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

As I explained many times last week, the government was convinced that all of the measures that were put in place and the invocation of the emergency measures were necessary to respond to the crisis.

Fortunately, the state of emergency is over, and the measures that were put in place are no longer in effect.

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. Once again, the answer is clear. All of these measures were necessary to put an end to the occupation of Ottawa, which caused a lot of harm to Ottawa residents and in other parts of Canada.

Hon. Stan Kutcher: First of all, I want to thank you for the master class in the discussion on the testing. Outstanding. Thank you so much for that.

I completely agree with the accountability issue that you raised. I’ve been struggling with that, and I wonder if you could think more loudly about it. We have accountability for the federal government with exactly where the tests came from and the accountability of what the provinces are doing with the tests when they go to the provinces. Some provinces sat on them for months and months. Then there’s the accountability from the province to the citizens. Are the citizens getting the tests they need? I happen to live in Nova Scotia. We’ve actually done a really darn good job at rapid testing. If we can do it, other provinces should probably be able to do it as well.

How would you address it? I’m with you on that accountability thing. How do we address that?

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. Since coming to power in 2015, the government has made significant investments in official languages, strengthening the institutions and infrastructure that support official languages minority communities, or OLMCs. As part of these positive obligations under the Official Languages Act, the government encourages and supports governments in fostering the development of francophone and anglophone minorities by providing municipal services in both official languages and having them receive instructions in their own language.

I also note that the new version of the bill includes support for non-profit organizations that provide many support services to OLMCs.

[English]

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you, senator, for the question. Let me also add my voice to congratulate Senator Griffin on her contributions over the years.

The situation where Ukrainians are seeking to leave, and Afghans and others, is a tragic one. I can’t answer your question definitively. I’ll make inquiries at each level, but I can tell you this: For over a month now, the government has been giving priority to processing applications from Ukraine and bolstering Canada’s operational capacity in the region. Since January 19 the IRCC has approved nearly 2,000 applications from Ukrainian nationals and other peoples residing in Ukraine across various programs. The government has announced — I won’t go down the list, colleagues — additional measures to support Ukrainian and Canadian citizens in the region, including establishing a dedicated service channel for Ukrainian inquiries and so on. As the situation unfolds, the government is preparing additional measures and will increase our efforts to welcome Ukrainians in Canada.

Senator Omidvar: I should remark that the sound quality is pretty bad, and I only heard a small portion of what Senator Gold said. I will read it in Hansard, but perhaps you would note this, Your Honour.

Senator Gold, Canada is incredibly fortunate to have the second-largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world. As we know, they’re deeply connected to friends, families and communities and are deeply concerned about them because they are now living in unimaginable precariousness and danger.

Will the government announce new numbers for private sponsorship so that the energy and enthusiasm of Ukrainian Canadians can be a bridge to safety for vulnerable Ukrainians?

Senator Gold: Thank you, senator. I hope the sound quality was not a function of my voice. I hope you can hear me.

I will make inquiries with regard to your request. I should have added in answer to your earlier question that Canada is home not only to those Ukrainians who have settled here but also to many Ukrainians here not as citizens or permanent residents. I want the chamber to understand that Canada is taking steps to make sure Ukrainians currently in Canada don’t have to leave, notably by extending temporary status, issuing open work permits, waiving fees for passports, permanent resident documents, proofs of citizenship, visas and permits.

Senator Marshall: Thank you for that response, Senator Gold.

We’re seeing a worrying trend: Government either withholds certain information while other information, such as the Public Accounts of Canada and the Departmental Results Reports, are being released very late. They’re really not relevant by the time we get those reports; they are almost historical information.

The impression that’s being given is that government is deliberately withholding certain information and reports. So is the government deliberately withholding and delaying the release of accountability information?

Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, my question is for Senator Gold. It concerns the illegal war being waged against the people of Ukraine, “a threat to each and every one of us,” as Ambassador Rae said yesterday. This situation calls for Canada to do everything it can, even if those demands require commitments from each of us.

My question relates to the need for the imposition of sanctions on Russian businesses in Canada, not just freezing their bank accounts. That may involve some sacrifice from us. A specific example in my province is EVRAZ. EVRAZ is a Russian steel manufacturer with significant operations in Western Canada, and it is controlled by four Russian oligarchs close to Mr. Putin.

My question is this: Are we imposing constraints on companies like EVRAZ and doing so in ways that share the burden among all Canadians without punishing the good, hard‑working employees of those companies who had no say in their companies coming under Russian control?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. I do not have information about what the government’s plans may be with regard to additional sanctions. A day does not seem to pass by without more sanctions being announced. The government will continue, as it has been, to not only work with its allies but to exercise leadership with its allies to ensure that the illegal aggression of Russia in Ukraine is answered with real, significant sanctions.

Again, you don’t need me to read the long list of sanctions directed at individuals and institutions operating worldwide. Those are a matter of public record. Out of respect for you and others who might have supplementary questions, I will simply say this: The government is continuing to work diligently to ensure that the sanctions are, and any additional sanctions will be, ones that have a real bite and impact upon the aggressor.

