Hon. Pamela Wallin: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the eighth report (interim) of the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy entitled Needed: An Innovation Strategy for the Data-Driven Economy 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 Wallin, report placed on the Orders of the Day for consideration at the next sitting of the Senate.)

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

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): My question, again, is for the Liberal government leader.

Leader, Minister Mendicino wasn’t the only one who acted surprised that Paul Bernardo was moved out of maximum security. We’re now told that the Prime Minister learned of the jail transfer the day before his minister did, and the Prime Minister’s Office, or PMO, staff knew about it for months.

Under the Speaker’s Ruling, leader, I’m not allowed to call it what it is, but yesterday, your friends were quick to come to the rescue — on another point of order — to further restrict our language. I can say that the incompetent Prime Minister and his minister were “acting,” “pretending” or “putting on a sham,” and I can call them “fake,” or say that they were playing Canadians for fools, but I am not allowed to say that they lied — “lied” is the word that best describes what they did and who they are.

Leader, I’m at a loss for words; it doesn’t happen very often.

Senator Gold, when something is said that is not true, that is misleading or that is a lie, what language would you suggest that we use in this chamber?

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

The Hon. the Speaker: Are honourable senators ready for the question?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the third time?

Hon. Patti LaBoucane-Benson (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government response, dated June 13, 2023, to the second report of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, entitled Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada: Choices for Canadians, tabled in the Senate on February 15, 2023.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Laura Eggerton and Keith Collins. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator McPhedran.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

The Hon. the Speaker: Are honourable senators ready for the question?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(At 10 p.m., the Senate was continued until Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at 2 p.m.)

Hon. Stan Kutcher: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the report of the Canada-China Legislative Association and the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group concerning the Thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), held in Bangkok, Thailand, from October 26 to 29, 2022.

Hon. Stan Kutcher: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the report of the Canada-China Legislative Association and the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group concerning the Forty-third General Assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from November 20 to 25, 2022.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the third time?

The Hon. the Speaker informed the Senate that a message had been received from the House of Commons with Bill C-294, An Act to amend the Copyright Act (interoperability).

(Bill read first time.)

Hon. Stan Kutcher: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the report of the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group concerning the Co-Chairs’ Annual Visit, held in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan, from October 10 to 15, 2022.

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: My question is for Senator Gold. I too want to talk about the Bernardo case, which has sparked a lot of outrage across the country and among victims’ groups.

Yesterday, Minister Mendicino used the word “victim” more times in one hour than his government ever did in eight years. The minister never talked about victims before the Bernardo case. Suddenly, victims of crime are his top priority. He even issued a directive to his department to ensure that victims’ rights are central to Correctional Service Canada’s decisions.

For the past eight years, I have been asking the Government Representative in the Senate why victims’ rights are not being respected. He mentioned a directive, but that directive existed in 2015. The act that created the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights is a federal act, which means that all federal institutions must abide by it.

Senator Gold, why is Minister Mendicino now using victims for his own ends? Why did he not respect families? Most importantly, why did he not tell the truth?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question and for the offer, as the son of an English teacher, to school you.

I think the best advice I could give would be to listen to the very impressive speech of the former leader of the Conservative Party, Mr. Erin O’Toole, which he delivered in the chamber, because he reminded all of us parliamentarians — and he included himself in that, to his great credit — that both the language of debate and the way in which more attention is being paid to creating video clips in order to serve the algorithms for “likes” are debasing our politics and endangering the things to which we should all be responsibly attentive.