44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 17, 2022 10:00AM
- Feb/17/22 10:43:52 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in his speech, the hon. member spoke of the people who are being impacted by the blockades. He spoke about the harassment and the assaults. I know I have spoken to a lot of workers in this downtown about that as well. It is truly heartbreaking. I think of the workers and businesses who have been impacted negatively. I think about the people at the Rideau Centre. I think about people within my own region in southwestern Ontario and those businesses who have been impacted.
What is the government's plan to help those workers and those business owners after this debate is done, after we have seen the protesters go home? We have been asking for the government to come up with a plan. What is the plan for those people?
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- Feb/17/22 12:46:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I find this very difficult. My hon. colleague across the way said that people were just honking their horns. He seemed to suggest that this convoy is a simple annoyance for the people in Ottawa. I have spoken to quite a few people who are working downtown. A lovely young woman served me lunch at a restaurant and I asked her how she was doing. She talked about the harassment and specific assaults. She talked about assaults on friends of hers who are working in the ByWard Market. That is what we need to address.
Could the member explain why he seems to think this is just a simple annoyance and why he would want to take away the safety of the people who are working and living downtown?
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- Feb/17/22 7:12:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today. I feel that we are standing at a crossroads.
I have heard so much frustration and disappointment from people in London. They are frustrated by this pandemic that will soon mark its third anniversary. People are frustrated that they have sacrificed and struggled to help one another. They have done the work that we asked them to do to keep people safe. To them, I want to give my thanks. I want to tell folks in London that I understand their frustration. I am tired of this pandemic too. I share in the wish for this to be over, but I also see the bigger picture here.
People are not just frustrated because of the pandemic. This is much bigger than that. They are frustrated that, even though people are working harder than ever, sacrificing more and more, their government has offered less and less. There is a growing sense throughout Canada that our elected leaders are not listening and do not appreciate the struggles of Canadians. The protests that we have seen in our streets and our communities are a symptom of that frustration. It is understandable why someone would feel like that, because for years now successive Liberal and Conservative governments have asked Canadians to do more with less, to pull themselves up by their boot straps when they do not even have shoes. Today, many people feel that their government has let them down, especially when they needed support the most.
These last few years have been tough on my community, like so many, but within this last year we experienced the loss of the Afzaal family to an extremist act of hatred and violence. In spite of that, I saw my community come together in incredible acts of love and kindness. That is what I hold on to tonight.
I grew up in a very political household and watching my mother at community meetings and standing up for what she believed in, fighting for a better world, truly shaped how I saw my role in the world. I knew that I benefited significantly from the systems and programs that people and governments had created for me and that I had a responsibility to pay that forward. I came to this place because I wanted to make the necessary changes for people, to pay it forward.
As people continue to struggle, I fear that we will lose that sense of community and that people will turn away from each other more and more. The more people struggle, the less they have for themselves, the less they feel they can give to others. The more they have to fight for the little that they have and the less that they have to fight for, the greater the divide between the richest in this world and the rest of us, the worse this will get. People will turn on their governments and they will turn on each other, because they believe their governments have turned on them.
Canadians are looking for answers and they are looking for solutions. The system has been rigged and they want to do something about it. Solutions offered by right-wing politicians and extremists online must be called out as entirely, completely unacceptable.
I am often in awe that Conservatives seem to provide simple solutions to the complex problems that we face. This is not unique to Canada. We saw these simple solutions offered in the U.K. on the vote for Brexit. They said that life would get better, but it did not. We saw many simple solutions offered by Donald Trump, just south of us, ones based on racism, sexism and fear. They did nothing for working Americans. Their lives did not improve under his administration. We see these so-called solutions being offered in this House as well. Lift all public health measures and let neighbours and friends fend for themselves. Simple solutions are often the most dangerous.
I hope that this protest will end shortly but the reasons for it will not go away. Look at any crisis. It takes a long time to get to that critical point, and it takes even longer to fix it.
Let me be very clear. Nothing makes the racism, the hatred or the threats of violence that we have seen in Ottawa over these past days acceptable. However, to truly address the causes that have led to so many people feeling disenfranchised, to feeling like they are not being heard or that they are abandoned by the government, resulting in their resolve to occupy the streets in Ottawa or critical infrastructure across Canada, we have to address the systemic issues at the heart of the matter.
New Democrats are offering alternatives to move forward, rather than what is offered by the right wing that has allied with them. There are concrete measures the government can make to address rising inequality in our country. We can tackle rising drug costs with a national pharmacare plan. We can tackle the housing crisis that is impacting every community in Canada, and my home city of London, by getting the Canadian government back into the business of building housing. We can take on poverty and disparity in our streets by establishing a guaranteed basic livable income.
