Johanne Deschamps

[Arms Trade, October 23rd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, on October 12 of this year, 77 countries jointly tabled a resolution in the United Nations championing the adoption of an arms trade treaty. More than 100 countries are now co-sponsoring the resolution. Unfortunately, Canada is not yet among them.

Why is Canada waiting to co-sponsor this resolution, which will be debated at the United Nations General Assembly, and can the Minister of Foreign Affairs explain why he is taking so long to make a decision?

[Robert Redeker, October 16th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, Robert Redeker, a philosophy professor in Toulouse, has become famous, unintentionally. Mr. Redeker published an article on Islam and the Koran in the well-known French newspaper Le Figaro. To publish an article, state one's opinion, open the door to discussion—such is the beauty of a democratic society.

The professor, who lives in France, has received death threats from fundamentalists, like those that forced the writer, Salman Rushdie, a resident of England, into hiding for several years. Many writers, artists, intellectuals, politicians and ordinary citizens are calling upon Quebec City and Ottawa to strongly condemn this matter, which is without question very similar to that of Mr. Rushdie.

Regardless of what was written in the article, the death threats received by Mr. Redeker go against the very basis of public life in a democratic state.

The Bloc Québécois is calling upon federal authorities to denounce this type of behaviour by fundamentalists and to send a clear message: these threats will not be tolerated in a democratic country.

[Situation in Sudan, October 3rd, 2006]

Mr. Chair, at this point, I would like to add that the Bloc Québécois wants a multilateral intervention in Darfur. The Bloc Québécois is therefore pleased that the mission is being transferred from the African Union to the UN.

[Situation in Sudan, October 3rd, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my Liberal colleague for his wise words. I think that he is talking along the same lines as I am.

In this conflict, we also have to listen to Sudan's neighbours, which are calling on Canada to act carefully, recognizing the urgency of the situation, but also the fact that Sudan's neighbours, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya, are opposed to having UN troops sent into Darfur without Khartoum's consent.

I think that you and I are aware of the needs inherent in the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The situation is urgent, and action must be taken as soon as possible to bring aid to the people most affected by the crisis: children, women and displaced persons, who are being forced to leave their country to live elsewhere until the peace that everyone hopes for returns to Sudan.

[Situation in Sudan, October 3rd, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the remark by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, I would like to add that we in this House are engaged in our second take-note debate on Darfur in the space of just a few months.

I did not really sense that the government was willing to put in place measures that would convince us that it is really making an effort. We must not look at what more we have done or what we have done better than other countries to deal with the crisis in Darfur. In the wake of the events of the summer, and regardless of how the situation in Darfur is described, the fact is that the situation is serious. The people are in danger, and there is a humanitarian crisis. To date, the crisis or conflict in Darfur has cost more than 300,000 lives.

The Bloc Québécois thinks that the international community must be more proactive in dealing with this crisis. It is not a question of whether there is a genocide, it is a question of taking action as quickly as possible by sending in a peacekeeping force, while bearing in mind that this is an African conflict.

[Situation in Sudan, October 3rd, 2006]

Mr. Chair, this is the second time in less than a year that I have risen in this House to condemn the humanitarian drama currently affecting millions of people in Darfur and Chad. Last spring, I urged the Canadian government to take a leadership role on this issue in the international community to find a solution, once and for all, to the misery the people at the centre of this conflict are suffering.

The humanitarian situation has deteriorated over the last few months, especially during this past summer. Humanitarian workers are facing unprecedented levels of violence. On August 7, 2006, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced that violence had killed more aid workers in Darfur in the previous two weeks than in the previous two years.

Once again, the Conservative government is showing its weakness and lack of leadership. To date, its only response has been to allocate another $40 million in humanitarian aid. This is commendable, but clearly insufficient.

Aid organizations are demanding a UN mission to help them continue their humanitarian work.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the WFP have sounded the alarm for the 350,000 people who have not received food aid for three months.

The Bloc Québécois is calling on the federal government to increase its humanitarian aid for Darfur, by increasing its contribution to the world food program. We also want the government to ensure that the funds intended for CIDA are really used for humanitarian aid and are not misappropriated.

