SoVote

Oct/4/22 6:40:45 p.m.
Watch

We only have about two minutes left for debate. I will go to the hon. member for Guelph to begin his comments.

22 words

Oct/4/22 6:40:57 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill S-227

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. members across the way and the whole House, which is honouring Anita Stewart and Food Day Canada through this motion that is in front of us. Again, I thank Senator Black for being the champion in the other place to bring it forward to us. To build on what the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills said, how does one become a food laureate at a university and how does one get the Order of Canada around food? She called herself a culinary activist. Anita had an energy about her that really brought people together, and then she talked about the food. I can remember that I was chairing the Institute for Canadian Citizenship in Guelph and we were looking for somebody who could help officiate. The judge who normally came from Kitchener was not available and, because she has the Order of Canada, Anita Stewart came and officiated the ceremony. She said to the newcomers coming to Canada, “I hope you brought your cookbooks because when you come to Canada we want to know what your food is and incorporate it into the food of the country.” Therefore, she looked at food as the great uniter and that has been mentioned also. I met with her son Jeff at the University of Guelph this past summer. He said that on that day when she had to prepare for the citizenship award she was up the night before, trying to think about what she was going to say and how she was going to bring enough gravitas to the ceremony but at the same time honour her life's work around food and bring that forward. Food Day Canada was started at the end of SARS to help restauranteurs who were suffering. Anita Stewart passed away in October during another pandemic, so there is something poetic that I would love to explore in the next seven minutes of my speech on why this is such an important event for Canada to celebrate every year.

343 words

All Topics

The Deputy Speaker

Oct/4/22 6:43:01 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill S-227

I thank the members for their interventions tonight. The time provided for the consideration of Private Members' Business has now expired. The order is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the Order Paper.

37 words

All Topics

The Deputy Speaker

Oct/4/22 6:43:30 p.m.
Watch

It being 6:43 p.m., pursuant to an order made earlier today, the House will now resume debate on the motion to concur in the third report of the Standing Committee on Health. The hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.

