House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • Her favourite word was indigenous.

Last in Parliament January 2019, as NDP MP for Nanaimo—Ladysmith (B.C.)

Won her last election, in 2015, with 33% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Status of Women February 28th, 2018

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals say they are a feminist government but will not put their money where their mouth is. This was evident in yesterday's budget. Pay equity was promised by the Liberals over 40 years ago, and again in 2016, but now? The Liberals put no money for pay equity in yesterday's budget, making women wait yet again.

Immediate funding is needed now to bridge the funding gap for women in Canada. How much longer will the government make women wait to have equal pay for work of equal value?

Status of Women February 27th, 2018

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal budget is a golden opportunity for the current government to show real action on women's equality. Over the last two years we have heard many fine words, but sadly, very little investment in true gender equality. Immediate funding is needed this year for pay equity, for child care, and for domestic violence shelters. This is long overdue and would have the biggest impact on the lives of women.

Will the budget spend on concrete actions now, not just talk, to truly help women in this country get ahead?

Impact Assessment Act February 27th, 2018

Mr. Speaker, this is a hard debate for us on the B.C. coast because we have a government that is now indicating, by repairing the legislation two years into its term, that it concedes that the legislation was completely inadequate to review the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which has serious risks for jobs that already exist on the B.C. coast. The trade-off is 50 permanent jobs offered by the pipeline for British Columbia by Kinder Morgan.

Particularly in the area of oil spill response, the previous environmental review and National Energy Board review blocked evidence about whether bitumen spilled in the marine environment would sink or float. The National Energy Board found that hearing such evidence would be prejudicial to Kinder Morgan.

Is the government now willing to redo that part of the environmental review to make sure that Bill C-69 is applied to protecting marine environment in the likely event of a bitumen spill in the Salish Sea?

Impact Assessment Act February 27th, 2018

Madam Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly with my colleague's comments about process.

In 2011, I wrote to Denis Lebel, the minister at the time in the Harper Conservative government, asking, from a local government perspective, for assurance that the government had a handle on what bitumen would do to the marine environment if spilled. I had a long list of questions, but they were never answered.

In 2013, the Harper government said it was going to conduct scientific research on bitumen, which did not happen, and then the National Energy Board process blocked the hearing of the evidence.

I would like to hear my colleague's views on how it feels to have this evidence come late into—

Justice February 26th, 2018

Mr. Speaker, Tina Fontaine was 15 years old. Her 72-pound body was found in the Red River. She was brutally murdered. The system failed her every step of the way, including seeking justice. Canadians are heartbroken. There is no justice for Tina. However, this is not the first time Canada's justice system has failed indigenous women and girls.

How can families have any hope in the face of another heartbreaking injustice for indigenous women and girls?

Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System February 14th, 2018

Mr. Chair, I share my colleagues', both my Conservative and Liberal colleagues', sadness that the Liberal cabinet did not support the private member's bill to include fetal alcohol syndrome considerations in sentencing.

If the government had voted yes, if it had not voted its own member's bill down, it would have achieved the truth and reconciliation call to action number 34. The government promised it was going to implement all of them. That was a lost opportunity.

Another one, also one of the calls to action, call to action 32 asks the government, and this was a campaign promise, to reverse the mandatory minimum sentencing brought in by the Conservative government. My colleague sits on the status of women committee with me. We have heard Debra Parkes, Jonathan Rudin, Rajwant Mangat, all legal professionals on the issue of indigenous women in the justice system and the incarceration system. They have all said the government should undo the mandatory minimum sentencing requirement and allow judges judicial discretion. It would have a huge impact for women in prison and their families.

Will my colleague work with me to have the government start tomorrow to undo that damage? It could be done.

Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System February 14th, 2018

Mr. Chair, I will echo the words of my colleague, the New Democrat member of Parliament for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou. There are a lot of things that can be done by the government with the majority that it has and the good intentions that it has. We appreciate the Prime Minister's words, but they mean nothing unless he really acts. He said again and again, “Let us make sure it happens for real this time.” We need action and implementation starting tomorrow.

Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System February 14th, 2018

Mr. Chair, I have lost track at committee of the number of witnesses who have said that the first thing we should do that would make things better for indigenous women in the justice system and incarceration is to undo the damage done by the Conservative government by its imposing mandatory minimum sentencing. It took away judicial discretion. It is breaking women from their families. It is continuing and perpetuating interruption in parenting. It is inhumane. We are way out of step with the rest of the world on this. We want to see it undone. We want to see the Liberal government, two years into its mandate, actually keep the Liberals' campaign promise in this regard.

Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System February 14th, 2018

Mr. Chair, the separation of indigenous women from their communities and families when they have to leave our region to be incarcerated in other facilities compounds the problems that got them into the justice system in the first place. They become increasingly isolated.

We heard a very interesting circularity from a number of the witnesses. Gladue reports are supposed to bring into sentencing additional considerations around the impact of residential schools or of children being in foster care. The indigenous women at committee are telling us that the Gladue reports are having the opposite effect. They are identifying them as a higher-risk inmate. They are putting them into more isolation and more segregation, which makes them unable to participate in the programming that happens within the jails, which makes them ineligible for the nice earlier parole, the controlled release from prison. This means that they are even more likely to be dislocated from their families, dislocated from their culture, and maybe more likely to reoffend. It is a mess and the government has work to do. We want to work with the government.

Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System February 14th, 2018

Mr. Chair, I am sorry that we are here tonight. I am sorry to Colten Boushie's family. I am sorry that in a time of deep grieving they had to come to Ottawa to meet with the government. I am grateful for the generosity of their time and for the very strong voice of Colten's sister, in particular. I think she will be a future leader of our country. I am sickened by the racist language in social media and on our radio networks that has been unleashed by this. I am horrified. I see a lot of nodding heads from all parties here.

What we are hearing in our country is sadly summed up by my colleague, friend, and former Snuneymuxw chief in Nanaimo—Ladysmith, where I am honoured to serve. Former Snuneymuxw chief Kwul’a’sul’tun, also known as Doug White III said, on behalf of the B.C. Aboriginal Justice Council in the wake of this ruling:

The reality of this verdict drags Canada's justice system out from behind the window dressing of reconciliation rhetoric and exposes real problems that we must urgently address together.... Today, Canadians across the country are doubting whether this system, that clearly discounts the lives of Indigenous peoples, has anything at all to do with justice....

With my colleagues from all parties at the status of women committee, we have been studying the experience of indigenous women in Canada in the justice system and in the incarceration system. Indigenous women make up 30% of the total incarcerated population in Canada, and of federally sentenced prisoners, 36% are indigenous women. Here is how one witness we have had at committee described her experience. Vicki Chartrand from Bishop's University said:

Indigenous women end up on the deepest end of the system, and continue to be subject to some of the most restrictive levels of penal practices, such as maximum-security classifications, segregation, involuntary transfers, physical restraints, strip searches, lockdowns, use of force, dry cells, institutional charges, lack of medical attention, and also with higher rates of self-harm and suicide. When you end up on the deep end of the system...you often don't come out alive.

Mandatory minimums still exist in our country. The Liberal government promised to end them. It has not taken that power, and indigenous women, because judges can no longer exercise their judicial discretion, are being forced to serve time for a crime they may well be an accessory to, but it is putting their children into foster care, and this country is carrying on its tragic and destructive history of separating indigenous parents from their children. Why this could not have been done on day one of the government's term in office, I have no idea.

We have had recommendations from the United Nations committee to end discrimination against women, in 2016. I have been asking every witness at committee, “Are your recommendations on indigenous women in the justice system being addressed by this government?” They all say no. Seventeen of the 94 calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are specifically focused on indigenous peoples' experience in the justice system. Again, witnesses at our status of women committee are saying there really has been no progress. In two years, with all the goodwill in the world, I do not understand why.

Dr. Ivan Zinger, of the Office of the Correctional Investigator, said:

I will say the practice of taking a women with acute mental illness and putting her into an all-male institution, completed isolated, all alone in a unit, is shameful and a violation of human rights.

There is no room for this in Canada. When do we have bureaucrats saying such appalling and condemning things about our government in Canada? This, again, is not a practice that has been ended by correctional services in Canada. It has not been ordered to be ended by the government.

Forgive me for saying it. This country cannot afford any more just good intentions. To go back to the old food aid concerts, words are not enough. This government has so much goodwill. We have the House with us. We have made promises and commitments on reconciliation, and now with rulings like we had, with the racism that is being unleashed across the country, we must turn these good intentions into actions. We must do better. I cannot even say do better. We must legislate. We must change our rules. We must bring legislation into the House that turns good words into action.