Finance committee  I think we had to cut it early because I talk too much. I'll try to be a little more succinct. I'm not an expert in education. What I do know is that when the majority of Canadians are engaged in an activity without an appreciation for what the potential consequences are, that l

Finance committee  Generally speaking, I do share the same perspective. I think that the ratio of 20% who have malice and 80% who simply don't know is probably true with respect to the whole range of social engagement and interaction, which means that we have a great opportunity to educate and tea

Finance committee  I think different forms of hate are understood differently, so there isn't a level playing field that way. There are those that are very obvious and those that are less obvious. It is self-evident that marginalized communities within the BIPOC basket are experiencing some very re

Finance committee  I think you gave a fair characterization. Allow me, Mr. Chair, to give an analogy. Without offering any comment.... When the decision was made to legalize cannabis use, it very soon became apparent to the government that there was something they had not anticipated. There was

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. It's not a question of my subjective assessment of whether there's been a rise. The objective statistics—provided not just by national agencies, but by police forces across the country—indicate that there's been an alarming rise. I hasten to add that

Finance committee  Thank you to the chair and to all the members of the committee for welcoming CIJA's participation in this important conversation. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, known as CIJA, is the advocacy agent of the Jewish Federations of Canada. We're a national, non-partisan, n

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll respond briefly. For the record, let me first suggest, further to Dr. Thomas's comment.... We organize 10 to 12 interns per year. Others, as he suggested, have different numbers. We were able to both recruit and fund the stipends for 10 to 12, depend

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Through you, thank you to the member for his kind remarks. If we go back to the core issue of transparency and accountability, we have our answer, as another member mentioned, about the path forward. Public office holders should receive, or we should craft, a handbook on interns

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I'll try to be very brief. When it comes to the issue of volunteers, it was a predecessor committee of yours, PROC, some years back that excluded volunteer contributions from those things that could be understood as gifts or benefits to a public office holder. It wa

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Look, I'll invoke a comment of the late Herb Gray and say that I don't accept the premise of the question—not of the member who posed, through the chair, the question today, but the idea that at least the kind of internship we provide, which, we argue, fits into the category of a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I would add only that we suspended our program immediately upon receiving the ruling, as did other groups, such as the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and, as I think they call themselves, the Canada Tibet Committee. There were a number—as Dr. Thomas suggested—that pulle

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. In response, through the chair, let me just make a couple of observations. I think communities like ours, and there are many in Canada, feel an imperative to make a contribution to the country, to encourage and foster a sense of not just belonging but of

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, thank you very much. To act in good faith, I will limit my comments to the following. We have submitted a number of different documents that we think are relevant to your committee's consideration, including some legal opinions that we have obtained over the last n

Public Safety committee  My short answer is yes.

Public Safety committee  Overall, yes.