Hon. Colin Deacon: Honourable senators, my question is for the Government Representative.

Senator Gold, there’s been good news that hopefully signals the prioritization of competition policy in Canada. This includes Budget 2022’s down payment of amendments to the Competition Act and an increase in the Competition Bureau’s budget, as well as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s ongoing consultation on the future of competition policy and the recent appointments of two competition law experts to top positions at the CRTC — the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

This last point is the focus of my question. Anti-competitive regulations programs and policies exist across all departments and agencies from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to Transport Canada, from the CRTC to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, or OSFI. As we all know, intention is important, but capacity to implement is paramount. Therefore, outside of the Competition Bureau itself, what is the federal government’s competition policy expertise? How many of the 336,000 federal public servants have had competition policy training and are responsible for the development of pro-competitive policies in their departments?

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Senator Gold, lately we’ve heard the idea from government that people could take the Canadian Oath of Citizenship by signing a document online without attending either an in-person or virtual citizenship ceremony. The negative concerns I have heard about this idea are legion, so much so that I attended a live citizenship ceremony again last Thursday. It was truly moving to hear all in the room take the oath, to witness the individual certificate presentations and see the photos — all very important aspects of the event that would be missed by merely signing an online form at home. Can you assure this chamber, all Canadians and those applying for citizenship that this idea of cutting out citizenship ceremonies in favour of a self-administered online oath will be quashed?

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

Hon. Elizabeth Marshall: I have a follow-up question. Perhaps you can also check on this.

While announcing policy commitments is helpful, actually executing the policy is the real challenge. I’m thinking specifically of all the problems the department encountered in the area of military procurement over the last several years. Given the challenges encountered in implementing the existing policy, what changes have the government undertaken to successfully implement the new policy, which they should release very shortly?

Hon. Elizabeth Marshall: My question is also for Senator Gold, and it’s on the Department of National Defence.

Senator Gold, last year’s budget announced the defence policy review to allow Canada to update its existing 2017 defence policy, entitled Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada’s Defence Policy, with the stated goal of supporting its broader international priorities in a changing global environment. That was a full year ago.

We’ve just finished our study in the National Finance Committee of Supplementary Estimates (C), and we began our study of the Main Estimates this morning. It would be very helpful if we had that updated policy. Can you tell us what has happened to this update and when we can expect it?

Hon. Tony Loffreda: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, many are calling on the government to further investigate emergency COVID benefits and subsidy amounts paid to Canadians who may have inadvertently received money they were ineligible for. In her fall report, the Auditor General refers to some $32 billion in total payments, including $15.5 billion for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.

I appreciate that the CRA — the Canada Revenue Agency — does not agree with some of the Auditor General’s findings, but the point remains that the agency needs a plan of action to verify the millions of benefit applications it received. As the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, told our National Finance Committee:

. . . the CRA doesn’t deem it worthy, appropriate or worth the effort to go after an alleged $15 billion in potential overpayments . . . .

Can you assure us that the government is committed to recovering what could be millions or even billions of dollars that may have gone to ineligible candidates?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. During the pandemic, as you all know, the government took very decisive and unprecedented action to help Canadians get through this crisis, to save lives and help our economy, and it worked. But it was clear from the beginning, as I have said on many occasions, that the CRA would begin verifications once the time was right and once it had the required data to do so. Indeed, as you alluded to, verifications have begun and assessments are being made and continue to be made as to where the efforts of the CRA should be focused.

It will take some time to complete this work. The government does not accept the numbers that the Auditor General put forward in terms of the magnitude of the problem, but there was a problem, of course. In that regard, fraud will not be tolerated. The CRA will continue to use all of its tools to identify and recover the amounts that were disbursed to ineligible recipients.

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Honourable senators, I rise today to mark, in my own way, the fact that our colleague, the Honourable Senator Larry Smith, will be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

It is a rare honour to become a Canadian football legend. I say “rare” even though Senator Smith is the second member of this chamber to be awarded this honour. The other is the late Senator David Braley, who was also from Montreal and who owned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Toronto Argonauts, and the BC Lions.

