44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 14, 2021 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present today.
The first petition is with respect to Bill S-223. This is a bill on forced organ harvesting and trafficking, which a number of colleagues have tabled petitions on already. This is the same bill that was put forward in each of the last two Parliaments, and the bill has already passed the Senate.
Petitioners are calling on the government and the House of Commons to work together to finally pass legislation to prohibit forced organ harvesting and trafficking, and to prohibit Canadians from going abroad to receive an organ taken without consent.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition is from people who are concerned about the definition used for conversion therapy in a number of conversion therapy bills. Petitioners want to see efforts made to fix the definition. They support efforts to ban conversion therapy, but they want to clarify what is being referred to in the definition of “conversion therapy”.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the human rights situation in Burma. It notes that in the coup earlier this year, there were a large number of people killed and detained. There is also the systematic killing, abducting and torturing of civilians by Myanmar security forces, and the fact that the Tatmadaw does not have a mandate to represent Myanmar and has been outlawed by the National Unity Government as terrorists responsible for gross human rights violations.
The petitioners have a number of asks of the government: to recognize the National United Government as the only legitimate governing body of Myanmar; support its efforts to establish a federal democratic and pluralistic country that respects the rights of all ethnic communities, including the Rohingya; designate the Tatmadaw as a terrorist organization and cut all diplomatic ties with it; provide humanitarian aid for refugees displaced by countrywide crackdowns and the bombing of villages and towns, such as Karen, Kachin and Chin states; and provide financial support for detainees and civil workers who have joined the civil disobedience movement against the junta.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the issue of Canadians struggling with mental health challenges and a bill that passed in the last Parliament allowing medically facilitated suicide for those facing mental health challenges.
Petitioners note that the Canadian Mental Health Association has said that it is a recovery-oriented organization and does not believe that mental illnesses are irremediable. Therefore, the undersigned call on the government and on Parliament to oppose any effort to classify mental illness as irremediable, or to allow state-administered or supervised killings based on mental health challenges.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights an issue that is very important in my riding: carbon capture and storage technology. It is an important tool for fighting back against the challenges we face in terms of climate change.
Petitioners note the government's commitments with respect to emission reductions and call on the government to introduce new tax incentives to attract investment in the area of carbon capture, utilization and storage technology.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the persecution of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China. It outlines a number of the abuses they have faced: birth suppression, political and religious indoctrination, arbitrary detention, separation of children from families, invasive surveillance, destruction of cultural sites, forced labour and forced organ harvesting.
Petitioners want to see stronger engagement from Parliament, as well as from the government, in response to these issues. The House of Commons has recognized that Uighurs face genocide. However, the government has not been willing to take that step. Petitioners call on the government to formally recognize that Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China have been and are being subjected to genocide, and to use the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, the Magnitsky act, to sanction those responsible for heinous crimes committed against the Uighur people.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights another international challenge: the situation in the Republic of Artsakh, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Following the Armenian-Azerbaijan war a ceasefire was established, but there are continuing concerns related to the detention of prisoners of war.
Petitioners call on the government to condemn Azerbaijan's illegal detention of Armenian prisoners of war and call for their immediate release; to use all the diplomatic tools available to advocate for the release of those held captive; to condemn ongoing state-sponsored anti-Armenian hatred in Azerbaijan; to denounce all aggressive rhetoric from Turkey and Azerbaijan against Armenian Artsakh; to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance to ensure the safety and viability of the population of Artsakh; and facilitate the exchange of the remains of fatalities.
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- Dec/14/21 10:19:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition that I am tabling highlights concerns about the situation in Ethiopia. Some of the specific information in this petition is a bit dated, but the conflict, in particular in the Tigray region, continues to be a significant concern for many Canadians and people around the world.
Petitioners note that Ethiopia is a large recipient of Canada's international development assistance, and they want to see more engagement from the government with respect to this situation, including working to end the conflict; supporting peace and mediation; and calling for full humanitarian access, independent monitoring and international investigation into the credible reports of war crimes and gross violations of human rights.
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- Dec/14/21 10:27:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the final petition I am tabling today highlights the situation of the energy sector and the fact that the Trans Mountain expansion project would create many jobs and new opportunities for Canadians. It also highlights the benefit of Canadian energy and calls on the government to support the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
I commend all of these important petitions to the consideration of members.