We can address the lack of education and access to it by making post-secondary education accessible, removing those financial barriers. We can take on the growth of low-paid insecure work by updating labour codes, creating a living wage and tipping the scale back in favour of Canadian workers. We can sign trade agreements that protect Canadian jobs, instead of making it easier to ship them overseas. We can strengthen and safeguard workers' pensions, ensuring pensioners can retire with dignity and security. We can ensure the rich pay their fair share and close tax loopholes.
Many people are rightly concerned about the impact of the Emergencies Act. It should have never come to this. The use of the Emergencies Act, and even the consideration of it, is an acknowledgement of failure of leadership from all levels of government, including the Prime Minister. They have allowed things to escalate unchecked since the beginning, and I share the concern of many Canadians and people from my constituency that the government may misuse the powers in that act, so I want to be very clear. We will be watching and we will withdraw our support if at any point we feel these powers are being misused.
People in communities across our country are feeling the impacts of the convoy. Health care workers, retail and grocery store workers, truck drivers themselves, small business owners and residents have been harassed, intimidated and even assaulted during these illegal occupations. Thousands of workers have been forced to stay home from their jobs, making it harder for them to feed their families and to pay their rent. Canadians have been missing the national leadership they need during this crisis. They are tired of jurisdictional excuses, and they just want this to stop. We owe it to them to use every tool available to stop these occupations that are harming Canadian workers and their families and to work on a plan to get this to end.
I want to reassure my constituents that the NDP is taking the use of the Emergencies Act very seriously. We will not give a blank cheque to the government. We also believe the federal government, and all governments, need to take responsibility before things are allowed to escalate further. We cannot abandon Canadians to deal with this on their own.
Over the coming days we need to see action from our police in ending this occupation and returning the streets back to our communities. Over the coming weeks New Democrats will remain vigilant in watching and protecting Canadians' rights and freedoms, and holding the government to account. In the next few months we will push for more supports to remain until the pandemic is over and to call for a science-based approach to see us out of this pandemic.
Better is possible, but it will take tough and courageous choices for us to get there. It is not too late to make a better world.
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- Feb/17/22 7:21:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is something that we have been talking about in London for quite some time, especially after the murder of the Afzaal family. We must come together and ensure that there are legislative solutions. I know that we have been pushing for the government to introduce legislation on online hate. I believe that has now come forward again. We need to ensure that is passed. We need to hold those Internet companies and social media companies accountable as well to be a part of that solution.
I think overall larger solutions involve education. They involve ensuring that we, as I said in my speech, provide for each other and make sure that we are not closing in on ourselves because of that fight against poverty and that fight against desperation. We have to work harder on those social programs and those social solutions that provide for each other, so that we can share with each other and fight for each other and be together.
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- Feb/17/22 7:23:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have to recognize that those are two very different situations. The thoughtfulness that Tommy Douglas and his caucus put in at that time about the War Measures Act and the implementation of it is the same thoughtfulness that my caucus has taken on the implementation of the Emergencies Act. The leader of the NDP, the member for Burnaby South, talked about that today. He told the Prime Minister directly that New Democrats will not let him off the hook and we will be watching.
I stand here today, like I said, with a heavy heart because so many things are at play. I have spoken to people on the street who are worried and have been assaulted, and that cannot stand. The hatred cannot stand.
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- Feb/17/22 7:25:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the investments the hon. member is talking about are absolutely long-term solutions. What I was referring to were excuses that the federal government consistently makes to avoid its responsibility when it comes to what it has to do to ensure it is fulfilling its role to the provinces.
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- Feb/17/22 7:51:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in my community I have received some complaints from folks who are upset because Confederate flags have shown up on their neighbour's lawn.
Going forward, after we can move past this convoy, ideally, and hopefully things settle down a little, where is the government going to go from there? How are we going to stop this from spreading in the way that we have seen it spread to communities, and prevent bolstering that hate and that horrible symbolism?
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- Feb/17/22 9:40:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have worked with my hon. colleague on several committees and associations, and she is always so good to work with.
There have been a lot of discussions in the House on both sides about the level of dispute outside. On the other side of the House, Conservative members have said that this is about honking annoyances and traffic jams. Those are the two things I have heard over the course of today's debate.
I am wondering if the member could share her thoughts on the dangers of downplaying what we are seeing outside. I have spoken to people about the assaults and the harassment they have endured throughout this convoy.
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