leave program. The problem is that it does not work. I have a crazy idea. How about we make it work? All of the experts agree that a paid sick leave program that works would save lives, so why does the Prime Minister hide behind excuses when we are saying to improve the program that is already there?

Will the Prime Minister do that and save lives?

[Health, April 29th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the third wave of COVID-19 is hitting hard, and it is still the most vulnerable, essential workers and frontline workers who are getting sick and who risk spreading the virus to their families and communities. The government has a responsibility to act.

Will the Prime Minister commit to ensuring that the most vulnerable are vaccinated as soon as possible?