Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: Honourable senators, it is fitting that, on February 14, a day for showing our loved ones that we love them and appreciate them, we should pay our deepest respects to a wonderful woman, the late senator Viola Léger, who recently passed away at the age of 92.

Viola was a senator for New Brunswick from 2001 to 2006, during which time she served on both the Committee on Official Languages and the Committee on Aboriginal Peoples. That is no coincidence since she was a staunch advocate for minorities throughout her life.

During her years in the Senate, she regularly charmed us with her insightful poems that showed us the fundamental role of culture as a reflection of Canadian diversity, united by our common values. I don’t have time, in these three short minutes, to list all of the titles and honours that she was awarded, but they were all very well deserved.

For francophones from New Brunswick, she was our ambassador, both nationally and internationally, bringing our history to life on stage in her role as La Sagouine. Off stage, it was her smile, her intelligence and life experience that shone through.

Like the star on the Acadian flag, she was for many of us a guiding star whose wisdom and dignity served to light the way for future generations of Acadian artists, like our own Senator René Cormier and many others. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Senator Cormier, who gave an eloquent eulogy at Viola’s funeral last week. Thank you, René.

It goes without saying that, of all the roles Viola undertook during her lifetime, her performance on stage in the role of La Sagouine, from the novel of the same name written by her friend Antonine Maillet, was particularly exceptional. Every time I attended a performance, I was moved by her monologue, and the fact that she could enthrall the audience for hours, all on her own. That was just one of her many feats.

In the Senate on May 19, 2005, during her statement on the influence of culture, she said the following:

The arts play an indispensable role in our mutual understanding.

Artistic creation awakens our consciousness. It is a source of meditation, inspiration, reflection and comfort. The arts help balance us, elevate our souls, and allow us to breathe, to live. . . .

The arts define us and, above all, help us understand who we are as Canadians and what our society is all about.

Honourable senators, Viola’s statement was one of love — appropriate for us on Valentine’s Day. It shows her love for Acadia, for culture, for the arts, for Canada and for all of us who have been blessed to have known her at some point in her life.

Dear Viola, thank you so much for dedicating your life to the love of culture, and love for one another. Know that your memory will live on in our hearts.

You accomplished your life and your mission brilliantly. Rest in peace.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

Hon. Jane Cordy: Honourable senators, the impact of the arts on our lives should never be understated. People feel seen and understood when they see their lived experience reflected back to them. It can also foster understanding from those who are coming from a different perspective.

On behalf of the Progressive Senate Group, I rise today to recognize a former colleague and a friend who did just that. Former senator Viola Léger passed away on January 28 of this year at the age of 92. Before her appointment to the Senate by the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien in 2001, Viola dedicated her life to the arts as an actress and as a teacher, particularly known for her portrayal of La Sagouine, a role created in 1971 by her friend and author Antonine Maillet. It was a role she would play more than 3,000 times over her lifetime. Her humble, straight-talking washerwoman inspired pride among the Acadian people, but also reached far beyond the people who recognized themselves in her.

She has been described as an icon, and indeed, as the author responsible for her signature role said, if Viola Léger:

. . . hadn’t played Sagouine, Sagouine wouldn’t have had the success that it had, and therefore (I would not have) received the recognition I received as a writer.

Many Acadian artists regard Viola Léger as an inspiration and have endeavoured to pursue a life in the arts because of the path she carved. Without her influence, we cannot know the stories or the beauty we may have missed. What a marvellous legacy.

When she eventually came to this place in 2001, she was certainly someone who did not shy away from hard work. While she herself was tiny and quiet, her dedication was not. I recall that she was driven to get things done in the chamber and was not very fond of the partisan debate to which we are often prone.

She spent time as a member of the Aboriginal Peoples Committee, the Official Languages Committee and the Social Affairs Committee, and she certainly championed the arts throughout her time as a senator.

Senator Léger was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989. She was the recipient of the 1995 New Brunswick government’s Arts Excellence Award, the Order of New Brunswick in 2007 and four honorary degrees. She was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France in 1991, member of the Ordre des francophones d’Amérique in 1998 and Knight of the Ordre de la Pléiade in 2004.

Honourable senators, while Canadians, and particularly the people of New Brunswick, have lost a cherished icon, La Sagouine will sit forever in our hearts. I send my deepest condolences to her friends and to her family. Thank you.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

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

I have endeavoured, and will continue to endeavour, to get answers as quickly as possible. I believe we have made some progress in that, as my statements and responses in the chamber will indicate.

