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Dec/6/21 3:46:17 p.m.
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We are starting to get into debate. I am afraid the question was asked and we cannot ask it over and over again, but I want to thank the hon. member for his interjection.

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Mr. Marc Serré (Nickel Belt, Lib.)

Dec/6/21 3:46:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, two reports of the Canadian Section of ParlAmericas. The first report concerns its participation in the 17th ParlAmericas Plenary Assembly, which was held virtually on November 16 and 29, 2020. The second report concerns its participation in the 5th Gathering of ParlAmericas' Parliamentary Network on Climate Change, which was held virtually on June 4, 15 and 25, 2021.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:47:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present to the House today. The first petition is with respect to the human rights situation in Russia. The petitioners note the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky act in a previous Parliament. They note concerns about serious corruption in Russia, including the attacks on Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, and over 10,000 people being detained during peaceful protests against the unlawful imprisonment of Alexei Navalny. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to impose sanctions such as the Special Economic Measures Act and the Sergei Magnitsky Law against individuals and entities involved in human rights violations in Russia, including those who were responsible for human rights violations and have been identified by anti-corruption and rights activists as enablers of the Putin regime. It also calls on the government to offer asylum to Russian activists and dissidents who face political persecution for expressing their political views or attending peaceful protests and to strengthen our work in defence of fundamental human rights and seeking the release of political prisoners in Russia.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition draws the attention of the House to challenges faced by small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It calls on the government to adopt the 2017 recommendations of the Alberta skills for jobs task force.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation in Ethiopia. It calls on the Canadian government to increase its engagement in the defence of fundamental human rights in Ethiopia. It highlights particular concern related to events in the Tigray region.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition draws attention to the ongoing residual negative impact associated with the national energy program and the scars that program, put forward by then prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, left on our part of the country. It therefore calls on the Prime Minister to issue an official apology for the national energy program and affirm the rights of provinces to develop, manage and market their natural resources.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition calls on the government to support the expansion of carbon capture and storage technology as a critical force for responding to global carbon emissions. It calls on the government to recognize the role of that technology and support its use and deployment.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition speaks to the genocide of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China. It calls on the House of Commons and the government to formally recognize that Uighurs in China have been and are being subjected to genocide and to use the Magnitsky act to sanction those responsible for the heinous crimes committed against the Uighur people.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation in Afghanistan. This petition was certified prior to the fall to the Taliban, and obviously these human rights circumstances have become even worse. It particularly highlights the horrific abuse faced by the Sikh and Hindu minority community in Afghanistan. It calls on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to create a special program to help persecuted minorities. I wish this had been done prior to the fall to the Taliban. We would be in a very different position.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6 Bill C-4

Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights concerns associated with the definition of conversion therapy that was used in Bill C-6, in the last Parliament. Those concerns persist with respect with Bill C-4. The petitioners call on the House of Commons to ban all practices designed to coerce or degrade persons into changing their sexual orientation or gender identity. It also calls on the government to ensure that the definition is accurate, reflects the correct definition of conversion therapy and does not ban, for instance, private conversations that would take place that are not related to conversion therapy.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:52:42 p.m.
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Re: Bill S-240 Bill S-204

Mr. Speaker, the final petition I am tabling today is with respect to Bill S-223. The bill has had a number of different names and numbers. It is the bill that seeks to make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without consent. The bill has been in the works for over 15 years, trying to address forced organ harvesting and trafficking. It has been put forward in every Parliament I have been a part of, under Bills S-240 and S-204. Now it has been retabled in the Senate as S-223, and I am hoping against hope that this Parliament will finally be the one that gets it done. I commend all these petitions to the consideration of hon. members.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Dec/6/21 3:52:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition today on behalf of residents from Cumberland, Courtenay, Parksville and Port Alberni. They are calling on the government to address the preventable opioid overdose crisis resulting from fentanyl-poisoned sources. They cite that regulating to ensure safe sources with proper measures and bylaws will reduce the criminal element associated with street drugs, that problematic substance use is a health issue and is not resolved through criminalizing personal possession and consumption, and that decriminalization of personal possession is associated with dramatically reducing overdose deaths in the countries that have modernized their drug policies. Therefore, the petitioners are calling on the government, first, to declare the current opioid overdose and fentanyl-poisoning crisis a national public health emergency under the Emergencies Act in order to manage and resource it, with the aim to reduce and eliminate preventable deaths; second, to reform current drug policy to decriminalize personal possession; and last, to create with urgency and immediacy a system to provide safe, unadulterated access to substances so that people who use substances experimentally, recreationally or chronically are not at imminent risk of overdose due to a contaminated source. I thank these constituents in light of this health emergency and the lives that are being lost in the communities of my riding.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)

Dec/6/21 3:54:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of 261 constituents in my riding. They are calling on the government to enact just transition legislation that specifically aims to reduce emissions significantly, wind down fossil fuel subsidies and the industry in general, create good, clean green jobs that drive an inclusive workforce and development, expand the social safety net through new income supports, and pay for a transition by increasing taxes on the wealthiest corporations and financing through a public national bank.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

Dec/6/21 3:55:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present petition no. 10686748, wherein the petitioners call upon the House of Commons to commit to upholding the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action by immediately halting all existing and planned construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project on Wet’suwet’en territory, ordering the RCMP to dismantle its exclusion zone and stand down, scheduling nation-to-nation talks among the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and federal and provincial governments, and prioritizing the real implementation of UNDRIP.

