44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 6, 2024 11:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I find it really funny that the Conservatives are talking about health care plans. Clearly, their lives have been marred with privilege, especially because every member in the House has a pharmacare plan that is paid for by taxpayer dollars, including the member for Carleton, who has had this for over 20 years.
In saying that, I have a feeling about why the Conservatives are stalling this, and it is because something is going to freeze over before they support the reproductive rights of women and, certainly, trans folks. The opinion held by the Conservative Party on the bodily autonomy of trans folk and women has been demonstrated through things such as voting for Bill C-311, which was a piece of backdoor anti-abortion legislation. It was called out by anti-violence groups, and it was supported by the Conservatives.
Let us not be too cozy with the Liberals either. Out east in New Brunswick, people cannot access an abortion. I have spoken to the minister about it, and the fact is that access to safe trauma-informed abortion care out east is not a reality. Although the Liberals wipe their hands of it as being provincial jurisdiction, I would like to remind the them that they do provide federal transfer payments, and they are obliged to uphold the Canada Health Act. That is not happening in parts of the country.
I am concerned about the Conservatives here. I know there was a whole revolution around women getting menstrual hygiene products. Now, there is a whole revolution around women or folks who use contraception getting contraception because not everybody has a health care plan and not everybody has access to safe trauma-informed abortion care. I wonder if my hon. colleague would speak to what his government is planning to do to make sure that folks who need a safe trauma-informed abortion can have it and what he is willing to do to make sure that this pharmacare plan gets passed.
335 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 6:03:22 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I find it hilarious that the Conservatives are protecting big insurance companies. I find it particularly entertaining that the member and his party, which would not be affected by this, including with contraception, fight so diligently against the reproductive rights of people. I find it funny.
Does the member support access to trauma-informed abortion care and access to reproductive rights, which would include free contraception care for those who do not have insurance and those who fall outside the programs, or does he think the Conservatives should just keep violating reproductive rights in real time as we are seeing in the House?
105 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 7:31:21 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I know that it was the NDP who pushed for the beginning stages of this pharmacare plan. I am very proud that the NDP government in Manitoba already has free contraception in place. I am glad that the Liberals are finally coming on board, after a lot of coaxing.
However, despite the Liberals saying they support the right to choose, they have not done their due diligence in ensuring access to safe, trauma-informed abortion care, including out east where women cannot even access abortion. Does my hon. colleague agree that the government is responsible to ensure that women can access safe, trauma-informed abortion out east and that the government needs to do more to uphold that right?
121 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:35:17 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, as I have heard in the House tonight, I know the Conservatives think providing free contraception is communist, but I would like to say this to the hon. member across the way: They talk about reproductive rights, but in New Brunswick, one cannot even access a trauma-informed abortion at care. We have a Canada Health Act that they have to uphold, and I am glad that the member supports that, but his government actually does not support action. It is one thing to say that we support the right to a safe, trauma-informed abortion, but it is another thing to provide access to that right.
109 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today to support what the NDP has fought for. It is the beginning of a pharmacare plan that will start with one of the things the NDP has championed for years: the reproductive rights of women and people who menstruate. It is a significant step forward to promote reproductive rights for women and gender-diverse people in Canada; we know, for far too long, leaders have neglected calls to improve reproductive health services. In this room today, I have heard Conservatives saying such things as that we already pay for abortion; they know very well that even the Liberal government still does not provide access to safe, trauma-informed abortion care. We are talking about the gamut of reproductive rights; that includes the ability, if one so chooses, to access contraception.
I used to be a high school sex ed teacher. One thing we would talk to the kids about was choice and how to protect themselves and their reproductive rights should they want to avoid pregnancy. I know there are Conservatives smiling because the discussion around sex, abortion and contraception is a difficult one, but these are important open discussions that we have to have, especially as we change into a society that is becoming much more inclusive in our gender diversity. I support that. The bill would allow nine million people of reproductive age in Canada to access contraception, providing them with reproductive autonomy and reducing the risk of unintended pregnancies.
However, we know that bodily autonomy is currently under attack. We have heard in the House, in fact, petitions that have been put on the floor by the Conservative Party that attack the trans community. The March for Life is happening on Thursday, and I wonder which Conservative faces we will see again this year at the campaign. Just as the colleague across the way said, the Campaign Life Coalition has labelled the Conservatives anti-choice. This is not surprising, because in this very session of Parliament, Bill C-311 was named a backdoor anti-abortion legislation in the name of so-called violence, even though it was not supported by any women's groups working with women and gender-diverse people who are experiencing violence.
The bill is also a major win for promoting the rights of economic empowerment for women and gender-diverse people in Canada. We have a right to choose what we want to do with our own bodies. I find it disturbing that, in 2024, most of the people opposing the bill in the House on the Conservative side are not even impacted by it. I do not know many men in the House who have to run to the drugstore to get birth control pills or have to use diaphragms or IUDs. This is a gender-specific issue for women and gender-diverse people. It is really appalling, because the very Conservative opposition that is talking about freedom, with a leader who talks about freedom, does not believe in freedom when it comes to bodily autonomy. The member for Carleton does not believe in freedom of religion, with the kind of Islamophobic, visceral garbage I have to hear on that side. Now they are directly attacking women's right to choose.
