Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: My question is for Senator Gold. In March, the media reported that the Quebec Court of Appeal had overturned the conviction of someone who had been tried in a secret trial. The Court of Appeal denounced this practice, which, in its words, was contrary to the fundamental principles of justice and “incompatible with the values of a liberal democracy.”

This secret trial was also a serious breach of one of the pillars of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, namely the right to information. We also learned from the same media outlet that Minister Lametti was in close communication with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada about this case, after stating a few months earlier that he was steering clear of this case in order to defend the transparency and independence of justice.

Senator Gold, is the Minister of Justice’s intrusion into a court proceeding as reprehensible as the Prime Minister’s interference in the SNC-Lavalin case?

Senator Gold: The government is not comfortable at all knowing that Canadians are facing challenges with the rising cost of living, including access to affordable housing.

The government is confident that the measures it put in place are not Band-Aid solutions. They are targeted, focused and serious. They work in partnership with the provinces and territories, Indigenous communities and municipalities. They provide real, tangible assistance to Canadians in a time of need, and the government will never apologize for continuing to act responsibly in the best interest of Canadians.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Senator Gold, I think there is one thing that you and I can both agree on, and that is that our seniors are valuable citizens and deserve to be looked after. But yesterday, the environment minister announced that the Trudeau government will also be applying its carbon tax in Newfoundland and Labrador, which means the price of home heating oil, gasoline and other fuels will be going up, and this impact will likely be felt much more among seniors.

In a recent CBC article, the Executive Director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Sector Pensioners’ Association, Sharron Callahan, said that she has heard from seniors that are being forced to make choices between food, medication and heat, and even some who may be forced to leave their homes if they can’t afford to keep them warm.

Senator Gold, at a time when the cost of living is already making it difficult for Canadians, and especially our most vulnerable citizens, why is your government punishing them with this tax hike?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Well, the inflation rates then and now are matters of public record. There is no doubt, Senator Housakos, as we know and experience, that the inflation rate has risen significantly over the last number of years and, of course, although it is the talking point of the opposition of which you are a member to blame all aspects of inflation and all ills, whether it’s drug policy or gun violence, on the federal government, those who reflect seriously on these matters know very well the multifaceted explanations for these. The government’s Fall Economic Statement is a targeted and appropriate one to address the rising cost of living and inflation, and the government has confidence that it will bear fruit.

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. I think the government is grateful and acknowledges the work that the agricultural sector — beef producers and others — are doing to do their part.

The answer to your question is no. The government remains committed to the equitable application of the price on pollution in those jurisdictions that have chosen not to have a comparable program, and it will continue to do so in the best interests of this and future generations.

Hon. Kim Pate: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate as well.

In June, a Justice lawyer wrote, on behalf of Justice Minister Lametti, to the lawyers for Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance — 2 of the 12 Indigenous women whose cases who were included in our report, Injustices and Miscarriages of Justice Experienced by 12 Indigenous Women: A Case for Group Conviction Review and Exoneration by the Department of Justice via the Law Commission of Canada and/or the Miscarriages of Justice Commission — advising that since there, “ . . . may be a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in this matter,” their cases will be reviewed.

The cases of these and the additional 10 Indigenous women demonstrate the urgent need for protection to ensure that injustices like those experienced by the Quewezance sisters do not continue unabated.

Canadians have been promised two ways in which this can happen: the yet-to-be-implemented body to examine possible wrongful convictions, and the much anticipated revival of the former law commission of Canada. What will the mandates of each be, and when can we expect to see these review bodies up and running?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, it is with great sadness that I learned of the sudden passing of Pastor Leon Fontaine this past weekend.

Leon was well-known as the pastor of Springs Church, one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in Canada with two locations — one in Winnipeg, and one in Calgary. He also served as the CEO of Miracle Channel, Canada’s original Christian television station, since 2010.

Leon’s faith was the foundation of his life. His love for God and his compassion for others moved him to put that faith into action — which was evident in the strength of his vision and the warmth of his heart.

He described his vision using the word “laugh,” which he spelled L-A-F: L for love, A for acceptance and F for forgiveness. His goal was to teach others to love one another unconditionally the way God loves us, to accept one another where we are because everyone is at a different place and to forgive because everyone makes mistakes. So we should learn to forgive as Christ forgave us.

