- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Liberal
- Halifax West
- Nova Scotia
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $116,563.05
- Government Page
- Sep/19/23 2:02:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to rise, particularly as the only female member of Parliament from Nova Scotia, to raise awareness of the distinct health needs of women and advocate for improving access to services.
Today I want to highlight the Orchid Gala, which was organized to support the creation of the Deanne Reeve Pelvic Health Suite at the Dartmouth General. Deanne Reeve lost her life to a late diagnosis of cervical cancer, and the suite will focus on gynecology and urology services, reducing wait times and increasing patient comfort. Up to 40% of women will experience pelvic floor dysfunction in their lives, and this expansion will ensure that they have a place to turn for care in the Halifax regional municipality.
Although hurricane Lee cancelled the gala this weekend at the last minute, the organizers worked with the United Way to deliver the prepared dinners to people in need in our community and reach their fundraising goal.
I thank Sheri Morgan, Liz Rigney and all the sponsors for their advocacy. I am honoured to have been included, and I look forward to what is next.
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- Nov/29/22 2:04:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the achievements of the most decorated Canadian gymnast, 2019 Pan Am games gymnast and three-time Olympian, Ms. Ellie Black, a Haligonian, who has put Canadian athletics on the map and inspired future female athletes.
At her seventh world championship in Liverpool, Ellie anchored her team of rookies to a historic bronze medal and earned herself a silver medal on the balance beam. Despite her numerous international accolades as a two-time Pan Am Games champion, Commonwealth Games champion and a World Championship silver medallist, she distinguishes herself by placing team results first, earning landmark successes for team Canada.
Over 90% of girls decreased or stopped playing sports during the pandemic, and one in four are not committed to returning to their sport. Ellie reminds us that we must celebrate the successes of our female athletes and encourage them as we do men and boys. Let us all work to make sport safer for girls, and ensure they feel proud and supported in pursuing their athletic endeavours.
I send my congratulations to Ellie. She makes us proud.
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- Jun/14/22 12:51:57 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, that is why we are doing what we are doing. We need to restore greater availability of conditional sentences. We need to give judges more flexibility to ensure fairer sentences. Criminals will still get harsh sentences, but we need to take into consideration people's personal circumstances, and that is exactly what we are trying to do with this bill.
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- Jun/14/22 12:38:49 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, they are failed policies that did not keep Canadians safe or make our justice system more efficient. What they did was fill our prisons with low-risk first-time offenders who needed help.
Bill C-5 removes mandatory minimum penalties that target lower-risk and first-time offenders and have been shown to increase the over-incarceration of racialized and marginalized groups. Removing these mandatory minimum penalties does nothing to prevent serious penalties from being imposed on those who commit serious crimes. We are not preventing police from charging people with gun offences or prosecutors from pursuing convictions.
We are restoring judicial discretion so that sentencing judges can impose just sentences that are proportionate to the degree of responsibility of the offender, and the seriousness of the offence, and take into account all aggravating and mitigating factors, including the risk to public safety, the individual in front of them and their experience with systemic racism.
These could include terms of imprisonment that are lower or higher than the mandatory minimum penalties, which would be repealed. Mandatory minimum penalties would continue to exist for offences including murder, high treason, sexual offences, impaired driving offences and serious firearms offences.
Second, the bill would allow for greater use of conditional sentence orders in cases where an offender faces a term of less than two years’ imprisonment and does not pose a threat to public safety. Bill C-5 would restore greater availability of conditional sentences, so that judges would have the flexibility needed to allow offenders who do not pose any risk to the public to serve their sentences in their communities with strict conditions. These conditions would include a curfew, house arrest, abstaining from the consumption of drugs and alcohol, abstaining from owning, possessing or carrying a weapon, abstaining from communicating with victims, and attending a treatment program approved by the province.
As witness Michael Spratt pointed out:
Offenders can be required to take counselling, seek employment, perform community service and make reparations to the victims of their offences.
That is because, unlike other sanctions, CSOs allow courts to focus on rehabilitation. Less serious offenders who receive CSOs would have access to treatment programs and other supportive services while keeping their families together, having the benefit of community supports, and costing the system dramatically less money. This would help to promote the rehabilitation and reintegration of those who do not pose a risk to society, and by extension would deter crime and ensure our communities are safe. We know that locking up less serious offenders is a poor tool for supporting rehabilitation. I certainly saw that during my time as Attorney General in Nova Scotia.
I would like to quote Brandon Rolle of the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute, who testified in front of us at committee. He said:
...we know that when you go to jail as a Black person, you're not going to have culturally informed programming. You're going to be deemed a troublemaker more often. You're going to be classified at a higher risk. You're not going to come out of that situation in a place to successfully reintegrate into the community.
If there is an opportunity, then, to have less serious offenders serve their sentences in the community alongside their support systems, when there is no risk to public safety it behooves us to provide that option if we are truly interested in rehabilitating those who have been convicted of a crime. The way to do that is to restore judicial discretion to allow the flexibility. I have confidence in our judges and our witnesses, including Mme. Guerin Skalusat, from the Musqueam Indian Band and Manager of Indigenous Relations with British Columbia Infrastructure Benefits, who said exactly that. She said:
I would say that, yes, I have confidence in the judges. I think the implementation of Gladue went pretty well. I think it's something that our community members and those who are facing the criminal justice system are very familiar with. We have lots of resources to support that process. Yes, with that same level of support, I think it would be good.
I want to add that Bill C-5 would not make CSOs available for the offences of advocating genocide, torture, attempted murder, terrorism, serious criminal organization offences or any offence carrying a mandatory minimum penalty.
Third, this bill would require police and prosecutors to consider other measures for simple possession of a drug, such as diversion to addiction treatment programs, rather than laying charges or prosecuting individuals for simple possession of an illegal drug. The proposed amendment reinforces our government’s commitments to address the opioid crisis and to treat problematic substance use as a health issue rather than a criminal issue. This would prioritize getting people the help they need rather than further stigmatizing and punishing them. This is the additional benefit of avoiding the costs associated with an individual’s defence. If an individual is charged, they can still be diverted by the Crown prosecutor.
We understand that police and prosecutors will need tools and guidance to make this work, and we will be there as a government to provide that. As the exemption recently granted to British Columbia clearly demonstrates, we believe the opioid crisis is a public health crisis, and diversion is the better option for those struggling with addictions rather than locking them up. That is how, ultimately, we are going to make a difference in crime reduction.
Finally, for Canadians watching and seeing that the debate here has grown more polarized, I want to say to Halifax West residents, Nova Scotians and Canadians that we worked collaboratively on this bill in committee and have adopted a number of amendments. In conclusion, I cannot stress enough the significance of Bill C-5. We have a serious over-incarceration problem in Canada.
As a final note, literally, in the middle of our committee’s study on the bill, we all read a troubling headline in the paper: “Indigenous women make up almost half the female prison population”. Indigenous women make up only 4.9% of Canada’s female population. If this does not call out for reform, I do not know what would. The trend and the trajectory cannot continue. We have to get serious about restorative justice and supporting communities impacted by poverty and intergenerational trauma. I call on all parliamentarians to join us in passing this bill and committing to work together to develop smart-on-crime policy solutions.
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