43 words

Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Oct/4/22 6:43:32 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today about a subject very close to my heart, which is the contribution that Taiwan could make to global discussions around health. The report we are debating and seeking to concur in reflects a motion proposed by my colleague from Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. I want to congratulate him for his excellent work on the health file and in supporting Taiwan's contributions when it comes to global health conversations. I know he is a strong advocate in the House and a great friend of Taiwan. I want to focus my comments today on two specific points. First, I want to speak to Taiwan's own success in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Canada and other countries could have benefited from engaging with and listening to Taiwan more. I recognize that our engagement with Taiwan, and pushing for its inclusion in these kinds of COVID discussions is, in part, out of a commitment to support Taiwan and its democracy. It is also in our own self-interest when we engage with and learn from Taiwan. If we hear its experiences and perspectives, we are better off. When we trade more with Taiwan, it helps to create jobs and opportunities here in Canada. There are various other examples. I am going to speak first to Taiwan's success with COVID-19 and how we could all benefit, but I want to spend some time as well addressing some of the current issue of escalating threats from the mainland government towards Taiwan. We can learn from our failure to deter the Russian invasion of Ukraine to talk about the steps we need to take now to respond to the threats that are being made toward Taiwan. Let me talk about Taiwan's success in response to COVID-19. Right when the COVID-19 pandemic started to be a major issue here in Canada, all of us as politicians were trying to grapple with what we should do about it. We were wondering what things we should have been proposing and what things we should be have been talking about. The discussion quickly shifted to support measures to support Canadians and businesses through those circumstances. Those were important conversations, but in a way, a prior conversation was about how we minimize the impact of the virus. How do we manage the public health side of it so that more people can continue to work, and be out and about if possible? My approach was to look around the world at the data from different countries on the impact of COVID-19 on those countries and to ask which countries are doing the best in the world when it comes to responding to the pandemic, then bringing those insights to the House and saying to the government that we are able to observe that infection rates and death rates are lower in certain places than others and asking if we could we try to emulate the approach being taken by countries which have been more successful at responding to this pandemic. Looking at the numbers at the time and since, it was very clear that, in particular, it was some of those East Asian democracies, particularly Taiwan and South Korea, that had been extremely successful in their response to COVID-19, both in the early days and since. Notably, these East Asian democracies are much more densely populated than Canada, and they are much closer to the epicentre of the outbreak of the pandemic. Just considering those factors, one might assume that they would be more vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. However, these places had very effective strategies in their responses. At the time, I asked the then health minister, and I think members of my side have repeated it, recognizing how successful these East Asian democracies had been in responding to the pandemic, if we could learn from their experience. Of course, they were learning from past experience. These countries had dealt with, to a much great extent than we did, previous SARS outbreaks. It was clear from the data that Taiwan was succeeding. The government of Taiwan was pushing the message internationally that Taiwan could help if we were to recognize Taiwan's participation in international conversations around health. It was about including Taiwan and giving it the opportunity to participate on an equal basis, as it should. It was also about recognizing that Taiwan had been so successful in its response to COVID that it could contribute and share its insights. If we had been more prepared to push for the inclusion of Taiwan, and if the global community had included Taiwan in more of these conversations and listened to them, many people would be alive today who are tragically not. The concrete benefits of Taiwanese inclusion, I think, were very clear. What were the strategies that Taiwan deployed? Right from the beginning, the Government of Taiwan was encouraging masking as a tool for responding to the pandemic. Right from the beginning, Taiwan had in place strong border measures. There were mandatory quarantines for those who were coming from elsewhere. Taiwan did not take the information that was coming from the Government of China at face value. Taiwan had enough experience to realize that there was a high risk of misinformation from a Communist government. That should not be a particularly novel insight. It should be fairly obvious that authoritarian Communist regimes pushing misinformation and disinformation is part of what they do, but I think when it came to issues of health, we were a bit too naive on that. Taiwan had strong masking and strong border measures. Also, for our East Asian democratic partners, moving quickly on putting in place testing protocols and tracing were parts of a successful toolkit, which included being critical of information that was coming out of the mainland, masking, border measures, and testing and tracing. It is easy to forget perhaps, but right at the beginning those insights were very different from what was being pushed by members of the government. A representative of the government, the chief public health officer, had implied at committee that it would be bigoted to impose border restrictions in response to the pandemic. That led to a slowed-down response. Of course, the irony with the government is that it put in place the wrong measures at the wrong time. We should have had strong border measures at the beginning. We did not have those strong border measures, and then the government persisted in having ineffective border restrictions much later, even after the point when the virus was already in different parts of the world and most Canadians were vaccinated. The border measures were particularly important at the beginning to try to keep the virus from getting here, to try to delay its arrival on our shores, but once the virus was actively very present in all countries, border measures obviously had less utility. If we had listened to Taiwan, and if we had learned from Taiwan's insights, we would have been able to respond earlier and respond faster. It is also easy to forget that public health authorities in Canada and the United States were discouraging mask use at the beginning of this pandemic at a time when, of course, the science was there about the value of masks at that time because, again, Taiwan and other East Asian democracies were using masks and supporting the use of masks. It was perplexing to a lot of people when we were told by the government to trust what public health authorities were saying, yet public health authorities of similar stature in other countries were saying different things. The