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Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council Whip of the New Democratic Party Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees

Heather McPherson

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council Whip of the New Democratic Party Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees
  • NDP
  • Edmonton Strathcona
  • Alberta
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $141,604.97

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 220 - Sep/19/23
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • Sep/19/23 9:15:51 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I would like to first congratulate my colleague on his new appointment as parliamentary secretary. I also want to thank him for bringing forward a more personal story and perspective on Mr. Nijjar. That is very important. Tonight we have talked a lot about how shocking it is that a Canadian citizen was killed on Canadian soil. I know that the member has been on the foreign affairs committee and has a strong understanding of the human rights abuses that are taking place under the Modi government in India right now. I wonder if the member could speak a bit about what Canada could do, how Canada could respond to some of those human rights abuses that are happening outside of Canada, in India, at the moment?
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Context: House Hansard - 220 - Sep/19/23
Ms. Heather McPherson
  • Sep/19/23 7:43:27 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it has been a belief of mine for a very long time that Canada has moved too far away from our core values when it comes to our role in the world. We cannot put trade in front of human rights. Trade cannot be the priority instead of human rights. We are looking at the Indo-Pacific strategy, which is a strategy that the current government has brought forward. Making sure we are not engaging to the same level with China because of the human rights abuses that we know China is committing against the Uyghur people is very important. However, to then say that the human rights abuses by the Modi government that we are hearing about day in and day out do not deserve the same condemnation and do not deserve our standing up and and calling out that government for these abuses is wrong. If Canadians believe in human rights, we believe in human rights when they are in Canada, we believe in them when they are in India and we believe in them when they are in China. We believe in human rights anywhere in the world.
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Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • Jun/13/23 4:36:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my problem continues to be on the implementation of our sanction regime. Of course, there should be no one in this House who wants people who have been sanctioned to be able to come to Canada, such as people who have committed human rights abuses or perhaps taken part in the illegal war in Ukraine and the genocide against the Ukrainian people. However, the problem is that the bill would do very little to fix the sanction regime, which provides no clarity to parliamentarians and provides no transparency. We have asked time and time again about the seized assets, and I have brought a question forward through the Order Paper on this aspect. The government has made quite a big show out of saying it is going to be using those assets to help Ukraine rebuild. However, we have not been able to get any information from the government on what those seized assets are. Why does that member believe the government is finding it so difficult to share that information, and why is the number of assets seized so incredibly low?
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Context: House Hansard - 130 - Nov/18/22
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • Nov/18/22 12:06:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, over the past few weeks, the Liberal government has met several times with its Indian counterparts, but we have seen no statements from the government calling out the ongoing persecution of minorities in India, including Sikhs, Muslims, women and other minority groups. The Indian government must respect the human rights of all Indian citizens, and Canada must call it out when those rights are denied. At a time when the Indo-Pacific region is becoming more important than ever, why is Canada remaining silent on the horrendous human rights abuses taking place in India?
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