Kennedy Stewart

[Status of Women, October 18th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I am sure the parliamentary secretary will go back to her cabinet meeting tomorrow and get a big slap on the back for putting up another smokescreen about my bill. Of course, the member knows it is not a quota; it is an incentive system. Of course, she knows that the 10% threshold is in there specifically for non-binary candidates. It is just astounding to me that the member could be the parliamentary secretary for the status of women and not support this bill. It is just beyond me. Moreover, her lack of any suggestions as to how we could have more than 26% of the House made up of women is surprising. It really is astounding that the member has picked partisanship over being a feminist.

That is too bad, because tomorrow night we are going to have a vote, and then in 36 months when we have another election, she will look back on her career and say, “What did I do? Did I stand up for feminism in the House? I did not”. I think that is a shame.

We all make our choices in the House, and I am sorry that the member has made this choice.

[Status of Women, October 18th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I guess I get to continue my previous speech, because this adjournment proceeding is on the debate with the Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women.

This debate arose when the Minister of Democratic Institutions and the parliamentary secretary supposedly had some kind of legal judgment that said that my private member's bill was unconstitutional. I have here in my hand a memorandum from the House of Commons law clerk and parliamentary counsel that says that not only is my private member's bill, Bill C-237, the candidate gender equity act, constitutional, it actually would enhance the charter and help move us toward the goal of supporting gender equality.

Bill C-237 is an important move forward in the fight to bring gender parity to the House of Commons. With a mere 26% of MPs sitting in the House being women, we are far away from having gender parity. In fact, we are ranked 64th in the world when it comes to this certain characteristic of our House.

It is extremely disappointing. I asked the Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women the question in the House of Commons to get clarification on why they are opposing my bill. They do not have any ideas as to how we can increase the number of women in the House. They have just been trying to put up a smokescreen to stop my private member's bill. That is extremely disappointing.

We are in desperate need of some kind of legislative change here in the House. The bill I put forward is an incentive. It is not a quota. It uses existing funding that is provided to parties by Elections Canada. It uses that money as an incentive for parties to run more women candidates.

We know from the research that we need more women candidates to have more women MPs. That is just a simple conclusion.

The reason we do not have more women candidates is that parties simply block women from becoming candidates for political parties. I have been studying this for 20 years. I did my Ph.D. at the London School of Economics on this. We found in one study of Canadian legislators that when women are in head-to-head competitions in nomination contests, women are six times less likely than men to win, simply because of bias within the parties.

I just wanted to rise to say that the bill I put forward is constitutional. I have documentation, which I would be happy to table or to show to anyone who is interested in seeing it.

I would also like to hear, from the parliamentary secretary, why they said they had legal advice, when they actually did not have it.

[Candidate Gender Equity Act, October 18th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I understand that passions run high, but it is time to actually come clean and we are going to do that tomorrow night.

When we have the vote on the bill tomorrow night, there will be a call that essentially asks whether each member is a feminist or is not a feminist. If members stand up and vote for the bill, they are feminists. If they stand up and say nay to the bill, they are not feminists.

Now there are plenty of folks on that side of the House, the Conservatives, who say that they are not feminists. That is fine, and I actually respect that, because at least they are telling us the truth. However, on this side of the House, we are having all kinds of rhetoric from the Prime Minister and cabinet that they are feminists, yet we had the Minister of Democratic Institutions stand up saying that she is not going to vote for the bill.

If members can believe it, we had the Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women stand up in the House and say that she is not going vote for the bill, without giving any alternatives as to how we move from 26% of women elected in this place. I have to say that it is greatly disappointing.

There are many groups in society that support the bill. We have Leadnow, Samara, major labour unions, and all kinds of folks. I am sorely disappointed with what I am hearing from the other side of the House. I hope the backbench will rise up and help this cabinet do the right thing.

[Candidate Gender Equity Act, October 18th, 2016]

I am being heckled by the Conservatives.

[Candidate Gender Equity Act, October 18th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, it is a great pleasure to stand here today, and it has been a pleasure listening to the debate, or most of it, on my bill.

