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May/4/22 3:30:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to place on the record that I have the same concern about the question from the hon. member for Pontiac, and I support the point made by the hon. member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola.

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May/4/22 3:46:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I move, having known Mr. Bosley, to add a few comments on behalf of the Green Party.

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May/4/22 6:14:28 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-19

Madam Speaker, in the member's speech obviously housing was a very attractive topic that I want to dive into, but he also talked about labour. I am particularly interested in changes in this budget implementation act around seasonal workers and employment insurance. I do not know if the member is prepared to comment on it, but we went through a period, under the previous Harper administration, where seasonal workers and routine unemployment were treated as sort of recidivism: It should not be allowed and should be punished. It seems to me that division 27 of the act is opening up again the idea of regional unemployment pockets, where the length of the weeks one could get employment insurance would reflect regional unemployment, but I am not certain because we have not gotten it to committee yet to study it. What is the member's take on division 27 of this act?

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May/4/22 7:49:52 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, when we dive into the calls for justice, they are clear and they are critical for the remaking of this country. I wonder if the hon. member would agree that when we look at the history of racism, colonialism, oppression and violence, one key recommendation of this report is fundamental: a guaranteed livable income for all, to end poverty in this country, thus ending marginalization.

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May/4/22 8:04:11 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I noted the member's conversation about what police services should do. It has not come up yet in the take-note debate. I want to ask about the risk to indigenous women and girls who are murdered by police. Does he have any comment on the problem of wellness checks and how we might be able to remedy that problem?

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May/4/22 9:01:20 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague, the parliamentary secretary, for focusing on the names of the women, girls, mommies, aunties, sisters and daughters who are missing from her territory. The report that we hold in our hands and that we study tonight is one that calls on us to do much more than anything we have even imagined, which includes ending the culture of misogyny, patriarchy and racism, and of extraction from and oppression of the land itself. I want to ask the parliamentary secretary if the government she serves is prepared to look at the recommendations that the extractive industries themselves, the transient industrial workers along pipelines in mining camps throughout the country, are actually a threat to indigenous women and girls.

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May/4/22 9:26:41 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank, from the bottom of heart, the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill for such a thoughtful and inclusive approach to talking about the take-note debate tonight. I particularly appreciate her perspective on what the report calls out. To my hon. friend from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, I did not invent this or pull one industry out of many. The extractive industry is the only industry mentioned in the report as a threat. The hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill is so correct, and I want to ask her to expand on this, if we can accept that it is a thing and it is happening. Nobody would ever suggest that it is every single person in that industry. That would be appalling. However, there are other recommendations in this report that would make things safer for women near those extractive industry camps, such as safe ground transportation, which is also called for in call for justice 4.8. Does the hon. member have some thoughts on how we can face this reality and make it safer?

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May/4/22 9:36:11 p.m.
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Madam Chair, one of my frustrations in looking at the calls for justice is how many of them should have been in the budget to assist with the tragedy, and the ongoing nightmare, for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and their families. They are also part of building a healthy society, such as having decent ground transportation. That should be in the budget for all Canadians. It is particularly urgent. Could the minister tell us if, around the cabinet table, things like guaranteed livable income, which is a recommendation in the calls for justice that most members of Parliament in this place support, and these much more all-encompassing transformational programs could find a place in a budget so that we could respond to this immediate crisis and improve Canada, right across the country, from coast to coast to coast?

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May/4/22 9:47:48 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member for Fredericton very briefly mentioned justice for Chantel. It has been almost two years since Chantel Moore was murdered in Edmundston by a municipal police officer. I ask the hon. member if she is, like me, completely dissatisfied with the cover-up of her murder?

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May/4/22 9:57:48 p.m.
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Madam Chair, my hon. colleague's deep sense of grief and connection was very clear in his speech, with the disproportionately high number of indigenous women and girls who have gone missing from the area of his riding. I want to specifically ask him if, in reading the report, he took on board the notion that it is time to stop looking at indigenous women and girls solely as victims and look at them as individual human rights holders and defenders of their own rights in a human rights issue that permeates this whole debate.

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May/4/22 10:05:34 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my hon. colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, particularly for the lens he brought to the questions around sexualized images and groups like Pornhub. It is rare chance, in this take-note debate, to actually exchange ideas, so I want to clarify and perhaps come to the same place, along with the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill, because I want to clarify what I said and make sure it is understood. This report, after extensive expert testimony and an extensive review of the issues, only focused on one legal industry that is identified as a source of a threat to indigenous women and girls in remote locations. It is only the resource extractive industry that is named. That is not to say that there are not illegal industries, such as the sex trade and human trafficking, that are grievous issues, or to say that there are not systemic issues, such as racism, misogyny, poverty and marginalization. All of those issues are real, but to the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, I did not pick it out of a group of possible industries that could be identified like the film industry or agriculture. The only industry mentioned by the inquiry report is resource extractive industries, and we need to find solutions.

