Karen Vecchio

[Violence Against Women, December 6th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, today we mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. This day has been set aside to commemorate the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history, which occurred at Montreal's École Polytechnique, where 14 women were murdered. Today marks the 30th anniversary of this tragedy. It reminds us of the daughters, sisters and friends who lost their lives. These victims were all women with bright futures, whose families will never have the opportunity to see them flourish.

Throughout Canada, communities and organizations are joining together to commemorate this day and to continue our efforts to fight for a world free of violence against women.

I would like to finish with an excerpt from a poem written by Wadia Samadi entitled Finding Freedom.

My makeup does not cover my bruised face
My smile does not hide my haggard visage
Yet, no one comes to help
They say: it will get better
They say: don’t talk about it
They say: this was my fate
They say: a woman must tolerate
Don’t air your dirty laundry, they say.
When will this end?

[Committees of the House, June 17th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, two reports of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. The first is the 17th report, entitled “A Lifetime of Dedication: Helping Senior Women Benefit from their Lifelong Contributions to Canadian Society today”. The committee was able to hear from 54 witnesses, including 11 from departments, 10 individuals and 18 organizations. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.

The second is the 18th report, entitled “A Force for Change: Creating a Culture of Equality for Women in the Canadian Armed Forces”. The committee heard from nine independent witnesses, four organizations and seven individuals from DND. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to do the work. I want to mention the work done by our analysts, Dominique and Clare, and our fantastic clerk, Kenza, who were able to get all of this done in the last few weeks. We were able to get a report done and tabled.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

[Canada Summer Jobs Program, June 14th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, last year, thousands of Canadian organizations offering kids summer camps and helping out seniors were ineligible for Canada summer jobs because of the Liberals' values test, but now the Liberals have decided to fund a group that has terrorist links, a group that paid $550,000 in fines and lost its charitable status from CRA. Yesterday, the minister said she would review the decision.

Can the minister confirm that this group with terrorist links does not meet the Liberals values test?

[Veterans Homelessness, June 13th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order with respect to a tweet claiming that I did not support Motion No. 225 and that I was preventing it in the House, as well as the fact that I voted against it. This claim is categorically false. I want the House to know that I was one of the seconders of the motion and spoke favourably to the proposal.

Further, I would like to seek unanimous consent of the House for the following motion:

That Motion M-225 be deemed adopted.

[Veterans Homelessness, June 11th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the Bay of Quinte for this very strong motion. Every single person in this place will be supporting this motion. Members from the Conservative Party, from the NDP, and I am sure from the government will all be supporting this.

We recognize that there is a time frame. Rather than worrying about this going to a vote, let us worry about what we are going to do on the ground as Canadians and how we are going to help our veterans. Therefore, I urge everyone to not be caught up in the politics of this debate, as I see some members of the government are. Let us recognize that we can work very well with the member for Bay of Quinte, with the member for Saskatoon West and with all the different speakers. We just recognized D-Day because of the great men and women who have served this country.

Just because it is a motion that will be losing time and be lost on the Order Paper does not mean that in our hearts we cannot do what is right and help out our veterans each and every day.

This is a motion the members of the Conservative Party are very happy to support. We recognize that there is a lot of political stuff going on over this as they talk about how much time we have to debate. I have had one minute to debate this as the critic for this role. Let us not worry about the 25 minutes the Liberals have used, reducing us to 20 minutes.

I am being asked to call the question by a member who has sat there and ridiculed us, saying that Conservatives do not support this. We support this wholeheartedly, but it is very important that there is an opportunity to debate these types of issues.

We talk about things like the portable housing benefit. I would love to see that as we go forward with this. The portable housing benefit is supposed to be coming in April 2020. It was introduced in the national housing strategy back in November 2017. If this is an idea we can put forward that would work for our veterans, it is something we should be doing. We should be working hard for our veterans each and every day. That is something that our party will continue to do.

[Veterans Homelessness, June 11th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I am fully in support of the motion. There are a few things I am not positive about, because it is incorporating it in the national housing strategy, which is okay, but not fantastic.

For four years, the Liberals have been in power. They have talk about the things they have done for veterans. They have talked about the national housing strategy. Why has nothing been done in the last four years?

[Government Policies, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I would like to reintroduce the members to the Liberal leader of 2015.

He promised modest deficits, GST removal from social housing, to respect Parliament, to empower committees free from government interference, an open and transparent government, to take climate change seriously, a non-partisan Senate and to end first past the post elections. To top it off, he promised sunny ways.

On these promises and so much more, he failed to deliver.

The Liberal leader stepped into the office of the prime minister in 2015, with voters being sold a bill of goods. However, Canadians will not be fooled twice. He does not understand his failed policies and the negative impact they have on Canadian families.

Canadians know that the Prime Minister is not as advertised.

[Criminal Records Act, June 6th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I look at this and I am just not there yet with expungement. I need more facts to show that we are getting only the people who have had simple possession. I think that is where my breaking point is, simple possession versus trafficking. That is where the line is.

[Criminal Records Act, June 6th, 2019]

I do not know them all by name.

Part of the issue is that there are some bad people out there, and I do not want to just say, “Forget about it. It was a simple charge.” Some of those people have caused great angst for many families.

[Criminal Records Act, June 6th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I was fully supportive of Bill C-66 and the expungement. Being an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, I look at people and who they are. This is something I look at differently. When comparing cannabis to a person's sexual diversity, I find the issues to be very different.

That being said, we need to make sure that we are actually focusing on people charged with simple possession. The thing is, I am concerned that we can come to an administrative barrier. Part of it is that I know the drug dealers on the street. I know there is a big issue happening here.