Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Dalphond, seconded by the Honourable Senator Bernard, for the third reading of Bill C-233, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Judges Act (violence against an intimate partner).

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Maxime Gagnon, Émilie Bouchard Labonté and Saoud Messaoudi. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Petitclerc.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your many questions.

This is an important issue, and it is one with which the government has been seized and has taken many steps to address.

With regard to your specific questions, the investigations that are and might be under way by the RCMP and others are matters upon which I cannot comment and which will bear fruit when those investigations are completed.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Mario Richard and André Clermont. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Boisvenu.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Honourable senators, it was an honour for me to invite Gemma Yates-Howorth to write the guide GO Confidently Into Hiring: A Guide for those with Disabilities for Hiring Careworkers.

In 2019, we passed the Accessible Canada Act, an act ensuring a barrier-free Canada. Bill C-22, the Canada disability benefit act, is currently before the Social Affairs Committee. Society must focus on the needs, rights and independence of people with disabilities and those who are deaf. Personal assistance for people with disabilities is a critical aspect of that challenge. May this guide be useful to those who hire and live with care workers.

I have seen Gemma’s diligence in hiring her caregivers over many years and how she assesses her needs and balances the interests and competencies of her staff. I have witnessed the warmth of her interactions with each of them. Quality of life, self-esteem and community engagement are integral to life’s positive experiences.

I asked Gemma to articulate not only the “hows” of her hiring principles and practices, but also to share what she could of her own personal story. She has done that. Gemma’s insights, personal and universal, are prescient. Her determination has enabled her many achievements despite living with cerebral palsy her entire life. After completing her high school diploma, she graduated with a degree from the University of Manitoba in Recreation Management and Community Development. She has volunteered at Winnipeg’s St.Amant centre, a home for people with high-needs disabilities, and has had various contracts with the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba.

Colleagues, life in a wheelchair is daunting, yet Gemma has explored and experienced parts of her city and its diversities few of us have. Her creativity and adeptness with technology are evident in all her work. Throughout, she always acknowledges with gratitude the assistance of her caregivers and the enrichment from their diverse backgrounds, professions and cultures.

I hope this guide, which is just back from translation and will be on my website soon — with its advice on defining one’s needs, the posting of the position, assessing applications, interviewing, hiring, training and dealing with inevitable issues — will enable others to expand their worlds of independence and discover new places and interests. As I said, now translated, it will soon be on my website and we will share it with organizations interested in posting it themselves. Gemma, I thank you and all those who work with you.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Gemma and Sarah Yates-Howorth. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Bovey.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Alanis Obomsawin, Suzanne Guèvremont and Charles Bender. They are the guests of the Honourable Senators Audette, Cardozo, Francis, Greenwood, Klyne and McPhedran.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Senator Gold: Unfortunately, I am not.

Honourable senators can be assured that the process is a serious and ongoing one. It is being treated with dispatch, and I look forward to the announcement at the time that it is made.

[Translation]

Senator Gold: I don’t have that information. I’ll try to find it and get back to you later with an answer. The Green family have been friends with the Trudeau family for a very long time, going back to the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau. I’ll look into it further with the government.

[English]

Senator Carignan: Leader, can you tell the Prime Minister that if he wants a vacation, he just has to call an election, and we’ll give him a vacation?

Did the Prime Minister have a view of the sea? How much did he pay for the rooms in the villas where his family stayed? Yes, we all have the right to take a vacation. As you can see from my tan, I took a vacation and I paid for it. Did the Prime Minister pay for his vacation and the villas in which he stayed with the Green family?

Senator Gold: Well, Jewish people have a tradition of answering a question with a question. You will properly consider this is out of order, but let me ask you a question. As a member of the Senate for 15 years and as a former Speaker, surely you are aware that the question at this stage of the process has to refer to amendments that were either accepted or rejected and not to the bill as a whole.

Senator Housakos: Government leader, you’re giving the impression to this chamber that there is somehow a tradition in this place at message point of legislation that we’re just a rubber stamp, and that’s not the case.

It’s in the Constitution that this chamber has a right and a responsibility at message stage to refuse a bill as well, which you did not highlight, and to send it back along with many other options that this chamber has. Yes, there has been a tradition to bow to the wishes of the elected chamber, but there is also something the forefathers had established when they created this chamber — that when a government does something so egregious that a large number of Canadians find it offensive, we have the right to exercise our constitutional authority. I just want to put that on the record as well, government leader.

Senator Pate: Yes.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Hon. Senators: Question.

An Hon. Senator: Good idea.

Senator Tannas: Your thoughts?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Are senators ready for the question?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: It is moved by the Honourable Senator Housakos, seconded by the Honourable Senator Martin, that further debate be adjourned until the next sitting of the Senate. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: We do not have consent, Senator Dupuis. I am sorry.