44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2023 10:00AM
- May/2/23 10:07:13 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place today to raise the concerns of many Canadians and petitioners related to the pesticide glyphosate. This herbicide is commonly used in Canada under the trade name Roundup. The herbicide glyphosate has been judged by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, within the World Health Organization, as a probable human carcinogen.
The petitioners note that the increased use of glyphosate has been tracked along with the increased use of genetically modified plants to be so-called Roundup-ready. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to act on these facts and protect health.
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- May/2/23 3:59:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to say just a few words, not many. In case Canadians watching this do not know the quality and the integrity of the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills, I want to attest to it here in a non-partisan fashion. This is an exemplary member of Parliament. It is an outrage that any foreign government would target him and his family. I have had the honour of serving here for exactly 12 years today from when I was elected; since then, I have known no finer parliamentarian than the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills.
For any member to be treated in this way is offensive. Partisanship obviously happens here, but in a non-partisan way, I want to attest to the integrity, character and extraordinary ethical framework of that member and ask that his concerns be addressed with diligence.
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- May/2/23 4:25:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am so pleased that the member raised the issue of REITs, the real estate investment trusts, which allow corporations to intervene and turn homes into investment properties where the prices get spiked and taxpayers lose. I was pleased to hear her say that the Liberals were interested in looking at this. Motion No. 71, introduced by the Green member for Kitchener Centre, deals with it in detail, and I hope the member will support it.
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- May/2/23 9:24:48 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, at moments like this, when we hear the stories of the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre in this place, we realize how much we are of one mind. When I look at the report of the inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, I recognize there are things in there that we need to do, but we have not acted on those recommendations. However, this notion of a Red Dress Day is a way to be able to say that we are putting out an emergency and that we will protect the lives of our friends as forcefully as we can so that the carnage and the genocide stop.
I want to thank my friend from Elgin—Middlesex—London for being open-hearted and committed to the lives of women.
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- May/2/23 9:36:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, to my hon. friend from Fredericton, I know how closely she is engaged with the indigenous communities near where Fredericton sits on the land of the Wolastoq. I thank her for her speech in the language of that territory: Woliwon. I also recognize this opportunity that we have before us. As she said, this is a moment where there is synergy; things have changed, and we need to push forward to ensure that when an indigenous woman goes missing, action is taken immediately.
Does she agree with me that one of the cultural changes that must urgently take place is within the approaches taken by policing, whether the RCMP or city police forces?
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- May/2/23 9:47:16 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I have actually seen the video my hon. colleague from Sydney—Victoria talks about tonight. It is very deeply affecting and does follow the theme of red dresses.
It is critical something we are speaking about tonight translates into action, which is that every single time an indigenous woman or girl goes missing there are immediate steps and an immediate alert while there is time for them to be rescued and brought home safely.
I wanted to ask him if he had any thoughts on the power of the symbol of the red dress. Red dresses hanging on trees, red dresses seen in communities across Canada as a statement, is it powerful as a statement of solidarity or is it just performative? How does he feel about it?
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- May/2/23 10:08:39 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as we debate Red Dress Day today, there is a tremendous amount of support for meaningful action to save lives. However, I wonder if the member for Lakeland has reflected on the recommendations in the inquiry for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and two-spirit peoples. We have had those recommendations now for years, and they have not been implemented. I wonder if the member has any thoughts on which ones she believes would be the most meaningful as well as creating this new alert.
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- May/2/23 10:18:19 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to follow up on the question by my hon. colleague from Victoria. The notion of a red dress alert is critical. It will need funds. Can the minister give us a sense of how likely it is that this will be implemented with adequate resources and exactly when?
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- May/2/23 10:21:41 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is an honour to stand here on the lands of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. To them I say meegwetch.
I am moved to say the power of the red dress symbol has been overwhelming. One moment that indicates the power of the red dresses hanging empty of the women's bodies who should be living and walking with us was the RCMP's reaction to the Fairy Creek encampment of largely indigenous land protectors and forest defenders. In a certain part of the Fairy Creek protest area they had hung red dresses everywhere. The violence with which the RCMP made sure they tore down all the red dresses and threw them away was indicative of some of the larger problems I think we face in terms of the culture of violence and racism.