I had the privilege of visiting Leon’s church in Winnipeg a few times, and I was recently interviewed for one of his shows on Miracle Channel. It was clear to me that this was a man who not only loved God, but also deeply loved his country.

During the pandemic, Leon did everything he could to make sure that people continued to receive the care they needed. When indoor services were no longer possible due to public health orders, Springs Church launched drive-in services where people could assemble in the safety of their vehicles, and listen to inspirational music and encouraging messages streaming on a large outdoor screen.

When he felt things went too far with the federal government’s vaccine mandates, he wasn’t afraid to speak up and say so. Leon’s stance was sometimes controversial, but he was not one to stand idly by when he saw someone in need. His faith was not just a Sunday faith. It translated into everything he did. He was compelled to do what he could to make the world a better place by impacting one person’s life at a time.

The world lost a treasure last week, but heaven gained a saint. To Leon’s wife, Sally; his children Eden, Danielle, Tamara, Michala and Zack; their spouses Jayden, David, Jeremy, Austin and Jessica; and to his five grandchildren, you have our deepest condolences in your time of loss. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you, and may you experience the nearness of the God of all comfort during this challenging time.

Hon. Fabian Manning: Honourable senators, today I am pleased to present chapter 67 of “Telling Our Story.”

Newfoundland and Labrador is no stranger to maritime disaster with pervasive threats of ocean ice, raging storms and jagged reefs jeopardizing sailors who brave the seas when conditions are poor. From these come some stories of fantastic heroism and others of terrible tragedy.

One such tragedy occurred on a windy February night in 1918 on a luxury steamer bound for Halifax and New York. The SS Florizel, under Captain William Martin, was a vessel of some history. Commissioned in 1909, the Florizel was among the first ships specifically designed to navigate the icy waters around Newfoundland and Labrador. She had participated in the rescue of sealers stranded on the ice during the great Sealing Disaster of 1914 and was the vessel to carry to Europe the first 500 volunteers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in World War I — the Blue Puttees. But on that fateful winter’s night, she would not be celebrated.

The Florizel left port at St. John’s around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 23, with orders from Captain Martin to proceed at full speed. Unbeknownst to Martin, however, the ship’s chief engineer, J.V. Reader, had only put her at partial speed in order to delay her arrival in Halifax and force an overnight stay at the port so that Reader could visit his family. This action, however intended, had fatal consequences, as Captain Martin judged the ship as having travelled much farther than she actually had, turning her westward long before she’d passed the Avalon Peninsula.

Just after 4:30 a.m., the Florizel crashed head-on into a reef off Cappahayden, going full speed. Dozens of crew and passengers died in the initial impact, with many more drowning or freezing as the ship was torn to pieces by the perilous waves. An SOS signal was sent out, but due to the previous navigation error, the rescuers were directed to the wrong area. Thankfully, the people of Cappahayden could see the wreck from the beach and corrected this error. They attempted to launch a small boat to rescue survivors, but it was immediately overturned by the storm.

Meanwhile, on the Florizel, power had been lost, and most remaining survivors were weathering the storm in the small radio room. As it was wartime in the dead of winter, it was particularly difficult to mount a rescue. The day after the crash, a handful of rescue vessels incorrectly reported that there were no survivors on the wreck, halting rescue progress until the reports were rectified. To make matters worse, the large rescue ships couldn’t go near the wreck due to the reef, and the small rescue ships couldn’t launch due to the storm.

Twenty-seven hours after the crash, a rescue successfully took place, saving 44 passengers and crew. However, an even greater number were lost — 93 people lost their lives, including three-year-old Betty Munn, who was sailing with her father. She was torn from his arms in the disaster. In memory of her death, there is a statue of Peter Pan, the fairy tale she loved, in Bowring Park in St. John’s.

The task of preaching and bringing comfort to the families of those who had suffered the loss of loved ones fell to Archbishop Edward Patrick Roche of St. John’s, who in a sermon at the memorial for the victims said:

With the exception perhaps of the great Sealing Disaster of a few years ago [the SS Newfoundland, 1914] never has there been in our history — strewn as that history is with marine tragedies great and small — an ocean horror that has come home to us with such appalling force as the great disaster of the ‘Florizel’ which now throws its shadow over our city and our Island.

