- Member of Parliament
- Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence
- Liberal
- Surrey Centre
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $147,142.20
- Government Page
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in the debate today on Bill C-21, an act to amend certain acts and to make certain consequential amendments concerning firearms. This is a very important issue for the majority of Canadians, and it is particularly important for my constituency, where public safety was recently identified as a top area of concern for our community.
All levels of government and numerous dedicated organizations in my riding of Surrey Centre have been working for many years to address gun violence and gang-related violence. Rates of gun violence have continued to rise since 2009, and violent offences that involve guns have increased by 81%. With so much news content from the United States available to Canadians, we hear daily reports of shootings in the United States. We do not want this constant exposure to desensitize us to the horrific, unspeakable tragedies that come from gun violence. As we know, Canada is not immune to that violence.
Too many communities across the country have grieved the loss of loved ones. École Polytechnique, Moncton, the mosque shooting in Quebec City, and Nova Scotia are only a few of many examples of violent acts with firearms that have occurred in Canada. These examples do not even cover the number of individuals who face gun violence on a regular basis due to domestic or intimate partner violence or gang-related activity.
According to Statistics Canada, there has been a notable increase in firearm-related violent crime across many rural areas in the country, and 47% of Canadians reported feeling that gun violence posed a serious threat to their communities. This includes my own community of Surrey Centre. Earlier this year, the RCMP in Surrey reported that, in a six-day span, there had been four incidents of shots fired in the city.
From my days in high school, I saw hundreds of young boys and men shot and killed for petty disputes and turf wars. Others will recall the innocent victims of gun violence who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Paul Bennett, a nurse and hockey coach, was killed outside his home in Surrey. Chris Mohan was shot for simply being on the same floor as a gangland hit. Bikramdeep Randhawa, a correctional officer, was killed outside of a McDonald's in another case of mistaken identity. These are all on top of hundreds of women killed in cases of domestic or intimate partner violence, including Maple Batalia, a young woman studying at Simon Fraser University, who was killed on campus by a jealous ex-boyfriend.
This is far too regular an occurrence and it puts our communities at risk of being caught in the crossfire. It is clear we need to do more to address gun violence in our communities. Canadians deserve to feel safe in their communities, homes, schools and workplaces, and we do not want to wait for another tragedy to occur in Canada before we take strong action to address that violence.
We know that reducing access to firearms reduces the amount of gun violence. It is simple. Other countries around the world have essentially eliminated gun violence in their countries by enacting tougher laws. Scotland, Australia and New Zealand are all examples of this.
In 1996, a deadly shooting at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland killed 16 students and a teacher and injured 15 others. The following year, the U.K. Parliament banned private ownership of most handguns as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. The reforms required owners of permitted firearms to pass a strict licence process, which involves interviews and home visits by local police who have the authority to deny approval of permits if they deem the would-be owner a potential risk to public safety. In the last decade, there have only been three homicides by gun violence in the United Kingdom. There has never been another school shooting.
Also in 1996, in a shooting at a café in Port Arthur, Australia, a man opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. He killed 35 people and wounded another 28. Australia's then new prime minister, John Howard, who had taken office only six weeks prior to the tragedy, led a sweeping nationwide reform on guns following the incident. Australia's National Firearms Agreement restricted legal ownership of firearms in Australia. It established a registry of all guns owned in the country, among other measures. It required a permit for all new firearms purchases, as well as a flat-out ban on certain kinds of guns, such as automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
Similar to our own government's plan, the Australian government has established a mandatory buyback of legal and illegal guns resulting in 650,000 formerly legally owned guns being peacefully seized. The average firearm suicide rate in Australia, in the seven years after the bill, declined by 57% compared with the seven years prior. The average firearm homicide rate went down by nearly 42%. Between 1978 and 1995, 13 mass shootings occurred in the country. In the years since those mass shootings, Australians brought in sweeping gun reform, and since 1995 there has only been one mass shooting.
New Zealand has traditionally had a high gun ownership rate, but tight restrictions and low rates of gun violence. In less than the two weeks after a far right extremist killed 50 people at a mosque in 2019, authorities in New Zealand announced a ban on military-style semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, like those the attacker had used. They also created a buyback program, as well as a special commission to explore broader issues around the accessibility of weapons and the role of social media.
