Sheila Malcolmson

[Indigenous Affairs, November 30th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, after much pressure, the Liberals have a new fix to end legislated discrimination against indigenous women, but only after consultations. This is not supported by the women who have been fighting this in court for 40 years. It proves again that the Liberals are breaking their promises on gender equality and respect for indigenous people. Why does a so-called feminist government need to consult on whether indigenous women have human rights? They do.

Will the Prime Minister now remove all sex discrimination from the Indian Act?

[Indian Act, November 29th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, with respect and acknowledgement to my colleague and his leadership on this issue, I want to take us back to a year ago.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was very specific in its criticism of the government. This is a document dated November 18, 2016, from UN CEDAW. It notes that:

the Committee remains concerned about continued discrimination against indigenous women, in particular regarding the transmission of Indian status, preventing them and their descendants from enjoying all the benefits related to such status.

The committee recommends that [Canada] remove all remaining discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act that affect indigenous women and their descendants, and ensure that indigenous women enjoy the same rights as men to transmit their status to their children and grandchildren.

On June 21, national indigenous day, my colleague moved amendments, and we watched the Liberal government members voting those provisions down, without even seeming to understand that they were in fact voting against full gender equality for indigenous women.

Now here we are again today with the litigants, the three women, Sharon McIvor, Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell, and Lynn Gehl. Some of these women have been fighting this for four decades. They do not support this amendment and this legislation that the government has put before us today.

In what way can this incremental gender equality be accepted for indigenous women, when it is so out of step with the commitments of the government?

[Petitions, November 29th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I rise again to bring voices from Victoria, Nanaimo, and Ladysmith to this Parliament, given that the Liberals have blocked debate on my abandoned vessel legislation, Bill C-352. The petitioners urge Parliament to allow the bill to be debated in the House and to be deemed votable. This is based on the solutions in the proposed legislation to resolve the long-standing problem of abandoned vessels, having come directly from coastal communities. The petitioners cite fixing the vessel registry, creating a fee to assist with the cost of vessel disposal, supporting local marine salvage, and supporting recycling efforts.

With three hours left to vote today, I urge all members of Parliament to hear this petition.

[Abandoned Vessels, November 28th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, today and tomorrow, Parliament votes in a historic secret ballot vote to unblock my abandoned vessel legislation.

A yes vote would mean yes to over 50 coastal communities from Tofino to Fogo Island that endorsed my Bill C-352; yes to the 23,000 letters my supporters sent Liberal MPs this week; yes to standing with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, Ladysmith, Victoria, Oak Bay, Stz'uminus First Nation, and many more local governments that built this legislation with their solutions; yes to filling all the gaps in the transport minister's new bill, like dealing with the backlog of abandoned vessels; yes to co-operation across party lines to solving long-standing oil spill problems, which is something all Canadians want to see; and yes to restoring the one chance I get as a member of Parliament to bring legislation to the House.

I ask members to please answer this united call for action. Vote yes and allow coastal community voices to be heard.

[Petitions, November 28th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I bring voices from Nanaimo, Ladysmith, and Victoria into the House. Because coastal communities have called on the government to act on the long-standing pollution risk of abandoned vessels, I have introduced Bill C-352. Liberals have blocked debate on Bill C-352. The petitioners urge members of Parliament to allow the bill to be debated and voted on in the House to bring all the resolutions of vessel turn-in, recycling, safe disposal, and fixing vessel registration.

[Status of Women, November 27th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I would be interested in hearing the member's numbers on how much of sexual violence shelter renovation money has actually flowed. We have not seen evidence of it yet and I would like to know what has been spent and where.

Organizations in Nanaimo—Ladysmith are doing very powerful work during the 16 days of activism to end violence against women and girls. There is a shoebox program which I know is played out across the whole country. The Nanaimo Women's Resource Centre, Haven Society, and Samaritan House are all beneficiaries when people donate toiletries and other basic supports in a shoebox.

At Vancouver Island University, there is a vigil on December 6 to recognize the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. I applaud those groups and urge the government to work with them and support them in every way it can.