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- Dec/14/21 10:27:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is with respect to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Petitioners note the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, including organ harvesting as part of that persecution, and that extensive evidence points to 14 key officials and former officials of the Chinese Communist regime who demonstrate primary culpability in human rights atrocities committed against Falun Gong practitioners.
Petitioners call on the government to deploy all legal sanctions, including freezing assets and barring entry to Canada, against perpetrators involved in these abuses. They want to see the government use the Magnitsky act to target those who have been involved in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the situation of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. This particular petition was certified prior to the Taliban takeover, and there were significant human rights concerns about the violence against the Hazara community in Afghanistan, which goes back a very long time. The Hazara community has experienced successive waves of violence. The situation is particularly dire now for the Hazara community, as well as for Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and other minority communities in Afghanistan.
This petition, in particular, is calling on the government to formally recognize the 1891-93 ethnic cleansing perpetuated against the Hazaras as genocide and to designate September 25 as a Hazara genocide memorial day. The petition also supports Bill C-287 from the last Parliament, which aimed at ensuring development assistance was always contributing to the advancement of peace and security and focusing on the well-being of all individuals, including minority communities.
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- Dec/14/21 10:28:36 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise on the same point of order.
Respectfully, I believe the NDP House leader may not have noticed, but I actually went last. All of the other members who wanted to table petitions went before me. Also, the member will also know the standing order prescribes a limited amount of time per petition, and I think I exercised a greater economy of words per petition than members of his own caucus have. I cannot help that I have an active constituency and many people who want me to raise issues in the House.
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- Dec/14/21 12:21:01 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his re-election. He began his speech talking about how certain historically marginalized communities, for instance Black and indigenous Canadians, are disproportionately represented in the prison population.
It seems clear one possible cause of that overrepresentation is that members of certain communities are receiving disproportionately long sentences relative to others for the same crime. It would seem that one way of combatting racism in the justice system is to ensure consistent sentencing. People, regardless of their background or race, for instance, receiving similar kinds of sentences for the same crimes in the same circumstances.
One way of reducing racism would be to have clear sentencing guidelines. Perhaps it is with mandatory minimums, or perhaps it is with sentencing starting points. This legislation, by removing mandatory minimums and widening the range for judicial discretion, does not seem to be combatting discrimination on that basis. Rather, it creates more space for the inconsistent application of penalties for the same crime. I wonder if the member has a comment on that.
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- Dec/14/21 12:41:07 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, the hon. member spoke about an excellent piece of legislation in a previous Parliament that sought to take into consideration the circumstances of people with fetal alcohol syndrome. I note that some of the members from the government who have spoken, the justice minister and the member for Ottawa South, opposed that bill.
Could the member share more about why he supported this excellent private member's bill and why we need to see something like it passed into law?
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- Dec/14/21 12:51:48 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, it is evident that many members of the government are trying to set up a sort of straw person to argue against in the context of this bill.
The member talked about issues of racism in the justice system. Lowering sentences overall across the board would not address the particular impacts on people from certain communities who get longer sentences. We all agree that judicial discretion is important, but mandatory minimums do not set a one-size-fits-all penalty. They set a minimum that expresses society's moral condemnation and say that at least the minimum for certain kinds of offences should be at a certain level.
I do not think anyone in the House is proposing that people who have addictions problems or who have engaged in personal possession offences should be spending time in prison. I think we can all agree that people in those situations should not be sent to prison. However, let us talk about the core controversy of this bill, which is removing mandatory minimum penalties for violent crime.
Does the member think that mandatory minimum penalties are appropriate for serious violent crimes, yes or no?
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- Dec/14/21 4:35:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am simply rising to say it has long been the practice of the House that when an update is given of this nature, copies are distributed of the documents that are being debated. Today, I am quite frustrated that the government has not supplied nearly enough copies of the document for members of Parliament to be able to look at those documents while the minister is speaking. I ask you to come back to the House and rule on whether this is appropriate.
This is a critical issue. Members should have access to those documents right in front of them in paper form. This has long been the practice of the House. I am not sure why the government is not respecting this practice.
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