moved that Bill S-233, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (assault against persons who provide health services and first responders), be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Madam Speaker, before we get going, my granddaughter is at home watching as we speak. If you will indulge me, I would love to say hello to my granddaughter, Ren, and to tell her that I love her and will see her soon. I know she is watching. At five years old, she is already watching CPAC.
I stand before my colleagues frustrated. I am frustrated that we are here, once again, talking about an issue that is non-partisan.
I rise today to speak on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of brave men and women who protect and serve our communities each and every day. They run into burning buildings. They run towards gunfire. They heal our broken bones. They hold our hands as we take our final breath. They are our silent sentinels: nurses, health care workers, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs and correctional officers.
These are the Canadians who hold our country together. When we dial 911, they pick up. They respond with no questions asked, yet for at least the decade that I have been here on the Hill, they have been asking for a single thing. It is that we protect them, just as they protect us. They put their safety, their comfort and their lives on the line each and every day when they go to work, and they do so knowing and expecting that they are going to face rising incidents of violence, assault and harassment. That is not part of their job description, and it is unacceptable. Nowhere in their job description does it say that they should sign on to a life of violence, abuse and harassment.
If colleagues can sense the frustration and the emotion in my voice, it is because I have sat with nurses. I have sat with paramedics who have had their lives threatened. I have sat with the families of first responders who have been killed on the job. All they are asking for is a simple thing, that we stand with them.
If some of this speech sounds familiar, it is because we have all been here before. My bill, Bill C-321, passed at all stages in the last Parliament. We studied it again because Bill C-321 was born out of a study from the first session of the 42nd Parliament, “Violence Facing Health Care Workers in Canada”. All parliamentarians came together to say, with recommendations, that this bill, which was Bill C-321 in the previous Parliament and is now Bill S-233, should be passed, that we should be doing something and standing up for those who stand for us.
I get frustrated. The message I got, which originally asked me to please refer to this document and put forth a piece of legislation, hangs heavy on my shoulders. It was a message from a paramedic who had responded to a call at a residence. The family of the victim proceeded to throw the paramedic down a set of stairs, break her ankles and beat her to the point where she gave up. If that sounds shocking to members, it is but one of, if not hundreds, thousands of messages and stories that I have heard over the last five years of pushing for this bill.
We have nurses who are running a campaign called “Code Black and Blue”. The nurses launched a campaign against violence in the workplace. That was last fall. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions said that it cannot stand for this any longer. During its lobby days over the last decade, the International Association of Fire Fighters' number one ask was to do something against the rising acts of violence against them. Last Parliament, this bill passed at all stages, but what happened? Parliament was prorogued, so it fell off the Order Paper. This could be law today.
When passed, Bill S-233, or Bill C-321, would act as a strong deterrent, a powerful deterrent, to those who would seek to commit violence against our frontline heroes. It would signal to first responders and health care workers that their Parliament values them, that we as leaders in our country value them, that we are looking out for them and that the justice system will protect them.
Now, as it stands, a high percentage of those incidents go unreported because they know that they will not be followed through on. What would Bill S-233 do? It would amend the Criminal Code concerning assaults against persons who provide health services and first responders. It would amend the Criminal Code to make an offence against a health care professional or a first responder an aggravating factor upon sentencing.
There is always a time for partisanship in the House, but over my tenure, I have proven, I think, that when it comes to mental health, when it comes to standing up for those who stand up for us and who protect us, I will work collegially across party lines to get something done. I did that with Bill C-321. The NDP brought forth amendments. The Bloc brought forth amendments, and so did the Liberals. We agreed to them. That is why Bill C-321 passed.
When we got back after the last election, Senator Housakos in the other House and his Liberal colleagues, Liberal senators or the independent senators, the former prime minister Justin Trudeau-appointed senators, got together and out of the ashes, they rose and supported Bill S-233 because they knew how important it was that we as a House send this message, that we as a House stand with those who put their lives on the line every day.
I had hope, when it passed unanimously last fall, that we would be able to do something swiftly here in the House. I had hope because I believed in all of us, in the power of the 343 members of Parliament who were here. I believed the Liberals when they said that they wanted to work together to get things done for Canadians. However, every step of the way for the last three or four months, I have been disappointed. As a matter of fact, I have had somebody on the other side in leadership tell me that they guess we are just going to have to wait.
My friend, Paul Hills, a paramedic from Saskatoon, dedicated the last decade to trying to get something like this bill passed. I cannot tell members how heartbroken and disappointed he was when he worked across party lines to try to get something done, and then was told it was not going to get done.
We could have passed Bill S-233 in the waning days just before Christmas break, and it would be law today. The nurses, firefighters and paramedics, those who put their uniforms on every day in protection of all of us, would have that protection and would know that we stand with them, but no. Once again, partisan politics takes place. I have begged and I have pleaded. If any members in the House have watched question period before, I am almost down on both knees talking with the government House leader, pleading with him over this.
I understand that there is precedence and so on, but the bill has been agreed upon and has been studied. We are going on six years. Ten years it has been asked for.
When we talk about violence against our first responders and health care professionals, we are talking about real people in real communities: our families, my family. My youngest daughter is a psychiatric nurse. I get choked up talking about it because of the stories I hear.
There is no protection. They go to work every day simply trying to help others, yet they are increasingly being met with fists, knives, threats and abuse in return. Last fall a nurse in British Columbia was punched and kicked, knocked unconscious, simply trying to take somebody's blood pressure. In Ontario a nurse was attacked with a knife and a machete.
Across Canada the incidents of violence against frontline workers have surged. Nurses report being punched, kicked, spat on and threatened. Paramedics are assaulted while they are trying to save lives. Firefighters are attacked at emergency scenes. Correctional officers face daily threats, and institutions are already stretched beyond capacity. I do not even want to get into the nightmare they work in, because it is staggering. I would never want to do that. I think I can handle myself, but I would never want to work in that situation.
In many hospitals across the country, nurses will tell us that violence is now considered part of the job. That is shameful. Imagine if we had to deal with that each and every day. Would we come to work if we knew we were going to get punched, spat on or kicked, or have our life threatened? In emergency departments, staff are trained not only in trauma care but also in how to de-escalate physical threats. Paramedics now routinely wait for police backup before responding to calls that once would have been considered routine.
Firefighters cannot not respond to dangerous situations. Regardless of what is presented before them, they have to respond, yet there is nothing backing them up, nothing that is protecting them in the eyes of the law if they are beat up, kicked, punched and so on. They are told very often that it is part of the job and to just move on. This is not normal, and it should not be accepted as normal, yet there are games that are going on in the House.
I think if I can leave the House with any request for members, it is to please work with their party, with their side. I do not care if it has my name on it. I do not care if it has a Conservative name on it. I really do not. My request is for us to stand together and pass the bill.
No Canadian should go to work wondering whether they will come home safe at the end of their shift. No nurse should have to fear being attacked while caring for a patient. No paramedics should be assaulted while providing life-saving treatment. No firefighters should be threatened while responding to an emergency. No correctional officers should be injured simply for doing their job, yet that is exactly what is happening each and every day.
This is why Bill S-233 is so important and matters. The legislation, if passed, would send a clear and unambiguous message that when someone assaults a person who is providing health care or emergency services, that offence will be treated with the seriousness it deserves.
With the last bit of time I have left with the bill, I will remind the House why we are here: our nurses, our paramedics, our firefighters, our first responders. They lay it on the line every day for us. They get up every morning knowing they are going to experience life-changing events, but no one is there to stand up for them.
I urge all members to please take it upon themselves to get Bill S-233 passed at all stages. We can work together on this. Lives depend on it.
