Hon. Denise Batters: Honourable senators, we have all seen the horrific images broadcast from Ukraine, the record of a people under siege. Reports speak daily of thousands killed and thousands more wounded, the bombing of schools and of a children’s cancer hospital, apartments and other buildings obliterated while hundreds of Ukrainians are trapped in bunkers beneath and of unspeakable horrors on the streets of Bucha.

After seeing these images and after President Zelenskyy’s heartfelt address to our Parliament, it is impossible not to be moved. We all want to help, and we all feel helpless. In this kind of chaotic emergency, medical assistance is badly needed.

That is why a group of Canadian MPs and senators — including Senator Larry Campbell and I — have paired up with Health Partners International of Canada, or HPIC, a Canadian charity licensed by Health Canada that handles and distributes medical supplies into crisis zones like this one.

Supplied by major medical and pharmaceutical partners, HPIC is working in partnership with Canadian Medical Assistance Teams to deliver their Humanitarian Medical Kits into needed regions in and around Ukraine. For a sponsorship cost of $600, each medical kit contains about 600 treatments — a value of about $6,000 per box. The current medical kits to Ukraine contain supplies like antibiotics, antihypertensives, anti‑inflammatories, analgesics and products to treat dermal infections, asthma, heart conditions and first aid. HPIC has set a goal to mobilize 400 medical kits for Ukraine and refugee camps in neighbouring countries in the next few weeks with a donation target of $240,000.

Many of you have charities you support generously, but we ask you to consider this one. If many senators and MPs donated to this cause, we could make a huge impact.

Honourable senators, it is an extraordinary privilege for us to sit in this chamber of democracy. Recently, five Ukrainian members of parliament travelled here to Parliament to show Canada how critical it is that Ukraine receives more help. I was able to meet them. They were all moms who had to leave their kids behind in Ukraine to travel to Canada. One MP received an air raid siren notification on her cell phone during her Parliament Hill meetings, notifying her that her child would not be going to school that day but, instead, to a bomb shelter. It’s unimaginable.

Honourable senators, let us, as Canadian parliamentarians, join hands to help ease the pain of the Ukrainian people at this dire time when they need it the most. If you are able, please donate a medical kit at hpicanada.ca or by contacting Senator Campbell or me. It’s a great way to make a meaningful contribution to the people of Ukraine.

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, as Senator Plett mentioned, it is being reported today that members of the NDP were briefed earlier this week on measures that will be found in this afternoon’s federal budget. It has also reported that the NDP briefing came before members of the Liberal caucus received their briefing on the contents of this “NDP budget.”

Senator Gold, you are the Liberal government’s representative in the Senate, so could you tell us if you have received a budget briefing yet? If so, did it take place before or after the third place opposition party in the House of Commons received theirs?

Senator Batters: Senator Gold, you need to answer for us whether you have received a budget briefing, after all, you were sworn in as a Privy Council member and the NDP are not.

I noticed recently also that you’re no longer listed on the PMO website as a member of the Trudeau government’s Cabinet Committee on Operations. Is this actually true? If so, why? Did Jagmeet Singh take your spot? Why does this Trudeau government have more respect for the NDP, which holds only 25 seats in the House of Commons, than it does for its own government leader in the Senate and by extension the entire Senate?