I am pleased to also present this petition.

“Petition to Expand Long-Term Care in Sioux Lookout.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the current long-term-care facility at Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre has 21 beds;

“Whereas Sioux Lookout is a hub for 33 surrounding First Nations, 28 of which are not accessible by road;

“Whereas Sioux Lookout has 5,800 permanent residents and thousands of people travel there for medical appointments and social services;

“Whereas the wait time for a long-term-care bed in Sioux Lookout is five to six years;

“Whereas this long wait time puts an additional strain on Meno Ya Win Health Centre’s emergency department and its alternate-level-of-care beds; and

“Whereas these long wait-lists are preventing residents from receiving necessary care in a timely manner in close proximity to their homes;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to commit to building and resourcing 76 long-term-care beds in Sioux Lookout, Ontario.”

Speaker, it’s just 76 long-term-care beds. I am happy to affix my signature to this and give it to page Brooke to take to the Clerks.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas registered nurses and health care professionals are the backbone of Ontario’s public health care system; and

“Whereas nurses and health care professionals are fighting for better staffing, better wages and better care in Ontario’s public hospitals; and

“Whereas the government has the power to direct the funding and priorities for the Ontario Hospital Association in this bargaining process;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario ...

“Support nurses and health care professionals represented by the Ontario Nurses’ Association”—and the Ontario Hospital Association.

I fully support this petition. I will affix my signature to it and give it to page Fouegap to give to the Clerks.

Good morning, everyone, and good morning to the guests we have in the House. It is an honour for me—and I’ve met some, especially at the recent museum opening, and I’ve had the privilege of hearing about your stories. So I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this motion and to have you all here this morning. I represent Scarborough Southwest, and as the deputy leader of the official opposition, I also feel a great, great load of responsibility, speaking to this today. I believe I can say this for all of us—and it has been spoken in the House already: The last week has been an extremely, extremely difficult week. So many of our communities are still in shock, while for some, it’s even more personal, with family members and loved ones suffering immense loss and trauma triggered from the atrocities.

As an immigrant myself from a nation that was born out of a liberation war and a genocide, and as a daughter of the descendants of people who faced subjugation and were treated as second-class citizens in their own country just for who they are, for their language, for their religion—a country that experienced the horror of genocide, which was committed not too long ago, just in 1971—I stand before this House with a heavy heart, reflecting on the painful and horrifying events that unfolded in Israel and Palestine over the past week.

I know that I stand amongst colleagues and friends on both sides of the House who can relate to the anguish and the sorrow that come with such painful stories and history, and experience of violence, colonial violence—some carrying a much heavier burden of pain and suffering of their families and, in some cases, themselves. We have heard in this House about the Tamil genocide from our colleagues; the Armenian genocide; the Sikh genocide; the horrific killing in Jallianwala Bagh; or, just recently, on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the systemic violence carried out on the people of this land, here in Canada.

And we can never, ever forget the dark chapter in human history of the Holocaust—a harrowing chapter in history, when the world witnessed the systemic genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany, a state-sponsored killing. Jews endured unimaginable suffering in concentration camps and extermination camps, with mass shootings and inhumane conditions. It is a stark reminder of the depths to which hatred and bigotry can lead. I was able to have the interactive demonstration that we have at the museum—which will bring you to tears, to learn about that history.

I want to make this very clear: Hamas’s senseless violence—war crimes and attacks on innocent civilians, women, seniors, babies—has caused unimaginable pain and trauma for not only Israelis but for Jewish communities across the world. I know that many Jewish Canadians are feeling unsafe—terrified at seeing targeted violence on this scale.

Last week, we were shocked by the brutal attacks on civilian lives in Israel—over 1,600 dead and thousands injured, children and families kidnapped.

In this House, today, we mourn the lives of the five Canadians who lost their lives in this violent conflict: Shir Georgy, Adi Vital-Kaploun, Ben Mizrachi, Alexandre Look, and Netta Epstein.

We have heard from friends and family members—I have in my community, and I know some of you have as well—who are worried and waiting to hear from family members in Israel. I know that many of you in this House have had similar conversations in the past, and it is heart-wrenching. At the same time, we have also heard from friends and family members who are in fear and waiting to hear from their family in Palestine. So many Palestinian family members are feeling anxious and scared.

I want to be very clear: The Palestinian people do not represent Hamas, just like the State of Israel does not represent all people of Israel and all Jewish people.

Sometimes in this House we talk about or we debate on opposite sides about an action a government does—and it is the people, it is their voice, that should be the loudest, that truly matters.

But more than that, the struggles that we are seeing right now are what I want to talk about. It is an honour for me, also as a Muslim Canadian, to start by saying that there is an Arabic phrase that I will translate: “Harming one single human is a harm to all humanity.” If you harm even a hair of a human, an innocent civilian, you’re harming all of humanity. That is the belief that I truly believe in as a Muslim and as a Canadian, and it is the deep-rooted understanding that I come with.