Gun ownership in Canada is the fifth highest in the world. The countries I have mentioned, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, are like Canada in that they all have a strong culture of guns. Despite this, they have successfully reduced the number of gun-related incidents and saved countless lives through comprehensive reforms and policies that address the complexity of gun violence.
The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security recently tabled a report entitled, “A Path Forward: Reducing Gun and Gang Violence in Canada”. The committee heard from 50 witnesses who echoed the same message: Gun violence is a complex issue that will take more than one program or policy to fix. The committee heard that it will take a multi-faceted and comprehensive approach that includes all levels of government, indigenous peoples, grassroots organizations, law enforcement and social services. It will require research, collection of data, and preventative and intervention measures.
Our government is committed to addressing gun violence, and we will continue to take action in an effort to mitigate the senseless tragedies that occur at the hands of firearms, and this legislation is the next step.
For those who say illegal guns smuggled across the border are the ones that we should be concerned about, they should have spoken up when the Harper Conservatives cut CBSA staff by 30%, or when they disbanded and defunded the major organized crime unit in the RCMP that investigated cross-border smuggling. How were they silent then? Are they silent now, when it comes to reducing gun violence? The story is the same.
We re-funded the CBSA and the RCMP, and the proof is in the pudding, with gun seizures at the border being double last year from the year prior.
Our plan to address gun violence will address this complexity. Bill C-21 will establish a national freeze on handguns; establish red flag and yellow flag laws; expand licence revocation; combat firearms smuggling and trafficking, notably by increasing the maximum penalty; and prohibit mid-velocity replica airguns.
This plan is about the survivors and about communities across Canada from coast to coast to coast, which are too often touched by gun violence. Canadians told us they wanted to see more action, more quickly, and we are doing that through our commitment to do more.
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- Jun/14/22 3:11:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we witness the devastating effects of gun violence in Canada. My constituents in Surrey Centre are no different. As violence increases, we find ourselves relying on programs such as the Surrey Anti-gang Family Empowerment Program, which provides a coordinated approach to address youth gang violence.
Recently, in a survey conducted by my office, my constituents identified community safety and crime prevention as the issues of greatest importance.
Can the minister please update the House on how strengthening gun control will keep our community safe?
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- Feb/1/22 10:34:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, friends and colleagues, I am very happy to be here in the House of Commons to reply to the Speech from the Throne.
Canadians have faced a great deal of hardship over the last two years as a result of the unprecedented times we are living in. I continue to be in awe of the resilience, compassion and sheer tenacity that has been shown. Even though for much of the last two years we in the House have been working virtually from our communities, we have been able to accomplish a great deal of very important work on behalf of Canadians.
I look forward to continuing our work together as we resume our work on behalf of Canadians. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Right Honourable Mary May Simon on her appointment as Canada's 30th Governor General and long-awaited first indigenous Governor General of Canada. I congratulate her on the delivery of her first Speech from the Throne.
Now to our purpose for being here today, I am very proud of the government's record over the last six years. We have tackled many big issues that have been left unresolved by previous governments such as housing, child care and more. We continue to work towards creating a more equal Canada by addressing the systemic discrimination and racism embedded in our institutions. On top of that, we are nearly two years into a global pandemic, and with this new mandate, Canadians gave the government a clear direction to continue to work towards putting COVID-19 behind us and to continue working to resolve the challenges that face Canadians in their everyday lives.
Our government will continue to be on the right side of history on these and many more issues as we work towards finishing the fight against COVID, take strong action against climate change, make life more affordable, walk the shared path of reconciliation, put home ownership back in reach, create jobs and grow the middle class. Canadians expect us, as their representatives in Ottawa, to focus on the big things that matter and to work together to deliver results that create meaningful change.
I will speak today about a few of the themes from the Speech from the Throne, including housing, child care, safer communities and mental health and addiction, issues that are particularly important in my riding of Surrey Centre and in many other communities across the country.
The government is committed to ensuring that Canadians have a safe place to call home. In fast-growing communities like Surrey Centre, we struggle to create enough homes to keep up with our growing population. In fact, in the last five years, an additional 74,000 people have called Surrey home.
Since 2015, the government has increased the amount of affordable housing in Surrey and across the country. This includes 44 new affordable units in partnership with Atira Women's Resource Society, an important organization in our community that helps vulnerable women. Through a $16.4-million investment in the rapid housing initiative, a total of 105 new affordable units will support individuals experiencing homelessness and those struggling with substance abuse, mental health and spiritual wellness.