Hon. Kim Pate: Honourable senators, March 8 is International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is #BreakTheBias.

In Canada we are celebrating Women Inspiring Women, and we encourage recognition of those who inspire and demonstrate leadership in social, economic, environmental, cultural and political spheres.

Imagine a Canada that is diverse, equitable and inclusive — where every young woman and girl is inspired to pursue and seize leadership, free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

In 2008, one in four women in federal prisons were Indigenous while Indigenous peoples represented only 4% of the general population. This rose to one in three by 2016, and in 2022 it is approaching one in two.

The injustices identified 30 years ago for criminalized and imprisoned Indigenous women persist. The majority attended residential schools or had a family member who attended. Many are part of the stolen generations. More than 9 in 10 have histories of physical and/or sexual victimization.

The issues that give rise to Indigenous women being disappeared and murdered are the same issues to render them homeless and the fastest growing prison population.

It is time for us to work collectively to redress systemic class biases, sexism and racism — 1 in 2 federally sentenced women are Indigenous and 1 in 10 is Black. Imagine if that was the proportion of women in leadership in business, education and government. Imagine how we all could benefit and be enriched by more inclusive and equal public spaces.

In Canada, imagine what actualizing this year’s International Women’s Day themes could mean if, in 2022, we act to grow and strengthen inclusive, equitable and accessible social, economic and health supports and systems. Imagine if we ensure that we pull people in versus pushing them to the fringes where they become attracted to or easier prey to anti-government, anti‑democratic and anti-egalitarian ideas. Imagine if we implement every call for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. And this year — there is one vacancy so far — we absolutely hope the next Supreme Court of Canada appointments are Indigenous and Black women.

Honourable senators, let’s truly break the bias and inspire women’s leadership in all spheres. Meegwetch, d’akuju, thank you.

Senator Cotter: My second question is specifically about EVRAZ, coming from a different direction.

Canada operates the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund, which, over the last five years, has distributed $5 billion to a hundred different projects, one of those in Saskatchewan. The fund contributed $40 million to EVRAZ. Does EVRAZ need the money? EVRAZ last week reported profits in excess of $3 billion and a whopping 60% of the share price paid out in dividends. Who are those shareholders? Four Russian oligarchs own two thirds of those shares.

I could go on at length with the question, but what has the Government of Canada done to get our $40 million back?

An Hon. Senator: Hear, hear.

Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: Honourable senators, February is Age-related Macular Degeneration Awareness Month.

Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, is an incurable disease that causes gradual loss of vision, blurred vision and distorted vision, and eventually dark spots in the vision and legal blindness. AMD causes the macula, the part of the retina responsible for detailed vision, to degrade.

AMD affects nearly 2 million Canadians and 196 million people around the world. It is the leading cause of loss of vision in adults over 50 and accounts for 90% of new cases of blindness in Canada. It is a serious problem that will only get worse as our population ages.

You very likely know someone with AMD, a disease that turns Canadians’ lives upside down and reduces their quality of life in retirement. Over time, people with AMD become unable to drive a car, read a book, participate in all kinds of sports and activities, or enjoy the comfortable and independent retirement they deserve after working so hard all their lives. They can no longer live in their own homes and are forced to move to a place where they will be cared for. This is a life-altering diagnosis, mainly because there is no cure.

Thanks to research being done in Canada, there is hope. A treatment is being developed, and clinical trials are encouraging. A new treatment is awaiting regulatory approval from Health Canada. It could have a significant positive impact on the millions of Canadians who suffer from AMD.

Please join me in raising awareness about AMD. Let’s support our fellow Canadians in their struggle, and let’s support the development and approval of treatments for this devastating disease.

Thank you.

[English]

Senator Seidman: No, I don’t think this bill can deal with sensitivity and specificity issues. Those are the characteristics and features of the tests that are being used in North America and probably all over the world. In fact, the tests are very highly sensitive and very specific. I did give you the data of the most common tests. Seven of them are being used most commonly in this country, and their sensitivity and specificity are pretty impressive.

I’m going to now go back to my notes, if you want the absolute numbers. These numbers were determined from the U.K. COVID-19 lateral flow oversight team. They analyzed 64 antigen tests. They published May 2021, and they showed that these tests really had very promising performance characteristics. As I said, these are the characteristics of the tests, so there’s nothing you can do to change that. It is what it is. But the most popular — the best seven and most reliable — showed, and here are the numbers for you, that the likelihood that an infectious individual tests positive ranged from 96% to 99%. For one of the tests — one of the seven — the likelihood was 94%. The probability of a false positive result was less than 1%, so you understand that it’s highly unlikely you get a false positive result.

Even more important is that the probability of an infectious person getting a false negative result is very low — 1% to 4%. That means, again, that the tests are sensitive and the tests are specific.

I hope that answers your question.

[Translation]

Senator Dupuis: Senator Seidman, you spoke about the need for accountability on the part of the federal government, and you said that perhaps there were observations that could be appended or amendments that could be made. Can we agree that that is something we want to look into? What we want to know is how many tests the federal government distributed, how fast it distributed them and to which provinces and territories.

