- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Nunavut
- Nunavut
- Voting Attendance: 66%
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Uqaqtittiji, I would remind the member that it has been the New Democrats who have been able to get the most results for Canada in the 44th Parliament. We are the ones who were able to get dental care. We were the ones who got pharmacare. The fourth party in this 44th Parliament has gotten the most for Canadians. We are the ones who have been ensuring that indigenous rights are being respected.
I do appreciate that the member has worked closely with my friend and colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre. She has shared that with me and I do appreciate the commitment she has to ensure the bill does pass. I hope she has the support of her party to ensure Bill C-35 becomes law.
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Uqaqtittiji, I am honoured to rise on Bill C-35, an act respecting early learning and child care in Canada.
I am proud to represent Nunavut and to be the critic for indigenous issues and northern affairs.
I thank my colleague and friend, the member for Winnipeg Centre, for her leadership in ensuring that Bill C-35 will positively impact Inuit, first nations and Métis.
Early learning and child care are of particular importance to indigenous peoples. Canada used all the resources it could to rob indigenous parents of their children. It used churches, RCMP and Indian agents. Indigenous children were sent to residential schools, and intergenerational trauma still exists because of Canada's genocidal policies against indigenous peoples. Amidst this, it has taken decades for this bill to finally reach this stage, which is so close to passing.
I thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for reminding us, in her speech, about who was instrumental in this. I echo her gratitude. She stated:
Generations of feminists, trade unionists, child care workers and advocates made this victory possible. They never, ever gave up the fight. They did not give up after the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women's recommendation for a national child care program was ignored by the government of the day. They did not give up after the 1993 Liberal red book promised national child care, only for that government to pursue deep cuts to social programs instead.
New Democrats who have fought for this include the mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, and the current member for London—Fanshawe.
What would Bill C-35 do? It would ensure a long-term commitment of federal funding to provinces, territories and indigenous groups. It would provide the opportunity for a national system of early learning and child care. It would indeed help ensure that parents across Canada have access to affordable, accessible and high-quality child care, now and into the future.
The NDP fought hard to ensure that Bill C-35 takes a rights-based approach. Because of our work, it includes acknowledgements of the obligations that Canada must adhere to international human rights conventions and declarations.
For example, the third paragraph of the preamble affirms critical international instruments, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
I return to the importance of passing Bill C-35. We all know that difficulty finding day care impacts the ability of parents to work.
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- Feb/16/24 11:26:30 a.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, Canada's federal housing advocate confirmed this week that indigenous peoples are more likely to be forced to live on the streets. This government's lack of action means that indigenous peoples are being intentionally forgotten. In Edmonton, 60% of those living on the streets are indigenous. In Winnipeg, it is two-thirds and in Saskatoon, it is over 90%. In Nunavut, many tell me about overcrowding because of the lack of housing.
Will the minister listen to the federal housing advocate and stop underfunding indigenous housing?
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- Feb/6/24 4:47:22 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, as I listen to the interventions and think back to the effectiveness of the NDP in this 44th Parliament, I think about, for example, what the MP for Vancouver East and I have done in securing $4 billion over seven years for urban, rural and northern housing. I think about the member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre who got unanimous consent by all of Parliament that residential schools are a form of genocide.
Having said that, I am struck by the fact that there are 24 Liberal MPs who represent Toronto and the general area of Toronto alone. What I am asking is this: Why have they failed to take action to stop criminals from stealing cars?
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- May/2/23 7:06:19 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I think there are so many different solutions, and the biggest one, which I agree with the member for Winnipeg Centre on, is that we have to lift indigenous peoples up. I think the red dress alert would be a major solution because I know that indigenous women are targets, and the reason they might be targets is that there is not enough of a quick response when it is discovered that there is an indigenous woman, girl or two-spirit person who disappears or is missing. When those responses can be reported more quickly, more people will realize that indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people cannot be targets anymore.
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- Dec/7/22 6:44:41 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I would like to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for amplifying the voices of an indigenous woman, the daughter who lost what sounds like a beautiful mother.
In this year's budget, there was reconciliation money for the RCMP to have reconciliation with indigenous peoples so they can help with the finding of gravesites. I thought that was a terrible injustice. I wonder if the member could share her thoughts on what more the RCMP should do to make sure that they too are sharing in the reconciliation, stop with the systemic racism and do better to protect indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.
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- Oct/25/22 6:59:14 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, residential school survivors continue to live abuses from the government. The government says it is acting. Out of the 106 applications for burial searches, 84 have been approved. This is not enough.
This week in Winnipeg, researchers, academics and first nations communities from all over the country are gathering to share what they have learned in their search for unmarked graves at former residential schools. This is important work. The federal government has a responsibility to make good on its promises and do its part.
The funding currently promised is critical and validates what indigenous peoples had been saying for decades. For too long, first nations, Métis and Inuit were ignored when they shared their stories about the loved ones they lost to the residential school system. All these decades of being ignored have stifled the path to healing. It is outrageous that indigenous communities must beg and plead for funding. Delays on delivering the promises made must stop. Inuit, Métis and first nations have been given far too many promises that have not been acted on.
The Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations said, “Some have said it could take up to 10 years, and the worst thing to see would be for any government to step away from that commitment. We will keep doing it, but at their pace.”
In budget 2022, there was one curious line item. It said the budget would provide $5.1 million to Public Safety Canada to ensure the Royal Canadian Mounted Police could support community-led responses to unmarked graves. By funding the RCMP instead of supporting indigenous-led organizations, such as Survivors' Secretariat, the government is supporting further practices of colonialism.
Why are these funds not directly funding indigenous peoples to heal from the shameful legacy of residential schools and colonialism?
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- May/4/22 8:43:15 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji.
I want to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for her very inspiring story and her leadership. I very much appreciated her story about her mom, because that is a direct example of how deep the impacts are of colonialism and what those behaviours continue to do in generations that have had to follow in those traumas.
I want to ask for her expertise and knowledge about how deep the impacts are on the reliance on the resource industry, and how there is a misperception that first nations, Métis and Inuit want to rely on those resource extraction companies because of the gainful employment that they might provide. At the same time, those are the same places that are exercising the genocidal activities resulting in too many first nations, Métis and Inuit women and girls being lost to murder and going missing for years. Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji.
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- May/4/22 7:40:23 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, it was, disappointingly, provided with commitments that are never sufficient. First nations, Métis and Inuit communities do experience, as the minister mentioned, atrocities when it comes to violence. Inuit women specifically continue to experience higher levels of violence in intimate partner relations. I was told a story of a family that left Nunavut. The woman is being physically abused by her life partner, whom she refuses to leave because he is the father of her children. There is no justice for her.
I really am sincerely dismayed that we are having this debate today. The funding announced is not enough. The genocide is continuing, and we must continue to make sure that funding is sustainable and that new funding is announced.
I am hopeful that changes can be made and that the great work of the member for Winnipeg Centre is recognized. We must continue to do more for our first nations, Métis and Inuit women and girls and gender-diverse people.
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- Feb/17/22 9:56:06 p.m.
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Qujannamiik, uqaqtitiji. I would like to thank the member for Fleetwood—Port Kells for his statement.
The Conservatives seem to be attempting to use the chamber as a vacuum. Listening to them downplay what is going on is such a great concern. Without the benefit of the news and the social media, people could be persuaded that this is not a serious national issue. What can the member say to those Canadians who are not in Ottawa, Windsor, Edmonton or Winnipeg and are not experiencing the danger directly?
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