science on the pandemic should not have been different from country to country. What I and other members of our caucus suggested at the time was to look at what the public health authorities are saying in those countries that had been the most successful and effective in their response to the pandemic. We should have been listening to Taiwan. We should have been moving quickly to have those testing and tracing border measures in place early. Had we done that, I think we would have been able to avoid devastating lockdowns that significantly exacerbated mental health challenges for many Canadians and caused many businesses to go under. If we had taken that strategic approach, learning from Taiwan, South Korea and other partners in East Asia, we could have done so much better, which speaks to the value of including Taiwan and the benefits to Canada for including its perspective on public health. Let us recognize that Taiwan donated a significant number of masks to Canada and other countries in that early phase, but I think, unfortunately, some of the initial incorrect information alleging the masks did not work from the government may have reflected the fact that it did not have enough masks available for those who needed them. At the time, when there was a shortage of masks, Taiwan really stepped up to try to support other countries around the world. As well, broadening the conversation a bit, there are so many benefits for Canada associated with the inclusion of Taiwan and more international organizations and active engagement with Taiwan on the trade front. I am proud to represent an energy-producing riding in western Canada. Many of our partners in East Asia, and Japan is another example, do not have the same steady, certain access to energy from like-minded countries that we take for granted here in Canada. We should be working to export more of our energy resources and build partnerships where we can sell our natural resources to Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and other East Asian democratic partners. I think there is an immense opportunity to expand our trading relationship with Taiwan. Energy is one example, but I think there are many other examples as well. Of course, we could talk about the positives, about how Taiwan can help with the global response to future pandemics and other health conversations that may come up about how increasing trade between Taiwan and Canada would be very beneficial for our economy. We need to recognize, alongside those positive opportunities, the storm clouds that are on the horizon as well. We have seen escalating threats and very menacing behaviour from the Government of China toward Taiwan, and this comes in the wake of the illegal genocidal invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's regime. I very much think that the Government of China has been watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine and contemplating its own actions with respect to Taiwan, and we can see the close partnership between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin as well as how some of the same kinds of rhetoric are being used toward Taiwan that was and continues to be used toward Ukraine. If Xi Jinping is observing and learning, we should also note what has happened with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and do all we can to prevent a repeat situation, where authoritarian power invades a neighbouring democracy and denies it its right to exist and the right of its people to self-determination. What are the lessons we can learn? One is that we need to be clearer and firmer upfront in trying to deter that invasion. I think a big part of why Putin chose the path he did was because we were not effective enough at deterring that invasion. Signals were sent from certain western powers that suggested to Putin that Ukraine would be on its own if it was invaded. Many countries have stepped up to supply weapons and apply debilitating sanctions and the Ukrainian army has been very successful thus far, so the war did not go the way Putin expected it to go, fortunately. However, if we had been able to send stronger signals earlier about the supports that would be there, then we might have been able to deter this aggression in the first place. We need to be willing to pursue peace through strength. That is, in the case of a prospective invasion of Taiwan by China, we need to send clear meaningful signals about what we would do to support Taiwan. The goal of sending those signals is, of course, to prevent the invasion in the first place. If we want peace, we have to be strong and firm in deterring aggression. The risk is that Putin's invasion of Ukraine kind of sets a precedent. It changes norms in the world, such that other countries start to think they can get away with using force to take territory within what they consider their historical sphere of influence. Therefore, defeating Putin in Ukraine is important for Ukraine's sake and for Russia's sake, as we hope for a free and democratic Russia to replace the Putin regime, but it is also important in terms of the precedent it sets for the world. I hope that, in the context of the bellicose rhetoric toward Taiwan that we have seen, we would be clear and firm in standing with Taiwan in terms of our preparation for the possibility of aggression, but also be clear in standing with Taiwan in terms of the everyday opportunities to include Taiwan in international conversations, in the World Health Assembly, in ICAO and in international conversations around a broad range of issues, and by recognizing the contributions Taiwan can make in terms of trade with Canada. There are many different ways we can collaborate with Taiwan, and we should pursue that collaboration to a much greater extent. The Canadian government needs to step up more and do more to support our friends and allies in Taiwan. If I can make a couple more points going back on the issue of Taiwan's COVID response, some of the commentary coming out of COVID recognized a bit of a scattered response in certain western countries, and certainly in Canada, and the lack of preparedness from the government for this crisis. Some people said maybe China handled this better than democratic countries and asked if this was another case where supposedly the authoritarian model was more effective. Then, we look at the success of Taiwan, South Korea and other East Asian democracies, and it becomes very clear that democracies actually handled the pandemic better. If we look at comparable areas, in terms of experience with pandemics, geography and other factors, it was democratic countries that were more effective in their response. We continue to see that today, where Taiwan, and I think this is characteristic of democracies, is adapting its approach. It has moved away from a COVID-zero approach and now it is adapting to more of a “living with the virus” type of approach. It has been appropriately able to respond to the virus and also adapt in response to new information, whereas the Government of China has been really calcified in its response, and we are seeing a very brutal application of a COVID-zero policy on the mainland. I think it is an important point to reflect on how Taiwan's adaptability and success really outshines the response on the mainland and it outshines many other countries. This underlines the importance of engagement with Taiwan, of strong relations, of learning from Taiwan and also of supporting fellow democracies by building partnerships with Taiwan and with other democracies all over the world.