The report of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, two-spirit plus inquiry made it very clear that when they looked at the culture within law enforcement, it was largely defined by colonialism, racism, bias and discrimination. There are many important recommendations in the inquiry that we have had now for so many years, and so many recommendations have not been implemented. I think of the recommendation that if we want to stop a genocide of indigenous women and girls, we need a guaranteed livable income to ensure that no one lives in poverty.
It is pretty obvious that indigenous women and girls are going missing because the only way to get anywhere is to hitchhike. They are vulnerable and not safe as there is no public transport. What are they to do? The inquiry called for safe and reliable public transportation, particularly in our remote and rural areas. It also called for an end to man camps, the resource exploitation camps. Obviously, it is not universal and it is not all the men who work there, but many times there is a direct correlation between the man camps that build pipelines and dams and the exploitation and killing of women.
In the report after re-reading it in light of tonight's debate on Red Dress Day, we become very aware of a tone of voice, a framing, a verb tensing throughout the report, which is really about trying to find justice for the women who have disappeared, trying to solve the cases for the women who have been killed, to look at systemic changes throughout society. There are over 50 pages of calls for justice and very important recommendations, but the tone of voice and the tensing is around finding out what happened to women and girls who have been gone a long time. It does not speak to the urgency of how we stop this genocide.
The hon. member for Winnipeg Centre has said frequently in this place that she is at ground zero for the assault on women and girls, but we also know that sometimes indigenous women and girls are killed and we know who killed them. Chantel Moore was killed on June 4, 2020, by a member of the Edmundston police force. We know his name. We just do not know why he chose to kill Chantel Moore. We have a police culture problem. We have an urgent need to make sure the police, when an indigenous woman or girl goes missing, respond the same way they would as if it were their own sister, daughter, mother or wife who had gone missing.
That does mean that we change our verb tense. That means we stop looking back at things that have happened and find ways to try to make them right, that we provide the services for women who have been assaulted. Many recommendations in the report go to that, but nowhere in the inquiry for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls do we find anything as immediate and proactive and life-saving as saying we need a red dress alert. We need people's phones to go off. We need people to go out and look, just as we do on an Amber Alert for a missing child. We need to actually take the steps that are required for one of our dear, dear friends; mothers, daughters, aunties, sisters.
Every indigenous woman I know has lost someone close to her. It must stop.
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- May/2/23 10:28:17 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I could not agree more with my hon. colleague, but I will say this. I have met with the current Minister of Transport frequently on this, and I am aware, as I saw the letter, actually, that he sent a letter to every provincial minister of transport asking to meet to discuss how we can deliver exactly what the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley has set out and exactly what is in the inquiry. Not a single provincial minister answered the letter, so I think we have to start holding provincial governments to account for the needs we all have. Let us bring the level of transportation for passengers, particularly low-income and marginalized people, up to the standards of Mexico, shall we? That would be a big leap forward.
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- May/2/23 10:29:39 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the violence and hatred that are now being exhibited toward trans people well beyond Canada and within Canada should be alarming to every one of us. As a society, we were embracing and enjoying RuPaul's Drag Race. Drag shows are about talent, exuberance and pride in who we are without all the stigma of ignorant times.
Now we know that people who are trans are at risk increasingly. We need to stand up for trans women and their rights. We need to ensure that law enforcement understands this is not acceptable and, more than that, that society as a whole condemns it.
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- May/2/23 10:31:52 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am honoured to respond to the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre. I can add nothing to her words. I hope that I can be worthy of her thinking of me as a good ally, and I agree.
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- May/2/23 10:50:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank our esteemed colleague from Shefford for her passion and her commitment to taking action. I have a brief question for her.
As feminists here in Parliament, are we clear on the fact that we must immediately bring in a red dress alert, as we have been discussing this evening?
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