I’ll certainly make inquiries about the questions that are outstanding and, in particular, regarding the status of questions that were asked in previous parliaments.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): I do not know what the government’s response to the report is.

I can say the following: First of all, drug-impaired driving was a problem that pre-existed the legalization of cannabis. No one assumed for a moment, in this chamber or elsewhere, that legalization would eliminate that problem.

A number of things have changed: increased attention to the detection of impaired driving, specifically drug-impaired driving; one hopes there’s stringent prosecution where such has been found and established by the evidence to be the case; and, of course, at least in some jurisdictions, increased sophisticated tests to determine and detect when somebody may be driving while impaired by drugs.

It is a serious problem. That’s why the government introduced changes to the Criminal Code, which helped assist law enforcement in detecting those who may have been driving after having consumed cannabis and its related substances.

The government, working with the provinces and territories, will continue to do what it can to keep Canadians safe on the road.

Honourable senator, it is not the position of the government that the legalization of cannabis is the driving force behind this, admittedly, serious problem affecting the safety and security of Canadians.

Senator Gold: It is not contempt. As I said in my previous answer, honourable colleague, I will continue to make every effort to get answers in a timely fashion.

[Translation]

Hon. David M. Wells: Honourable senators, the night of February 14, and into the early morning of February 15, 1982 — 41 years ago — the semi-submersible drilling rig named the Ocean Ranger capsized and sank 175 nautical miles east of St. John’s. Before going down, a mayday was sent out, and the rig was abandoned. Back then, it was almost impossible to safely launch life boats and get people into them in a raging North Atlantic storm. That night 84 men, mostly Newfoundlanders, died in the dark, stormy, frigid waters. The cause of deaths for most of them was found to be drowning while in a hypothermic state.

The Ocean Ranger was the world’s largest semi-submersible drill rig and it was only six years old. The joint Federal-Provincial Royal Commission on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster found that the crew lacked proper safety training, had inadequate safety equipment, and there were no safety protocols for the supply ship. The inspections of the rig by the U.S. and Canadian regulators and agencies were also inadequate, and the rig itself had a number of design and construction flaws.

Colleagues, accidents usually occur because of failure of more than one system. In the case of this disaster 41 years ago, all things conspired against it. It was literally and figuratively the perfect storm.

In this case, the Royal Commission determined that the specific reason was that a rogue wave smashed through the ballast control room porthole, and the sea water rendered the ballast control panel inoperable, leading to the listing of the rig, where the wave action took over and delivered the final blow. The ballast control porthole that had been smashed was 8.5 m from the waterline, and the waves were approaching 20 m. The wind was 190 km/h.

There have been significant improvements in the safety culture in the Newfoundland offshore since then. Those who were here in this chamber in 2014 may recall that I introduced the Offshore Health and Safety Act in our chamber, which updated requirements for safety in the offshore. It passed unanimously in both chambers and is now the law in Canada’s offshore. Training is better; equipment is better; processes are better, as is forecasting, but dangers always remain.

I had the honour of attending a play in St. John’s on Saturday evening called RIG: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster, written by Mike Heffernan and adapted for the stage by Joan Sullivan. I spoke to them both over the weekend and met the cast. Of the dozen or so people portrayed in the play who were intimately involved in the aftermath of the disaster, I personally knew four of them.

Our province becomes a smaller place when tragedy strikes, and there isn’t one community that wasn’t touched by this one. There are books, songs, plays and monuments, and there are those who still grieve. This evening and tomorrow, our province will commemorate the loss. I invite all colleagues to do so as well. Thank you.

Hon. Amina Gerba: Honourable senators, I’d like to continue with the series I announced as part of this year’s Black History Month by introducing you to another African Canadian, a young leader with an unconventional journey who chose to settle in a part of the country that many of us in this room are probably not familiar with. His name is Jean-François Kacou, and I affectionately refer to him as JFK. He served as the town manager of Percé, Quebec, until February 10.

The first time he visited Quebec as a tourist, JFK was charmed by Quebecers’ warm welcome, Montreal’s vibrancy and the many opportunities Canada had to offer.

JFK was a graduate of the Université de Bordeaux and a young entrepreneur. After returning to France, he decided to come back to Quebec to work. He started out as a consultant before joining my team at Afrique Expansion Inc. as a strategic advisor in 2015.

