Senator Duncan: I did. However, in the interest —

Senator Gold: I will add those to my list of questions for the government. Thank you.

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

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): The position of the Government of Canada has been and continues to be that the detention of the two Michaels was illegal, arbitrary, contrary to international law and unjustified, and that remains the position of the Government of Canada.

Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: Honourable senators, if I may, just a few quick comments.

[Translation]

Honourable senators, I am honoured to have your support and trust, and I thank you for that. I, too, would like to thank Senator Bovey for putting her name forward for the position, and the Speaker and the Clerk for the democratic process that was chosen.

[English]

I want to also say that you can rest assured of my devotion to each and every one of you as we seek to provide sober second thought to the issues in front of us. Thank you. Meegwetch.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, as some of you may know, the Speaker in the other place made a statement yesterday with respect to the admissibility of Bill S-2, An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts.

As someone who enthusiastically supports Bill S-2, I was surprised and frankly very disappointed by the statement from the Speaker in the other place.

As we know, to ensure that senators pronounce themselves first on legislation affecting their own chamber, the government incorporated into Bill S-2, and its predecessor Bill S-4, a non-appropriation coming-into-force clause.

Senators, I would note that non-appropriation clauses are a common feature of the Senate’s legislative practices. Over the years, multiple pieces of legislation originating in this place have adopted a similar architecture, allowing the Senate to initiate the policy while respecting the ultimate prerogatives of the Crown and the other place.

Both the Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the other place have ruled that bills containing a delayed coming-into-force clause are in order and do not require a Royal Recommendation. I also note that the Speaker in the other place did not make a similar statement with respect to Bill S-4 in the previous Parliament, even though the bill was identical.

Having said this, and in light of the statement by the Speaker in the other place, the government has proactively given notice of a government bill in the other place to amend the Parliament of Canada Act for introduction in the coming days. That bill will be accompanied by a Royal Recommendation as the case requires.

As such, the government has no intention of seeking to proceed with Bill S-2 and has reiterated the priority it attaches to these measures by acting quickly and introducing a bill in the other place.

As was stated today in the House by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, as Bill S-2 made clear in the coming-into-force clause, the government has always had the intention of introducing a bill in the other house with the accompanying Royal Recommendation to implement the changes to the Parliament of Canada Act with respect to the evolution in and of the Senate.

With a new bill introduced in the House, this secondary step in the process will no longer be necessary to bring into force the measures passed with the unanimous support of this chamber that would bring the Parliament of Canada Act in line with the current reality of the Senate.

Finally, I wish to convey to this chamber once again that the government considers the measures contemplated in Bill S-2 a high priority in this parliamentary session, and the government looks forward to working collaboratively with all parties to advance this important initiative. Thank you, honourable senators.

Hon. Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard: Honourable senators, I speak today from the traditional unceded territory of the Mississaugas.

Tomorrow, December 10, is Human Rights Day, a time to commemorate the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a time to renew our commitment to the rights and dignity of all people.

I rise today to share a food sovereignty initiative in the Black community of Toronto, the Afri-Can FoodBasket. Established in 1995 for the purpose of reducing food insecurity in the Black community, the non-profit organization has supplied over 15,000 households with food during the pandemic alone.

Afri-Can FoodBasket donates approximately 450 boxes of food per week to people in Toronto. They have an online waitlist of over 6,000 applicants, including many people outside the Greater Toronto Area. This alone highlights the necessity of this organization.

A recent study conducted by PROOF and FoodShare found that Black communities are 3.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity compared to White Canadians, even after adjusting for factors like immigration status, education level and home ownership.

Black children were also 34% more likely to be food insecure compared to 10% of White children. This disparity has been linked to the increased likelihood of developing chronic diseases, like diabetes, asthma and depression, and to poor educational and health outcomes, like learning challenges, low graduation rates and low self-esteem.

Understanding and addressing food insecurity in the Black community is about more than alleviating hunger. It is about combating systemic anti-Black racism and intergenerational poverty through a multi-faceted approach from all levels of government supported by the notion of food security as a basic human right.

