Scott Reid

[Criminal Code, February 15th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I did not expect to get a second chance to do this, so I will just make the observation that, with regard to mental health and mental issues, the definition of most illnesses and diseases have not changed over time. The definitions surrounding ALS, for example, have not changed substantially over time.

However, the definitions of various mental illnesses under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the DSM, have changed constantly. DSM-4 was dramatically different in many respects from DSM-3, DSM-2 and DSM-1. These are, to some degree, arbitrarily defined illnesses, and to say that we can make a firm and meaningful, as opposed to subjective, medical determination that someone is in a position where they are sufficiently mentally ill that they qualify for medical assistance in dying seems to me to be very strange indeed and very subjective.

I talked, perhaps with too much rhetorical flourish, about the triumph of the kingdom of death over life. However, the triumph of subjectivity over objectivity, while wearing objectivity's clothes, seems to me to be profoundly unwise and, once again, a very good reason to say that we ought not to be going down this path. I will leave it there and ask again for the member's commentary.

[Criminal Code, February 15th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, we are talking about mental illness, mental distress and depression as being reasons why it may be permissible to ask for assistance in dying. I look at this and say that we have come a long way. Our laws were based on some court rulings surrounding people who wanted to die because they had lost their ability to control their bodies. They had ALS; they had no control over their bodies at all. They could not actually go through the act of committing suicide, but they maintained razor-sharp consciousness and a strong will. Sue Rodriguez is one example.

We should not go from that to somebody who is essentially having a failure of will. That is what depression is, being unable to formulate plans to carry on and instead saying there is an easy way out. This seems to me to be fundamentally dangerous, to be almost leading people on. It seems to me this is an obvious underlying problem.

I am glad to have a year to slow down this progress in the wrong direction. Quite frankly, I think we should be very much looking at some entirely different direction. The idea that the courts are somehow going to impose on Canada in the situation of depressed people, people who are struggling because of circumstances that are hard in their lives, is that “life is hard; death is easy”. It is absolutely outrageous to say, “This is it. The kingdom of death is upon us; that is just dandy".

I guess I am asking my colleague to offer some commentary on this national abdication of will that seems to be, at best, coming a year from the present.

[Cannabis, February 10th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, Canopy Growth, which is the largest private-sector employer in my riding, announced it is laying off half of its workforce. This is why: Canada's legal cannabis sector functions under crushing federal taxes and insanely high regulatory compliance costs. The result is that for consumers, legal cannabis costs about twice the price of illegal product. The government has made it impossible for legal producers to be competitive by closing this price gap.

Having created this problem and a robust criminal sector while the legal sector languishes, how will the Liberals fix their own problem?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 30th, 2023]

With regard to Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) Chaplaincy Program: (a) since November 2015, have any meetings, communications, briefings, or other informational materials been requested, formally or informally by the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety, or the office of the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada; (b) for each instance in (a), what was the (i) date the request was made, (ii) recipient or office to which the request was made, (iii) nature and details of the request, (iv) result of the request; (c) since November 2015, have any briefing or informational materials been provided to the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety, or the office of the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada; (d) for each instance in (c), what was the (i) date the material was provided, (ii) recipient or office to which the material was provided, (iii) topic of the material provided; (e) since November 2015, has the Minister of Public Safety issued any ministerial instructions, directives, or analogous decisions with regard to CSC’s Chaplaincy Program; (f) how many chaplains are presently members of CSC’s Chaplaincy Program, broken down by faith, spiritual, or philosophical tradition; (g) how many members of CSC’s Chaplaincy Program are assigned to or responsible for each of CSC’s institutions or custodial facilities, broken down by faith, spiritual, or philosophical tradition; and (h) since November 2015, what actions have been taken to address the proportionate shortage of non-Christian members of CSC’s Chaplaincy Program and, if any, what are the details of those actions?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 30th, 2023]

