- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Peterborough—Kawartha
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $106,196.43
- Government Page
- May/2/23 9:26:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, my hon. colleague is an outstanding chair on the status of women committee. She unites all party lines on the issues that we face, one of which is this issue that she spoke to tonight. She has such a wealth of experience. She has worked and has her own personal experience. She is compassionate with what she brings to the table here in Parliament.
What would she love to see happen that we can do together? What are some things? She knows so much about so many things. She has had so much work experience here of working across party lines. What would she love to see? What is her pie in the sky?
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- May/2/23 8:47:49 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is a great question.
We had the opportunity, through the status of women committee when we were recently doing a tour studying human trafficking, to go to Sault Ste. Marie, and we visited a centre that oversaw indigenous care. It was an incredible facility, and speaking exactly to what my colleague was just asking about, it has increased indigenous children in care, which was up an extreme amount. However, with the money that was being spent, there was no housing. So, the member is extremely on point in terms of having access to the tools that are needed, housing and supportive housing.
One of the things we do not talk enough about in this House of Commons is that housing is fine, but when we are dealing with people who have never been given the tools or knowledge, especially young children who have never been loved in the way they were supposed to be loved by no fault of their own, the parents' own, they need supports, they need connections and they need a lot of wraparound support. I definitely think we need to be focusing on that.
To tie back to what I said earlier, we need to listen to the people who are dealing with these children on what their needs are so that we can make sure that we are giving them the right resources that they need.
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- May/2/23 8:45:24 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, one of the things that I think is really critical in this discussion is giving back the power that was taken away. When we look at victims, the biggest thing is that power is taken away.
We were actually studying Bill C-35 in committee, which is is on child care, and we just wrapped it up today. My colleague for Winnipeg Centre put forward an amendment looking at free, prior and informed consent and giving indigenous peoples the choice to choose what is best for their children, and I could not agree more.
I think that is what we need to do as leaders in Parliament: give back power and autonomy to the indigenous communities. They know what to do. They do not need the government to tell them what to do or how to do it. They know exactly what their people need, and they should be in charge of deciding what is best for their people.
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- May/2/23 8:43:58 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is a really great question and it is clearly a very important role when we look at truth and reconciliation, but also giving back autonomy. There is a great saying, and it would be great if it was implemented: Nothing about us without us. Friendship centres are imperative. A lot of the indigenous people I know were taken from their homes, their culture and their roots. It is a journey to get back to who they were and what they were. I find extreme value in the friendship centres.
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- May/2/23 8:42:18 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the member across the way is a wonderful colleague to work with and teaches me lots. I enjoy working with her. We definitely see things differently when it comes to universal basic income. I know that is a big passion of hers.
There is something that would be amazing, and I believe her colleague touched on it when he talked about healing circles. We recently had a witness in the status of women committee on human trafficking. She was brought here as a Hungarian immigrant and she was trafficked. She spoke about solutions they have to help women get back into real life and the supports they need. It is not just giving them housing or money without supports, but giving them the tools to relearn things that were taken from them.
There is some value and we can learn from that model. I think there are workable models. My colleague and I could find common ground on this in terms of how we support and help give back autonomy to the life that has been taken from so many of these women who have been victims of violence.
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- May/2/23 8:37:50 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, here we are, two years later, and tomorrow still has not come.
This is an issue that hits home in my community. I have talked about this in the past, but it certainly warrants repeating. Cileana Taylor was 22 years old when she was assaulted in September 2020. Her brain injury left her in a coma for five months. She died in February 2021. The man who assaulted Cileana was not charged with murder and he is currently walking free on the street.
What happened to Cileana and what continues to happen in this country to indigenous women is an injustice. It is shameful and it rests solely on the backs of the inaction of this Prime Minister and the Liberal government's failed catch-and-release bail system. Indigenous women's and girls' lives matter. Cileana's life matters. The calls for justice are not photo ops and they are not optional. They are necessary to create the substantial and systemic change necessary to end the ongoing violence.
There is something we can do today. It is a simple, actionable item. We have an Amber Alert and it helps find children quickly by leveraging technology. A red dress alert can do the same. It is a simple, actionable item that every single member in this House can get behind. While we wait for these actionable items to be put into place, why not try something tangible that we can put in place today? A red dress alert would stop indigenous women from being murdered and going missing. It seems pretty simple.
Enough is enough. We need action. I stand in solidarity with all the members in this House tonight to say that a red dress alert is something we can get behind. We need to stop indigenous women from going missing and being murdered.
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- May/2/23 8:31:09 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, as always, it is an honour and a privilege to rise on behalf of my community of Peterborough—Kawartha as their voice in the House of Commons.
This evening we are participating in a take-note debate on Red Dress Day. For those tuning in at home who may not know what a take-note debate is, it is type of debate that allows members of Parliament to debate a matter of public policy without any decisions being made. It does sound a little frustrating, but it is also very important to highlight key things that are happening in this House and things that need to be done.
