Julie Dabrusin

[Petitions, May 6th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition calling upon the Minister of Health to implement an adequately funded national cost-shared universal healthy school food program, enabling children to develop the food and nutrition habits they need to lead healthy lives and succeed at school.

This aligns with Senator Eggleton's Senate Motion No. 358, which is in the Senate at the moment.

I would like to thank Debbie Field and the Coalition for Healthy School Food for their support and all of the work they did in favour of this petition and for healthy school food programs across our country. This aligns with more than 40 organizations across our country that are working to make sure all children have the healthy school foods they need to be able to thrive.

[Criminal Records Act, May 6th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, this idea of charges that have not been proven has come up in a few of the speeches today. However, we just call those “charges”. The person has not been convicted of them. It is not a conviction and it is not what we base our pardons on or what they seek pardons on, because it is not what they are sentenced on. I think we really need to be clear. A person may have been charged, but if the charge was not proven, it means the person was not criminally convicted. It concerns me when we slide that line in our conversations in this place.

I want to underline that we are missing the point about why pardons or expungements are important. In fact, I voted in favour of expungement and I have no problem with that, if that is what we are speaking about. When we studied it at committee, we saw that people who do not have a pardon in fact cannot get jobs as easily, cannot rent homes, cannot adopt and might have problems with custody arrangements. Does my friend not see the value of a pardon in the case of simple possession, if that is what they were convicted of, and is that not something we should be doing as quickly and cheaply as possible?

[Criminal Records Act, May 6th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to my friend's submissions on this. First of all, as to Canada's criminalization of cannabis previously, what people have been raising is that it was a historical injustice in its application. It has come up frequently at committee that it was not applied in the same way to all people in our country.

I want to point out that our committee did a unanimous report. All parties agreed when we studied Motion No. 161, which was about pardons and record suspensions, that we should look at the pricing for record suspensions, and this included Conservatives. The stories we heard over and over again said that the cost of getting a record suspension, at $631—and that increased when the Conservatives were the government—prevents people from being able to get a record suspension. That is a problem for people because then they cannot work.

The thrust in most of the argument I have heard is about this being taxpayer dollars and it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. Is there not a value, something that pays back on that investment when we allow people to enter the workforce, be able to have accommodations and actually be a part of our society actively?

[Criminal Records Act, May 6th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, the committee is already hearing from witnesses about this bill. I would like to know what my colleague found most interesting in the testimony.

What ideas did he hear in committee that could help us understand why this bill is so important?

[Indigenous Languages Act, May 2nd, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, as the chair of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, I want to first reach out to the member across and say that I was equally frustrated by amendments being brought by members at the last minute. I acknowledge that it was in fact a very frustrating part of the process. I understand her frustration about that, and she is correct that members should not be bringing amendments at the last minute. That was very frustrating.

The timing of the process issue was very frustrating, but the substance of many of the amendments did improve the bill, and the amendments were based on the evidence that I thought we had heard from the witnesses.

One amendment that was particularly important was to try to build in a broader vision as to what we consider to be indigenous languages. That responded directly to one witness, who talked to us about indigenous sign language, which is something I was not even aware of. For me, it was one of the most interesting parts of the evidence we heard, and it let us see things in a very different way.

Maybe the member opposite could talk about that part too, about how there was an expanded vision of what we might consider as language and how that was adopted through the amendments, as late as they may have been introduced.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague opposite, who had a lot of ideas. I am very familiar with her beautiful region. I love the Saguenay region. I have cycled the Véloroute des Bleuets, and I know all about the area's blueberries.

At the beginning of her speech, my colleague spoke about food policy and supply management. I agree that it is important for the budget to include a food policy. We have proposed unique, never-before-seen measures to support nutrition in Canada, including in schools. We have begun talks with the provinces and territories on this matter.

Could my colleague make some suggestions and tell us what she would like to see? What does she think about the proposed food policy ideas? This topic is important to me.

[Petitions, April 10th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition that was started by someone in my community, Tamzin Jeffs, with respect to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

The petitions calls for the development and overseeing of a standardized approach to the measurement, investigation and reporting of sudden deaths involving epilepsy. It also calls for the collation of Canadian epilepsy related death data in a centralized repository to assist SUDEP researchers and help prevent further loss.

One of the most touching things about this petition is the stories I have heard from people who have lost loved ones to SUDEP. I am very pleased to present this petition on their behalf.

[Criminal Records Act, April 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure to be on the public safety and national security committee with the member across the way. At committee, we worked together on a joint report on record suspensions, which was tabled in the House in December. We all agreed in the report that a criminal record has a negative impact on a person's ability to find employment, housing and education, to travel and in the adoption and custody of children. We recognized that an applicant's financial situation and ability to pay may be a barrier to applying. In fact, we asked the government to review the record suspension system and the cost of it. Therefore, I was actually very surprised to hear the member now speak from what seems to be a position that is contrary to the report he agreed to when it was put forward in the House.

Perhaps the member could explain why it makes sense for people to face a financial barrier in achieving a record suspension for something like simple possession.

[Criminal Records Act, April 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We are talking about an issue that is very important and has been raised by many people in my community, and that is the issue of pardons in the context of cannabis legalization.

There is an issue of relevance here as to what the member across is speaking about, which is not at all about the bill before him. I would ask if he could be directed to speak about the bill. It is an important bill and I would like to hear his thoughts.

[Committees of the House, April 1st, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 18th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, entitled “Bill C-91, An Act respecting Indigenous Languages”. The committee has studied the bill and has decided to report the bill back to the House with amendments.

While I am on my feet, I move:

That the House do now proceed to orders of the day.