In other words, we don’t want to get caught up in the problem that you very clearly described, namely, the fact that we don’t know what the provinces themselves did with these tests and we have no way of verifying what the provinces did once they received the tests.

Do we agree that the only accountability we care about here is what the federal government did, how it did it and how fast?

[English]

Hon. Patti LaBoucane-Benson: Honourable senators, for the past six days, Canadians have watched the horrific, violent attack on Ukraine. We’ve witnessed war being waged on innocent Ukrainians, shocked by this assault on a free, proud and democratic country. There have been marches across Canada this weekend in support of Ukraine and in appreciation of the fear the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians have for the safety of their families.

Although I am speaking today on the traditional land of the Algonquin and Anishinaabe, I live in the beautiful Treaty 6 territory, where we are all treaty people. Although the settlement of Canada is a history of colonization and disenfranchisement, there are also many stories of kindness, caring and working together for mutual benefit.

As Chief Billy Morin from the Enoch Cree Nation wrote:

Ukrainian Families were some of the 1st families to settle in Treaty 6 territory, before Alberta was even a Province. There are many instances of friendship between Indigenous & Ukrainian peoples that highlight the Spirit & Intent of Treaty 6.

I couldn’t agree more. There were deep relationships between Ukrainian and Indigenous people. There still are today. I can assure you that I am not the only Métis Ukrainian in Alberta. Significantly, Indigenous and Ukrainian settler women forged important relationships. Both understood the experiences of trauma and oppression — whether it was here or in Ukraine — and they were trying to raise healthy children despite these hardships. Indigenous women shared knowledge of local plants and medicines to keep their families healthy. Ukrainian women shared recipes for food that could be made from the food grown on their farms: perogies, holopchi, perishke.

Ukrainian women also gifted Indigenous women the babushkas they wore on their heads. Indigenous women have worn these beautiful scarves in their day-to-day lives for years, and now these scarves can be found across Turtle Island, worn as fashion items or part of regalia at powwows. For almost a week, my social media feeds have been galvanized, not only in deep admiration of and support for the bravery of the Ukrainian people, but also including Indigenous women posting pictures of themselves in beautiful floral scarves with the caption “wear your kokum scarf in solidarity with Ukraine.”

Colleagues, these scarves have become symbols of empathy, relationship, resilience and solidarity. They are symbols of trade and cooperation between Indigenous people and Ukrainian settlers. They are symbols of people sharing resources and wisdom, working together and caring for each other.

Senators, I wear this scarf today not only as a symbol of solidarity but also as a reminder of the trauma of war and pain the Ukrainian people will carry in the years to come. I sincerely hope our government will not only continue leading the effort to end this war, but that it will also be a leader in the effort to rebuild Ukraine and heal the Ukrainian people in the same spirit of friendship that has existed on Treaty 6 territory for many years.

Slava Ukraini. Glory to Ukraine. Hiy hiy.

Hon. Ratna Omidvar, Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, presented the following report:

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology has the honour to present its

THIRD REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-12, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act (Guaranteed Income Supplement), has, in obedience to the order of reference of February 24, 2022, examined the said bill and now reports the same without amendment.

Respectfully submitted,

RATNA OMIDVAR

Chair

Hon. Tony Loffreda: Honourable senators, I rise today to bring your attention to the fourteenth edition of the John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition, or JMUCC, and pay tribute to my alma mater Concordia University.

From February 28 to March 5, Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business is hosting its annual undergraduate case competition. The week-long event gives teams of business students from around the globe a chance to compete and solve live business cases. Using their skills, knowledge and resourcefulness, teams present their analysis to a panel of judges consisting of industry specialists who must evaluate and rank their work. Once again, I am honoured to serve as lead judge for the finals on Saturday. In fact, I’ve been involved with the competition since its inception in 2009.

Year after year, I am struck by the business acumen and all‑around brilliance of the students competing in the event. They showcase passion, spirit and dynamism — the three pillars at the heart of JMUCC’s mission statement. One thing is certain: our future business leaders and entrepreneurs are ready to take the world by storm. They have the brains and heart — the perfect one-two combination — that will certainly help them succeed in life. It’s truly impressive to see.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed firsthand how life-changing and formative this competition is for these students. They acquire some lifelong skills that will allow them to be better entrepreneurs and businesspeople but, above all, better global citizens. Some of these skills include strategic thinking, innovative problem solving and sound decision making.

Since its inception, JMUCC has grown into the largest international case competition with 28 universities from across the world competing each year. In total, 54 cases have been analyzed, and nearly 1,400 university students have competed. In my view, what makes JMUCC so popular and attractive to students is the fact that it is held in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and hosted by one of Canada’s great post‑secondary institutions. Regretfully, for the second time in a row, the competition is being held virtually this year, which didn’t allow its competitors an opportunity to explore all the sights and sounds that Montreal has to offer.

Honourable senators, please join me in congratulating this year’s organizing committee for hosting another world-class event despite the challenges of the pandemic and wishing all participants an exciting and memorable competition.