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Hon. Kamal Khera (Minister of Seniors, Lib.)

Dec/6/21 3:55:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

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The Speaker

Dec/6/21 3:56:02 p.m.
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Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed.

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Mrs. Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton—Melville, CPC)

Dec/6/21 3:56:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, under the Board of Internal Economy's decision on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, it fell to you, Speaker, to ensure that the decision was carried out in a manner that respected the inalienable rights of members to keep personal health information between themselves and their doctors private. I commend you in the way you did so. Clearly, the House sees you as fair in your decisions as the Speaker and affirmed that confidence by electing you to the chair for a second term. I thank the House of Commons nurse, human resources, health and wellness and the Sergeant-at-Arms for their highly professional, non-partisan, reasonable and accommodating efforts to ensure the safety of all members of Parliament and those who serve in other capacities throughout the precinct. I assure you my intervention will be concise, as I have no desire to unfairly or unreasonably delay the business of the House. My question of privilege challenges the government's motion passed in the House that imposed inappropriate conditions on the House of Commons nurse's professional ability and independence from political interference in determining whether a medical exemption should be provided to a member of Parliament. The House of Commons nurse made medical decisions that she, not politicians in this place, is professionally qualified to make, including being the one tasked to determine and follow up with parliamentarians who were in close contact with the member who contracted COVID. We are all glad to see him return in good health. It is my deep belief that this action by the government to control outcomes sets a dangerous precedent. It enables political interference in what should be the objective decision-making of medical professionals serving us as parliamentarians. Furthermore, it opens the door to the further abuse of members' privileges at the whim of whatever political party or parties are in power. What other actions could governing parties take to place arbitrary limitations on members of Parliament, if this self-awarded power to reduce or remove members' privileges continues to be allowed? I appreciate that you recognize my question of privilege as timely, due to the motion being implemented with directives at a very late hour on Friday, November 26. I was unable to have the required documents properly processed by my personal physician until the following week. The House of Commons nurse and human resources needed time to consider my application in light of the government's change to the mandate. In addition, I thought it prudent to wait until your decision on the question of the BOIE's authority to set the requirements for medical exemptions was heard, and it affirmed that the actions of the BOIE were outside of its jurisdiction. That being said, the government decided to move forward with a motion that mirrors the Board of Internal Economy's decision, while subjectively actually narrowing the acceptable reasons for medical exemptions that were already validated by the House of Commons nurse. I humbly request that you review and make a decision on my question of privilege, and affirm that the government's motion passed in the House does actually impose inappropriate conditions on the House of Commons nurse's professional medical authority and independence from political interference to determine whether a medical exemption should be provided to a member of Parliament. I thank you for this opportunity and certainly respect your deliberations and your decision.

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The Speaker

Dec/6/21 4:00:07 p.m.
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I thank the hon. member, and I will be returning. I notice the member for Timmins—James Bay is rising on a point of order.

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Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP)

Dec/6/21 4:00:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order, because this is about the rights of all members to a safe work environment. It is about the obligations parliamentarians have to respect the law of Canada. The belief of some parliamentarians that they are above the law of Canada is troubling. We can look at the human rights rulings on privacy that have already been made. For someone to say that their right to keep their medical information private in a pandemic supersedes the right of a workplace to have a safe environment, those privacy rights do not trump the others. I did not use the word “trump” there deliberately, but it certainly had its effect. I would ask the Speaker to also consider recent court rulings. The ATU ruling on the TTC, and the Quebec Superior Court ruling, have been very clear about the needs and rights of the employer, which is us as the collective members of the House, not just to each other, but to the staff who work here and the cleaners. The claim by the Conservatives, that they believe they have the privilege to ignore pandemic law and the human rights and privacy rulings that have come down and that have all been clear, and that there is a privilege in the House to override them and put people at risk, is an infringement of my rights as a parliamentarian and my obligation to ensure that everyone in the House is kept safe. This is bigger than us. This is bigger than the bickering and bantering among the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Bloc. This is about the message we are sending to Canada right now. It is a message that in the House of Commons, in order to preserve the privileges of an elite group, the Conservative members can override the pandemic standards and the rights of privacy that have to be balanced with the rights of safety. Mr. Speaker, I would ask you to consider what we have seen already coming down from the Human Rights Commission. As for the issue of exemptions, I understand that it is not my business to look at the exemption of any member, but it is statistically ridiculous to suggest that a number of Conservatives can claim exemptions when we know that the medical exemptions are minutely small. We end up with parliamentarians coming in saying that they have pieces of paper stating they have an exemption, which is a ridiculous and unfair situation. A number of Conservatives are doing that. I will close with this. I have to share a lobby with Conservatives who walk around without their masks on. I am being put at risk by the fact that I do not know if any of them have these paper exemptions or if they have been vaccinated. I do not need to know, but I need to know that the House will be there to protect my rights and those of all the staff who have to deal with the Conservatives who walk around without masks on.

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The Speaker

Dec/6/21 4:03:36 p.m.
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I believe the hon. member for Yorkton—Melville has raised her hand. Then we will go to the hon. member for Banff—Airdrie. Looking at this, I believe I have all the information I need to come back to the House with a decision, but I will let the hon. member for Yorkton—Melville go ahead and then the member for Banff—Airdrie if they can be brief. The hon member for Yorkton—Melville.

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