Senator Smith is being inducted into the Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Canadian professional football 50 years after he first donned the Montreal Alouettes uniform in 1972. Larry Smith played for nine consecutive seasons during which the team won the Grey Cup twice, once in 1974 and again in 1977. I must say here that, at the time, our colleague was playing for one of the greatest coaches in Canadian and American football in the 1980s and 1990s, Marv Levy.

After serving as the commissioner of the CFL for five years, from 1992 to 1997, Senator Smith went on to serve as president of the Montreal Alouettes, not once but twice. The first time was from 1997 to 2001, when he basically had to save the CFL. After a brief stint as the president and publisher of the Montreal Gazette, he returned and served as team president a second time from 2004 to 2010 and won the Grey Cup in 2009 and 2010.

If there is still a professional football team in Montreal, it is no doubt thanks to Senator Smith’s reputation and talent as a manager and communicator. Under his watch, the Alouettes played sold-out games for 10 years. That was such an accomplishment that, even today, when the Alouettes aren’t doing well, Larry Smith’s name often comes up in the news as the one who could potentially save the franchise, which was just purchased by businessman Pierre-Karl Péladeau.

In all honesty, both the Alouettes and The Gazette could use a man of Larry Smith’s calibre to help them survive today.

It is fair to say that this is a very well-deserved honour for Senator Smith. He has dedicated more than 30 years to bringing professional football to life and promoting it in Montreal, Quebec and Canada.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our friend, Senator Larry Smith.

Hip hip hooray!

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

Hon. Claude Carignan: Honourable senators, today I want to pay tribute to another athlete from Saint-Eustache in my region, Marie-Ève Dicaire, who announced on March 8 that she is retiring from competitive boxing, a sport she has been mastering at the professional level for more than eight years.

Marie-Ève chose to announce her retirement on March 8, on International Women’s Day. I’ve known her for nearly 20 years and I know that choice was not a coincidence.

In fact, at her announcement, she said:

I always boxed to show that women are capable, that female professional boxing was possible. Today, there are many women who are ready to take up the torch, to shine a light on professional boxing. I’m at peace with that because I know that it is not going to die with my retirement.

She was always aware that she was a role model for many young female athletes and her announcement on March 8 marks the advancement of women in our society in general and in combat sports in particular.

After a long career in karate, during which she won five world titles, a stint in kick-boxing and another in Olympic boxing, she experienced glory and success in professional boxing, winning 18 of her 20 matches as well as the world championship belt from the International Boxing Federation on two occasions.

On December 8, 2018, she became Quebec’s first world champion with a unanimous-decision victory over Uruguay’s Chris Namus at the Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City.

Now 36 years old, she has a very long and impressive track record that reminds us that with determination, discipline and perseverance, nothing is impossible.

A recipient of funding from the Fondation Élite de Saint-Eustache, she was only 12 years old when she participated in her first international karate competition and took home the gold medal. She is a five-time world champion in the sport.

The pandemic put her professional boxing career on hold and she began working in communications and media, a career she will continue to pursue now that she has hung up her gloves.

Her cheerfulness, communication skills and friendly personality will make her a champion yet again, but in the media world this time.

Congratulations on your outstanding career, and good luck in your new challenges, Marie-Ève.

Thank you.

[English]

Hon. Brian Francis: Honourable senators, despite overwhelming research and evidence showing that for over a century, Indigenous children were forcibly taken to residential schools and other institutions where they were subjected to rampant neglect, abuse and even death, many people in Canada continue to not just outright deny the hard facts but invalidate and undermine them.

The use of such rhetoric and tactics in politics, media and all other forums must be strongly confronted and condemned. Our silence is complicity and violence.

We must use our positions of power and privilege to amplify the voices and experiences of survivors who have fought relentlessly to ensure that the shameful truth of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people is known and addressed.

They are owed our utmost respect, gratitude and support for their strength, courage and resolve, sometimes at great personal cost, to demand better from all of us — and all levels of government and society.

We also have to honour the innocent children who died at residential schools and associated institutions, like hospitals.

Many were buried at unmarked locations that were never disclosed to their loved ones and which continue to be disrespected. Let’s ensure their spirits and bodies finally receive the honour, respect and dignity they deserve.