Thank you.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Honourable senators, I rise today with my head spinning, my spirits elevated and with a strengthened resolve to encourage everyone to urgently come to the climate action table. I was honoured to join fellow Senators Bovey and Galvez as part of the Canadian delegation at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, which attracted 30,000 registrants from 197 countries, including the largest Indigenous contingent ever. This was touted as the “COP of implementation.”

Canada had an impressive delegation, representing all sectors and regions, and our pavilion hosted a high-quality series of substantive events. We discussed mitigation, reducing and eliminating emissions, adaptation to climate impacts, stepping up and greatly expanding climate finance from billions to trillions, reforming the Bretton Woods Institutions and creating a “loss and damage” fund for the countries hardest hit by climate impacts.

We discussed Indigenous-led climate action and rights, the disproportionate impacts on women, women as leaders on solutions and not just victims, energy transitions and energy security, whole-of-economy transitions, just transitions, culture, oceans, more focus on methane, the cryosphere, cities, nature, biodiversity, agriculture and forests. We discussed drought in Africa and that continent’s vast potential for solar energy, protecting the Congo basin, glaciers melting in Nepal, small island states at risk, Ukraine and the absolute imperative of upping ambition internationally and in Canada to ensure we keep the shared goal of 1.5 °C alive.

At COP27, Sara Olsvig, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, said:

The Inuit reality has become the global reality. It is important to recognize the interconnectedness of our human rights and climate.

Dr. Courtney Howard of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment described the need for an adaptation sprint given the realities of the irreversible extreme heat, heat domes, wildfires and summers of smoke and floods.

John Kerry, U.S. climate envoy, said:

Adaptation is critical even though there is a point where, if we do not reduce emissions sufficiently, we’re not capable of adapting our way out of the climate catastrophe.

Brazil’s president-elect, the inspiring Lula da Silva, said:

Today I am here to say that Brazil is back and ready to build a healthier planet — with the survival of the Amazon rainforest we can help ensure the survival of the world. We need each other to survive, we need more confidence and determination, we need more leadership.

Honourable colleagues, Lula is right. We need leadership more than ever. Honourable colleagues, let’s step up. Thank you.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. The short answer is “as soon as possible” on both counts.

Both of these commissions are part of the government’s ongoing effort to modernize and improve Canada’s laws and legal institutions, and that includes Bill C-5 — an important step that we in the Senate took last week.

As we know, before it was abolished in 2006, the law commission helped advance critically important policy ideas, including in the areas of family law, the legalization of same-sex marriage, to name but two. We’re hopeful that it will help address some of today’s most pressing needs, such as systemic discrimination in the justice system.

The government has already allocated funds for the law commission’s re-establishment through Budget 2021, with $18 million over five years and $4 million ongoing. The process of finding commission members is under way.

The new criminal case review commission will strengthen our justice system by providing for the expeditious review of potential wrongful convictions by an independent body. The structure of the new review commission will be informed by the consultations led by former judges Harry LaForme and Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, who published their final report earlier this year.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your questions. The government deliberately selected these two individuals, both for their legal expertise and for their familiarity with the issues and realities that are facing marginalized people in our justice system.

As we know, Justice LaForme was the first Indigenous appellate court judge in Canada, and Justice Westmoreland-Traoré was the first Black judge in Quebec and the first Black dean of a Canadian law school.

During their consultations, they met with and received written briefs from hundreds of people, including victims of miscarriages of justice, victims of crime, criminal justice professionals and representatives of commissions that do similar work in other countries. Their final report makes numerous recommendations about the commission’s mandate and design, and the government is relying upon its report as it works to establish the criminal cases review commission as soon as possible.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. I don’t have the answer. I’ll certainly make inquiries and will be happy to report back as soon as I can.

Hon. Patricia Bovey: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

As you know, I, along with Senators Coyle and Galvez, attended COP 27 over the last two weeks. For my part, I spent a great deal of time in the discussions around oceans protection, which is coming to the forefront again with COP 15 being held in Montreal in a few weeks.

Canada has accomplished much in this sphere, including the creation of 14 Marine Protected Areas along our coasts. Has the Government of Canada begun consultations regarding the expansion of these protected areas, and is there a proposed timeline as to the introduction of the legislation that has been promised?

Hon. Marilou McPhedran: My question is to Senator Gold, and it is about climate change and the impact of extreme weather conditions across this country, as we have seen most recently with the Hurricane Fiona disaster on our eastern neighbours.

