Pam Damoff

[Public Safety, May 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, we are working closely with the Quebec government to reduce gun violence, and the Minister of Public Safety recently attended a forum in Montreal. We have directed $46 million under our guns and gangs fund to the Legault government. We are finalizing a transfer specifically for Quebec under our building safer communities fund to prevent gun crime.

The minister continues to engage directly with his counterparts in Quebec.

[Women and Gender Equality, May 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, vaginas and vulvas are a source of strength, empowerment and pleasure, yet throughout our lives we have been taught that the terms “vulva” and “vagina” do not have a place in polite conversation. That is one more way that the bodies of over half the world’s population are stigmatized, sexualized and objectified.

With the recent news in the United States regarding Roe v. Wade, conversations about sexual and reproductive health are more important than ever, and they start here on Parliament Hill. We need to reclaim space in health research, in politics, in policy-making and at the doctor’s office to celebrate the power of vulvas and vaginas.

It is 2022, and we should not be embarrassed or ashamed to talk about our bodies. Join me, the MPs for Winnipeg Centre, Saanich—Gulf Islands and Shefford, Senator McPhedran and Action Canada as we jointly host a celebration on May 31 to reclaim the conversation and celebrate vulvas and vaginas as powerful and important.

[Public Safety, May 20th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I applaud the hon. member for his new-found interest in corrections, and I have to ask where he was when the Conservative government was making mean-spirited cuts to corrections, including prison farms. We know that the rehabilitation of those who commit crimes is important for public safety, and that is why we reopened the prison farms. It is good for public safety, it is good for inmates and it is good for the community.

I would ask him to ask the Save Our Prison Farms folks what they think about the prison farms in their communities.

[Labour, May 18th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member is putting words in my mouth. I have been there, and to my knowledge, there is no slaughterhouse. Perhaps the hon. member should be going down there. As a member of Parliament, he knows full well that he has the ability to visit any prison in Canada any time he wants. He does not need my permission or anybody's permission to go there.

In terms of taking other people with him, I do not know about that, but as an MP, he has the ability, and has had it the whole time he has been elected, to visit. Why has he never visited there himself to see, instead of standing here time and again to ask me about corrections, when he has not cared for the whole time he has been elected?

[Labour, May 18th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I am just going to be very blunt. I cannot believe we are back here again, talking about goats. I have repeatedly told the hon. member that there are no goats. There are no contracts.

I will reiterate that he should go and visit the dairy farm. He should actually speak to the head of CORCAN, as I have done. He should actually speak to the inmates there, as I have done. Then maybe we could have a conversation about whether this program is beneficial or not.

I would like to ask the hon. member where he was when his government mandated corrections to cut hundreds of millions of dollars under the Conservative deficit reduction action plan, DRAP. Under DRAP, the former Conservative government closed all of the prison farms, despite evidence of their value and support from the surrounding community. It got rid of fresh food and real milk, prepared on site to give inmates job skills, and implemented food service modernization, which introduced cook-chill food and powdered milk. Prisons had to get rid of the infrastructure needed to store and prepare fresh food and real milk.

Our government has reinvested in the penitentiary farm program, our prison farms for offenders at Joyceville and Collins Bay. I am proud of that, and I will take no lessons from the Conservatives about their approach to corrections.

Canadians may be wondering why our government has not reversed all of the mean-spirited cuts of the previous Conservative government, and it is because it is a lot easier to cut and slash programs than it is to build them up and invest in the infrastructure that the previous government literally removed from corrections kitchens.

Some of the other mean-spirited cuts the hon. member's government made under DRAP were a reduction in non-essential dental service, and the closure of hundreds of psychiatric hospital beds. It reduced funding for the pilot on alternate dispute resolution, reduced library services and closed the corrections addictions research centre. It imposed new food, accommodation and telephone deductions on inmates' pay. The previous government also thought it was a smart idea to eliminate incentive pay for work in prison industries, so while I welcome the member's new-found commitment to offender pay, I do wish his advocacy extended back to when he was in government.

I will never forget sitting in a committee when one of my hon. Conservative colleagues asked the correctional investigator why inmates should be paid at all. The correctional investigator looked at him and said it was so he could mail a birthday card home to his child, perhaps. We could tell by the look on his face that the Conservative member had never even considered that possibility.

What is abundantly clear is that the Conservatives' “tough on crime” cuts are vindictive and were created to further punish those already incarcerated. That does not lead to better safety; in fact, it worsens outcomes.

When it comes to cuts to corrections, the Conservatives brought in mandatory minimum sentences and increased the cost of a pardon from $50 to over $600. They were not protecting public safety; they were just ignoring the fact that the vast majority of those sentenced to federal prisons are released.

I will repeat my offer for the third time to the hon. member to actually visit Joyceville and Collins Bay, to meet with the offenders, to meet with the staff, to talk to CORCAN in person, to see the successful dairy farm that is operating there, and to see for himself the good work that is being done. I will say again, there are no goats; there are no contracts, and there is no goat milk being shipped to China.

[Canada Border Services Agency, May 13th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, in the moments I had, I could not find the statistics, but I know that the number of border crossings being opened has increased significantly. We are working to ensure that we have border crossings open, because we recognize that there are economic impacts when these crossings are closed.

I am happy to work with the hon. member to ensure that we are aware of the exact problems he has, and I am happy to speak to him after question period.

[Public Safety, May 13th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to respond to that question. Businesses kept records about firearms purchases for many years, for decades, prior to the Harper government coming in and cutting that requirement. We know it is not a gun registry. We know police can use this tool. I remind hon. members of the amendment the Conservative Party put into Bill C-71 that says this is not a long-gun registry. It is in the bill, which the regulations have implemented.

[Public Safety, May 13th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, we are acting on illegal trade across the border. In fact, we have invested in CBSA. I do not have the numbers in front of me, but we have confiscated firearms at the border in unprecedented numbers. Why are we doing that? It is because we reinvested in CBSA, unlike the Conservatives, who actually made cuts to the border. Under their cuts, we could not stop firearms from coming into the country in the same way we can now.

[Public Safety, May 13th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I will remind hon. members that assault-style firearms have no place in Canada. Through the mandatory buyback program, we will remove the threat that these deadly firearms pose to our communities from coast to coast to coast.

I would also remind hon. members that over 75% of Canadians who die by firearms are dying by suicide, and that women die because of gender-based violence. Let us not forget the people who are dying by firearms, with the majority related to a mental health issue.

[Public Safety, May 13th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I wish that hon. members on the other side were interested in actually developing solutions instead of trying to portray this issue in a simple fashion. It is complicated, and that is why we are taking multiple steps to deal with gang violence, including investing in communities and investing millions of dollars to ensure that we are combatting gang violence.

Let us work together on this issue. Let us find solutions that actually keep Canadians safe.