Colleagues, Indigenous people must lead the important and sacred work of uncovering, documenting and sharing the truth of the genocide inflicted on us, as well as the search, recovery, identification, protection and commemoration of our missing children. Parliamentarians and others must empower them in doing so.

This work conducted by, with and on behalf of survivors, in the pursuit of truth, justice, healing and reconciliation — often without the necessary funding, resources or even authority — is critical to addressing the wrongs of the past and present and moving Canada towards a better future for all.

Today, following a moving and compelling appearance at the Committee on Indigenous Peoples, we are joined by Kimberly Murray, the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, her colleagues Executive Director Wendelyn Johnson and Senior Partner Donald Worme, as well as Stephanie Scott, Executive Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, her Executive Assistant Carmen Roy and survivor and Elder Barbara Cameron.

I am endlessly grateful and inspired by them and all those who engage in this difficult, challenging and often painful journey to assist survivors and their families, communities and governments, and Canada as a whole. I pray the Creator continues to guide and protect them, and urge leaders inside and outside this chamber to listen, believe and support them today and every day.

Wela’lin, thank you.

Hon. Paula Simons: Honourable senators, last Thursday, just before 1 a.m., two young Edmonton police constables, Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan, responded to a call about a domestic dispute at an apartment complex in west central Edmonton.

When the constables arrived at the building, they were met by a 55-year-old woman, who told them that she was having problems with her 16-year-old son. The boy had no criminal record and no outstanding warrants. But police had been called to the home before to deal with the boy on a mental health call.

While all domestic disturbance calls can be volatile, there was no indication that this call was particularly high risk.

No one was prepared for what came next. According to the Edmonton Police Service, Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan were shot by the teen multiple times before they reached the apartment door. Neither constable had a chance to pull a weapon. The mother then attempted to disarm her son. He shot and wounded her grievously, before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

It is a horror that has rocked my city and my own neighbourhood. I walked my dog right past this building just a few hours before the shooting.

As a journalist, I covered the murders of the four RCMP officers who were ambushed by James Roszko at Rochfort Bridge in 2005. I also covered the 2015 death of Constable David Wynn, the St. Albert RCMP officer who was shot and killed by Shawn Rehn. But Roszko and Rehn were dangerous men, hard men, with serious criminal records. There is something so much more disturbing, more poignant, more painful, more pointless about the deaths of two brave young officers at the hands of a mentally ill child, who is now dead himself.

There are so many questions. How did this troubled 16-year-old get access to a gun in the first place? Did his family receive the support they needed from the child welfare system and the mental health care system? Did Constables Ryan and Jordan have all the information they needed about the boy’s mental health history before they arrived? And do police officers in general have the training and support they need to deal with mental health calls?

For now, we have no answers, only our shared anguish. At this very moment, thousands of Edmontonians are lining the streets of south Edmonton as the bodies of these two brave constables are moved from the medical examiner’s office to the funeral home.

On Monday, Edmontonians and police officers from across Canada will come together to mourn and to honour the lives of Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan in a public ceremony at Rogers Place. It will be an opportunity for community catharsis. But the private pain for all three of these grieving families will endure for many years to come.

Hon. Gwen Boniface: Honourable senators, I rise today in great sadness to honour the lives of two young police officers who were taken too soon. Constable Travis Jordan and Constable Brett Ryan were ambushed and fatally shot while responding to a family dispute call last Thursday. Despite the heroic efforts that were made to save them, the officers succumbed to their injuries.

Constables Jordan and Ryan served with the Edmonton Police Service West Division.

Brett Ryan was 30 years old and had worked with the Edmonton Police Service for more than five years. He had previously served the city as a paramedic. Constable Ryan is remembered as being passionate about his work and his community service. He enjoyed working as a minor hockey referee and playing slow-pitch baseball. A friend remarked that his face lit up whenever he spoke about his job.

His wife, Ashley, who serves the city as a paramedic, is expecting their first child this summer.