That was when I got to know this young man, who is as passionate about Quebec’s economic potential as he is about the need to forge ties between our country and Africa. He is a hard worker, a meticulous project developer and a very ambitious intrapreneur.

In 2019, a recruitment process highlighted his diverse skill set, and the mayor of the City of Percé, Quebec, hired him for the position of general manager. Percé’s charms include its landscape and tourist attractions, such as the iconic Percé Rock.

Jean-François Kacou left his mark on Percé. The city diversified its economic development thanks to a new tourism levy and green tax, the creation of the Val-d’Espoir permaculture school, and the city’s new culture and convention space.

Esteemed colleagues, the purpose of my series of speeches this month was to draw these young African-Canadian builders to your attention. There are a lot of them, and they have been contributing to our country’s economic development for over 400 years.

Please join me in recognizing Jean-Francois Kacou’s contribution to economic and tourism development in Percé, Quebec. Thank you.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Honourable colleagues:

Stolen from the plots of quixote Pierrot and the troubled Muddy Waters, these elegiac flowers of Whylah Falls, the Black Mississippi village banished to Jarvis County, Nova Scotia, in 1783, droop with the heaviness of history. Irrigated by liquor and tears and dessicated by blistery blues, they bloom in direct moonlight. Though intended originally for the garden of Whylah Falls, these loose flowers are freely planted here.

The “here” of this poem is Africadia, Acadia, Nova Scotia, the birthplace of former parliamentary poet laureate George Elliott Clarke, the place where Africans first came to Canada. Clarke’s “elegiac flowers” represent the over 3,000 people of African descent who came to Birchtown, Nova Scotia in 1783, like the fictional Aminata Diallo of Lawrence Hill’s Book of Negroes.

I quoted this poem when I spoke in support of Senator Bernard’s Emancipation Day bill. Today I rise to celebrate African Heritage Month, as we call it in Nova Scotia. I want to highlight our province as the birthplace of African culture and heritage in Canada.

African people and people of African descent came to Nova Scotia in a number of ways, including the earlier mentioned Black Loyalists at the time of the U.S. War of Independence. Some ended up leaving to help establish Freetown, Sierra Leone.

In 1604, Mathieu Da Costa, said to be the first Black person in Nova Scotia, is recorded among the founders of Port-Royal, established by Samuel de Champlain on traditional Mi’kmaw territory, close to the town of Annapolis Royal.

The Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island was home to 200 Black slaves during the French regime of 1713 to 1758, most coming from the French West Indies.

In 1796, 600 Trelawny Maroons were exiled from Jamaica to Nova Scotia, and many moved on to Sierra Leone.

After the War of 1812, roughly 2,000 Black refugees came, and from the 1920s on, hundreds of Caribbean immigrants came to work in the coal and steel industries in Cape Breton, and today people of African descent continue to enrich our province in so many ways.

As I conclude my remarks, I want to congratulate three important beacons of education in our province: the Black Cultural Centre with its African Nova Scotian Museum in Cherry Brook, the Africentric Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute in Halifax and the unique Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Birchtown. Thank you for shining your bright lights on African Nova Scotian history, heritage, culture, people, communities and accomplishments. Your work is important. Thank you, wela’lioq.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Honourable senators, as we continue to recognize the stories and accomplishments of so many incredible Black Canadians as part of Black History Month in Canada, I’d like to take a moment to pay tribute to someone very special to me and to many people who love the game of hockey: John Paris Jr.

He was a talented hockey player from Windsor, Nova Scotia, who was scouted by none other than Scotty Bowman to play junior hockey in Quebec in the 1960s. In a cruel turn of events, John’s playing career was ultimately cut short by his battles with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other health challenges. However, he went on to an amazing coaching career, blazing a trail every step of the way.

He was the first Black coach in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League; the first Black scout in the NHL; the first Black general manager in a professional hockey league; and the first Black coach in pro hockey, leading the Atlanta Knights of the IHL to a league championship in 1994. But perhaps John’s proudest hockey moment was in 1987 when he guided the Richelieu Riverains to an Air Canada Cup championship. He broke ceilings and overcame barriers with class and excellence.