[Status of Women, November 27th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, we are now at the beginning of the 16 days of activism to end violence against women.

New Democrats urge the Liberal government to lead a national coordination of policies to end campus sexual assault. More than eight months have passed since the status of women committee unanimously recommended federal action and leadership to end sexual violence on campus.

However, after two years, the government's feminist rhetoric has not translated into action to prevent campus sexual assault, and most recommendations have not been implemented. The government's responses were mostly that these are matters of provincial and territorial responsibility, and maybe they will talk to each other. That is not the kind of action we have seen in other countries and that a truly feminist government would take.

Why is national leadership important? Women and girls continue to face very high levels of violence across the country and, at the same time, front-line organizations have had budget cuts. They do not have reliable operating funding, something we continue to advocate for so they can do their work.

At Nanaimo's Haven Society, since 2014, crisis calls have increased by 53%. As we remove the stigma around women reporting sexual assault, we need to have the concomitant supports for them so they feel supported in coming forward.

At the status of women committee, an overwhelming number of witnesses said there is a particular need for uniformity of policies, justice, and access to service for victims of sexual assault on campus. Students are especially likely to move from province to province at a young age, and especially across the country, and should have an expectation of equal safety. One in five women will experience sexual violence while studying at a post-secondary institution. That is one in five. Young women in Canada continue to face an out-of-touch legal system, fragmented, and often with inaccessible services, as well as inconsistent or non-existent policies in their schools and workplaces.

As the #Me Too campaign continues to show the magnitude of sexual assault in our country, there is Our Turn, which is a fantastic national student-led association advocating for an action plan to end campus sexual violence. This group, Our Turn, graded Canadian universities as a C- for their campus rape policies. We met with them last month, and were very impressed with their work.

The lack of federal leadership to address the inadequacy of sexual assault university policies continues to have devastating impacts for young women on campuses across the country. Our Turn's report highlighted the wide spectrum of trauma experienced by survivors of sexual assault. These are mental health impacts, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts; physical injury; sexually transmitted infections; flashbacks and triggers; changes in how they view trust, and a sense of vulnerability.

We need to re-emphasize the federal government's responsibility here. It would be a national shame for the government to break its promise to make Canada safer for women and girls.

Again I ask, when will this self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister truly stand up for women and lead this campaign?

[Access to Information Act, November 27th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, the story that my colleague for Timmins—James Bay has told is a terrible story. It illustrates exactly why, to get to the bottom of some of the most terrible crimes, whether they are human, ethical, or environmental, we need to know what is happening at the place of decision-makers and not leave this in the hands of the bureaucrats.

Given the Prime Minister's very solemn promise that the Access to Information Act would be extended to cover the offices of the Prime Minister and ministers so that we can see as Canadians and as members of Parliament how decisions were made, what is the impact for people such as those the member represents, the indigenous people, who are fighting the legacy of residential schools and St. Anne's repeated court cases? When we see this promise so completely broken, what does that do to their faith in government?

[Petitions, November 27th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I again bring voices of coastal communities into the House to urge the government to adopt my legislation, Bill C-352, to solve the long-standing problem of abandoned vessels.

The petitioners from Nanaimo and Ladysmith urge this Parliament in particular to vote in favour of unblocking debate on the legislation. They want to see their solutions, which they have been advocating for decades, come to the House for full debate. They urge parliamentarians, in the vote tomorrow or the next day, to accede to the hope that their voices will be heard.

[Homelessness, November 24th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, in Nanaimo, the riding that I serve, the face of homelessness has shifted quite a bit over the last nine months. The workers at Samaritan House, a homeless shelter for women only, say that 50% of their clients are now over the age of 50. That has really taken us aback. Those women could be our mothers or our grandmothers. In fact, it could be me. These are women who worked their whole lives in a professional capacity, but because of very poor tenant protection legislation in British Columbia and high housing prices, the spillover from Vancouver has hit Nanaimo hard and people are getting evicted.

Is the member also observing this changing demographic, and how might the committee discuss this?