Travis Jordan was originally from Nova Scotia. He moved to Alberta to pursue a career in policing. He served with the Edmonton Police Service for eight and a half years. His sister, Sheena, said that he had dreamed of becoming a police officer since he was a small child. He had a reputation for being compassionate and had received accolades for helping someone who was driving a snow-covered car. Instead of handing them a ticket, he gave them a snow brush and a smile. Travis Jordan was 35.

These tragic losses have taken place amid a concerning rise in the number of police officers killed in the last six months in Canada. The other victims include Toronto Police Service Constable Andrew Hong, South Simcoe Police Service Constables Morgan Russell and Devon Northrup, RCMP Constable Shaelyn Yang and Ontario Provincial Police Constable Grzegorz Pierzchala. All but one of the officers were shot.

Funerals for Constable Jordan and Constable Ryan will be held in the coming days. Senator Busson and I, not just as former police officers but as mothers of police officers, ask you to join us in sending our deepest condolences to their families and to the women and men of the Edmonton Police Service. May they all find the support they need during this difficult time.

Thank you, meegwetch.

Senator Plett: As I said, he’s the beneficiary. Why did the Trudeau Foundation return hundreds of thousands of dollars that they clearly thought the foundation should not have received? Now, we find out that the Prime Minister himself has received thousands of dollars in donations from very questionable sources in his own riding.

For the past three weeks, we’ve seen Liberal MPs filibuster at committee to block the Prime Minister’s chief of staff from saying what she knows about the Beijing interference. Then they say it’s political when the opposition asks questions.

Yesterday, the Trudeau government threatened that a motion before the other place to compel Ms. Telford to testify could well be a matter of confidence — obviously, to get Jagmeet Singh on side.

This morning, the Prime Minister’s Office said Ms. Telford will appear before committee but also seemed to warn that she wouldn’t have much to say.

This is a farce, leader. The Prime Minister doesn’t need the former governor general or any made-up special rapporteur to tell Canadians the truth about what he knew. He can tell Canadians the truth.

Instead, we’ve seen the Prime Minister completely unable or unwilling to answer straightforward questions, leader. If the Prime Minister had and has nothing to hide, he’d be able to answer questions, wouldn’t he? If he had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t keep bending over backwards to keep the truth from coming out. Don’t you agree, leader?

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Honourable senators, we are commemorating very sad events today. It is my turn to speak about another.

On August 10, 2022, around 10 p.m., Jayson Colin was brutally shot while talking to some friends outside. This young 26-year-old man lived with his parents and led a normal life. He was the assistant manager of a pharmacy and was very engaged in his community with the youth of Montreal North.

In 2019, Jayson completed 45 weeks of training with the Corporation de développement économique communautaire as he wanted to share his passion for hockey more readily with the youth in his community. All his friends talked about the fact that he was always willing to help others.

Jayson’s senseless murder is just one in a list that is far too long of murders of youth who have lost their lives in our country’s major cities.

Jayson’s parents, Ronide and Roberson, who are here with us today and who I welcomed at my office recently, shared with me the pain of losing their only child. For parents like us who have lost a child in such a brutal manner, something in our DNA changes forever and unites us in the suffering, the pain, but above all, the enormous challenge of building a world without any type of violence.

Violence impacts certain cultural communities more than others, including the Black community. Sadly, Jayson’s parents were not treated with compassion, respect and empathy as a result of the discrimination they experienced at the start of the legal proceedings. We all agree that that is unacceptable in 2023.

Despite this difficult experience, Ronide and Roberson, who are both community advocates in Montreal North, have maintained their courage and, above all, their dignity in the face of this injustice. Anger and rage are not part of their discourse. Ronide was honoured in 2021 by the National Assembly of Quebec in recognition of the importance of her work in the community.

I commend Ronide and Roberson’s courage in speaking out to mainstream media in the Montreal area to raise awareness among Quebecers about their often misunderstood reality.

Last week, I had the pleasure of accompanying them to a meeting that I organized with the new Montreal police chief, Fady Dagher. We had a very open and frank discussion. The Montreal police force is facing a tough job in terms of education and awareness. The challenges are daunting, but they say that faith can move mountains, and the faith of Ronide, Roberson and Mr. Dagher gives me hope. I’m sure that Montreal’s new police chief shares the same values as Ronide and Roberson.

