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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 338

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 18, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 338 - Sep/18/24
Hon. Bill Blair
  • Sep/18/24 4:41:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I give my personal thanks for your and your party's support, which will allow this bill to move forward. That is important and it will allow us to get some work done. With respect to consultation, as I have indicated and as Madam Justice Arbour reported, she did do fairly extensive consultation, during which she talked to hundreds of survivors, advocates and witnesses, who provided her with advice. I think her recommendations are a really clear road map of the path forward, and we have been well informed by them. I also want to assure you that our chief of the defence staff, in her previous role, conducted very extensive consultations. She advised me that she spoke to 16,000 people, and not just members of the Canadian Armed Forces, although there were many, and members of DND, but also advocates, survivors and witnesses. There was very extensive consultation. I also hear you, because I have heard the same thing. There are some people who do not yet feel they have been heard. We are presented with a real opportunity at committee to give those people another forum where they can come forward and share their experiences and opinions with the committee. I also hope that you engage with our chief of the defence staff, who oversaw the consultation with over 16,000 people, so that she can share with you the results of those consultations. I do not think we can ever do enough to listen to the lived experiences. People need to know that they have been heard, and we have tried very hard to hear them. I know there is no universal consensus on exactly the right way forward, but we have been informed by the excellent report of Justice Arbour and the excellent report of Justice Fish. We have listened to literally thousands of people who have come forward and offered their opinions, their lived experiences and their advice. Our work has been informed by that experience and that advice, but I would welcome the committee taking even further steps to continue in that consultation.
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Context: House Hansard - 338 - Sep/18/24
Mr. Peter Julian
  • Sep/18/24 6:02:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Winnipeg North and I sometimes disagree and sometimes agree. I appreciate his kind words and, above all, his words directed to the many organizations across the country that have been strong advocates for so long. This is an important point. As parliamentarians, all of us have done a disservice to those organizations, which have been calling for decades, in many cases, for section 43 of the Criminal Code to be repealed and for us to end the legalization of physical punishment of children in this country, as 67 other countries have done. Those advocates have often been frustrated by the slowness of the response from parliamentarians, but in the next few days, we can finally do justice to all of their work by adopting this legislation.
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