Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet

[Status of Women, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, today, we are celebrating Persons Day. This day marks the moment when the legal definition of person was finally broadened to include women.

Unfortunately, still today, only 26% of the members of the House of Commons are women. For that reason, the NDP introduced a bill that will put measures in place to encourage more women to get involved in politics.

Eighty-seven years later, will this government support our bill and finally put these measures in place?

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

Madam Speaker, we could send the bill to committee right away, where it could be studied very quickly. One day would probably suffice. We already have many studies and evidence from many witnesses. We do not need more. We know the facts.

Therefore, we should send the bill to committee, debate it here at third reading, vote quickly, send it to the Senate, and convince our Liberal and Conservative senators to do the same thing.

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

Madam Speaker, there are so many possibilities. Earlier, we talked about the poverty rate among trans people. It can be very difficult for a man who wants to become a woman or a woman who wants to become a man to pay for that kind of surgery. The government could help people cover the cost of medical services. That would make a big difference. Costs range from $7,000 to $20,000 and probably much more. How can anyone earning less than $30,000 per year afford to spend $20,000 on surgery?

That is one way the Canadian government can walk the talk, as my leader likes to say. The government has to make sure trans people have rights, but it also has to enable them to live their lives more easily.

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

Madam Speaker, I think the fact that the leader of the Conservative Party, of all people, is planning to support the bill is a sign that people's thinking changes for the better over time. However, sometimes our way of thinking needs a little nudge in the right direction. We have to amend our laws to reflect shifts in thinking because laws are subject to interpretation. We have to protect people by making sure there is less room for interpretation, less subjectivity in our laws.

We also have to help the general population understand trans people's experience and the day-to-day hardships they face. As I said earlier, 90% of trans students have to deal with problems on a daily or weekly basis. That is a lot. We have to make sure people know what kind of problems trans people face.

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

Madam Speaker, here is a boy, and here is a girl. Easy, right? Not so fast. Let us just say that it is a bit more complicated than that. Sex assignment is not always clear-cut. Genetically, a person with two X chromosomes is a woman, and a person with an X chromosome and a Y chromosome is a man. However, some people have just a single X chromosome, and others have three. Others have two or three X chromosomes and one Y chromosome, while still others might have two Y chromosomes and one X chromosome. Clearly, this is anything but simple.

The bill before us today, Bill C-16, makes no mention of genetics. However, it does address an equally complex subject, that of gender identity and gender expression.

As far back as the 1950s, we began to understand that a person cannot be defined merely by his or her physical sexual characteristics and to distinguish between “sex” and “gender”. In 1994, United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the following in a briefing:

The word gender has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics) distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to female and masculine is to male.

Justice Scalia clearly states that “sex” and “gender” are two different things.

Transgendered individuals are people whose sexual identity does not correspond to the physical sexual characteristics with which they were born. They literally do not feel comfortable in their own skin, in the body nature gave them. They feel feminine, but have a male body, or they feel masculine, but have a female body.

With that in mind, it is easy to imagine the discrimination, prejudice, harassment, and violence these individuals are often subjected to. A shy teen, a small man, and a kid with above-average intelligence are often harassed. Now imagine someone who is transgendered.

Statistics are an excellent way to illustrate the discrimination transgendered people are subjected to. In Ontario, for example, 71% of transgendered individuals earn less than $30,000 a year. My colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke provided some statistics earlier on poverty rates among transgendered people, and those figures were far grimmer than what I just mentioned.

According to Egale Canada, 90% of transgendered students reported being bullied on a daily or weekly basis. That is a lot. In addition, a few months ago, a medical clinic in Montreal that performs gender-affirming surgery was targeted by arson.

The prejudice and violence are very real. That is why, over the past several years, the NDP has been introducing bills in the House of Commons of Canada to stand up for the rights of transgendered Canadians and protect them from discrimination.

The main purpose of these bills was to add protections to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code based on gender identity and gender expression. That is what Bill Siksay, the former NDP member for Burnaby—Douglas in British Columbia, did in 2005. Because he thought this cause was so important, he introduced the bill twice in the House of Commons, in 2006-07 and 2008-09.

This issue is so important to the NDP that my colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, who sits beside me, took up the torch and almost succeeded in having the bill passed in Parliament. The Green Party, the Bloc Québécois, and many Liberal and Conservative members voted in favour of it.

However, the unelected and unaccountable Senate decided to let the bill die on the Order Paper, even though it had been passed by members who were duly elected by Canadians.

As a result, after over 10 years of debate, these people, who are too often the victims of harassment and violence, still do not have any protection. The NDP is therefore pleased to see the government introduce Bill C-16. We have been asking for this for a long time. However, I am worried that this is just smoke and mirrors.

Since I am an optimist, I want to believe that the government really intends to protect this vulnerable segment of the population. After all, the last time, all of the Liberal members who were present for the vote voted in favour of Bill C-279, which was introduced by my colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke.

