The Hon. the Speaker informed the Senate that the following communication had been received:

RIDEAU HALL

Mr. Speaker,

I have the honour to inform you that the Right Honourable Mary May Simon, Governor General of Canada, signified royal assent by written declaration to the bill listed in the Schedule to this letter on the 9^th day of March 2023, at 5:10 p.m.

Yours sincerely,

Ian McCowan

Secretary to the Governor General and Herald Chancellor

The Honourable

The Speaker of the Senate

Ottawa

Bill Assented to Thursday, March 9, 2023:

An Act to amend An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying) (Bill C-39, Chapter 1, 2023)

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(At 5:47 p.m., the Senate was continued until Tuesday, March 21, 2023, at 2 p.m.)

Hon. Raymonde Gagné (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate), pursuant to notice of March 8, 2023, moved:

That, when the Senate next adjourns after the adoption of this motion, it do stand adjourned until Tuesday, March 21, 2023, at 2 p.m.

An Hon. Senator: On division.

(Motion agreed to and bill read third time and passed, on division.)

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Cotter, seconded by the Honourable Senator Woo, for the second reading of Bill C-22, An Act to reduce poverty and to support the financial security of persons with disabilities by establishing the Canada disability benefit and making a consequential amendment to the Income Tax Act.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the Departmental Plans for 2023-24.

[Translation]

Hon. Brian Francis: Honourable senators, every February, Canadians celebrate Black History Month. It is an opportunity to honour the legacy and contributions of Black Canadians to their communities and to their country.

The theme for Black History Month this year was “Ours to tell.” This theme represents:

. . . both an opportunity to engage in open dialogue and a commitment to learning more about the stories Black communities in Canada have to tell about their histories, successes, sacrifices and triumphs.

In that spirit, senators and staff of the Progressive Senate Group, or PSG, participated in a full day of educational training sessions last month. Our day began with a fascinating glimpse into the often-untold history of African Canadians and their contributions to Canadian society.

This history lesson came from Aly Ndiaye, better known as Webster, who is one of the pioneers of the hip hop movement in Quebec. I was pleased to learn that he was recently appointed to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. His voice will be an important addition.

We also heard from Victoria Gay-Cauvin who provided us with key information with respect to systemic racism as it relates to economic development. With this context, Frantz Saintellemy offered concrete steps that we can take toward improvement.

These sessions were an invaluable tool to help us learn, but also reminded us how much more needs to be done to combat racism in this country. Though Black History Month may be over, our work continues.

Honourable senators, I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn from our colleagues, and I would particularly like to thank both Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard and Senator Amina Gerba for all the work they do. I am proud to call them both colleagues and friends. They are but two African-Canadian women who are setting an example for future generations, and who are leading the way to combat stigma and racism.

The Progressives have a shared vision that states that we are inspired by the Algonquin word Mamidosewin which means “meeting place and walking together.” This principle guides us — not only in the reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, but also in righting the wrongs of all forms of racism in this country.

On behalf of the PSG, I would like to thank Senator Amina Gerba and her staff for organizing such a meaningful day of educational training. We look forward to learning more as we move forward together.

Wela’lin. Thank you. Asante.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, to mimic Senator Manning, I rise today to bring you chapter 3 of “Myla Plett’s Curling Adventures.”

Our story last left off with Myla and Team Plett having won gold at the Alberta Under-18 Girls Curling Championships, the Alberta Under-20 Championship and the Canada Winter Games trials.

This meant that their next stop was the Canadian Under-18 Curling Championship in Timmins, Ontario, which ran from February 5 to February 11 at the McIntyre Curling Club.

The curling club and Curling Canada put on a world-class event, and I’m happy to report that Team Plett went 9-0 to emerge the Canadian Under-18 Girls Curling champions for the second straight year.

Colleagues, the most difficult team they faced in Timmins was the Nova Scotia team, where they were forced into an extra end in order to break a tie. As it turned out, Team Plett would soon face this same team once again at the Canada Winter Games.

This year, the games were held in Prince Edward Island from February 19 to March 4, which my wife Betty and I had the privilege of attending.

Upon our arrival in Charlottetown, and at the opening ceremonies, we received a great reception from Premier Dennis King and the people of P.E.I., where all 3,600 athletes, coaches and support staff, along with the thousands of visitors, were designated as honorary Islanders for the entire winter games.