With regard to the report entitled "Minister of National Defence Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination with a focus on Anti-Indigenous and Anti-Black Racism, LGBTQ2+ Prejudice, Gender Bias, and White Supremacy Final Report": (a) have any meetings, communications, briefings, or other informational materials with regard to chaplaincy, or section 6 of Part III entitled “Re-Defining Chaplaincy” been requested, formally or informally, by the Minister of National Defence, the office of the Minister of National Defence, the office of the Deputy Minister of National Defence, or the office of the Chief of the Defence Staff; (b) for each instance in (a), what was the (i) date the request was made, (ii) recipient or office to which the request was made, (iii) nature and details of the request, (iv) result of the request; (c) have any briefing or informational materials with regard to chaplaincy, or section 6 of Part III entitled “Re-Defining Chaplaincy” been provided to the Minister of National Defence, the office of the Minister of National Defence, the office of the Deputy Minister of National Defence, or the office of the Chief of the Defence Staff; (d) for each instance in (c), what was the (i) date the material was provided, (ii) recipient or office to which the material was provided, (iii) topic of the material provided; (e) since January 2022, has the Minister of National Defence issued any ministerial instructions, directives, or analogous decisions with regard to chaplaincy, or section 6 of Part III entitled “Re-Defining Chaplaincy”; and (f) have any actions been taken with regard to the recommendations on page 43 of the report, and, if so, what are the details of those actions?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 30th, 2023]

With regard to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs): (a) since June 20, 2022, have any meetings, communications, briefings, or other informational materials pertaining to AEDs been requested, formally or informally, by the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety, or the office of the Commissioner of the RCMP; (b) for each instance in (a), what was the (i) date the request was made, (ii) recipient or office to which the request was made, (iii) nature and details of the request, (iv) result of the request; (c) since June 20, 2022, have any briefing or informational materials pertaining to AEDs been provided to the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Minister of Public Safety, the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety, or the office of the Commissioner of the RCMP; (d) for each instance in (c), what was the (i) date the material was provided, (ii) recipient or office to which the material was provided, (iii) topic of material provided; (e) since June 20, 2022, has the Minister of Public Safety issued any ministerial instructions, directives, or analogous decisions with regard to AEDs?

[Christmas for Ukrainian Refugees, December 14th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker,'Tis just before Christmas, and 'tis both strange and true,
That our home's Yule colours will be yellow and blue.
That's not red, green and white, so let me explain
That our house is home to six guests from Ukraine.
It was back in the spring that from Dnipro they flew:
Two parents, three children and a babushka too.
Our home town of Perth is a welcoming place;
You’ll fit in, regardless of language or race.
Our guests live in our house; they've helped deck the halls,
The kids making snowmen and throwing snowballs,
But when those three kids nestle snug in their beds,
It's visions of home that must dance in their heads,
And how does a mom focus on the right gift to buy
When back home the missiles still drop each day from the sky?
And then there's the dad, who deserves admiration;
He must balance his duties to family and nation.
For exiles, no Christmas can be truly mellow
So our Christmas this year will be blue and yellow.

[National Defence, December 2nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, a year ago, the advisory panel on systemic discrimination in the military recommended excluding clergy of the three Abrahamic religions from being chaplains. It said:

Defence...cannot consider itself supportive of inclusivity when it employs as chaplains members of organizations whose values are not consistent with National Defence's ethics....

For example, some churches [exclude] women from their priesthoods...[and] certain faiths have strict tenets requiring conversion....

This recommendation is anti-Muslim, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish. Has the government definitively rejected it?

[Correctional Service of Canada, November 25th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, unfettered access by incarcerated individuals to spiritual guidance from prison chaplains is a key component of recovery and plays an important role in reducing the chance of reoffending. Equitable access to this guidance across faith groups is also a charter right. Therefore, it is disturbing to learn that incarcerated Canadians from a number of faiths, including over 1,000 Muslims, have no access to chaplain services in their own faith.

Why has the Liberal government broken the prison chaplain system and allowed this situation to develop?

[Public Safety, November 22nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, that was a very informative answer from the parliamentary secretary. It was very helpful.

This is not so much in the nature of a question, but rather a comment on the response that the RCMP gave to the parliamentary secretary. Some of the issues that are presented are, I understand, real issues, but some of them are red herrings. I just want to alert her to that.

An example is the storage and weather issue, and the idea that batteries, including those in AEDs, do not work as well in cold weather. These are problems that have been overcome in other police forces. Defibrillators can be put into a heated pack and stored in the back of a police car, where typically it is not as cold as the ambient outdoor temperature. These are problems that exist for the Ottawa police, for example, for the Toronto police, which also have AEDs, and for numerous other police forces in Canada.

I would note that the parliamentary secretary also mentioned the fact that officers are already required to get training, so training costs are in fact zero. The cost I cited to her, which I would be happy to demonstrate, is one that includes battery replacement and necessary servicing.