44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 17, 2022 10:00AM
- Jun/17/22 2:07:27 p.m.
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The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands has five minutes for her right of reply.
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Madam Speaker, I want to start of course by acknowledging we are here on the territory of the Algonquin nation, and to it we say meegwetch.
I also want to acknowledge the hon. member for Red Deer—Mountain View had intended to speak to this bill. It is unfortunate that technical glitches interfered with that, and I am sure he was about to support it wholeheartedly. In any case, we do not get the benefit of his speech, and I regret that.
I want to thank some of the members who took part in this debate during the first hour and today during the second hour.
Many thanks to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to my colleague and friend, the member for Repentigny, to another very close friend, the member for Victoria, to my friend, the member for Lac-Saint-Louis, to the members for Dufferin—Caledon and York-Centre and, for today, my dear friend the member for Kitchener-Centre, who is also a member of the Green Party. I thank the Conservatives because they are the ones who gave him the opportunity to deliver a speech today. I also thank the members for Saint-Jean and Nunavut, the parliamentary secretary and member for Toronto—Danforth, and the member for Vancouver East.
These were rich speeches, and they gave us a lot.
I particularly want to thank my friend, the member of Parliament for Nunavut, for her reflections on the bravery of Inuit hunters who were forced, due to the lack of environmental rights, to go out and take their places in civil disobedience on a runway to blockade a mine site because their rights were being violated. We can hardly imagine what that was like in February in Nunavut. It was not warm.
With only five minutes, I certainly cannot get into the full details on that effort, but I stand in solidarity with my friend, the member of Parliament for Nunavut, and the communities that have succeeded in persuading the Nunavut Impact Review Board to say no to a doubling of the iron ore mine on Baffin Island. I hope the Minister of Northern Affairs will act as he should and accept that advice.
There is so much to say about the bill and why we are here and where we are.
The purpose of this bill is to prevent environmental racism, but it is also very important to point out that it will help advance environmental justice.
As a feminist commentating, I just went back to make sure I had that right in French. I had not realized before that “le racisme” is masculine but “la justice” is feminine.
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I should not digress from my digressions when I have a five-minute speech.
This is a critically important issue that we make progress—
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Madam Speaker, the importance of the bill and what I wanted to underscore is that it is operative.
Earlier today, of all coincidences, I was speaking at a conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the University of Ottawa law school with many brilliant people. I was not one of the brilliant people, but I was invited anyway. We were reflecting on 40 years of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what was missing: What do we need going forward? There were perspectives on the need for socio-economic rights, that we address the enormous income inequality that is growing in Canada and globally, that we address the needs that we express in terms of human rights, but also the rights that were missing from the charter. We spoke of the importance of addressing this gap through environmental rights.
I will note parenthetically that Bill C-226, while being complementary to this right that we should have but do not yet have, we will not have this right if Bill S-5 passes and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act amendments do not create environmental rights as they should, but perhaps we can fix that through amendments.
What are rights without tools to enforce them? The environmental justice program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has, since 1994, created tools that can be used by communities, indigenous communities, people of colour communities, Black communities and low-income communities, who have been historically, and are to this day, deprived of a healthy environment, because they do not have the clout of white, wealthy neighbours. The tools are to hire a toxicologist, to hire an epidemiologist, and are so abbreviated and so well known in the U.S., the EJ program of the U.S. EPA. Environmental justice: that is what we are here for.
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- Jun/17/22 2:13:08 p.m.
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I am going to stop the member for a moment. Apparently, there is no interpretation.
We will allow the member to continue.
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- Jun/17/22 2:13:49 p.m.
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The question is on the motion.
If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.
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- Jun/17/22 2:13:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would ask for a recorded division.
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Pursuant to an order made on Thursday, November 25, 2021, the division stands deferred until Wednesday, June 22, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.
It being 2:14 p.m., this House stands adjourned until Monday at 11 a.m., pursuant Standing Order 24(1).
(The House adjourned at 2:14 p.m.)
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