Senator Simons: Would the senator take another question?

Hon. Paula Simons: Would Senator Yussuff accept a question?

Senator Yussuff: Yes.

Hon. Paula Simons: Senator White, I was the senator who asked the minister the question about intimidation at the homes of health care workers. This is a concern that I share, but it was your argument today — and I believe the argument of other senators at committee — that we didn’t need much of this legislation because it was already encompassed in existing Criminal Code provisions.

Drawing on your own experience as a former police chief and police officer, do we actually need your amendment or are health care workers sufficiently protected under the Criminal Code as we have it now?

Senator Simons: This comes to the crux of how I’m going to vote on this amendment. I come from Alberta, where health workers have absolutely been intimidated in their homes, where they have received death threats, and where there have been disturbing and terrifying attacks, not just on health care workers but on our social fabric. At the same time, many of my legal and policing colleagues are telling me that we don’t need this change at all.

If it’s just a question of belts and braces, what is the impetus that we would need to vote for this amendment if you don’t think it is going to do anything?

Senator Simons: Like most Canadians, I was horrified by the sight of angry mobs of people intimidating hospital workers and patients outside of hospitals, screaming abuse at parents and children outside of vaccination clinics, but I also worry about unintended consequences. When I look at this bill, I am concerned about the prospect of a provincial government misusing this bill against strikers, especially health care workers, outside of a hospital during a strike where emotions are running high.

With your background in the labour movement, what assurances can you offer me and Canadians that there are going to be sufficient safeguards that this legislation is not misused to affect the right to strike and the right of strikers to protest outside of health facilities?

Senator Yussuff: Thank you for very kindly, senator, for your question.

As you know, when the Minister of Justice did come to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, this question was asked of him on the record. He stated very clearly that this is not the objective of the legislation and those fundamental rights are protected.

As a former leader of the Canadian Labour Congress and having spent a lot of time on picket lines and protests, I understand fundamentally what those rights are all about. I think there are safeguards, but of course we still have an independent judiciary in this country. Should any provincial jurisdiction overstep the limitations that are in this legislation, we have a course of action to restore those imbalances should they happen. But I am very conscious of this fact. That is why I asked the minister the question when he came before the Legal Committee.