Let me tell you a little something about the character of the man. When I was playing minor league hockey in and around Montreal, I never had the privilege of being coached by John, but I certainly knew the legend of John Paris Jr. in Midget AAA and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. My own playing career never panned out either — for much different reasons, of course — but I did do a little coaching. That’s how I met John Paris Jr. in 2004 during a lockout-shortened season in the NHL. Like everyone else in the league, John was trying to keep himself busy, so he coached a North American Hockey League team in Laval. I introduced myself to him at the rink in Laval and asked if he would be willing to come out on a weekend to run a couple of practices with my spring AAA hockey team, a group of eight‑year-old hockey players, including my son. Of course, when I approached Mr. Paris, very humbly I asked him what remuneration would be required for someone of such experience and professional background, and he said, “Leo, I would be happy to come out. You can pay me whatever you want or nothing at all.” He came out that weekend, and he didn’t leave for six months.

Colleagues, let me tell you, I have never seen someone with the ability to captivate, motivate, communicate and teach children like John did. Their eyes would light up at the mere mention of his name and his coaching ways. Even as they went on to play, many of them in junior, college and a couple in the NHL, they still remember their time as eight-year-olds with “Coach John.” He wasn’t just the best Black hockey coach, he was the best coach, period, and more importantly, an incredible, decent human being.

Colleagues, I hope you’ll join me in recognizing John’s contributions on and off the ice by supporting an online movement to have John Paris Jr. inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder and a coach. Colleagues, I encourage you to learn more about this Canadian hockey legend and to sign the petition and get him where he belongs: the NHL’s Hockey Hall of Fame. Thank you.

Hon. Brent Cotter, Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, presented the following report:

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs has the honour to present its

ELEVENTH REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-233, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Judges Act (violence against an intimate partner), has, in obedience to the order of reference of Wednesday, December 14, 2022, examined the said bill and now reports the same without amendment but with certain observations, which are appended to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

BRENT COTTER

Chair

(For text of observations, see today’s Journals of the Senate, p. 1247.)

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): As per usual, my question is for the government leader.

Leader, today on the Senate Order Paper, there are currently 63 written questions that remain unanswered after six months, including 51 that were filed over a year ago. In fact, at least eight of my questions were tabled in the previous Parliament, with one question stretching all the way back to October 27, 2020.

Under the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, the government has 45 days to answer questions. This proves that providing responses to parliamentarians can be done in a timely manner.

Senator Gold, these delays in answering questions from honourable senators are unacceptable. What are you doing to correct it?

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I give notice that, at the next sitting of the Senate, I will move:

That, given reports of human rights abuses, repression and executions of its citizens, particularly women, in Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Senate call upon the government to immediately designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity.

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, the Journal de Montréal reported that Quebec’s justice minister sent a letter to Minister Lametti denouncing the measures in Bill C-5 that allow for house arrest instead of prison sentences for sexual offenders. I would like to quote from the Journal de Montréal, which reports that Minister Jolin-Barrette said the following:

 . . . the return of conditional sentences for certain crimes is “a major step backwards in the fight against sexual violence.” He adds that this law “goes against the efforts of all justice system stakeholders to prevent victims from being reluctant to speak up or file a complaint.”

Wondering what kind of message this legislation sends, Mr. Jolin-Barrette is asking Minister Lametti to “remedy the situation immediately.”

When will the minister remedy this situation?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question and your dedicated commitment to victims of violence and crime. It is the position of the Government of Canada, as expressed many times by Minister Lametti and as set out in the bill that we passed, that repealing the sentences in the bill that you mentioned was the right thing to do under the circumstances and that this bill strikes a proper balance to ensure that our system is fair, tough when appropriate, but always appropriate in every situation.

Hon. Paula Simons: My question is for the Government Representative.

Yesterday, internationally acclaimed Edmonton photojournalist Amber Bracken and The Narwhal magazine launched a lawsuit against the RCMP seeking damages and clarification of journalist protections against law enforcement. This comes in the wake of Ms. Bracken’s 2021 arrest while on assignment for The Narwhal as she covered the conflict between protesters and the RCMP in the Wet’suwet’en territory of British Columbia. Ms. Bracken has said that she informed arresting officers of jurisprudence protecting journalists in injunction zones, but officers said they were unfamiliar with any such law.

How will the government ensure our national police force respects journalists’ presence and the rights of those documenting conflict in light of these reported serious infringements?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. I am aware of the circumstances to which you refer and the lawsuit that was launched. I cannot make any comments on a matter that is before the courts, of course. With regard to your question, I will have to make some inquiries and be glad to report back.

[Translation]

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you, honourable colleague, for raising this important question. I completely understand your concerns.

The government has brought in a number of resources to help us improve our immigration system.

Regarding your question in particular, I will follow up with the government and come back to you as soon as I have a response.

[English]