44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 4, 2022 02:00PM
Madam Speaker, today is a very important day for young people as we debate a bill that will increase the political representation and participation of youth in Canada.
I am dismayed to hear many of my colleagues in the House misunderstand or misrepresent the interests of young people in this discussion. I hope to clarify, for many of my colleagues, the importance of enfranchisement for young people by offering the reality that, here in Canada, we have not always done our very best to ensure enfranchisement.
Let me rewind the clock. In 1959, indigenous people did not have the right to vote in this country. Do members want to know why they did not have the right to vote? It is because people in this chamber said that indigenous people, like myself and my family, were unfit, unready, immature and could not make decisions for themselves. It sounds pretty darn familiar today.
Bill C-210, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act, would finally allow those who are truly competent, those who have our future in their hands and those who have the most at risk, to have something. This is something we can truly give them by welcoming them into our democracy.
I would like to thank and applaud my hon. colleague and dear friend, the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, for tabling this truly historic piece of legislation. It is time to do what is right. Enfranchisement in a democracy is one of the most critical steps of making our democratic institution stronger. When we deny that fact and when we deny young people this truth, we deny them their future.
I want to address the important contributions of young people so that my colleagues can better understand how young people play a critical role today, right now, not only in our economy but also in our society, our academics and our culture. They also play a critical role in how communities function. There is a saying where I come from that when children and young people walk the earth in front of us, that land is truly blessed because we know they are still here, and it will be their children who will walk that land.
Let us not discredit the value of young people here. I do not want to continue to hear how young people are unfit and how they cannot do things. Young people are doing far more today than many leaders around the globe. Young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow in some far-off imagination: they are the leaders of today, right now.
Young people are facing unprecedented challenges. We often talk about the affordability crisis. We often talk about the housing crisis. We often talk about climate change in the House. Who is it going to affect most? It is going to affect young people. It is going to affect our children. Why not give them the right to have a say?
Young people have to deal with not only the reality of what is to be a diminishing future, but they also have to deal with the lives they are leading now. They are dealing with racism, just as I have. They are dealing with gender identity and their own sexuality. They have questions about how their inclusion in this place, and in all of Canada, can be valued.
I was only 16 years old when I went to work in the oil field in Alberta. Many of my Conservative colleagues often talk about how important it is that we support workers in the oil field. Not once have they come to talk to workers, such as me. I got laid off four times when I was 17. Not once. I did not even have a vote to protect myself. Even though I was paying taxes and I was paying this country's bills, I still could not have a say.
Many young people put their bodies on the line for this country, in many more ways than one, and we still do not give them respect. That reminds me of something I mentioned at the very beginning of this speech: we ignored indigenous peoples' rights to enfranchisement forever, until 1960. My mom did not have the right to vote. As indigenous people were excluded from this place and excluded from enfranchisement, it was a struggle. It still is a struggle today to ensure that they feel safe at the ballot box. Let us not repeat that.
Let us think about the leaders in our world who are young people, and who have made our world better. I think about Greta Thunberg, for example. She is a politically strong, bright young woman leading young people because they know this future is more theirs than ours.
I think of Autumn Peltier, a fellow indigenous youth, who is doing that work here in Canada. We turn our backs so quickly to those who lead our country.
We are seeing more and more young people take action. In light of this vacuum of power, they are taking action in their schools, in community centres and in our campaign offices. Every single one of us has had young people offer up their intelligence, their volunteerism, their spirit, their knowledge and their labour. The least we can do is protect them.
I want to highlight that this is not only a principally correct bill, but it is also one that has proved political merits, as seen in other nations that provide for 16- and 17-year-olds' enfranchisement. Many experts agree that this is a great idea to strengthen a democratic study and is something we have to talk about right now: freedom and democracy. Now is the time to truly put freedom and democracy in the hands of those who have the most to benefit from, but also the most to lose, in our country.
Many experts, such as Jan Eichhorn, an associate professor at the University of Edinburgh, say that this move will increase young people’s interest in politics as well as impact our society in a positive way. This is good news for Canada, should we have the courage to do what is right.
From Cuba to Brazil, Malta and Scotland, several countries around the world have already lowered the voting age and are seeing positive results. Canada must follow suit. For example, during the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014, 16-year-olds were allowed to participate. That is amazing. According to Democratic Audit UK, that not only allowed participation but it also increased non-partisanship. It increased civil debate and good discussion. That is what our country needs.
Flourishing democracies do not rely on exclusion. They rely on inclusion. That is why indigenous nations in this country have already taken a leadership role on this. Many indigenous organizations already allow our 16-year-old people to vote, because we know the importance of bringing them in. In fact, in Austria, studies have shown that 16- and 17-year-olds have reasonable political knowledge and are able to act with higher civic literacy than voters who are 18 or over. This is shocking. Many of our colleagues here have said the opposite. The level of political interest is not only determined by age: that is what I mean to say here. In no case should we believe that. Young people at home do not believe that. They are valuable. They belong in this country. This country is theirs and they deserve a say. The arguments for lowering the voting age have reasonable evidence.