Honourable senators, please join me in thanking all the staff, volunteers and partners of the Afri-Can FoodBasket for their dedication and commitment to food justice and food sovereignty, especially during the pandemic.

Asante. Thank you.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Honourable senators, Mr. Speaker and dear colleague Senator Ringuette, I give you my greatest congratulations and look forward to doing all we can in the Senate to work with you on these responsibilities. It’s a real honour to be with you in this chamber. Thank you, Your Honour, for the process.

Colleagues, thank you so much for the support that you’ve given the new process and to each of us who put our names forward.

Hon. Colin Deacon: Honourable senators, I rise to celebrate a new $200-million all-Canadian tech fund launched by Waterloo’s Communitech. Their Truth North Strategy is designed to accelerate the success of top-performing start-ups and scale-ups so that they “own the podium” and win globally.

Colleagues, Statistics Canada reported that over the past two decades, the productivity of digitally intensive industries grew four times faster than the rest of our economy. Digitization is accelerating. If we want to have the tax revenue needed to support our all-important social programs, we need to deliberately build a digital tax base.

We must deliberately create the conditions to ensure that the IP — or intellectual property — head offices, executives, investors and other crucial elements of our leading tech firms remain in Canada. Otherwise, we’ll continue to buy innovative, Canadian-founded products and services from other countries. That’s the burning platform.

The world is transforming around us. However, our federal government is not updating the legislation necessary for us to compete globally. We need to prioritize important regulatory changes, like open banking and open data, and update our procurement policies and our privacy and competition laws — Senator Wetston having already initiated an examination of the latter.

Canada is now home to the second largest innovation cluster in the world, and it’s growing at four times the rate of any other cluster in the world. The Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor is now home to 200,000 tech workers.

In the last decade, Canadian founders started global winners like Shopify, Lightspeed, Clio, D2L and Instacart. Together, the 10 biggest tech companies with Canadian founders have created $367 billion in new value and tens of thousands of jobs, but too many head south. Why? Because we don’t tend to invest in our tech companies or buy their products.

When a Canadian founder secures U.S. investment, too often it signals the beginning of that company’s departure from Canada just as their growth is accelerating. Communitech is challenging us to dramatically increase access to Canadian-based investment, tech talent and procurement opportunities and to update our regulatory policies so made-in-Canada competition is encouraged.

Competition drives innovation in new entrants and incumbents. Innovation delivers more value at a lower cost, creating productivity growth to offset our weakening prosperity. That’s why Senator Marty Deacon and I are focusing attention on Communitech’s True North Strategy. Their CEO Chris Albinson launched this plan so Canada can secure the gold medal in innovation. It’s the tech equivalent of Canada’s hugely successful Own the Podium organization developed by the legendary Olympian Cathy Priestner Allinger, now on Communitech’s team.

We have world-leading founders, colleagues; we just need to support them with talent, integrated domestic markets and growth capital.

Thank you.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to an important innovation in the evolution of modern democracy.

As you know, the word democracy comes from the Greek words demos meaning “people” and kratos meaning “rule.” Democracy is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation directly or to choose representatives to do that on their behalf. Our Canadian representative democracy is something we cherish.

On November 19, MP Ali Ehsassi and I invited our fellow parliamentarians to meet with 42 members — randomly selected Canadians from every province and territory — of the 2021 citizens’ assembly who were working with the Department of Canadian Heritage on the effective regulation of social media. The assembly worked with the Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression, co-chaired by The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin and Professor Taylor Owen under the direction of Canada’s Public Policy Forum.

To date, we know of 40 citizens’ assemblies and reference panels across Canada dealing with themes as diverse as noise management at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, national pharmacare, public housing, land-use planning, income polarization, municipal amalgamation, electoral reform and mental health.

Increasingly popular internationally, citizens’ assemblies have been used to seek citizen input on issues such as same-sex marriage, fixed-term parliaments, abortion, climate change and other critical issues by countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, the U.K., Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Australia and the U.S.