2595 words

All Topics

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Oct/4/22 7:03:40 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, what I find interesting is how much the member and the Conservative Party advocate for following the lead of Taiwan. When it comes to the pandemic, this government, from the very beginning, has been following the advice of experts and health professionals here in Canada. There has been very much a made-in-Canada approach to dealing with the pandemic. The Conservatives were out encouraging the convoy in different ways. They were opposing mandates when we still had provincial mandates in place. They have been all over the map on the issue. Why do the Conservatives have more confidence and faith in Taiwan and its policies in dealing with the pandemic than they do in Health Canada and the health experts and science we have here in Canada? Why is there so much confidence over there and not in the people of Canada?

145 words

All Topics

Mr. Garnett Genuis

Oct/4/22 7:04:47 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, a member of the government wants to know why I have more confidence in the response of Taiwan's public health authorities than in his government's response. Very simply, it is because Taiwan had fewer deaths per capita and had fewer cases per capita. Why would I take a parochial approach to this and say that my country's way is right when the data shows that Taiwan's approach clearly worked better at saving lives and minimizing cases? The made-by and made-in-this-government approach was not as effective as the Taiwanese approach when it came to saving lives. The member alluded, in his comment, to the convoy and to the fact that many Canadians were deeply hurt by some of the arbitrary restrictions that were put in place. They were deeply affected by the lockdowns and other policies that the government put in place, which had other devastating implications. Again, many of these things were avoided by our East Asian democratic partners, who saw the value of border measures, testing and tracing and recognized the value of masking earlier. We should have learned from their experience.

193 words

All Topics

Mr. Jean-Denis Garon (Mirabel, BQ)

Oct/4/22 7:06:16 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, my colleague's answer shows us just how important it is to speak about the experiences of different public health authorities so we can improve our response to the pandemic. That is why it is important for Taiwan to be a member of the WHO. At present, China is exploiting public health risks for political gain. It is using public health risks for political gain. I am wondering what my colleague thinks of these politicians, political parties and governments that exploit public health and the misery of people for political gain.

93 words

All Topics

Mr. Garnett Genuis

Oct/4/22 7:07:00 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. The Chinese government focuses more on its political interests than on the lives of its own citizens and those of other countries. It is now obvious that this government is committing genocide against a minority group and that it has no respect for human rights. We must be clear and realistic. We must try to work more with the other democratic countries such as Taiwan.

73 words

All Topics

Mr. Robert Kitchen (Souris—Moose Mountain, CPC)

Oct/4/22 7:07:54 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for how clearly he indicated all the great steps that Taiwan took when the pandemic happened and the tremendous steps they took from a scientific point of view. They had scientists. They stepped up in many avenues, protecting the public with restrictions on coming in and out of Taiwan, and did things we did not do in this country. We have had the opportunity to learn from them, and learn not only from the scientific knowledge they brought to us, but from the steps they took in helping assist this country. For example, as my colleague mentioned, there was the donation of millions of dollars of equipment, whether it was the masks or gowns they sent to Canada to help us during our time of crisis while we were trying to get caught up on things. It is interesting. I know the issue here is these great scientists in Taiwan, but having scientists get together and talk to each other is how we learn. Having Taiwanese scientists and medical practitioners at the WHO and the WHA to provide their expertise means we can learn from their expertise and continue to do that. I am interested to hear from my colleague, in particular on what the Liberal government has done on issues dealing with Iran and the steps taken. It is saying that it is going to do things, yet it is not doing anything. I am wondering if the member might comment on that.

259 words

All Topics

Mr. Garnett Genuis

Oct/4/22 7:09:21 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for what is clearly a passion for our relationship with Taiwan. Just to pick up on the last point he made, I think we see something like a global competition emerging between democratic countries with a belief in pluralism and inclusion and, on the other hand, those with a rigid authoritarianism. Of course, there are different kinds of regimes in Russia, Iran and China, but there is the common belief, in a way, that centralized control instead of individual freedom is the best way to govern a society. As we recognize that competition, we need to work to deepen partnerships and collaboration in research, trade and all kinds of other areas with other like-minded democracies. We should not fail to co-operate with a democratic partner to supposedly appease an authoritarian country. That would be nonsensical and would mean missing an opportunity to work with a country like Taiwan, which can be and is a true friend to Canada. It is a friendship that is rooted in shared values, not just in a narrow, short-term identification of interest but in deeply shared democratic values. We should grab those opportunities to collaborate while being clear-eyed and realistic about the emerging authoritarianism and the threat it presents to our democratic values.

219 words

All Topics

Mr. Luc Desilets (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, BQ)

Oct/4/22 7:11:09 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I think the Chair is in exceptionally good spirits tonight and I think that is wonderful. I would like to begin by saying that my colleague is an extraordinary orator. I will give him that. That is wonderful. I am happy to see how seriously he defends the sovereignty of Taiwan against Chinese rule. I like that, and I think that we are all in agreement tonight. My question is the following. On the day Quebec gains independence, will my colleague fight just as hard to bring us into the World Health Organization?

95 words

All Topics

Mr. Garnett Genuis

Oct/4/22 7:11:47 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I am all for the right of peoples to decide for themselves about their future. I think that Quebeckers had the opportunity to make a choice and they chose to stay in Canada. In my opinion, it was a good choice.