Just last week, the government announced that there will now be more than 10,000 new affordable rapid housing units across Canada, made possible by our government's additional investments in the second round of the rapid housing initiative. This $2.5-billion investment is an excellent example of what can be accomplished through collaboration across all levels of government, provincial, territorial, municipal and indigenous governing bodies, that identify priorities in each community.
The Liberal government has also been working to make housing and home ownership more accessible to more Canadians. This is through the creation of Canada's first-ever national housing strategy. We created a number of programs, like a more flexible first-time homebuyer incentive and CMHC's residential construction financing initiative. We will also be creating a rent-to-own program and will be reducing closing costs for first-time buyers.
My province of British Columbia was the first in our country to step up for its residents and sign a deal with the federal government to provide $10-a-day child care. This is a $3.2-billion investment that will not only support accessible early learning and child care in Surrey, but also pandemic recovery to allow more parents to return to the workforce and contribute to our growing economy. In fact, it has already started, reducing the cost of child care by half for every parent in British Columbia.
As a parent of three children, I was fortunate to have my mother and in-laws help us. However, that is not the case for many. Many have to choose between working or child care, a choice no one should have to make due to costs.
No matter where people live across the country, they deserve a safe community. Many communities across the country like Surrey deal with gun violence and the challenges in preventing it. Surrey has the largest youth population in British Columbia, but with it also comes challenges of youth violence, guns, gangs, drugs and addictions. The government has taken strong action, in part by banning more than 1,500 types of assault weapons. This includes building on our progress in implementing a mandatory buyback of assault-style weapons and working with the provinces and territories that want to ban handguns.
We are also moving forward with a 10-year national action plan on gender-based violence and will continue to support organizations providing critical services. The Province of British Columbia is receiving more than $30 million of federal funding to ensure that law enforcement is equipped with the necessary resources to better detect and prevent crimes before they happen, while having the resources to hold offenders accountable for any blatant disregard for the law.
We also announced in the fall economic statement that the government will be providing an additional $250 million to municipalities and indigenous communities to support community-based programs aimed at prevention and wraparound services. We know that addressing social and economic issues such as housing and employment to create opportunities for young Canadians plays an important role in addressing violence and creating safe communities.
Our government understands that we cannot simply arrest ourselves out of this problem. We support local community groups who have knowledge of the particular challenges in their communities and provide exit strategies for youth already involved in gang activities, programs like the Surrey anti-gang family empowerment program. My community is so fortunate to have access to a program working to address and prevent gang violence in our communities. The $7.5-million SAFE program, which is funded by Public Safety Canada and led by the City of Surrey, works to build positive life skills and increasing connections with families, schools and communities to keep children and youth out of gangs. This program delivers 11 individual programs through 10 partner organizations designed to disrupt the negative pathways to gang violence for Surrey's population and children. The program is on track to help over 4,500 at-risk youth and their families get the support and services they need to stay safe.
The COVID-19 pandemic increased the challenges that Canadians face in supporting their mental health. With increased feelings of stress, loneliness and sadness, it has been a rough few years. Annually, 20% of Canadians experience a mental illness or addiction problem. Throughout the pandemic we have seen those numbers grow with nearly half of Canadians reporting that their mental health worsened during the pandemic, including seven out of 10 health care workers.
Our government understands that mental health is health. We are working to help end the stigma around mental health and seeking support when people need it. We made the Wellness Together portal available to Canadians across the country and most recently the PocketWell app, which provides access to mental health tools and resources.
Pandemic-related investments in mental health include $500 million in support during the pandemic for Canadians experiencing mental health challenges, homelessness and substance use; $100 million for mental health interventions for LGBTQ+, youth and seniors affected by COVID-19, and $50 million to support those at risk of COVID-19-related trauma or post-traumatic stress disorders.
Prior to the pandemic, since forming government in 2015, we have been making investments in mental health, including $5 billion to provinces and territories to increase the availability of mental health care; $600 million for a distinctions-based mental health and wellness strategy for indigenous services; $140 million to support veterans dealing with PTSD; $45 million for national mental health care standards and $600 million to address the opioid crisis. In many communities, the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding the ongoing health crisis of opioid overdose and health. Through these new measures, vulnerable people will be better able to get the support they need while respecting public health.
It is very good to be back with all members here in person and virtually. I look forward to continuing our work together on behalf of Canadians in bringing our government's vision from the Speech from the Throne to reality.
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