44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 29, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to table a number of petitions in the House today.
The first petition is in support of private member's bill, Bill C-257, a bill that I put forward, along with a parallel bill, Bill S-257, that has been presented in the Senate by Senator Ataullahjan.
This bill would add political belief and activity as prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act. We are seeing an increase in incidents where individuals are discriminated against or threatened with discrimination on the basis of their political views. Not only is this an unjustified form of discrimination like many others, but it has a chilling effect on democratic deliberation, according to the petitioners.
Petitioners call on the House to support Bill C-257, which bans discrimination on the basis of political belief and activity, and defend the rights of all Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions.
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- Sep/29/23 12:32:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the second petition notes the elevated risk of violence that pregnant women face, the absence of specific targeted protections for women in this situation and the fact that the current law does not recognize the impact if an active assault results in the death of the preborn child.
Petitioners call on the House to legislate that the abuse of a pregnant woman or the infliction of harm on a preborn child is an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes in the Criminal Code.
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- Sep/29/23 12:33:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition deals with the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Petitioners note that Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that consists of meditation exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.
Petitioners describe the campaign of persecution that has been targeting Falun Gong practitioners for more than 20 years, as well as the work that was done by prominent Canadians, David Matas and the late, great David Kilgour on revealing the forced organ harvesting that has targeted and is targeting Falun Gong practitioners.
Petitioners are therefore calling on the House and the government to take additional action to support Falun Gong practitioners to do more on organ harvesting, as well as to publicly call for an end to persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
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- Sep/29/23 12:33:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the final petition that I am tabling for today deals with the government's so-called feminist international policy. Petitioners note that the Muskoka Initiative, launched by the previous Conservative government, involved historic investments in the well-being of women and girls around the world. This initiative emphasized value for money but also ensured that investments were in made priorities identified by local women.
Conversely, the Liberals' so-called feminist international assistance policy, according to petitioners, has shown a lack of respect for the cultural values and autonomy of women in the developing world by pushing organizations that violate local laws and pushing certain objectives at the expense of international development priorities that local women have, such as clean water, access to basic nutrition and economic development.
The petitioners also note that the Liberals' support for international development for women and girls has been criticized by the Auditor General for failing to measure results. Therefore, petitioners call on the Government of Canada to align international development spending with the approach taken in the Muskoka Initiative, focusing international development dollars on meeting the basic needs of vulnerable women around the world, rather than pushing ideological agendas that may conflict with local values in developing countries. They also want to see the government do more to measure outcomes.
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