Maria Minna

[Status of Women, February 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, those were the minister's words against me yesterday and if they were valid yesterday, they are valid today. I am sorry but they are according to Hansard.

[Status of Women, February 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the minister continues to do the same. I have evidence in the emails here. It is clear that the minister was the one deceiving and intentionally misleading the House yesterday, not me.

[Status of Women, February 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the minister stated that her office had contacted women's groups in Vancouver with three proposed meeting dates.

I will quote an e-mail sent to me yesterday from women's organizations. It reads:

What the Minister said in the House [Thursday] was incorrect. We had not been contacted by her office at the time her statement was made. We had not been offered dates on which we said we were unable to meet.

Contrary to the minister's accusation against me, will she apologize to this House for providing false information?

[Status of Women, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, let us see another side. The provincial and territorial status of women ministers are meeting in Toronto today. They are meeting to develop a strategy to convince the federal minister to rescind her cuts to Status of Women Canada, but the minister was not invited because every time she has met with this group she has shown a complete lack of interest.

Why does the minister think Canadian women will take her seriously when she has been shunned by her own ministerial colleagues?

[Status of Women, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on January 19 the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women promised to go to Vancouver to meet with women's groups regarding the cuts and changes to Status of Women Canada. That was almost two weeks ago. The minister still has not set a date. These Canadian women are still waiting for their calls to be returned.

Will the minister tell the House why she promised to meet with these women's groups when she clearly had no intention of actually meeting with them? Is it that she cannot face them because she cannot defend her cuts?

[Status of Women, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious the minister is not allowed to answer her questions.

The minister's cavalier attitude toward women knows no bounds. In a letter to me on November 28 she stated that the women's program will receive $10.8 million, but there is no mention of the reallocation of the $5 million that she cut. Now her story has changed. She does not know whether she is coming or going.

Yesterday, the minister tried to justify closing 12 regional offices by saying women can use the Internet. Does she have any idea how contemptuous that sounds when many women have no access and offices are thousands of kilometres--

[Status of Women, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, across Canada women are protesting the ideological cuts of the government and the removal of equality provisions. Now there is more evidence that over the next five years $1.8 billion will be cut from skills development programs that directly affect women trying to upgrade literacy and other skills to enter the workforce.

The minister has carried out the single largest attack on women's services in the history of this country. Does the minister not understand that her job is to defend women, not to attack them?

[Energy Efficiency, December 11th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two outstanding organizations in Beaches—East York. Alex Winch of Mondial Energy has teamed up with Neighbourhood Link and Senior Link to build the city of Toronto's largest array of solar panels at a seniors housing complex on Coatsworth Crescent.

The solar panels, which powered up on November 25, will provide much of the hot water for the building, providing major savings and reducing greenhouse gases.

Winch's Mondial Energy Inc. will earn steady profits for investors, while at the same time reducing an estimated 40 tonnes of hydrocarbon emissions from the atmosphere each year.

The Coatsworth project is the biggest in Toronto so far and two more Neighbourhood Link projects are also in the early stages in the Beaches.

I congratulate Alex Winch, Mondial Energy, Neighbourhood Link and Senior Link and for their leadership in assisting with the cost of housing in Toronto and their effort to help reduce greenhouse gases. Their work is truly commendable.

[Violence Against Women, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, a date to remember the 14 women brutally murdered at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1989. They were killed simply because they were women.

This is a day of remembrance and action not only for those 14 young women, but also for the thousands of Canadian women facing discrimination and violence throughout this country.

A 2006 report from Statistics Canada entitled “Women in Canada 2006” states that common assaults make up the largest share of violent offences committed against women. In 2004, 53% of all women who were victims of violent offences were victims of a common assault, while the rest were victims of sexual assault, assault with a weapon causing bodily harm, criminal harassment and robbery. Women are considerably more likely than men to be victims of violent crimes and six times more likely to be victims of sexual assault.

We as Canadians and as women must stand together to stop this and say, “No more”.

[Status of Women, November 27th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, after months of trying, we still cannot get any answers or even any understanding of women's issues from the government and this minister in particular.

I have a question for the chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Could she tell the House what plans the committee has on its upcoming agenda to address the issues of early learning and child care and income security reform as outlined in the Liberal women's caucus pink book released today?