New Democrats stand with young people in their call for enfranchisement. I personally know that in my constituency of Edmonton Griesbach, many young voters who worked on my campaign when they were just 16 or 17 would make fine voters. Campaign volunteers like Elyasu and Callum are the backbone of civic engagement at the end of the day. They are the ones participating the most. To conclude, the future of our country truly depends on young people. They have the passion.
Again, I want to thank my hon. colleagues for allowing me the opportunity to speak. I would also like to thank my hon. colleague in the New Democratic Party for taking a strong and principled role here and always.
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- May/4/22 11:00:22 p.m.
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Madam Chair, today I want to acknowledge all my colleagues. Each and every one of them here today is participating in what has been a very difficult conversation for indigenous people not just here, but across the country. I want them to do more than sympathize, but to honestly ask themselves what it would be like without their mothers, what would it be like without their sisters, or what would it be like without their grandmothers. Every indigenous family in this country knows that pain, but I do not want to talk about the pain.
We talked an awful lot today about the pain indigenous people have suffered, but I want to remind members that with this pain it was not the current government or any government in the country that kept us alive: it was indigenous women. Indigenous women kept our nations alive, and they still do today. That is precisely the reason the government, and every government in Canadian history, has persisted to ensure this problem is not addressed. By evidence of what has occurred thus far, is the fact that our indigenous women continue to go missing. How can we say to the contrary?
I want to talk about the remarkable women in my life who have made a contribution to my presence here today. They are really the only reason I am here. Indigenous women have fought for our nations. They fought for every single child, and one woman who comes to my mind in particular is my mother. Her name is Grace Desjarlais. She is the sister of a woman named Brenda, who was taken through the sixties scoop.
The sixties scoop, the residential schools system and every government policy to date has not consulted indigenous women; however, they expect their labour. When Brenda, my biological mother, was working as a sex worker after aging out of the terrible foster care system that this country still has, she fought. She had an option presented to her. She said she could have given up and gone down the road that so many of our sisters do, but she fought and she stayed alive. She was able to live to the age of 42: a feat that many indigenous women do not get the opportunity to do in this country.
She asked her sister, a woman she barely knew, to do something courageous. She asked her to take her son and to save him from a system that would kill him. That was me. Women came together from my community and said “no”. We took a challenge against the court, and I was one of the very few children not apprehended even though the first person I met in this world was a social worker and an RCMP officer. The people who would save me were indigenous women.
This is a holistic issue, my friends. When we support indigenous women, they will continue to save lives. They will save our nations. I know this because I have seen it. I am here because of it. There has been no government program, no government policy and no government that has done this work for us. When I see the work of the calls to action, the calls to justice, I see mothers, aunties and kokums who did everything they could to make sure that the government listens.
Today, I hope this debate goes much further than just words. To every government member here today, I want them to imagine what it would be like not to have mothers, grandmothers or sisters and then ask themselves whether it is worth waiting and whether the government has succeeded. That is the one thing I hope they take from this debate.
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- May/4/22 11:06:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for the question, and I understand it to be one of political importance, considering where we are today. However, I would ask the member how one would go about doing the work that he proposes with a process and a system that are so entrenched in a deeply colonial, deeply harmful and deeply problematic system.
What I mean to say is that this place, the building we are in right now and the governance system that we have are not conducive to the justice indigenous people deserve or need. There is no confidence and supply agreement that can fix this issue. What needs to be fixed is Canadians. Canadians need to understand that they are part of this problem and that we need a cultural shift. There is no confidence and supply agreement that can fix this issue. It requires that individuals and communities, including the member and his own family, understand their place in this country.
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- May/4/22 11:07:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, my hon. colleague from Winnipeg Centre is a champion, and I do not have to tell anyone in this House how important the work she does is.
I know many members who have aged out. What we mean by “aged out” is that our system here in Canada provides the kick-boot treatment to young indigenous children in particular. When they hit the age of 18, they get tossed out on the street, just like my mom. She fought, by herself, to get to where she was. However, many indigenous people, particularly indigenous children who age out of the system, need far more than that.
I have a biological sister, the oldest of my family, whom I have never met. The only phone call I ever got was the phone call to tell me she passed away. That is the level of support we have in this country for families. I was told that she died and had a funeral, and no one was there. Members can imagine how that makes me feel.
The supports that we have to date are zero. Anything beyond this is critical. I believe that supporting indigenous women, as I said in my statement, is the path, because they save communities, they save lives and they saved me.
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- May/4/22 11:09:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, accountability is a process of understanding the harm, the pain and the true impact of what has happened to indigenous people in this country. It means digging deep into one's own family history and understanding that not everyone in this House has good ancestors.
We all inherit something. My family inherited a significant amount of pain. Many other people, particularly the people who benefited most from this country, continue to benefit. They are some of the largest oligarch benefactors still today. We need justice. We need to tax them, and they need to pay their fair share.
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