The government created its 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan to meet its international commitments to cut carbon emissions by 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030, and it’s adopted an all‑of-the-above approach to meet these goals. However, we need to acknowledge that the federal government does not have plenary power over greenhouse gas emissions, as the Supreme Court of Canada held in the 2021 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act reference. This constitutional constraint could prove to be fatal to this action plan.

What is the government doing to work alongside provinces to implement this plan? Can you inform us as to the status of formal negotiations and discussions between the federal and provincial governments?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question, and thank you for underlining the important relationship between the federal government and provincial and territorial governments in the shared challenge of both addressing climate change and also maintaining and securing a prosperous economic future for all Canadians.

I don’t know the specific answer to your question, and I will make efforts to find out. I do know that the Government of Canada is in regular discussions on a variety of issues surrounding climate change initiatives, resource development, environmental assessments and the like. Some provinces are more keen to engage than others, but it’s an ongoing process. I’ll certainly make inquiries with regard to more formal consultations that may be taking place.

Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Honourable senators, usually, when we do tributes here, it is to recognize the achievements of our fellow citizens. However, today, I want to express my amused admiration for a remarkably determined herd of cows.

This is a story about some 20 cows in the region of Saint‑Sévère, Quebec. They escaped their enclosure last summer and, to quote a great article written by journalist Sébastien Houle, they have been “getting back in touch with their wild side” ever since. Witnesses say that they can jump fences like deer. Since their escape four months ago, the herd has even grown because some cows calved.

The Village of Saint-Sévère’s general manager, Marie-Andrée Cadorette, took the situation in hand. She contacted MAPAQ, Quebec’s Department of agriculture, fisheries and food, but it said that there was nothing it could do and suggested that she call the provincial Department of environment, climate change, wildlife and parks. That department said that it could not do anything because cows are not wild animals and suggested that she call the humane society.

The humane society said that it could not do anything because cows are not pets and suggested that she contact MAPAQ, so Ms. Cadorette called MAPAQ again. This time, the department suggested that the municipality destroy the runaways.

Ms. Cadorette responded, “The Municipality is me in a dress and high heels . . . I’m not going to go running after cows!” Fair enough.

Ms. Cadorette then contacted the Sûreté du Québec, the police, to ask them to kill the cows, but they refused because, in their view, this was not an emergency situation.

Finally, Ms. Cadorette got in touch with some cowboys through the Saint-Tite western festival, which is a wonderful local tradition. For the first time, someone agreed to help.

On October 30, the night before Halloween, nine cowboys arrived in Saint-Sévère: eight on horseback and one armed with a drone. The cowboys located the cows and almost managed to round them up, but the cows escaped through a corn field at the last minute. They are still on the run, hiding in the woods by day and grazing by night.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dogged determination of Marie-Andrée Cadorette and wish her the best of luck. Don’t give up. I would also like to commend the cowboys who stepped up when every government department and police force in Quebec said there was nothing they could do. There is a political lesson in there somewhere.

Finally, I would like to confess my unbridled admiration for these cows that have found freedom and are still out there, frolicking about. While we overcomplicate things, these cows are learning to jump fences.

Hon. Raymonde Gagné (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I give notice that, at the next sitting of the Senate, I will move:

That, when the Senate next adjourns after the adoption of this motion, it do stand adjourned until Tuesday, November 29, 2022, at 2 p.m.

Hon. Rosa Galvez: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the report of the ParlAmericas concerning the Sixth Gathering of ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network, held as virtual sessions on March 9, 15 and 22, 2022.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Senator Gold, yesterday the National Cattle Feeders’ Association was in Ottawa to speak with parliamentarians. One of their priority issues is the fact that, while this government is demanding that the industry make changes to help meet carbon emissions targets, they are doing little to help facilitate these changes.

One example of this is the feed additive referred to as 3-NOP. This additive is already approved for use in several countries, including the EU, Australia, Chile and Brazil, and has proven to consistently reduce emissions of methane from cattle by up to 90%, Senator Gold. This is very significant, yet the product has not been approved in Canada because of lengthy and burdensome approval processes.

Senator Gold, can you tell me if your government will commit to prioritizing the approval process of this product as requested by the National Cattle Feeders’ Association?