Yvonne Jones

[Nothern Development, November 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General has reported that the Nutrition North program is not providing affordable food to northern families. Instead, the funds are profiting others.

The program has no continuity, no defined eligibility, no assurances that the subsidy is being passed on, and no benefit to families, yet food prices are out of reach for most people in the north, as some pay double the cost of food over other Canadians.

Why is the minister not fixing this problem?

[Criminal Code, November 20th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to debate Bill C-583. This is a bill I believe strongly in, and I would like to thank my colleague opposite, the member for Yukon, for introducing it. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my colleague, the member for Charlottetown, for his work on this bill and for his leadership in our caucus on this issue. I would hope that all parties and all members in this house can come together in support of this bill, recognizing the place fetal alcohol spectrum disorder has in Canada and in our justice system.

As the member of Parliament for Labrador, and our party's critic in northern Canada, I have seen the sad effects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which causes a number of disabilities, including fetal alcohol syndrome, partial fetal alcohol syndrome, alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, and alcohol-related birth defects.

Many Canadians may not be aware that fetal alcohol spectrum disorder affects our Inuit and aboriginal populations to a much higher extent than the rest of Canadians. As an Inuit woman, and with a large aboriginal community in Labrador, we have been working to recognize those who have been born with this disorder while also working with organizations to prevent prenatal alcohol exposure.

I have been receiving calls and emails from constituents about this issue, especially from those doing important work at the Labrador Correctional Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. They understand the need for our justice system to include the fact that many individuals in the court system suffer from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

This past September, on International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day, the FASD Newfoundland and Labrador Network continued to raise this issue, as it does every day of the year, in my home province. I would like to thank them for their dedication. They know better than anyone that children affected with FASD have significant challenges in school and especially with other functions they are expected to participate in. The challenges due to brain damage resulting from FASD have certainly wreaked havoc. The lack of support for these children then leads to mental health issues and addictions and makes it difficult for them to hold down steady jobs.

One of the biggest issues is a lack of screening in many parts of the country or a national standard so that our health care and education systems are aware of persons who suffer from FASD and can take appropriate measures to offer special assistance. We cannot let Canadians fall through the cracks and go on to become societal outcasts.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder affects 2% to 5% of the provincial population, or between 10,000 and 25,000 people. Because of the higher magnitude with which the aboriginal population suffers from this disorder, I know that Labrador is more deeply affected by FASD than other areas of our province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In northern Canada, much more needs to be done to understand and prevent the disorder. In Nunavut, Labrador, Nunavik, and the lnuvialuit regions, we must work with the high-risk communities to make immediate change and help prevent more children from being born with FASD.

The Labrador Inuit Health Commission, which works with the Nunatsiavut government in Labrador, has done good work raising awareness about prevention and in educating local communities about this disorder by holding workshops and other information sessions, distributing posters, holding open houses, going into schools, and using other community outreach methods. It has done and continues to do tremendous work.

The health commission is working hard as well to address FASD, and it deserves to be commended for all the work it is doing, not only in our province but also across the country. The Nunatsiavut government has taken steps to ensure that schools in towns such as Hopedale and Nain can identify sufferers of FASD and offer a more tailored education experience to meet the needs of the students.

This bill would amend section 2 of the Criminal Code of Canada by adding the following:

“fetal alcohol spectrum disorder” or “FASD” refers to any neurodevelopmental disorder that is associated with prenatal alcohol exposure, and that is characterized by permanent organic brain injury and central nervous system damage that result in a pattern of permanent birth defects, the symptoms of which may include....

This is very important because these items are the fundamental piece of the bill, and the issue that we continue to deal with. The amendment continues to say that the symptoms:

...may include

(a) impaired mental functioning,

(b) poor executive functioning,

(c) memory problems,

(d) impaired judgment,

(e) inability to control impulse behaviour,

(f) impaired ability to understand the consequences of one’s actions, and

(g) impaired ability to internally modify behaviour control;....

As this list indicates, this is a very serious disorder that causes some very serious symptoms. This bill would help to recognize this when people who are before the courts suffer from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Clearly, our judgments must take these symptoms into account when sentencing individuals for their actions. It is no surprise that sufferers of FASD have difficult challenges during all stages of the criminal justice system.

I will elaborate on the above points briefly and how they face challenges while dealing with the courts.