As an aside, I cannot help but point out how ineffectively relief funds allocated by CIDA are managed internationally. In fact, according to the international development agency Action Aid, more than a third of the funds invested by CIDA are poorly coordinated, disbursed to over-paid advisors or spent in Canada, rather than in the countries that need it most. This means that more than $1 billion invested by CIDA around the world last year was wasted.

That is exactly the same amount slashed last week by the Conservative government—trimming the fat—with cuts to programs intended for women, youth, minorities and literacy, to name a few.

Despite all the ceasefires agreed to by the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the rebels in the province of Darfur, the suffering escalates as the number of deaths and refugees increases. The situation is intolerable and many sources put the number of victims since the conflict began at 300,000.

The same sources estimate that more than three million people have been displaced within Darfur, to other areas of the country and to neighbouring countries such as Uganda, the Central African Republic and primarily Chad.

There are as many people struggling to survive in camps on the border between Chad and Darfur as have died since the conflict began. The situation could deteriorate further if the newly re-elected government of Chad decides to make good on its threat to close its border with Sudan and force 300,000 refugees to return to their country.

The situation in the region is complex, because it pits against each other two nations that share the same language and the same religion but have completely different views as to the future of their region. The situation is also explosive: one has just to look closely at the political and humanitarian situation in Sudan and the neighbouring countries.

The Bloc Québécois feels that the international community must be more proactive in order to resolve this crisis as soon as possible. The African Union has been doing excellent work in this region for several years, but human and financial resources are running out.

The international community and Canada have an obligation to heed the UN's calls for an aid mission led by the African Union, because this conflict is taking place in Africa and only the Africans can find a solution.

The west has the means to help the victims of the Darfur conflict, and we are duty bound to take action.

In the early 1990s, at the time of the Rwanda genocide, General Dallaire, today a senator, pleaded with the international community to give him the resources needed to stop the massacres and resolve tensions between the Hutu and the Tutsi. At the time, Canada and many other countries looked the other way and abetted over one million assassinations.

Are we going to look away once again from what is happening and be accomplices to these acts of violence by not lifting a finger?

No. It is time to take the action requested by the UN, the African Union, the European Union and the NGOs. Let us avoid the stall tactics of the United States, which is contemplating whether what is happening is genocide or a war crime. Other than semantics, there is no difference.

It is obvious that crimes against humanity are taking place in Darfur and that should be enough to alert the international community. We have the means to act because, despite the current opposition of the government in Khartoum, the UN may intervene pursuant to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter and the resolution on responsibility adopted by the Security Council. Kofi Annan himself is demanding the deployment of an interposition force between the rebels and government troops and this despite opposition from the Sudanese government.

Even though resolution 1706 states that the deployment must have the approval of Khartoum, several diplomatic and humanitarian sources report that a UN force under the command of the African Union would be well received by all parties.

Other solutions could be put in place to curtail this conflict. For example, when will the embargo on the sale of weapons in Sudan, as per resolutions 1556 and 1591 of the UN Security Council, go into effect?

We learned this week that weapons and vehicles purchased by China in the United States for sale to the government of Sudan contain Canadian parts.

As my colleague, the hon. member for Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, asked earlier in this House, will the Canadian government continue to turn a blind eye and tolerate the fact that parts sold to China are being used to build weapons that are then resold to the Sudan, or will it commit to taking the necessary measures to put an end to this trafficking?

It is imperative that Canada maintain its support for the International Criminal Court in its efforts to bring the criminals to justice in the Darfur case.

One thing is clear, the Bloc Québécois supports without reservation the mission of the African Union in Darfur and urges the Government of Canada to increase its financial and logistical assistance to the African Union so that it has the necessary resources for continuing its peace mission in that part of the world.

In April 2006, my colleague, the hon. member for La Pointe-de-l'Île and Bloc Québécois international affairs critic, proposed a motion in this House asking:

That, in the opinion of the House, the Government of Canada urge its representatives at the United Nations to put forward a motion calling on the Security Council to deploy a multinational force to maintain peace in Darfur as soon as possible pursuant to the paragraph on the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly on September 16, 2005.

This debate was held almost six months ago and the Conservative government is maintaining complete silence.