And throughout the week, Betty and I were also warmly greeted by Senators Brian Francis, Percy Downe and Stan Kutcher, along with our former colleague Senator Diane Griffin, who made us feel very much at home as they hosted us at different lunches and dinners.

Colleagues, what a week of curling it was. Finishing the round robin tied with Nova Scotia — with identical 4-1 records — Team Plett won their quarter-final and semifinal games. Then, they found themselves, once again, pitted against the same team from Nova Scotia in the final. Nova Scotia played an outstanding game, besting us in the final and clinching the gold medal — with Team Plett winning the silver.

I want to offer my sincere congratulations to the Nova Scotia girls’ team consisting of Sophie Blades as skip, Kate Weissent as third, Stephanie Atherton as second and Alexis Cluney as lead. They fought hard for their gold medal and should be proud of their performance.

On a side note, the Nova Scotia boys also won the gold medal. To my granddaughter Myla Plett and her teammates, Alyssa Nedohin, Chloe Fediuk and Allie Iskiw, congratulations on your silver medal. You once again demonstrated excellent sportsmanship and continue to make us proud. I know that all my Senate colleagues will be waiting with bated breath for chapter 4 of this series, when I update them on your success at the Canadian under-21 curling championships in Quebec at the end of March.

Colleagues, I invite you to join me in congratulating all of the athletes who competed at the prestigious Winter Games in Prince Edward Island and wish them well in their continued training as they pursue excellence in their chosen sport. Thank you, colleagues.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. I think the assumption behind your question, though, is misleading. I won’t repeat everything that I said yesterday.

The Prime Minister and the government have put into place a number of measures to address the situation of not only what has happened in the past, but also how we can protect ourselves in the future. That includes the reference to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, or NSICOP, which I understand is accepted; and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, or NSIRA, which will set its own mandate and scope of study; the appointment of a special rapporteur; the launch of public consultations to guide the creation of a foreign influence transparency registry, the establishment of the national counter foreign interference coordinator; and Public Safety Canada will coordinate our efforts to combat foreign interference.

These processes are the appropriate ones given the sensitivity and classified nature of the information that’s relevant to these issues. The leaking of information — to which reference was made yesterday, and is rampant throughout the media — is not the way for a responsible parliament to deal with these issues.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Honourable senators, today I rise to tell you the story of a great Canadian who has been lauded for his leadership and outstanding contributions to the arts and media sectors in Canada.

Peter Herrndorf, a towering giant — both literally and figuratively — in both of those sectors and in the places where they intersect, sadly passed away last month surrounded by his magnum opus — his beloved family — Eva Czigler, his wife, and Katherine and Matthew, his children. I was so happy to know that Peter had become a grandfather to baby Nico just months before his passing.

Yes, Peter Herrndorf was the Renaissance man of Canadian journalism, the dream publisher, the godfather of Canadian arts, the media mogul, one of Canada’s greatest cultural leaders, the man of big vision and big heart, as he has been rightly credited in the outpouring of tributes to this wonderful man.

His innovative, extraordinary and transformational contributions to our National Arts Centre; our national broadcaster, the CBC; TVOntario; Toronto Life magazine; the Luminato Festival; the Stratford Festival and many others are clear evidence that Peter deserved these accolades.

However, what I would like to highlight today is that Peter Herrndorf also had an influence on so many other aspects of Canadian nation building, ones that are far harder to quantify.

Like many Canadians, I was fortunate to be in Peter’s orbit. Like others, I was a person with a cause that Peter took an interest in.

I first met Peter when he was the new president and CEO of the National Arts Centre, NAC, and I was the new director of the Coady International Institute at StFX University in Nova Scotia. Peter attended an event that we held in Centre Block. He liked what he heard and offered to help me.

Peter ended up hosting events for us at his home in Toronto and at the NAC. Those events bore important fruit for our institution, supporting community leaders internationally and in Canada.

Peter also became my friend and mentor and would be there to offer advice whenever we spoke on the phone or met in person, like in 2018, when I was a newly appointed senator to this chamber. He took me out to dinner to fill me in on the Ottawa scene.

Colleagues, my experience was quintessential Peter Herrndorf — while excelling at his rather important “day job” transforming Canada’s performing arts scene, Peter Herrndorf was causing huge positive ripples in so many other important sectors across Canada and around the world.