As my colleague, the member for Charlottetown, has pointed out, poor memory and memory loss when a person is unable to recall prior events or parts of events is a huge issue. If individuals legitimately cannot recall how events have unfolded through no fault of their own, these individuals may end up incriminating themselves in court or during interrogation, as they become vulnerable to accepting events as they are presented to them.

An impairment in mental functioning, judgment, and reasoning leads people with FASD to sometimes make the wrong choices and end up running into conflicts within our legal system. This must be taken into account when a crime is committed by someone suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. These and other symptoms of FASD outline just how delicate a situation can be when dealing with a person who is suffering from this disorder while going through our criminal justice system.

When I talk to people who work in the correctional system in ridings like mine, I hear from them about their regularly seeing clients who suffer from FASD. They understand how this disease impacts these people's judgment, memory, and understanding of events around them. Many times they have expressed their concerns to me about these individuals who are experiencing FASD and going through the legal system. I could talk extensively on FASD in particular, simply because I deal with this issue on a daily basis within my own riding. I know the delicacy of this issue. I know how important it is to understand it from a public perspective, but also to provide education about it in our communities so that we can work harder to try to prevent this disease that, as we know, is preventable.

[International Development, November 20th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the child mortality rate in low-income countries is, sadly, 13 times higher than in developed countries.

How has the Conservative government chosen to honour our country's commitment to protect vulnerable children? It has deliberately underspent Canada's aid budget for low-income countries by nearly $126 million.

On Universal Children's Day, will the government explain why it is taking aid money for poor children and using it to fund things like income splitting for wealthy families?

[Aboriginal Affairs, November 18th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, over 1,000 constituents of mine have launched a court action against the federal government related to abuses suffered by aboriginal students at residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. These schools were not included in the Indian residential school apology even though the abuse resulted in many of the same kinds of social and private suffering we saw in other parts of Canada.

Why is the government shirking its fiduciary duty to the aboriginal people of Labrador?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 17th, 2014]

With regard to government funding: for each fiscal year since 2007-2008 inclusive, (a) what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans to any organization, body, or group in the electoral district of Labrador, providing for each (i) the name of the recipient, (ii) the location of the recipient, indicating the municipality, (iii) the date, (iv) the amount, (v) the department or agency providing it, (vi) the program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, (vii) the nature or purpose; and (b) for each grant, contribution and loan identified in (a), was a press release issued to announce it and, if so, what is the (i) date, (ii) headline, (iii) file number of the press release?

[National Diabetes Awareness Month, November 17th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in recognition of National Diabetes Awareness Month, which takes place in November.

Diabetes is a debilitating disease and it affects millions of Canadians. At the current rate, it is estimated that 3.9 million Canadians will be living with diabetes by 2019. I encourage all Canadians to see their doctor and have a risk assessment done, because if caught early enough, there are ways to reverse it.

I ask my colleagues today to join me in extending our thanks to all of those people who work hard as volunteers to bring awareness to diabetes and to help raise money to fight this terrible disease in Canada.

[Petitions, November 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of my constituents regarding the cuts to Canada Post.

This petition is signed by a number of people in the small rural region of Lodge Bay, Labrador. This is just one community of many across my riding and other places across Canada that has been adding its voice to this issue.

The petitioners are not happy with the cuts that are being made at this time. They feel that rural postal service has been under attack, and that the cuts will have a tremendous impact on them and the regions in which they live.

[Privilege, November 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the reason we have to act quickly is simply because the law states we must act quickly. It says upon conviction, and that conviction occurred on October 31.

This is not an issue that any of us takes any pleasure in, and I said that right from the beginning. However, what I would say for the hon. member is that we cannot sit in a place where we make laws and then all of a sudden when the time comes to start applying those in a very stringent way, we want to look at what other options there are. I am not into that practice. I do not want to play that game.

All I am saying is that the law in this country is very clear in a situation like this. I have seen it happen in another chamber in which I served. I saw four other people who were convicted and sentenced. There was absolutely no fun in that.

However, I will say that all Canadians deserve to have representation. They deserve to have a voice in this chamber. They deserve to have someone who stands for them. In order for that to happen, that person has to be elected and serving under the current laws that we have in place in this country.

[Privilege, November 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, again it is another situation where we hear the government talking from both sides.

It was only a little while ago when the government House leader stood in this place and outlined all of the opportunities that the member had to actually stand in the House and make representation of his own case. I would like to remind him of what his colleague has already stated for the House. In fact, the government House leader outlined several occasions on which the member could stand, including right here this afternoon when the member could be standing.