Today, when I speak to this issue, I want to share some of the things that I have received over the last five, seven days—because I have talked to community members who come from both sides, and it has been an extremely, extremely painful week. I don’t think, in my career as an MPP, as a representative, I have had this difficulty, navigating through this as I did this past week, just hearing the stories, and I cannot imagine what the community is feeling—because it is horrendous, what Hamas did. One of the things that I want to make very clear is that when something like that happens, it doesn’t just harm the one side—and their action has also hurt Palestinians. We have heard from those family members who are waiting to hear back.

So when we look at this motion and understand, how do we address the atrocities and how do we make sure that we stand with the people who have suffered this immense loss—so many Palestinian families are feeling anxious and scared, or, more than that, their struggles are neglected and undermined by the rhetoric of those in power and a lot of mainstream media, and their story has not fully been told.

When I look at the difference between those who return to Canada and Canada’s effort in Israel—it has been very different in the reality of Palestinian Canadians and Palestinians in Gaza. While we hear about the stories, we also heard from NCCM—where Hala Alshaer, who lives in Ottawa and is a Canadian, talked about her family, who are still waiting to return. Hala shared about the killing of her 16 family members, who were killed after the Israeli attacks.

I want to thank the federal government—and this is part of something that I want to make clear: I want to thank the federal government for the safe return of 1,300 Canadians from Tel Aviv. I think that we need to make sure that we urge our government to do much more in ensuring that all Canadians, all Jewish Canadians who are stuck, must return safely. I would like to put in a motion to make sure that I add onto the—and so, Speaker, I would like to move that the following sentence be added to the end of the main motion: “And that this House calls on the government of Canada to advocate for immediate release of all hostages and protection of all civilians in accordance with international law, an end to the siege of bombardment of Gaza and for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians urgently without restriction.”

I rise on behalf of the thousands of people I represent in Scarborough Southwest. I’m really glad that I’m having a chance to speak to this important motion, the motion that our leader has brought forward to increase funding for the mental health support that we need across this province.

Last Friday, I met with Stephen, who came to ask for support for his wife, Lillian. He showed me pictures of the way she looked when they went away on a trip, and how beautiful they looked, and how healthy and happy, and what has happened since her brain injury, and the mental health support that she needs after. Just the stories of being tossed from one hospital to another to rehab agencies, and how difficult it has been for them—I just saw Stephen, this older gentleman who sat in front of me in tears, and we both talked about how painful it has been for their family.

That’s just one story, and I wish I had more time to share with you the amount of stories I hear about youth mental health and the support they need. I ask anyone here to just look at the data of our schools and the amount of violence we have had across our schools, and the amount of calls that we’ve made to 911 by parents, by teachers, by students. Those calls were not for an incident that was isolated for mental health; it was somebody who was going through struggles because of mental health, and they have resorted to violence. It was a parent who does not know how to control their young daughter, their child, their son, who is going through difficulty after COVID.

Just a few months ago, I was in this House talking about the amount of funding that CMHA receives. It was just about 3.9% over the last 11 years: That’s the amount of funding increase that they have received, regardless of the amount of increase that we have in the need for mental health supports, and yet we have had failures by government after government in really addressing the crisis and that increase in that need.

So today, when I look at this motion, it’s a very solution-oriented motion which is asking for this one specific thing, which is exactly what CMHA is asking for. The Canadian Mental Health Association is asking our government just for a little bit. When you look at the $6.4 billion of unspent funding that we have right now in our coffers, from that, we’re asking for half a per cent. Just half a per cent of that funding is what the Canadian Mental Health Association is asking for from this government, so that they could do the work that we need for our adult mental health needs, for our youth, for those across this province who are dealing with mental health and addictions.

So I beg, I implore the House, every legislator who spoke for the need—we had members talk about how you need to wake up in the morning, look at the sunshine and hope for a better day. But if you don’t have the supports, if you don’t have the funding, if you don’t have the workers—the youth and child mental health support workers; the social workers—you can’t do that. You need the funding for those agencies to function, and that’s what we’re begging this House for, so I’m asking this government: Please, do the right thing and vote for this motion.

I want to thank the member for her presentation. You know when you have finished an hour and you run out of time talking about this that there are significant issues that need to be addressed. So I want to thank her for her presentation, which was informative.

My question is regarding the Premier’s recent comment just a little while ago, I believe, when he came to the children’s hospital in Ottawa. I’m sure everyone knows that CHEO had to recently call in the Red Cross to help, and the Premier said that he is glad that they’re thinking outside the box. Instead of taking responsibility and actually doing something, he is praising the hospital.

I have heard pediatricians talk about the crisis and talk about how we don’t just need beds but we need to have the human resources. We need to have the nurses, the doctors, the people who are in the hospital to support them.

So my question to the member is: What are some of the things that we could have seen in this budget that would have actually helped address our health care crisis?