Veterans Affairs committee  It took years to get everything back up. It saved my life in that respect. I can be a dad, not a zombie on the couch who doesn't want to do anything—even leave the house. I think it allows me to function better. Is it perfect? No, it's not perfect, but that's my reality. It will never be perfect.

Veterans Affairs committee  From the veterans perspectives and from what I'm hearing from the mouth of the veterans is that, since they have started cannabis, many of them no longer think about suicide. When they were on the pills and the multiple medications, drooling like zombies and not being able to put a thought together, suicide was very, very close.

Foreign Affairs committee  This is something that I think is a non-partisan issue. It's something that all governments strive for. As an example of that, there are zombie provisions in the Criminal Code that we've sought to remove and that members of Mr. Genuis's party have sought actively to remove, just for that very reason. Having provisions in the Criminal Code that are no longer operative or are inconsistent can lead to misinterpretation of law.

Justice committee  I was bombarded by trial images constantly throughout the day, regardless of where I was or what I was doing at the time. Completely unable to sleep, I would sit like a zombie, and if I slept at all, I was subject to traumatic nightmares. I knew something was wrong with me. I knew this wasn't normal. When it finally came time for me to confront my mental health issues, I was shocked that there were no services available for me at the time in Ontario, because it needed a judge's order.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, section 159 is an unconstitutional and inoperative section of the Criminal Code. In other words, it is one of these zombie laws. I fully support the removal of zombie laws, including section 159. I am surprised that the hon. member would pat the government on the back for taking this step, given the government's record of dragging its feet.

Criminal Code  What I am confident in and very pleased with is that Bill C-75 includes the former Bill C-39 to remove these zombie laws that my friend has spoken about. It is contained within Bill C-75, which has passed third reading in this House and is on its way to the other place. I look forward to the debate and discussion in the other place on this important piece of criminal justice reform and to the speedy passage of Bill C-75 so that we can, in fact, remove the zombie provisions that are contained within the Criminal Code.

Canadian Heritage committee  However, a previous minister, the Honourable James Moore, agreed with me, and in 2010 called the proposed iPod levy a “tax”, and said: “this idea is really toxic and, frankly, really dumb.” The Copyright Board is inexplicably keeping this zombie tax alive and allowing the music industry to use the small revenues of about $2 million a year, almost 30% of which goes for administration, lobbying and lawyers, to wait in zombie-like stealth for another day to pounce on smart phones, ISPs, the cloud, and whatever they persuade a gullible government to somehow tax.

Justice committee  This is because the bawdy house law does not precisely fit the government's narrow definition of a zombie law. It has not explicitly been declared unconstitutional by the courts. It's not a zombie law. It's a different kind of monster. It's a Frankenstein law. Why am I using this broad cultural reference to Frankenstein to describe the bawdy house law?

Justice committee  I certainly support the repeal of section 159, but I have to say I don't understand why it has taken this government so long to repeal this zombie section of the Criminal Code. I can remember back in the fall of 2016 the government announced Bill C-32, with great fanfare about how it was going to repeal section 159. It was such a priority of this government, but that bill remains stuck at first reading, two years later.

Criminal Code  Three years into the Liberal government's mandate, when we look at its accomplishments at cleaning up the Criminal Code, so far nothing has been done. The zombie provisions of the Criminal Code are still on the books. The Criminal Code is reprinted every single year. The 2016 edition, 2017 edition and 2018 edition all contain those mistakes. If I am going to look at the government's performance based on its amendments to the Criminal Code, I am sorry but it is a failing grade.

Criminal Code  The government then moved forward with a number of cleanups of the Criminal Code, the so-called zombie or inoperative provisions and the many redundant sections of the Criminal Code. That is the thing about the Criminal Code: It is littered with out-of-date provisions that are inoperable because of Supreme Court or appellate court rulings, but they are still faithfully reprinted every single year because Parliament has not done its work to clean up the Criminal Code.

Criminal Code  It would have been an unnecessary one if we could have dealt with the substantive provisions in all those bills, but instead, the government's strategy was to basically string us along with the introduction of these justice bills that would clean up the inoperative provisions of the Criminal Code and then leave them in some kind of purgatory stuck at first reading. When the Minister of Justice took office, everyone knew that there were zombie provisions in the Criminal Code that had to be cleaned up. This has been a topic of discussion for decades, and every year, the Criminal Code is faithfully reproduced with all of these mistakes.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, in terms of reintroducing the Criminal Code, I am incredibly proud to be part of a government that has taken action, which has not been taken for decades, as the member mentioned, to ensure that we have a modernized Criminal Code, that we remove the unconstitutional provisions, the zombie provisions, that we update the laws around sexual assault and intimate partner violence and that we look at the victim fine surcharge as well as section 159. All of these are issues raised in government bills the member opposite has spoken to.

Criminal Code  With respect to all the justice bills that have been advanced, we have been working expeditiously to move forward with Bill C-39, Bill C-51 and Bill C-75 so that we clean up the so-called zombie provisions and the unconstitutional provisions. I would look to all hon. colleagues in this place to work with us to make sure that these pieces of legislation move forward as expeditiously as possible.

Criminal Code  I share his concerns about the Senate amendments. Therefore, I want to ask him a question about what he initially spoke of, which was the zombie sections of the Criminal Code that have been found to be unconstitutional. He cited the Vader case, involving the murder of Lyle and Marie McCann of St. Albert. It was our committee, the justice committee, that wrote to the minister all the way back in October 2016, calling on the minister to move forward with legislation to remove unconstitutional sections.