44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 19, 2022 10:00AM
- May/19/22 3:13:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I know we are coming up to a break week, and I want to wish everyone well. I know there is still work to be done in our constituencies. It has been four weeks, and I am sure the work has piled up, so I wish everybody a great week, and a restful week as well, because we are heading into the final stretch before the summer break.
Could the government House leader advise the House of the business when we get back on May 30 and, of course, the business of the remainder of the week?
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- May/19/22 8:44:49 p.m.
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Madam Chair, our interpreters are truly the glue that holds together our bilingual Parliament, and I will be asking the minister questions concerning parliamentary interpretation.
Our bilingual Parliament is the product of a strong Conservative legacy. Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier made the use of both official languages an essential right in this Parliament when they negotiated Confederation; Richard Bennett established the translation bureau, which has ensured that unilingual parliamentarians have had access to the words of their colleagues; John Diefenbaker introduced the use of simultaneous interpretation into the proceedings of this House, permitting real-time comprehension for all MPs, and Brian Mulroney finally entrenched the right to parliamentary interpretation in the Official Languages Act.
Sadly, the Liberal government has neglected the interpretation services for this House, which have regrettably atrophied and been overwhelmed. We live in the consequences every day now, and it is just another chapter in the Liberals' democratic decline.
Does the minister agree with me that our interpreters are an absolutely essential feature of Parliament, and that we must do everything we can to support them?
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- May/19/22 8:46:02 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am glad to hear the minister's commitment, but her department's record speaks to the contrary. The minister was a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in 2018 when it reported to the House that the “Translation Bureau...is mandated by statute to be the exclusive provider of translation and interpretation services...to Parliament.”
Does she still stand by the view she helped write in the report?
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- May/19/22 8:46:53 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we have had committees tightly rationed with meeting time in the past few weeks, and we have seen many committee meetings, including very important meetings, cancelled because of a lack of interpretation services. Simply put, our committees cannot do the things they want, and they certainly cannot hold the government to account adequately.
If her translation bureau is supposed to be the exclusive provider of services, is she not concerned about the lack of resources she is making available to support the proceedings of this House and its committees, and what is the minister doing to actually make sure Parliament has the resources necessary to hold the government to account?
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- May/19/22 8:48:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, earlier I mentioned the great concerns the opposition parties are having in terms of our ability to hold the government to account, and it is at the mercy of the resources the government makes available for that purpose.
Has the government been gaming the system to ensure the resources are unavailable for the committees it does not like, such as the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency and its motion to order the production of documents on the Liberals' increasingly flimsy invocation of the Emergencies Act?
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- May/19/22 8:48:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, she may be disappointed, but those are the facts.
Does the minister agree her government's neglect is sabotaging the House's constitutional duty to hold the government to account?
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- May/19/22 8:49:17 p.m.
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Madam Chair, can the minister confirm that there has been a 25% decline in the number of staff interpreters employed by the translation bureau since 2019?
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- May/19/22 8:49:39 p.m.
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Madam Chair, she has not in the previous question, but can she confirm in this question that there has been nearly a 40% decline in the number of freelance interpreters retained by the bureau since 2019?
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- May/19/22 8:50:07 p.m.
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Madam Chair, they are not allegations; they are actual facts.
Does the minister acknowledge that hybrid Parliament has led to a ninefold increase in workplace injuries for our parliamentary interpreters?
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- May/19/22 8:50:38 p.m.
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Madam Chair, that was no answer.
Knowing the role hybrid Parliament has had in skyrocketing workplace injury reports among the ever-dwindling ranks of interpreters, which are, again, facts, has the minister informed the government House leader that the single biggest step we can take to avert this looming catastrophe would be the end of hybrid Parliament and the return to regular parliamentary business?
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