547 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:43:32 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I will give some examples. We are talking about facts, so I am going to give some examples.
This is from rabble.ca. It is entitled, “The inconvenient anti-choice record of 'pro-choice' Pierre Poilievre”. The Abortion Rights Coalition—
45 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:44:25 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, my apologies, but I am actually reading, and my understanding in the House is that we are allowed to read from notes.
The article states, “The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) keeps a list of anti-choice members of Parliament and has always rated Pierre Poilievre as anti-choice and continues to do—
58 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, the member for Carleton. I am so sorry. That is totally my fault, and I take responsibility. My apologies, but I am reading verbatim.
The article reads that the coalition has always rated the member as “anti-choice and continues to do so.” It continues to say, “he has consistently voted in favour of anti-choice private member bills and motions, with just one exception”.
Here are some examples: “There's just too many other reasons to doubt [the member for Carleton's] pro-choice claims”. “Like Erin O’Toole, [the member for Carleton] would allow private member bills against abortion to be introduced and would allow a free vote.”
On Bill C-311, which is likened to an anti-abortion bill, the entire Conservative Party, including the member for Carleton, voted in favour.
That is in this Parliament, so it is not surprising to me, when we are talking about an opportunity to lift up the rights of women and gender diverse people, to lift up equality, to support a person's right to choose and to have access to safe, trauma-informed abortion care, that the Conservatives are violently opposing this legislation. Why? It is because they do not care about reproductive rights. In fact, they have actively voted against reproductive rights.
The fact is that Conservatives are going against the pharmacare bill and are talking about insurance plans. There are a lot of people in this country who do not have insurance plans, which tells me how out of touch the Conservatives are with people who are struggling. These are the people who are struggling and who they talk about all the time. They are working, not for a living wage, and have no benefits and no pension plans. They not only have fought against this benefit, should they have diabetes or should they choose to not want to get pregnant, but also have actively fought against a living wage, often in marginalized jobs, often taken up by women in marginalized communities.
Do members want to talk about freedom? It is freedom only if it suits the Conservatives' narrow, and what has been likened by some, certainly in the media, extremist rhetoric. These are things like the member for Carleton endorsing Jordan Peterson, who is anti-trans, anti-choice and anti-women.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in a bill that focuses on specifically lifting up equality in Canada, the Conservatives are conveniently fighting against it in the name of so-called “choice”. By them denying individuals' access to contraception or to the morning after pill, they are denying freedom to make a choice over one's body. This includes banning medications from young people who are transitioning, young trans kids. We need to protect trans kids. We need to protect women's rights, and we need to protect the right to choose.
490 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:49:20 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to apologize for my misreading when I was reading the article. I do apologize. I was not trying to be cheeky, but I was reading directly from an article.
We know that certain provinces, provinces his colleague called “communist”, are providing free contraception care—
53 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:49:58 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I certainly was not saying that he called provinces communist. I said that some of his colleagues have called them communist.
Certainly, provinces do not act alone in health care. The federal government works with provinces to provide services. We have pushed the federal government to ensure provinces have what they need to provide, as a starting point, free diabetes medication and also contraception.
66 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:51:07 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the federal government is responsible and obliged to uphold national standards. We know that Quebec is ahead of the game on a number of issues. I will give the hon. member a couple of examples. On child care, Quebec is decades ahead, as well as on social programs, certainly.
Absolutely, when we are talking about provinces, the federal government is obliged to provide provinces with what they need to be able to offer these services.
I would, however, give a caveat to New Brunswick. In New Brunswick, currently, women cannot access an abortion. There need to be guidelines, in terms of public health transfers, if provinces are not upholding what the Liberal government has called the human right to access safe, trauma-informed abortion care.
127 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 8:52:58 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, that is exactly it. If one looks at access to reproductive rights, they vary throughout the country. We need to change that to ensure that if this country is actually doing what it says, which is protecting the reproductive rights of those people who can get pregnant, then they need to start doing that. That means access to safe, trauma-informed abortion care or access to contraception.
69 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 9:14:12 p.m.
- Watch
I fully acknowledge that I said the leader's name, but I also know that we cannot say things like saving “butts”. That is my understanding, and I am just pointing that out. If he could take that out—
42 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 9:15:10 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the member of Parliament probably could have finished eating his taxpayer-paid supper before coming in here. However, I would appreciate—
29 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/6/24 9:36:36 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to work with my hon. colleague across the way at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. There are other folks on the committee and I really enjoy working with all of them, even across party lines, believe it or not.
The Conservatives are talking about voting against free contraception in this plan. There is no question that they are anti-choice. All the members have been listed as anti-choice, but they also voted against the school food program and pushed against the national child care program. The Conservative Party does not seem to be supportive of equity in this country.
Supporting this bill is so important. I am wondering if they are really serious about advancing the rights of women, or if maybe they just want women and gender-diverse people to stay in the dark ages.
146 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