Is it because of its lack of leadership on the world stage, its lack of understanding of the issues or its ideological blindness modelled after that of the Bush administration?

From the beginning the Bloc Québécois has called for and supported the implementation of an international interposition force in Darfur until life is back to normal for the people affected by this crisis. The Bloc Québécois also asks that this force operate under the auspices of the African Union so that this African problem is resolved by Africans.

[Business of Supply, September 28th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I can readily answer my NDP colleague.

Within our party structure we have a citizenship committee, which considers this reality that the Bloc Québécois has also always put in the forefront. The Bloc has always acted to make sure that there is a strong representation of women within our party.

That is certainly not the case on the Conservative side. Proportionally, they have the smallest number of women members of any party in this House. One has to wonder what place women have in that party. What is the place of women on their scale of priorities? What is the role of women in this government?

This morning, the Prime Minister’s wife was promoting a literacy event. In the course of things, she was questioned by journalists, who asked her whether the government led by her husband had cut $18 million. She replied that in her opinion it is very important to be able to read. We see the paradox that is unfolding. Worse still, during this ceremony, she was accompanied by the President of the Treasury Board, who had the nerve to tell the journalists that he would be devoting his energies to teaching children to read, rather than to helping—

[Business of Supply, September 28th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my NDP colleague for having raised this question.

This is just another example of the manipulations that we are now faced with from this Conservative government which has just slashed its budget to achieve savings on the backs of women.

I believe that more and more we can see the true profile of this government, its right-wing ideology. It is also distancing itself from the commitments that it made during the last election campaign.

I remember the charm campaign they presented to women and workers in Quebec about the fiscal imbalance and Quebec’s role on the international stage. They also wanted to take charge of the concerns of workers and the unemployed.

Soon, the House will be debating Bill C-269, which seeks to improve the employment insurance system, a system that no longer meets the expectations of Canadian workers. Often, those workers are women. In some regions of Quebec, between 70% and 75% of women are employed in seasonal jobs. At every level and in every way, the government is backing down from the commitments it made during the election campaign.

[Business of Supply, September 28th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak to the Liberal party motion on the Conservative government cuts affecting Quebec women. These cuts are made with disregard for the role of women in our society and the importance of giving them equal opportunities.

Since coming to power, this Conservative government has refused to accept any responsibility for the social problems affecting our society. The Bloc Québécois is opposed to the cuts that the Conservatives are preparing to make at the expense of Quebec women. I would like to dedicate my comments today to all women who fight inequality, poverty, violence, isolation and prejudice against women. Women are directly affected by the $5 million, or 20%, reduction in the budget of the Status of Women Canada announced by the Minister of Finance on Monday.

How can such an attitude be justified? There is only one word that applies in this case: irresponsibility. This government, which no later than Monday was telling us about its billions in surpluses, has the nerve—at the same time—to cut what it has also the gall to call fat. The President of the Treasury Board took this affront so far as to say that his government has adopted a strategy for saving a billion dollars, this year and next year. Those savings will be made on the backs of the most vulnerable among us because of the women’s programs and services that are being eliminated.

In the riding of Laurentides—Labelle, the Réseau des femmes des Laurentides and the organization La Passe-R-Elle, two organizations dedicated to women’s welfare, will have their efforts stymied by the Conservative decisions. The way that organizations funded under the Women’s Program have been treated in recent months provides eloquent evidence of what the Conservatives think about the status of women. The fact is that the work done by these organizations helps dozens of women, every day, who have been victims of violence or intimidation. These organizations cannot believe the government's withdrawal undertaken by the Conservatives.

The reduction in funding for literacy programs means that Griffe d'alpha in Mont-Laurier will no longer be able to provide the French language integration courses that it offered free of charge to new immigrants in the region. This is going to make it more difficult for these newcomers to integrate.

Our society will have to rely even more on the generosity of volunteers to make up for the irresponsibility of this government.

But there is more. The government eliminated both the volunteer support program and the court challenges program that helps minority language groups exercise their rights in the courts.

After eight months in power, the Conservatives are finally showing their true face, and it is the face of a party that gets its ideas from the ideology of right-wing groups that could not care less about the problems and concerns of minorities and of the disadvantaged in our society. This kind of management has nothing to do with the values and priorities of Quebeckers.