I want to thank Ronide and Roberson for their trust in sharing their personal tragedies with me. I’m using the plural “tragedies” because both of them have been victims twice over, once when their only child was taken from them and again when they were denied their human dignity following Jayson’s murder.

Ronide and Roberson, I promise to stand with you to continue the battle you’ve been waging for the past 18 years, a battle that Jayson would certainly want you to continue. Wherever he is right now, he is proud of you and helping you every step of the way.

Once again, dear friends, welcome to the Senate of Canada. I am sure my fellow senators will join me in extending their condolences to you. I urge you to stay strong. May Jayson stay in your hearts during your upcoming mission.

Senator Gold: Unsurprisingly, colleagues, I don’t agree. I think the Prime Minister has put into place the measures appropriate for the nature of the information that would have been shared by security organizations and others. He has put into place mechanisms that this government introduced, like NSICOP, and has appointed someone with impeccable integrity to advise him and Canadians on what additionally needs to be done to protect our democratic institutions.

Again, all the evidence accepted by all opposition parties shows that, in fact, the elections were not compromised despite efforts that were being made. Therefore, in that regard, Canadians should have confidence in the results of the last elections and confidence in the steps that the government and our institutions have taken and will continue to take to protect the integrity of our institutions.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): My question is for the government leader around the foreign interference in our elections.

I’m going to do something that I don’t usually do, leader. I am going to quote a Liberal, someone who recently posed a very good question about the Prime Minister’s feeble response to reports about Beijing’s interference in our elections. These are the words of Warren Kinsella, a senior staffer in the Chrétien government, leader, from a recent column:

Namely, how can he decide who will investigate China’s malfeasance — and what their terms of reference are, and when they will report — when he, him, is the prime beneficiary of the interference?

The prime beneficiary. Warren Kinsella says that Justin Trudeau is the prime beneficiary.

Leader, you don’t need a Harvard law degree to know that the Prime Minister has a blatant conflict of interest here. The Communist regime in Beijing interfered in our democracy. There’s no question about that, and he benefited from it. Why should the Prime Minister have any say in how this is being investigated?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. All of the investigations into the elections concluded that the elections were not affected by China’s and others’ attempts to interfere — attempts certainly they were — and, indeed, this is even the position of the Leader of the Opposition.

The Prime Minister has taken steps to address the issue and get to the bottom of it. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, known as NSICOP, was asked to complete a review to assess the state of interference in federal electoral processes, as you know. The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, or NSIRA, has said it will set its own mandate and the scope of its study of the 43rd and 44th elections in the coming days. These findings will be reported to Parliament.

As we all know by now, the Prime Minister appointed the Right Honourable David Johnston as Independent Special Rapporteur to look into foreign interference. Honourable senators, it’s important to underline the specifics of this. Specifically, he will examine the information related to the 2019 and 2021 federal elections to determine what the government did to defend itself against electoral interference. He will build upon the work of NSICOP and NSIRA. He will identify any outstanding issues requiring attention so that Canadians can continue to have confidence in our electoral systems and our democratic institutions. He is to recommend any additional mechanisms or transparent processes, such as a formal public inquiry, that he deems necessary to reinforce our confidence, and will do this by May 23, 2023. He will submit regular reports to the Prime Minister, which will also be shared with the leaders of the opposition. These reports will be made available to all Canadians. He is expected to complete his review by October 31 of this year.

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, last September, I asked you about the horrific stabbing mass murders at James Smith Cree Nation in my province of Saskatchewan. Your answer then — as you say almost daily during Senate Question Period — was that you would make inquiries with the minister and the department, and report back with answers when you received them.

The delayed answer came back five months later, solely with information that was already relayed in a televised RCMP press conference four months ago. This response completely ignored my question regarding what steps the government and RCMP would take to ensure this immense tragedy never repeats itself.

Senator Gold, these killings have scarred Saskatchewan. This region is still reeling from the magnitude of this catastrophe. For the Government of Canada to only offer this pathetic, much-too-delayed response to Canadians’ serious concerns is a dereliction of duty.

Why are you helping this government dodge accountability?