Colleagues, Peter Herrndorf was a national treasure. May he rest in peace.

Wela’lioq, thank you.

[Translation]

Senator Plett: Well, of course, my question was why didn’t he answer the questions not what is he doing on the side, but you mentioned the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, or NSICOP. Another document provided to Global News was an unredacted copy of an August 2019 report prepared by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.

This committee reports directly to the Prime Minister, and he and his office approve redactions or edits to their reports before they are made public. By the way, leader, this is a committee that the Prime Minister has been bragging about that all registered, recognized parties are part of. Ironically, he is failing to appoint somebody from the official opposition in the Senate to that committee but appoints supposedly independent senators and not somebody from the Conservative Party of Canada.

I am curious about that, leader, why is that not happening?

My question is — and I will continue with this — Global News says that this report:

. . . offered several examples of alleged Chinese election interference from 2015 to 2018 that involved the targeting and funding of candidates.

The Prime Minister would have seen this report, leader. He saw it and did nothing about it. I have to wonder if he wants the leaks of both this report and the Privy Council Office, or PCO, report investigated the same way that he wants the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, whistle-blowers hunted down.

Leader, you said this committee would get to the bottom of this in a responsible and prudent way. Maybe we need to have a Conservative on the committee from the Senate. That might help us.

How is a secret committee whose reports the Prime Minister already ignores going to do that?

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Honourable colleagues, this year, I decided to speak to International Women’s Day on March 9.

You’re probably thinking I’m a bit late, or you may be wondering why I would talk about this on March 9. To me, every day of the year should be a day for talking about women’s rights. Shouldn’t we reflect on the importance of recognizing women’s rights every day of the year, instead of just one day a year?

My mother reminded me of this every day. At 18, she already had a university degree. She went on to have 10 children and taught for 35 years, until she was 65. My mother never needed to remind me or any of my brothers or sisters to respect her rights. She instilled in us the fundamental value — or duty, I would say — of respecting her as a woman and as a mother.

Ever since my daughter Julie was murdered 20 years ago, the fight for women’s rights, especially the right to be better protected, has been in my DNA. The death of my daughter Isabelle a few years later reminded me that the fight for this fundamental right to be recognized was central to women’s sense of security in our society, and that as many men as possible must be part of that fight. In my head and in my heart, I know it is not just women who must wage this fight. Above all, it must be fought by all men, by fathers, brothers, husbands, friends and all men who are important in the lives of all women and girls. Men must dedicate themselves to standing alongside their mothers, their sisters, their wives and their friends so that these women do not fight this battle alone.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2023 is “Every Woman Counts.” I’m thinking of every woman and girl who lived through the horrors of violence as a child or as an intimate partner because she was a woman who “didn’t count,” and who had injuries inflicted on her by a man because she was a woman.

Today, women are gradually taking back control over their lives because they are reclaiming the right to speak up and to speak out. This empowerment is fragile because female victims have lost trust in the justice system. That loss of trust is a deep scar that will heal if, and only if, we make it a priority in this place.

Honourable senators, let us take a moment to think about the 185 women who were murdered in 2022 because they were women. Today, let’s recognize that every one of these murdered women counted, but we failed to protect them.

To give true meaning to the theme of International Women’s Day, let’s make a commitment to make women safer in 2023. Honourable senators, we need to make this commitment, because every woman counts.

Senator Gold: The position of the government is clear. It has confidence in the committee of parliamentarians. It welcomes the work that it did. As I said, I commend to all senators that report on foreign interference. He continues to have confidence in the members who represent all parties.

It will —

Hon. Raymonde Gagné (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): That was very touching, Senator Boisvenu. Thank you.

On Tuesday, January 31, Saint-Boniface lost a true hero when the visionary philanthropist Marcel A. Desautels passed away.

This Franco-Manitoban will be remembered primarily for his contributions to post-secondary education in Canada, to which he donated tens of millions of dollars. The University of Manitoba, the Université de Saint-Boniface, the University of Toronto and McGill University all benefited from his generosity and named several of their faculties and scholarships after him.

He was an accomplished businessman who headed up Creditel, one of the country’s biggest credit agencies with 16 offices, which he sold to an American competitor.