43 words

All Topics

Mrs. Rechie Valdez (Mississauga—Streetsville, Lib.)

Oct/4/22 7:12:18 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Whitby. I am pleased to speak today on the health portfolio's critical work with the World Health Organization and other international organizations. The importance of international collaboration and co-operation has never been more clear. No single country, including Canada, is able to solve complex health challenges alone. As we know all too well, COVID-19 and other viruses and health issues do not respect borders. That is why the health portfolio engages, co-operates and collaborates with international and global partners. This happens multilaterally through the World Health Organization, the G7, the G20 and other organizations. We also engage directly with our international partners to strengthen our domestic response. As a founding member, Canada is a strong supporter of the WHO and engages with the organization to advance domestic and international health priorities, share health expertise and protect the health of Canadians and people around the world. This includes contributing support and expertise to health emergency response efforts, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, developing a vaccine for Ebola, championing polio eradication and advancing global health security. Canada also collaborates with WHO on issues important to Canadians, such as climate change and environmental health, healthy aging, mental health and non-communicable diseases. Canada is strongly committed to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. WHO is an important partner in advancing these objectives, including equity-based approaches to health systems, strengthening primary health care and closing gaps in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Canada is a strong champion of gender equality and equity issues, and we bring this leadership to our engagement with the WHO. Canada values the WHO's leadership and coordination role in the COVID-19 response. The WHO has an important role in overseeing the international health regulations, driving global research efforts towards new vaccines and treatments, addressing shortages of critical medical supplies and personal protective equipment, helping global vaccination efforts and supporting vulnerable countries in their preparedness and response efforts. We recognize the opportunity to learn from the COVID-19 experience and strengthen the WHO and global pandemic prevention preparedness and response efforts. That is why we supported the decision to develop a new instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response at the special session of the WHO's World Health Assembly last December. Canada will work to ensure that this new instrument enhances international co-operation so we are all better prepared should there be another pandemic, while protecting Canadian interests. We also strongly believe we need to improve the tools and mechanisms that we already have, including the international health regulations. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that member state expectations for the WHO outweigh its resources and capacities. There are important global discussions taking place right now on improving WHO sustainable financing and governance. Canada is engaging with other member states to address these issues and will continue to actively advocate for oversight of the organization and implementation of key findings and recommendations from the global COVID-19 reviews. WHO also has an important role in crises, including the armed conflict in Ukraine, which has significantly disrupted health services and is having a disproportionate impact on women and children. Canada is contributing to the WHO's overall health response in Ukraine, which is focused on saving lives and ensuring access to basic health services for those affected by the armed conflict. Canada has allocated more than $7.5 million to the WHO to improve essential health services in Ukraine, including emergency care for injured patients and continued COVID-19 care. These were important topics at the 75th World Health Assembly that took place this past May. Canada has a strong presence at the assembly to advance the priorities we share with the WHO and other partners. This includes strengthening the WHO through enhanced leadership and governance, mobilization of global action to better prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies, and accelerating progress on health equity and the determinants of health. I want to reiterate that Canada believes the world needs a strong WHO, and that a strong WHO should reflect a global health community where everyone is included and can participate. There are many actors contributing to better public health outcomes around the world, including Taiwan. They have been a good bilateral partner to Canada on health, which we saw when they donated personal protective equipment to us early in the pandemic. We continue to support Taiwan's full participation in organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, where it is a full member. We also support its meaningful participation in international fora where there is a practical imperative and where Taiwan's absence would be detrimental to global interests. Accordingly, and consistent with Canada's long-standing One China policy, we support Taiwan's inclusion as an observer in the World Health Assembly. The Minister of Health called for Taiwan's meaningful participation in the assembly during his plenary statement this year. Canada also continues to work closely with its G7 partners on both the pandemic and other priority health issues. Canada has participated in numerous G7 health ministers' meetings, where it has underlined the need for collaboration to end the acute phase of this pandemic. G7 deputy health ministers are meeting in a week in Berlin, where they will discuss critical issues such as ending the COVID-19 pandemic and implementing lessons learned, tackling the connection of climate change and health, and combatting antimicrobial resistance. Engaging through the G20 has also been important for global co-operation on the pandemic. Under Indonesia's presidency, G20 health ministers met this past June and will meet again at the end of October. Canada looks forward to working with its G20 partners to help build resilience for the global health system, including sustainable financing, harmonizing global health protocol standards, and expanding global manufacturing and knowledge hubs for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Health ministers also met with G20 finance ministers this past June, with a second meeting planned for November, to address the critical funding gap for global pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The health portfolio is working closely with G7 and G20 partners, as well as with international bodies and organizations, including the WHO, to address important global health challenges including and beyond COVID-19, such as antimicrobial resistance, climate change and mental health. The threat of antimicrobial resistance has the potential to be the next global health crisis, as our antimicrobial medications, especially antibiotics, become less effective due to pathogens developing the ability to resist these drugs. This is increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. A truly global challenge, this is an issue on which Canada needs to collaborate closely with its international partners and international organizations, including the WHO. The impact of climate change on health has become a global health priority. It is important that the connection between health and the environment remain at the centre of international discussions and actions to address climate change. At the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Canada supported the commitments for building and developing climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable health systems, which was recognized by the WHO. This is a transformational time for global mental health. The pandemic has had a tremendous impact on mental health and well-being, underscoring both the gaps and opportunities in our mental health systems. We need to translate this momentum into action and work together with the WHO and our international partners to ensure that we achieve the goals and targets we have set, with the vision of creating a world in which mental health is valued, promoted and protected, and mental illness is prevented and cared for equitably and respectfully. Canada has helped foster strong international relationships and the resilient global community needed to successfully face the challenges of COVID-19, to build back better as we emerge from the pandemic, and to continue to make progress on other important health issues that know no borders. Moving forward, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that the WHO is an effective, efficient, relevant, transparent, accountable and well-governed institution whose actions and recommendations are guided by member states and by the best available science and evidence. The world needs a strong, transparent and inclusive WHO. Canada stands ready to work with others to make this a reality.

