SoVote

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/21 10:10:50 a.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour this morning to take the floor virtually to present this petition. Working electronically, this is petition number 10619695. The petitioners call on this government to abandon any plans to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline. They explain that the original pipeline, the one that was purchased at $4.5 billion, is a pipeline in current use. Parenthetically, this is the one that had to be closed down due to the recent floods and has reopened. However, the petitioners are focused on the expansion, which is essentially a brand new pipeline being constructed, without permission, through indigenous territories. This pipeline, unlike the current one, would be carrying diluted bitumen. Diluted bitumen cannot be cleaned up if it should spill, and it crosses 800 waterways across British Columbia to the port in Burnaby for extended export in risky tanker traffic.

143 words

Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/21 11:23:38 a.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I congratulate the parliamentary secretary. I am relieved he is continuing in his role. With a non-partisan spirit, we worked very closely together in rescuing Canadians around the world at the beginning of COVID-19. I am less pleased with how we are doing in rescuing Afghani women, the people who worked with Canada and the women in Afghanistan's parliament, who are now at grave risk. I agree with him that the member for Edmonton Strathcona has the right approach. What do we do now? How do we get humanitarian relief now? I am less convinced that we need a committee that reports in six months. I am sympathetic to the notion that we should not beat up on our civil servants, but I am talking to people who are working with people trying to get out of Afghanistan now, and they do not believe that the Taliban is the biggest obstacle on the ground. They think our unnecessarily bureaucratic immigration procedures as the Government of Canada are a bigger obstacle.

175 words

All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/21 12:16:51 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I also wish to begin my question for the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona by congratulating her for her re-election in Edmonton Strathcona. She will recall that her predecessor, Linda Duncan, has been a friend of mine since around 1983 when there were not that many environmental lawyers across Canada. She is a worthy successor to the role Linda played in the House. I am very taken with the member's comments. I am also in touch with many organizations that work to try to help Afghanistani women particularly. I am very concerned about the multiple failures, and I agree with the hon. member that it is not just one federal government but successive governments. In the current circumstance, what does the member think the benefit is of a committee that reports in six months as opposed to a focused effort of this place, in a non-partisan fashion, to get aid and support to the people of Afghanistan who will remain there in a humanitarian crisis, as well as to ramp up the acceptance of Afghanistani refugees to Canada?

183 words

All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/21 3:22:13 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I only want to add that the rules do not state that people be allowed to hear. Rather, Standing Orders 16 and 18 specifically forbid people from interrupting and speaking disrespectfully. Therefore, the onus of our rules is on the individual to not interrupt or speak. That may be for the purpose of allowing other people to hear, but the rules are violated whenever someone is interrupted or treated disrespectfully.

72 words

Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/21 3:40:12 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I am of course moved by the individual stories the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands told, but I have to say that the member for Barrie—Innisfil, and I do not want to make this partisan either, more accurately describes the scenes I have heard of from the airport. I wonder if the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands can suggest what we can do better now, not what we should have done last summer, but what we can do better now.

88 words

All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/7/21 6:13:39 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I want to single out another one of our veterans, Trevor Greene, who is enormously brave and was a hero throughout the Afghanistan conflict. He was originally born, as the member for Cumberland—Colchester was, in Sydney, Cape Breton, and moved to Vancouver Island. I am honoured to be his friend. He lives in Nanaimo. Some members here will recall his name, because he was the soldier who took off his helmet out of respect for village elders and was attacked with an axe to the back of his head in 2006. He is enormously brave and was interviewed around the time the writ was dropped, on August 15, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan. He was enraged that we would be going into an election at that moment. My question to the hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester is whether he is convinced that forming a new committee will get more Afghans to safety than working with the existing committee structure.

165 words

All Topics