SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 336 - Sep/16/24

Sep/16/24 4:09:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the simple answer is that the Conservatives want to mislead families. In fact, the leader of the official opposition, in a reply to family members urging them to take action to fix this injustice, said that the Conservatives supported passing Bill S-245. However, what did they do? They did everything they could to delay and obstruct its passage, to the point that they are even refusing to have the bill come before the House for a third reading debate and vote. They are misleading Canadian families. They are pretending that they stand for justice. They are pretending that they stand for the rights of Canadians and treating all Canadians equally. They do not. It is the very opposite of what they say and who they claim they are.

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Context: House Hansard - 336 - Sep/16/24

Ms. Lori Idlout (Nunavut, NDP)

Sep/16/24 7:13:03 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I am going to honour the families of the victims who were just killed. I ask that we make sure that we honour the memories of Jack Piche, Hoss Lightning-Saddleback, Tammy Bateman, Jason West, Daniel Knife and Steven “Iggy” Dedam. What will the member advise her party to say to the families of these victims, whose lives were lost, who are in grief? What will this party say to the families of these people?

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Context: House Hansard - 336 - Sep/16/24

Ms. Sylvie Bérubé (Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, BQ)

Sep/16/24 8:46:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to extend my condolences to the families affected. When it comes to the safety of indigenous peoples, could there be police forces? Earlier, I gave the example of a joint police force in Val‑d'Or. Could more funding be allocated for that? Is that a solution? Could the government also provide benefits for police forces? What else could it do for indigenous communities and organizations?

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Context: House Hansard - 336 - Sep/16/24

Ms. Lori Idlout (Nunavut, NDP)

Sep/16/24 10:00:38 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I always admire my friend and colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre, for her vision and great advocacy in ensuring that indigenous peoples' human rights are being upheld, something we do not get to see very often, which we all know is part of the reason we are having this emergency debate. One of the things that I keep wondering about is what accountability looks like for these people, for the families of these souls we have lost. What will accountability look like for the families of the people the member named in her statement?

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Context: House Hansard - 336 - Sep/16/24

Mrs. Laila Goodridge (Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC)

Sep/16/24 11:04:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to signal that I am going to be sharing my time with the member for, and my colleague from, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. As I rise today to speak to the sad topic of this emergency debate, I would like to recognize the six indigenous individuals who unfortunately lost their lives. Specifically, Steven “Iggy” Dedam, Danny Knife, Hoss Lightning-Saddleback, Jack Piche, Tammy Bateman and Jason West. I want to acknowledge the challenge, the trauma and the difficulty for the communities as a whole and for the families of those individuals. When someone dies, it is not just that the person is no longer there. There are ripples felt through the community as a whole. As I was preparing for this, I took it upon myself to read through some of the obituaries of the people who passed away because I find that is a piece that brings me solace. It is sad. There are kids who are going to grow up without their parents. There are parents who will not get to raise their children. It just bothers me. One of the chiefs I have had the immense pleasure of getting to know is a very well-known elder. The most impactful thing this person, Chief Dr. Willie Littlechild, has taught me is that it is not just reconciliation, it is “reconciliaction”. It is about action, and without action, words are effectively meaningless. He is an individual whom I have immense respect for. This is one of the pieces that really drives me crazy, as we sit here in these emergency debates, after nine years of a government that says this is its number one priority, yet it cannot show concrete action. It can show dollars spent, but it cannot show results achieved. I am going to give them some pointers of some places I think its members could go to if they were interested in taking steps toward this. One very clear step they could take is to explore the concepts around indigenous policing. It has existed since, I think, 1993. In my home province of Alberta, there are three indigenous policing services. There is the Blood Tribe Police Service on the Kainai First Nation. There is Lakeshore Regional Police Service, which actually services five first nations in northwestern Alberta: the Sawridge First Nation, Swan River First Nation, Driftpile Cree Nation, Sucker Creek First Nation and Kapawe'no First Nation. There is also the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service, which is on the the Tsuut'ina reserve, and it borders on Calgary. One of the interesting challenges with these contracts from the federal side, which are tripartite agreements between the province, the nation and the federal government, is that in my home province of Alberta, they have moved to longer-term, three-year funding contracts that provide more stability for those policing services to make long-term decisions, to hire and to operate, but they have to come, cap in hand, every single year to the federal government with their contracts to get their funding. This has to be done every single year. There are no long-term funding agreements put in place like we see with other policing services. This is a place where we could start. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the signing of Treaty No. 8. It started to be signed on June 21, just south of Grouard, Alberta, and ended on August 14, 1899, in Wabasca. It is 840,000 square kilometres through northern British Columbia, northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan and even parts of southern Northwest Territories. I share this because I grew up in the territory of Treaty No. 8. This summer, I had the immense opportunity to travel across communities in Treaty No. 8, to meet with individuals, to hear their stories, to really engage and to learn what the treaty meant and what it means to them today. This is one of the pieces where the rubber has not hit the road. After nine years of the Liberal government, we are seeing increasing crime and an increasing severity of crime. We are seeing failure upon failure because of catch-and-release policies that are letting violent offenders back into the community. We are seeing failures as a direct result of the absolutely wacko drug policies that have been put forward by the NDP-Liberal government, which have effectively legalized drugs such as crack, cocaine, meth and heroin in the province of British Columbia. It is pure insanity and it has real consequences. It bothers me because the government sits there and pats itself on the back, showing time after time that it is so proud of the money it has spent. However, the Auditor General has been very clear that the money spent has not resulted in actual outcomes. I will quote some of the AG's report on first nations policing in Canada; it says, “Public Safety Canada did not know the full demand of the program. The department has no application process for First Nations and Inuit communities that wanted to join the program”. There is no application program. The government has no way of knowing who wants to join. That is a failure. Next, “The RCMP did not consistently deliver on its responsibilities under the program”. Furthermore, “First Nations and Inuit communities are signing agreements with the expectation of having dedicated and tailored policing services, but the RCMP may not be able to meet those terms of the agreement.” Then, there is the real kicker: “No information on program effectiveness”. The government has this program. It spends all kinds of money on it. It creates an expectation that it will deliver a service. In the end, it has no metrics to say whether it is a success. We know it is not a success. Crime is up across this country. That is a direct result of the failure of the NDP-Liberal government to protect Canadians and keep us safe over the last nine years. People are scared in their communities, and it is a direct result of failed policy after failed policy. This is a space where we are at yet another emergency debate to discuss people who have tragically lost their lives. We do not hear about any actual concrete action from the Liberal government or difference as to what it is going to do. We do not have a minister coming in here, presenting some big policy plank. The Liberals make promises, pat themselves on the back for all the money they have spent, but money is not going to get them out of this problem. They need to make sure that it is being spent properly. Ottawa does not know best. This is something I am going to repeat. Ottawa shows up and screws it up more often than it fixes things. When I am in my riding and talking to people, they are very clear with me that Ottawa makes more wrong decisions than right ones. We need indigenous-led, nation-to-nation conversations about actual spaces where we could see true reform and reconciliaction. I have had enough of these emergency debates, where we sit here and hear the government patting itself on the back when we are clearly here because there has been an emergency. With that, I really hope we can see some action from the Liberals, but I am not hopeful.

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