SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 303 - Apr/19/24

Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Apr/19/24 10:09:47 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do feel that the implementation of the calls to action certainly need oversight because the final report of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation came out in 2015, and the government has barely moved on it. I appreciated the member's comments, particularly about acknowledging history, because we are in a time when there is a rise of residential school denialism. In fact, the Conservative leader, the member for Carleton, on the day we were meeting with families searching the landfill, was doing fundraising with a group that puts out articles regularly citing residential school denialism, particularly with unmarked graves. I am wondering what my colleague thinks about a need to put in place legislation to deal with residential school denialism as a form of hate speech.

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Context: House Hansard - 303 - Apr/19/24

Ms. Leah Gazan

Apr/19/24 10:23:57 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is a just a friendly reminder not to refer to indigenous people as “our indigenous people”, because we are not pets.

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Context: House Hansard - 303 - Apr/19/24

Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Apr/19/24 10:28:38 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would have to disagree with my hon. colleague's bragging about everything the government did. The budget just came out. There is no mention of indigenous people, and the Liberals actually put more money into auto theft than they did into the MMIWG crisis. It sends a very clear message, as I pointed out to the minister, that Canada cares more about finding cars than it does about finding indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals. That does not look like reconciliation to me. I would also point out there are more kids in care now than at the height of residential schools, partly because of ongoing systemic racism, which has been reported. The government has been in power eight years since the truth and reconciliation report was released in 2015. It is just now putting in place an oversight body, after 10 years. Madam Speaker, give me a break. Is my colleague willing to be honest and admit that his government needs to do more if we are going to achieve reconciliation in this country?

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Context: House Hansard - 303 - Apr/19/24

Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Apr/19/24 10:50:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the empathy from my hon. colleague, but the Conservatives have quite a history. If we talk about their history with reconciliation, I will start with former prime minister Stephen Harper, who said that MMIWG was not on his “radar”. Tanya Kappo, an indigenous lawyer, wrote, “In a span of a week, the Conservative government confirmed their feelings of indifference, disregard and utter lack of respect for indigenous people.” If we fast-forward to today, the member for Carleton, the current leader of the Conservative Party, actively fraternizes with residential school denialists. In fact, there is an article entitled “Poilievre delivers speech to a group criticized for residential school 'denialism'”, to which the former national chief of the AFN Archibald said in a media statement, “I condemn any association with denialist views and the deep hurt they cause our survivors and their families”. He has had to apologize in the past for minimizing and denying the impacts of residential schools when he was a minister. The member wants to talk about nine years; I want to talk about before the last nine years. I am not saying the government is doing a good job, but it is pretty rich for the Conservatives, when their leader actively fraternizes with residential school denialists, to talk about how they care about indigenous people. Will my hon. colleague acknowledge the level of denialism that his party—

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Context: House Hansard - 303 - Apr/19/24

Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Apr/19/24 12:45:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if my hon. colleague was as shocked as I was by the comments of praise given to his own government by the member for Winnipeg North. I want to build on what the member was saying about how the word indigenous was not even mentioned once by the finance minister. The fact that the government gave more money to deal with auto theft in this budget than it did to finding murdered and missing indigenous women and girls is sending a very clear message to indigenous people that it values cars more than it values us. That is how crass the government has been. We know we are billions of dollars short to deal with the housing gap. We know there continues to be boil water advisories. However, I want to speak specifically about the north. We are in the middle of a climate emergency. The government is watching in real time resources not being able to get to communities, and it is a becoming a crisis, yet the government has failed to act. How concerned are communities in the north about the failure of governments to deal with this growing crisis?

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