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May/4/22 10:49:55 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is an honour to rise today toward the end of the debate. We have some time left and some more speakers, but I think this take-note debate has been one of sincerity and has been heartfelt. I think we have seen some real change in the way we are able to discuss things in this place and to accept the inquiry. I remember when the inquiry came out: it was not quite three years ago. When the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and two-spirited inquiry first said that this was a genocide, there was a great deal of response in the media as if that might not be the case. It has been stated by members on all sides of the House today without question. That gives a sense that we have made progress in understanding the scope, scale and gravity of the issue. I want to start by acknowledging that we are here on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples. I want to also acknowledge the territory that I am honoured to represent here in Parliament: My riding name of Saanich—Gulf Islands is a corrupted English pronunciation of W̱SÁNEĆ, the W̱SÁNEĆ nation of the Coast Salish peoples. I am deeply indebted to the peoples of our territory. I want to also begin by saying that I will be splitting my time with the honourable and terrific member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach. There is a lot that has been said. With the time remaining for me it would be hard to add a great deal more, but in preparing for this and whenever I think about the inquiry, I do not want to talk about statistics. I just want to say, as a settler culture woman, recognizing the privilege of the colour of my skin, that I am so lucky. I have a bunch of great women friends, but it is only my indigenous women friends who say things casually like, “I was left for dead in a dumpster”. I hardly know any close indigenous women friends who have not had the experience of losing close family members, particularly in the downtown east side in Vancouver. That statement, “I was left for dead in a dumpster,” was actually in the context of sitting in a circle after this report came out in Victoria with a woman who I thought I knew really well. Her anglicized name is Rose Henry. She goes by the Tsilhqot’in name now of Grandma Losah. I had no idea that my friend Rose, as a kid, had been left for dead in a dumpster after being beaten and abused. These experiences are not statistics. These are our friends, our mothers, our aunties and our children. The levels of abuse and casual violence against indigenous women and girls is appalling and a human rights abuse. We have not responded with the urgency that we must. We went for years, as I am sure colleagues will remember, demanding that we get an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. We got the inquiry. We got the recommendations, but women and girls are still going missing on a routine basis. Indigenous women and girls are still marginalized and at risk, and we have 231 calls for justice to make that not the case anymore. In the time remaining for me, I want to emphasize a few of them that stand out. Call for justice 4.5, which I have mentioned tonight in questions and comments, is a call for a guaranteed livable income that will end the marginalization and take women and girls from being in a position of great risk to being safer by the security of having enough money to not be in poverty. It is pretty straightforward. We also know from this inquiry that women who have gone missing are quite often, through their marginalized economic status, forced to hitchhike. They do not own cars. They are not going to be getting safe and affordable ground transportation because there is none. Our ground transportation system in this country is worse than that in most developing countries: Members should think about that. This report came out before Greyhound withdrew service right across Canada. I talk to my Nuu-chah-nulth friends, particularly Chief Judith Sayers of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation. She has been a prominent supporter of a local bus company called Wilson's bus lines that has been trying to stay afloat and trying to connect services. The government needs to acknowledge that we need VIA Rail to work for the marginalized. We also need to address the huge threat of wellness checks in which indigenous women and girls die. A wellness check should not result in an inquiry and a coroner's report. This also needs urgent attention.

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May/4/22 10:56:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as I was calling out the calls for justice from the inquiry report, I will read it: 4.5 We call upon all governments to establish a guaranteed annual livable income for all Canadians, including indigenous peoples, to meet all their social and economic needs. I could go into this at great length. We have a poverty caucus in this place made up of members of Parliament and people from the other place. We have had expert testimony for years. I recommend to the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan a great book by the great Progressive Conservative Hugh Segal: Bootstraps Need Boots.

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May/4/22 10:57:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, that reminds me of something that the great journalist Warner Troyer once said, which was that politicians are basically like single-celled organisms, susceptible only to heat, pressure and pain. We need more heat, more pressure and some more pain to make those who have the power to make these changes, make the changes.

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May/4/22 10:58:38 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my hon. colleague from Shefford. She is right. We are here, at this late hour, when there are over 200 calls for justice. We all understand what needs to be done, and yet we are having a take-note debate, which is not enough.

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