Since January 23, Quebeckers have been having to deal with a government that does not keep its election promises. In fact, I would like to remind this minority government that in the recent federal election, the Prime Minister himself acknowledged, and I quote, “—that Canada has more to do to meet its international obligations to women's equality”.

He also committed himself to taking concrete and immediate measures to ensure that Canada fully upholds its commitments to women on the international scene.

In October 2004, after an agreement was reached among the parties in the House of Commons, and at the initiative of the Bloc Québécois, the first Standing Committee on the Status of Women, composed of representatives of the political parties in the House, was created. The attitude of the Conservative government is an affront and negates all the efforts at consultation that this committee has made since it was created.

One by one, groups have appeared before the committee to testify that they are worried about how less and less importance is being placed on women’s concerns in the government’s decisions. Many of them were of the opinion that government action to fund women’s rights groups is a priority, and suggested that underfunding would make it more difficult to promote women’s rights.

Some witnesses were also heard on the need to re-examine the allocation of funds.

One of the chief concerns is the assurance of core funding for front line agencies, such as support centres for victims of sexual assault and spousal violence, as well as women’s networks.

Other witnesses have also talked about the importance of encouraging the federal government, when it is preparing policies and budgets, to take into account the effects these will have on women, suggesting that the role of Status of Women Canada be strengthened.

What do the Conservatives really think about the status of women? Not very much, if we look at their electoral platform, where the word “woman” can be found only twice. This shows that the Conservatives are not interested in the specificity of women’s lives.

The Conservative government has cut away the fat. It has slashed the assistance allocated to programs and services for women.

Poverty is a major issue for women, who are overrepresented in this respect, particularly mothers in single-parent families, older women, immigrants and aboriginal women.

The expression “low income” does not appear once in the Conservative Party’s electoral platform. This is upsetting, when we know that one in six women in Canada is poor.

The birth of children, the breakup of a conjugal relationship and illness are all reasons that may cause women to end up with low incomes over a long period.

Four single-parent families out of five are headed by a woman. Meanwhile the wage gap between female and male graduates goes on widening. Female graduates make only 71% of the earnings of male graduates.

Pay equity, maternity benefits and parental leave are not part of the Conservative platform.

As for public housing, the Conservatives basically emphasize tax incentives for builders in the private sector. There is nothing to help women regarding public housing or for dealing with violence against women.

While they acknowledge that there is violence in the streets and that no woman should have to live in fear, the Conservatives do not have anything to say about the thousands of women who seek refuge in safe houses and transition houses as a result of conjugal violence. They do not recognize the merits of these services and do not propose any investment to support them. Cutting away the fat—that is how they propose to deal with women’s problems.

In conclusion, the government preferred to take the approach of REAL Women of Canada, that conservative group that asks for nothing other than the abolition of Status of Women Canada.

An article that appeared in The Canadian Press is particularly eloquent:

The minister responsible for the status of women is not ruling out the possibility that this file [Status of Women] will be put on the chopping block of Conservative cuts, but she maintains that her government will continue to fight against inequality and the obstacles facing Canadian women.

This may not be enough to ease the fears of certain women's groups, but her comments contradict the position of organizations, such as REAL Women of Canada, which maintain that women no longer need help from the government to achieve equality.

The Bloc Québécois is very concerned about the cuts announced regarding Status of Women Canada and the position of women in the Conservative ideology, which supports an approach contrary to the values of Quebeckers. This government is reactionary and misogynous.

The Bloc Québécois team will continue to rise and defend the rights of women, the principles defended by the Beijing conference,and equity. Quebec will always strive to achieve the freedom of action and financial resources it deserves, in order to achieve the full powers that will allow it to develop alongside all other nations.

[Canadian International Development Agency, September 25th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, today, the foreign affairs minister of Colombia is in Ottawa to meet with various ministers and agencies, including CIDA.

Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs take advantage of his meeting with his counterpart to pressure the Colombian government to honour the judgment by the Colombian constitutional court recognizing that CIDA-funded humanitarian groups are not terrorist groups?