1421 words

All Topics

Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Oct/4/22 7:22:12 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, in her speech, the member focused in particular on the need to improve governance at the World Health Organization. I agree that there is a desperate need to improve aspects of the WHO's governance and behaviour. One of the most scandalizing things for many people who have followed these issues in the last few years was this massive sexual abuse scandal in Congo. Many women were coming forward who faced sexual abuse during the Ebola crisis, and it was at the hands of WHO employees. There has been a lack of effective response. Canada needs to do more to respond to that. We also saw the way that the World Health Organization was not willing to engage with Taiwan, and some of the comments that were made dismissing Taiwan's distinctiveness in any way. Would the member agree with me that these were significant scandals, that the WHO has a lot of work to do and that her government needs to do more to be willing to hold international organizations like the World Health Organization accountable?

179 words

All Topics

Mrs. Rechie Valdez

Oct/4/22 7:23:28 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, Canada is a strong supporter of the WHO and engages with organizations to advance domestic and international priorities. By collaborating with the WHO we can address issues like the ones he mentioned that are important to Canadians. We will continue to work with the WHO to promote gender equality and will address the equity issues that exist today.

63 words

All Topics

Mr. Luc Desilets (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, BQ)

Oct/4/22 7:23:56 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I am personally very happy that the Liberal Party is very much in favour of Taiwan joining the WHO. I am pleasantly surprised, but I also remain cautious about the Liberal government's position, because, in other areas, it has been so fearful of offending the Chinese because of its attitude towards Taiwan. The government therefore has been reluctant to act and has not behaved as we would have liked. What are my colleague's thoughts on that? On this matter relating to the WHO, why should we be so quick to accept this position?

97 words

All Topics

Mrs. Rechie Valdez

Oct/4/22 7:24:54 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the main purpose and reason for standing up with this speech was to say that Taiwan has remarkable experience in the field of health care as well as preventing the spread of various contagious diseases. We are going to continue to work with our colleagues in Taiwan and with the WHO, and we are going to take what we have learned from the COVID-19 virus and emerge from that point to ensure we are able to address all these issues going forward and prevent disease from spreading going forward.

92 words

All Topics

Mr. Irek Kusmierczyk (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Lib.)

Oct/4/22 7:25:42 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague has done an admirable job of outlining and explaining the importance of multilateral forums and institutions in dealing with global health threats. Is there anything about Canada's leadership on these forums that really stands out to my hon. colleague as she has looked at Canada's role for example in co-operating with Taiwan and Canada's role on the WHO itself?

68 words

All Topics

Mrs. Rechie Valdez

Oct/4/22 7:26:08 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we will continue to support Taiwan's participation in the global health network to enable Taiwan to contribute even more in the postpandemic era. Taiwan is a widely acclaimed leader in health and development, and it has a lot to offer the WHO and the world.

51 words

All Topics

SoVote

House Hansard - 107