Former senator Grant Mitchell, with his experience of the deliberative democracy model used by the Ralph Klein government in Alberta in the mid-1990s, extolled its benefits in bringing people together and building consensus on difficult issues. In his speech on my 2020 Senate inquiry on pathways to net zero, he expressed his desire to see citizens’ assemblies employed to address the climate impasse.

Citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative democracy innovations disrupt the typical policy-making sequence by inserting a citizen deliberation step early on between problem identification and policy formulation.

Proponents of deliberative democracy models highlight their power to promote active citizenship; close the gap between elites and the general public; increase trust in government; create more responsive, better supported public policies; and buttress our existing democratic system against trends of populism, pessimism, apathy, cynicism and polarization.

Colleagues, as we senators look to improve our own house in order to better serve Canadians, I know we are also interested in improving the overall democratic system within which we operate.

Honourable senators, giving more Canadians a seat at the table through citizens’ assemblies could be a very healthy thing for our democracy. Wela’lioq. Thank you.

Hon. Stephen Greene: Honourable senators, as you know, in this time slot, various senators have risen from time to time to inform you of their medical condition. That is my purpose here today.

There is no requirement that I do so, of course, but some things have changed for me since the last time we met in person in March 2020. Some of the changes in my condition are so obvious, I believe, questions would naturally form in your minds, which would lead some of you, I am sure, to take me aside in the gentle and concerned way that you have to ask me how I am.

In order to forestall that and to keep the guessing to a minimum, I’ve decided to tell all of you all at once; drum roll, please.

About two years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. As some of you will know, Parkinson’s is a very personal disease in that it is unique to you. If you have it, no one else will have it in quite the way you do.

There is no cure. It is not hereditary or contagious. It may be linked to the environment, such as the use of asbestos or DDT. On its own, Parkinson’s is not fatal, although it certainly is no fun as it screws up your mobility system and makes it difficult to diagnose worse things that you may or may not have. It is also progressive in that it gets worse over time, much like the Progressive Senate Group.

Symptoms of Parkinson’s include balance issues, which alarms me when you consider that I’ve always striven to balance issues. If you are over the age of 60, the odds of you having Parkinson’s in Canada are roughly one in 105. You’re welcome. Other symptoms include a raspy or soft voice, which makes me sound like Clint Eastwood sometimes. It can also lead to problems in swallowing, but as a refugee from the Conservative Caucus, one of many who decorate this chamber, I’m used to dealing with things that are hard to swallow.

I am being well treated by an outstanding neurologist. He reminds me that many of the symptoms of Parkinson’s are similar to other diseases, which makes the diagnosis tricky. This gives me hope that I might not actually have it, although I probably do. If not, what? You can find more about Parkinson’s if you visit the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s website.

Finally, Parkinson’s can also lead to incontinence. This is not the kind of verbal diarrhea that some senators, particularly in the Independent Senators Group, like to inflict on this house from time to time. I’m talking about the natural kind of incontinence. But I promise I will give my beloved seatmate plenty of warning. Thank you.

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, as we all slowly get ready for a break for the holidays, I want to bring a story of hope and optimism and some cheer — much in the tradition of Senator Manning.

For a true story of hope and optimism, I need look no further than the beautiful island of Barbados. A member of the Commonwealth since 1996, the people of Barbados became a republic on November 30 — just a few weeks ago. It was a peaceful transition, celebrated with much joy on the island and heralded as a deliberate move to leave the colonial past fully behind and look with confidence into the future.

What is also a really wonderful sign of hope is the two women who are leading the country. President Sandra Mason, who transitioned from Governor General to head of state and President, is an accomplished lawyer and diplomat. Prime Minister Mia Mottley is the head of the Barbados Labour Party and is the first woman to be elected to the role of PM in Barbados. She has been a relentless fighter on her mission to lead Barbados to become a republic.