As president of the Université de Saint-Boniface, I can personally attest to Mr. Desautels’ devotion not only to that university, but also to the University of Manitoba. For example, in 2008, he donated $20 million to the Faculty of Music. It was the biggest private donation ever made to the University of Manitoba and one of the biggest ever made to a music department in Canada.

In 2009, he was the lead donor and president of VISION, the Université de Saint-Boniface’s biggest-ever fundraising campaign, with a $15-million target. A building bearing his name was inaugurated at the Université de Saint-Boniface in 2011 and is now home to the health sciences program and the school of social work.

However, his remarkable philanthropic work is not the only reason to remember this francophone lawyer and businessman. He attributed much of his success to the classical education he received from the Jesuits at the Collège de Saint-Boniface. Marcel Desautels would voluntarily spend many hours meeting with students to encourage them and offer his personal support for their endeavours. He became a source of inspiration.

Marcel Desautels’ story is the story of a true visionary. It shows how, with determination, a citizen can leave their mark not only locally, but nationally. Most importantly, for Canadians, Mr. Desautels exemplifies what it means to give back to the community.

Rest in peace, dear Marcel.

[English]

The Hon. the Speaker informed the Senate that a message had been received from the House of Commons with Bill C-224, An Act to establish a national framework for the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting.

(Bill read first time.)

Hon. Diane Bellemare: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the fifth report (interim) of the Standing Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament entitled Equity between recognized parties and recognized parliamentary groups and I move that the report be placed on the Orders of the Day for consideration at the next sitting of the Senate.

(On motion of Senator Bellemare, report placed on the Orders of the Day for consideration at the next sitting of the Senate.)

The Hon. the Speaker informed the Senate that a message had been received from the House of Commons with Bill C-232, An Act respecting Arab Heritage Month.

(Bill read first time.)

Senator Housakos: These announcements were made a year ago. This problem that has now arisen because of courage on the part of CSIS officials who obviously were exasperated by the Prime Minister — and they had to go to the media to get this out in the public — is that they have no faith in this government. There is a bill before this chamber that sets out the implementation of a foreign agent registry. It mirrors a bill that had been tabled in the other place in the previous Parliament and ignored then by the government as well.

Both were drafted with wide consultation from the diaspora and the very communities that are being intimidated. It has been a full year that this bill has been sitting here, and Mr. Trudeau, senators, could not be bothered to speak once on this issue. There has been one speech, no follow-up except procrastination on it. It is the job of parliamentarians to study such things. That is what the public expects us to do. It is our role and our obligation.

Why don’t we do our job? Why doesn’t your government embrace Bill S-237, send it to committee for study, for review and get it past this place quickly as we have done with other bills that we think are of public importance? We’ve seen how we come together quickly on issues of public importance and get bills over to the other side quickly. We can do that with Bill S-237 and get the ball rolling instead of wasting another year in consultations and maybe have another election before we get anything done.

Senator Gold: I certainly will. You are quite right, I can’t answer specifically how the task force report might have influenced things. Addressing gender equity, equality and inequality is an ongoing process. It didn’t begin with this task force, and it will not end with the report.

There are a number of measures that the government has taken that have tangible and important benefits for women across the country. A national system of early learning and child care will have an enormous impact on the ability of women to participate in the labour force. The labour force participation rate for Canadian women in their prime working years is at a record 85.6%.

There have also been improvements, since this government took office, in the participation rate to which I just referred. It has risen by approximately 3% since then. I will make those inquiries, senator, and get back to you.

[Translation]

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you, Senator Smith, for the question. The licensing of physicians is a provincial and territorial responsibility exclusively. There is a problem because the provinces and territories have been slow to liberalize their rules to allow for the easier accreditation of those with degrees from elsewhere.

Indeed, the problem is not restricted to doctors coming from outside of Canada; there are problems within Canada. There have been interesting and welcome initiatives from the Atlantic region, but, still, work needs to be done.

You made mention of doing things other than providing funds, but we should not gloss over the fact that the injection of federal funds into the provincial system and the enhancement of those funds — almost $200 billion over 10 years to improve health care services — go a long way to give the provinces the ability to absorb new doctors and to pay for new doctors — as well as other health care professionals, one should add.

The Minister of Health works with his counterparts across the country on a regular basis. I will make inquiries as to how the subject of licensing is progressing on the agenda and report back. The ability of the federal government, and indeed Parliament, to legislate in this area is quite limited by virtue of the Constitution.