I would ask members to take a look around the House of Commons. This is a place of moments. This is the place where we decided women should get to vote. This is the place where we decided that women should become people in the eyes of the law. This is where we decided that first nations people should get to vote. This is a place of moments, and we are having a moment right now. The bill that I put before the House, Bill C-237, is an effort to move us out of the 64th place in the world in terms of how we sit in representing women being elected to this place.

We have had some extraordinary moments around the debate. For example, we have had the Minister of Democratic Institutions and the Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women stand up in the House and say that they were not feminists. We have had women on the other side of the House stand up and reveal that they are not feminists. They actually side with the social Conservatives on this side of the House, which is strange to see, because this is a moment where the feminists in the House will stand up and vote for the bill. That is what will happen tomorrow, or will not happen, and it is a fairly serious moment.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the election, so we have been here a year. We only have 36 months left. I wonder how many bills of this nature will come forward in the House. How many chances will members get to stand up and say, “I am a feminist and I agree that there should be more women in the House of Commons”. When will that happen? It will not happen.

This side of the House has put up all kinds of arguments, especially from the government side, as to why the bill should not be passed. They said that it is a quota, but it is not. It is an incentive scheme that is used in other countries very successfully. They said that there are constitutional reasons and that it would be struck down by the courts, and of course, they quickly retracted that because they actually did not have a legal opinion to counter the very facts of my bill. In fact, I have a legal opinion from the House of Commons legal team that says that not only would the bill meet all the requirements of the charter; it would actually help us meet our charter goals.

We have nothing from that side of the House as to how we are going to move from having 26% of women MPs elected in the House. We have a Prime Minister who goes all around the world saying how much of a feminist he is, but there is no concrete action. We have rhetoric from that side of “I'm a feminist”, and we have some symbolism, which I think we should be proud of with having a gender-balanced cabinet, but what we do not have is any real, concrete action.

In the world, we have over 100 countries that have legislated some laws to make sure that there are more women in their legislatures, and Canada has not done that. As a result, when the Prime Minister was elected, we were 60th in the world in terms of the percentage of women in our legislature, and we have already dropped to 64th. Four years from now when we have our next election, I bet we will be around 70th or 75th. We are dropping like a stone in this ranking, and it is disconcerting.

There is a chance tomorrow for the bill to pass. Again, I know the Conservatives will not vote for it, because they are opposed. They will not stand up and say that they are feminists. However, the Liberals have.

[Status of Women, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have to do more than just call themselves feminists; they need to take action here. For example, in 1929, the legal definition of “person” was expanded to include women. One would think that after 87 years we would have reached gender equity in all aspects of public life, including right here in the House of Commons, but there is only 26% women in the House. That places Canada 64th in the world, behind countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

If the Liberals are serious about getting more women into politics, will they support my bill on candidate gender equity, yes or no?

[Canadian Human Rights Act, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to applaud my colleague for his speech. This is a very important day here in the House of Commons.

I wonder if the member could perhaps add some personal flavour to his speech, and tell us of trans folks that he knows and some of the struggles they have gone through.

[Canadian Human Rights Act, October 18th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I want to say how honoured I have been to sit beside my friend who has put all of this effort into a great cause. I would like to thank him for all of his efforts. Could he go through again and tell us a little about what he has done to get to this place today and how he sees this moving forward after the bill is passed?

[Canadian Human Rights Act, October 18th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, first, I have had the privilege of succeeding Bill Siksay as the MP for Burnaby South, who has worked on this issue for many years. I also had the great privilege of seconding the bill when my friend, the member for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, put it forward in the last Parliament. This issue is very important to me, as it is to many members in the House.

Does the member actually know any transgender people and has he sat down and spoken with them about their day-to-day struggles and how much this bill would help alleviate those day-to-day struggles?

[Petitions, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition signed by many constituents.

The petitioners call on the government to support Bill C-237, the candidate gender equity act. The constituents point out that women still only hold 26% of the seats here in this place and Canada is ranked 64th in the world in terms of gender representation in our legislature.

My constituents would like the legislation passed and we will have a chance to do that tomorrow night when we vote on the bill.