However, this time, the context is different. Today, the Liberals form the government and hold a majority of seats in the House of Commons. They can therefore ensure that Bill C-16 is passed at second and third reading. I challenge them to do so.

The House has passed this bill twice already and the government can ensure that it passes quickly through all stages of the legislative process. Then there would be one remaining important stage, which, in my political party, we would be happy to do without. However, since the Senate still exists, we will have to work with it. I challenge the Liberals to talk to their Senate colleagues, those the Prime Minister kicked out of the Liberal caucus, but who still feel like Liberals, and to convince them that the changes that Bill C-16 makes to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code are just and important to transgendered people.

As far as my Conservative colleagues are concerned, during the March 2013 vote, 18 of them, including some cabinet ministers, supported a similar bill introduced by my NDP colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke. Other members among their ranks, including their leader, recently said that they would support Bill C-16. I hope that many others will join them to ensure that this bill is finally passed.

I would hope that, as with the Liberals, these Conservative members who see the merits of this cause will work to ensure that their Senate colleagues do not allow this bill to die on the benches of the other place yet again. I think it would be a national disgrace if this bill is not passed.

Bill C-16 would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 2 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. It would also amend the Criminal Code to include gender identity and gender expression as distinguishing characteristics protected under section 318, and as an aggravating circumstance to be taken into consideration under section 718.2, hate crimes, at the time of sentencing.

Since 1970, 948 transgendered people have been murdered around the world. This number is probably much higher, but most countries, including Canada, do not note the status of transgender in files involving violence.

Nevertheless, the evidence is clear: transgender people are victims of discrimination, prejudice, harassment, and violence. Therefore, it would be disgraceful to let down transgender Canadians once again. Trans and non-binary gender Canadians have been waiting for far too long to have legal rights in Canada.

Let us work together for this humanitarian cause and ensure that Bill C-16 passes quickly in the House of Commons and in committee, and just as quickly in the Senate, so that it becomes a law that Canadians can be proud of.

[Salaries Act, October 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec has had pay equity legislation for some 20 years. There are women in Quebec who are benefiting from this type of legislation. The federal government just announced that it intends to wait another two years. It introduced Bill C-24 and called it equity.

I would like to know if my colleague thinks this is just a gimmick, a way for the Liberals to convince us that they truly believe in pay equity when they do not. This is not a real plan for pay equity.

In fact, I thought I heard the Liberals say that this would take two years because of the costs involved and because of the need for consultation. What they are forgetting is that, for decades, women have been bearing the brunt of pay inequity by being denied fair wages. The Liberals are failing to take that into consideration.

[Housing, October 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, in a video that went viral, five-year-old Brooke Blair gets angry with the British Prime Minister because she does not understand why people are living on the street and no one is doing anything about it.

In her heartfelt appeal, she says:

They “should be out there”. They should be “building houses”.

Even a five-year-old knows that if we build more houses there will be fewer people on the street. The best investment is social housing.

When will the minister announce long-term funding for social housing?

[Public Health Agency of Canada, October 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, 67% of Montreal's injection and inhalable drug users have hepatitis C, and rates of HIV infection show no sign of declining.

Dopamine is one of the only organizations working with drug users in my riding, Hochelaga. Having worked with the people at this organization for years, I can say that these consummate professionals are vital to our community.

However, this week I learned that the Public Health Agency of Canada cut $200,000 from their budget. That money helped to get the most marginalized people in my riding onside in the fight against HIV and hepatitis C. Dopamine has been funded by the agency since 2009, and it is not the only organization to have had its funding cut.

This decision will definitely have a major impact on an already critical situation. Perhaps the agency experts who make these decisions need to get out of their offices once in a while and visit Hochelaga.

[World Habitat Day, October 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, today is World Habitat Day, which gives us pause to reflect on the fundamental right to decent housing.

This is a good time to remind ourselves that the right to housing is still not recognized in Canada even though we ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We should also remember that Canada is regularly chastised by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for failing to take action on the housing crisis everywhere in Canada.

More and more households have core housing needs, first nations peoples are living in third world conditions, and homelessness is growing.

The Liberals have initiated consultations with a view to finally creating a housing strategy. We hope that they will take this opportunity to recognize the right to housing and put in place the measures needed to make it a reality.

I introduced a bill to that effect because I believe that a roof is a right.

[Housing, September 29th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, social housing stock in Canada is in rough shape. Over 170,000 people are on waiting lists. Many mayors and social housing leaders are meeting tomorrow in Toronto to sound the alarm. The government needs to do more, not less. Toronto is facing a repair backlog of $2.6 billion. The system is no longer working.

Will the minister provide the funding needed to renovate existing social housing units and build new units, and will he resolve the long-term agreement issue once and for all?