However, notwithstanding that fact, there is always opportunity, and that opportunity came in a court of law. It came in an independent third-party process in this country, a process that Canadians have held up as the very symbol of what this country has been built on. That is the rule of law and following that law and applying that law regardless of who one is or what office one holds. That is what I want to remind the member of, and that is the section of which we speak today.

[Privilege, November 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to contribute to the debate today. It is a sad occasion and an unfortunate situation for the member and his family, who are directly affected. I am sure none of us in the House take any pleasure in having to engage in debates of this nature. However, we as parliamentarians have been seized with the responsibility of dealing with this issue. While there are many pressing issues in this country that require our attention, we have to make a decision on the issue before us today.

We cannot ignore the facts. This particular issue has been in the media for quite some time. It goes back to 2006. It has been well debated in many circles by many pundits through many broadcasts. There have been a lot of opinions on this issue, as there were on the issue of Peter Penashue, the former member for Labrador.

We live in a country that is governed by the rule of law. We live in a country that takes the rule of law seriously. It is what makes us strong as a country. It is what makes us strong as a democracy. Therefore, when incidents like this happen, and we are confronted with a decision, we do not have a choice. We cannot suddenly ignore the law or bend the law that has been set in this country because of a particular circumstance for a particular person, a particular occupation, or a particular profession.

In this case, an independent, third-party, objective process has been engaged in. We have seen the courts at work. We have seen concerns expressed. We have seen the rule of law being conducted. Witnesses were called. We heard testimony from individuals who were impacted. All of this occurred in an independent, objective, third-party way that was removed from the House of Commons. It is called justice in this country. It is called the judiciary system, which makes those decisions.

Both parties had legal representation. They were able to bring forward their arguments and the facts. At the end of the day, the court rendered its decision. We have confidence in our legal system to make the right decisions, and we have no reason to believe that this was not the case. On October 31, we had a decision taken by the court, after a tremendous amount of consideration, and we have the verdict we have today. Parliamentarians are now left to look at how we proceed from here.

It is not an easy decision. I previously sat for a number of years in the House of Assembly in Newfoundland and Labrador. I sat through a process that saw four of my colleagues in that chamber convicted and sentenced to serve time. It had to do with illegal spending, how budgets were conducted, and what was appropriate or inappropriate.

This is not a new issue. It is a different issue. It is a different chamber. However, it is not unlike the process in the House of Assembly I served in.

In this particular case, as parliamentarians, we have to look at the sections of the law that govern us.

We have to look at the verdict that has been given on October 31. We have to look at what the impact of that is on the member, and while we take no pleasure in having to look at motions in the House today that look at suspending or expelling the member simply because of the verdict, we have no choice.

In my opinion, our decision should be very clear. When we look at section 443 of the Canada Elections Act, and we look at the fact that the member has been convicted, the next course of action would be to have the member expelled. I know that members opposite want to talk about going through this appeal or that appeal, and those standards are out there, but unless we are going to change the rule of law in the country today that we are governed by, it is very clear that upon conviction a member would be expelled. That is really what this debate in the House is coming down to.

It is no longer a debate of whether it should go to committee and be reviewed. It has come down to a debate among members on whether we should be expelling the member based on the conviction, according to section 443 of the Canada Elections Act and what it states, or whether we should not. Should we give him an opportunity to go through appeals and other processes, but can anyone dispute the fact that we have already had an independent third party process? We have already gone through the court system. A verdict was given on October 31 and the member was convicted.

The decision before us is obvious. My colleague from Winnipeg North's amendment was not accepted to be voted upon by the House. It is unfortunate because his reference to subsection 502(3) is directly related to corruption practices and what happens when there is a conviction for a committed offence and where there are legal and corrupt practices by a member. It is very clear.

It is unfortunate that what I am seeing is a tangled web around this whole issue, where it should not be. If every member were to read these sections of the act and look at the conviction that was passed down on October 31, I do not think we would even be having the kind of debate we are having right now. We would be moving to what we see as expelling the member based on the rule of law under which we pass and practice in this country.

I move:

That the amendment be further amended by deleting the words:

“should a conviction under section 443 of the Canada Elections Act not be set aside by a competent authority and no further rights of appeal remain available to the Member, together with the appropriate Order, in those circumstances, for the Speaker to issue his warrant to the Chief Electoral Officer for the issue of a writ for the election of a Member to serve in the present Parliament for the electoral district of Peterborough;”