Senator Seidman: Yes.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, I want to return to the topic of illegal crossings into Canada at Roxham Road.

Last week, I raised the report of free bus tickets being distributed by U.S. National Guard members to asylum seekers in Manhattan to bring them closer to our border. On Friday, leader, it was reported that off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in upstate New York are not only providing bus tickets, but are also driving asylum seekers to the border in exchange for money. Canada Border Services Agency confirmed to the media that they are aware of this situation, leader.

Last week, I asked you how long the Trudeau government has been aware of the free bus tickets. Today, I would also like to know how long your government has been aware that some U.S. border patrol officers have been doing this. What is your government doing about this, leader? I hope I can have the answer before 2024.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question.

If I understood the factual underpinnings of the question, it was not the government who made that statement, but the official from the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA.

Be that as it may, the government does not consider this money insignificant — it is real and important money. The government — in introducing the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB, and in pursuing those who may have wrongly claimed CERB — has to make a cost-benefit analysis as to the likelihood of success, and the effort to be taken. I have every confidence those decisions will be made in a responsible manner.

The Hon. the Speaker: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Hon. Raymonde Gagné (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, with leave of the Senate, and notwithstanding rule 5-5(j), I move:

That, notwithstanding any provision of the Rules or usual practice, for today’s sitting, tributes to the late Honourable Senator Viola Léger be continued into Senators’ Statements, if required, and the total period for Tributes and Senators’ Statements be extended by a maximum of five minutes.

Senator Pate: I wish I had more time, because I know you don’t want tributes, but Senator Campbell, you just established exactly why your presence here has been so vitally important.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the third time?

(On motion of Senator Dalphond, bill placed on the Orders of the Day for third reading at the next sitting of the Senate.)

(1450)

[English]

Hon. Pamela Wallin: Honourable senators, on behalf of Senator Richards who could not be here today, these are his words of tribute to Viola Léger:

I saw her perform only one time — a number of years ago now — when I was artist-in-residence at St. Thomas University, and she came to the small, intimate stage, sitting on a chair under one light, dressed as La Sagouine, speaking — this time — in English. We surrounded her on three sides, mostly students but professors as well, and she spoke Antonine Maillet’s great monologues in a voice that was not only hers, not only Antonine’s and not just Acadian — though, of course, it was Acadian — but a voice that became, over the hour, ours as well. That is, I knew her as I knew my grandmother from Matapédia or my Acadian great-grandmother. Slowly, it became our voice too and, as the hour progressed, mesmerizing.

She was an old lady, a fisherwoman born of the bay, a scrubwoman far away in New Brunswick, a part of some rustic backwoods region — what could she ever have to offer sophisticated people? Well, you see, everything, everything in the world — whatever God intended us to know, understand or cherish.

She slowly filled that small stage — and that group that surrounded her on three sides — with charm, wit, laughter and, in the end, a deep understanding of both the great joy and great sorrow of our world. The audience of young boys and girls — boys and girls from another age — listened with reverence. She had the spirit of a woman who celebrated the spirit of all mankind — a joyful celebration that we, in fact, share far more in our common humanity than we could ever imagine.

Monologues were delivered with such impeccable understanding of “how” — that is how stories are related, and why they must be told the way they are; that is how human beings relate to one another and the world around them. Yes, this was the great Antonine Maillet’s writing, of course, but it was Ms. Léger’s delivery that brought it to life. In that moment, I suppose the two women were as one — the wonderful friendship between them that had started half of a century before were transformed by those words on that bare stage.

Though I had known Antonine Maillet for some time, and though Peg and I were invited to l’Université de Moncton for a celebration on the fortieth anniversary of La Sagouine, I never got to speak to or meet Ms. Léger. I wish I had. I always thought I would have a chance. Of course, as life would have it, I never did. Still, I will never forget that little washerwoman on stage for that one hour, surrounded by us all — with one light shining on a hunched and noble soul as she confided in us a gracious and eloquent wisdom. It was the wisdom that Tolstoy himself understood: There is no greatness without goodness, kindness and simplicity.

What might I have said if I had met her? I would have told her that her little washerwoman is universal, and like “The Song of Joy,” “Amazing Grace” or “Oh Danny Boy,” her monologues can be understood by anyone from any language — flying any flag over any country — and all one needs in order to understand such a grand old woman is love.

The Hon. the Speaker: Thank you very much, honourable senators.

(1430)

[English]

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

[English]

Senator Boisvenu: Senator Gold, the floodgates have been opened. In Quebec, nearly a dozen sex offenders, arms traffickers and drug traffickers have been sentenced to house arrest. Yesterday, someone who tried to kill his friend with a screwdriver was sent home to serve 20 months in his living room.

Minister Lametti said that he is trying to ease congestion in the court system, but instead this is emptying out our prisons.

This morning, the federal Minister for Sport once again encouraged athletes who have been the victim of abuse to report their attacker. Senator Gold, my question is fairly simple. Do you agree that, in 2023, we should be allowing rapists, men who assault women, to serve their sentence from the comfort of their own home rather than in prison?

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. I agree with the legislation as it was adopted because it strikes a balance in the penal system. I have full confidence in our justice system, including the judges who are seized with pertinent facts in every case. I will continue to have confidence in this system.

[English]

Senator Gold: I will certainly make inquiries. Thank you for the question.

Senator Coyle: I think this could have been also asked of my colleague Senator Forest, who spoke about the access issue to the benefit, that there are Canadians who we know are not filing taxes. If we solely rely on that system to be able to provide this benefit to those who need it, we will be missing a lot of vulnerable people and, as I mentioned, also those who may not even have a social insurance number, who need this benefit more than anyone.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Time has expired.

Hon. Renée Dupuis: Would Senator Seidman agree to take a question?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

Senator Gold: First of all, I will answer your question, senator, but to call the Canadian government “complicit” with initiatives taken in Manhattan, or elsewhere — by individuals on American territory and subject to American law — is extreme, even by the standards of Question Period.

The government is working with the United States to modernize the Safe Third Country Agreement. I have said on many occasions that closing Roxham Road is not the solution — and this is the view not only of this government, but also of many commentators and observers. It is a problem that the government is working on, not only with the United States, but with the Province of Quebec, and will continue to do so.