Most recently, at COP26, PM Mottley made an impassioned, authentic and, from all observations, completely unscripted speech on the impending danger to island countries like the Maldives, Antigua, Barbados, Fiji, Kenya, Mozambique and Samoa. She said to the world, “Try hard.” She said again, “Try harder because our people . . . need our actions now.”

What I find deeply hopeful is not just that this beautiful tiny island nation has taken its fate firmly into its own hands but that it is led by two strong women who are role models for women around the world, but especially for Black girls.

I hope you will join me in congratulating Barbados and wishing it all the best in its new personality as a republic.

Hon. David M. Wells: Honourable senators, pursuant to rule 12-26(2) of the Rules of the Senate, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the second report of the Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight, which deals with the expenses incurred by the committee during the Second Session of the Forty-Third Parliament.

(For text of report, see today’s Journals of the Senate, p. 138.)

[Translation]

Hon. Yuen Pau Woo: Honourable senators, with leave of the Senate and notwithstanding rule 5-5(j), the Honourable Senator Housakos and I move, seconded by the Honourable Senators Cordy and Tannas:

That, notwithstanding rules 12-3(2)(f) and 12-27(1) and subsections 35(2), (4), (5) and (8) of the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators, the Honourable Senators Busson, Cotter, Harder, P.C., Patterson, Seidman and White be appointed to serve on the Standing Committee on Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators, until such time as a motion pursuant to rule 12-27(1) is adopted by the Senate or the Senate otherwise replaces the membership of the committee;

That, notwithstanding rule 12-27(2) and subsection 35(2) of the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators, the quorum of the committee be four members; and

That, notwithstanding rule 12-27(1), for the duration of the membership of the committee pursuant to this order, when a vacancy occurs in the membership of the committee, the replacement member be appointed by order of the Senate.

Hon. Percy E. Downe: Honourable senators, I give notice that, two days hence:

I will call the attention of the Senate to:

(a)The importance of the federal government as Canada’s largest single employer, with over 230,000 civilian employees;

(b)The fact that, although everyone understands that a significant portion of federal employees would be based in the nation’s capital, in recent years a trend has developed whereby the distribution of jobs between Ottawa and the regions has become more and more disproportionate in favour of the National Capital Region; and

(c)The role of the Senate in examining and discussing the opportunities for decentralizing federal government jobs and services, and urging the Government of Canada to restore the historical distribution of employment to one-third of jobs in the National Capital Region and two-thirds in the rest of the country, thereby contributing to the economic growth and stability of the regions of Canada.

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Honourable senators, my question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, international concerns regarding illegal trafficking of cultural property are serious and increasing with alarming pillaging and looting of antiquities in many war-torn parts of the world. Works of art are the third most trafficked commodity, at the fastest-growing rate, and they fund arms and drugs. Canada is seen as a soft touch and an easy pipeline for the movement of such illicit goods.

A recent Mediterranean conference reported that the profit from destruction and illicit exploitation from cultural sites by transnational crime and terrorist groups and networks are estimated between US$3.4 billion and US$6.3 billion annually. There must be stronger international cooperation with UNESCO and high standards reinforcing bilateral and regional cooperation frameworks of law enforcement and investigation. My concern is the insufficient awareness of this problem and training for Canada’s border officials. What is Canada doing to tighten and update our legal protections and regulations in meeting the new challenges between source, transit and destination countries?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you, senator, for your question. I have been advised that through the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, Canada has returned thousands of illegally imported objects to 14 countries around the world, including countries in the Middle East and Africa. These returns would not have been possible without the work of the Canada Border Services Agency, as well as experts in museums across Canada. This government is committed to continuing to work with partner states to prevent the damage, destruction and looting of cultural heritage, whether during armed conflict, occupation or terrorist activity.

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question, senator. Canada has a very long history of commitment to the protection of heritage at risk around the world. Indeed, we have been a party to UNESCO’s Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property for over 40 years. I have been advised that in 2018, Canada contributed significant funds to UNESCO’s Heritage Emergency Fund and remains committed to supporting international efforts to protect that heritage.