Red Dress Day, also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, is observed on May 5. The day honours and brings awareness to the thousands of indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people who have been subject to disproportionate violence in Canada.
Red Dress Day was inspired by Métis artist Jaime Black's “REDress Project” installation, in which she hung empty red dresses to represent the missing and murdered women. Red dresses have become symbolic of the crisis as a result of her installation.
The stats on our current state of affairs on this issue speak for themselves. The 2019 general social survey, or GSS, on victimization, along with Statistics Canada data indicated that indigenous women were more likely to experience intimate partner violence than non-indigenous women. During a study on sex trafficking of indigenous peoples, experts said 52% of human trafficking victims are indigenous, 52%. The average age of exploitation of an indigenous girl was 12 years old.
Although the indigenous population up to the age of 14 makes up 7.7%, almost 8%, of all Canadian children, they represent 52% of the children in care. Studies have highlighted that having been a child in the welfare system was the most common denominator among women and girls who entered prostitution.
In December, I stood in this House during a take-note debate on the serial killer in Winnipeg and the failure of the Liberal government to protect vulnerable indigenous women and girls despite having the tools to protect them. What are these tools I speak of? They are the 231 calls to action outlined in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report which was released in 2019. These 231 calls are specific to help stop the murder of indigenous women.
Here we are four months later with very little change. Former Commissioner Robinson said it best about the Liberals last April in an interview for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network:
They must do more than show you the budgets that they’ve spent and the line items attached. They must be prepared to show you how it has affected people’s lives. You must learn to understand and they must demonstrate how their actions, decisions, have informed and enhanced the lives of people.
We have learned success cannot be measured strictly by government dollars spent or programs created. Meaningful reconciliation involves more than just photo ops and take-note debates with no decisions. It requires partnership and collaboration with indigenous communities across Canada.
Recently I had the opportunity to tour the new state-of-the-art facility across the river in Gatineau at the Native Women's Association of Canada. This pin is actually from there. It is a beautiful pin. Anybody watching should take the time to visit this unbelievable building, this social enterprise. This Friday, on Red Dress Day, May 5, they are going to be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. People will not be disappointed by the incredible knowledge that is in that building. It is also visually incredible and has the rich history. It is definitely worth the time. It is just over the river in Gatineau.
In June 2022, the Native Women's Association of Canada released their annual scorecard on Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women action plan. This is an annual report outlining the federal government's progress on implementing the commitments made in the plan. I would like to quote a few of their findings in the report:
It becomes clear, when assessing the government’s National Action Plan goals and the actions deemed necessary to achieve them, that little headway has been made over the past 12 months toward ending the violence. Few of the promised actions have been completed, some have seen a little progress, but far too many remain untouched. This lack of urgency is especially concerning given the fact that the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry are legal imperatives dictated to end a genocide. For that reason, this report grades the government’s performance, one year after the release of its National Action Plan, to be a FAILURE.
It is another F, another fail, by the Liberal government under the leadership, or should I say the lack of leadership, of this Prime Minister. I know there are lots of colleagues across the way who care. I do put a lot of this responsibility on their leader because leadership comes from the top down. There is an ability to change. There is the power the Prime Minister holds and we have not seen that power executed.
There is so much more work to be done to protect the lives of indigenous women and girls across our country. This starts with the federal government's implementing its portion of the 231 calls for justice, including a standardization of protocols for policies and practices that ensure that all cases are thoroughly investigated; establishing a national task force to review and, if required, to reinvestigate cases across Canada; and ensuring that protection orders are available, accessible, promptly issued, and effectively serviced and resourced to protect victims.
“Implementation starts tomorrow.” That was the quote from the former Crown-indigenous relations minister, Carolyn Bennett, in 2021 with the announcement of the missing and murdered indigenous women national action plan—
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- May/2/23 8:24:41 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, my colleague's speech was very passionate. It was great to listen to.
One of the questions I would love to ask the member, and it is a topic we have studied in our status of women committee, is about educating young men, not only young indigenous men, but also men in general, about this and giving them the tools to recognize what is wrong. We do not know what we do not know.
How does the member feel about programming for educating, in particular, young men about this?
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- May/2/23 7:39:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is nice to see solidarity in the House on such a serious issue.
One of the questions I would ask is whether there are any personal stories from the hon. member's riding. I have some, as many do, but as to her riding, can she share how this issue affects her constituents?
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- May/2/23 7:26:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I love working with my colleague on the status of women committee. She is bright, insightful, wise and compassionate. I know when we first started our work on missing and murdered indigenous women that she was horrified to learn of a lot of the statistics. I would like her to share her journey of learning with respect to this, because I think it ties in really well with this conversation we are sharing with the people watching at home and brings this to light, because some people still do not know that this is a real statistic.
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