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Results: 1 - 15 of 26
View Jean Crowder Profile
NDP (BC)
View Jean Crowder Profile
2013-01-31 14:27 [p.13518]
Mr. Speaker, in 2008, the Prime Minister sincerely apologized for the residential school tragedy and promised reconciliation between aboriginal peoples and other Canadians. However, four years into its mandate, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission needs these historical records now, not stonewalling from the government. Instead of allowing the commission to immediately access these documents, the minister said yesterday that his priority was once again to delay so that he could examine the court decision.
Can the minister now commit to respecting the court's judgment, and make these Library and Archives Canada records available immediately?
View John Duncan Profile
CPC (BC)
View John Duncan Profile
2013-01-31 14:28 [p.13518]
Mr. Speaker, as we have said from the very beginning, we are absolutely committed to honouring our obligations under the Indian residential schools settlement agreement. The Government of Canada recognizes that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an important part of the reconciliation process between aboriginal peoples and all Canadians. We are reviewing the court's decision.
View Jonathan Genest-Jourdain Profile
NDP (QC)
View Jonathan Genest-Jourdain Profile
2013-01-31 14:28 [p.13518]
Mr. Speaker, all the broken promises, the lack of respect for the nation-to-nation relationship and the obstruction of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada have led to the awakening of aboriginal peoples.
The NDP is committed to moving forward and rebuilding this relationship after decades of political neglect. For that reason, the NDP motion we are debating today calls on the government to take immediate action, in the 2013 budget, to address the economic gap between aboriginal peoples and all other Canadians.
If the minister supports the motion, will he put words into action?
View John Duncan Profile
CPC (BC)
View John Duncan Profile
2013-01-31 14:29 [p.13518]
Mr. Speaker, like economic action plan 2012, budget 2013 will focus on jobs and economic opportunity for all Canadians, including first nations.
The protection of aboriginal treaty rights and consultation with aboriginals are recognized in our Constitution and statutes. We have made unprecedented investments that will make a concrete difference in people's lives, including skills training, housing on reserves, potable water, schools, treaty rights, protection of the rights of women and the resolution of land claims, and we will continue in that vein.
View Romeo Saganash Profile
NDP (QC)
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's speech to his Conservative caucus and the comments by one of his MPs and one of his senators do not bode well for Canada's aboriginal peoples.
The Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo, wants tangible results by spring.
It is hard to know who is responsible for this file in the Prime Minister's Office, but could a Conservative member tell us what tangible steps will be taken to fulfill the commitments made by the Prime Minister at the January 11 meeting?
View John Duncan Profile
CPC (BC)
View John Duncan Profile
2013-01-31 14:30 [p.13519]
Mr. Speaker, our government is focused on working in partnership with our aboriginal partners to create jobs and growth for all Canadians, including first nations.
View Thomas Mulcair Profile
NDP (QC)
View Thomas Mulcair Profile
2012-12-04 14:20 [p.12828]
Mr. Speaker, for generations, the first nations have suffered the consequences of the federal government's bad faith.
Four years ago, the Prime Minister worked with Jack Layton to publicly apologize to the first nations on behalf of the government for the residential schools tragedy. This was a defining moment in our Parliament's history.
Unfortunately, the government is currently fighting in court to keep millions of relevant documents secret. There will be no truth and reconciliation if the truth is intentionally hidden.
Can the government act in good faith for once and make these documents accessible? That way, we will have access to the truth.
View John Baird Profile
CPC (ON)
View John Baird Profile
2012-12-04 14:21 [p.12829]
Mr. Speaker, our government remains committed to bringing closure to the legacy of residential schools, and we will continue to honour the Indian residential school settlement.
As of November 30, the government has in fact disclosed almost one million documents to the commission. In addition, we are working with 23 other government departments and with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ensure that all relevant Indian residential schools-related documents are made available to the commission.
Canada aims to disclose all remaining documents relevant to the commission's mandate by June 30.
View Jean Crowder Profile
NDP (BC)
View Jean Crowder Profile
2012-12-04 14:22 [p.12829]
Mr. Speaker, forcing the commission to go before the courts demonstrates the Conservatives' bad faith.
They are refusing to provide the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with access to millions of documents it needs to do its work. If the commission does not have access to these documents, it will not be able to examine them before its mandate expires.
Will the Conservatives stop interfering in this process and give these documents to the commission immediately so that it can get to the bottom of this matter?
View John Duncan Profile
CPC (BC)
View John Duncan Profile
2012-12-04 14:22 [p.12829]
Mr. Speaker, I responded to those questions by this very same member yesterday in committee.
We are displaying good faith. We are following the terms and conditions of the Indian residential schools settlement agreement. It is a court supervised agreement. We have turned over a million documents. We are working with 23 other federal departments.
We plan to have all of the federal documents in the hands of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by next summer.
View Jean Crowder Profile
NDP (BC)
View Jean Crowder Profile
2012-12-04 14:23 [p.12829]
Mr. Speaker, the chiefs are on the Hill today demanding answers because of the government's lack of good faith. It is disgraceful that the commission has been forced to take the Conservatives to court.
To make an apology more than just words, the government must act now. The 150,000 residential school survivors, and all Canadians committed to reconciliation, deserve the full truth about this dark episode of Canadian history. Was the Prime Minister's historic apology just empty words? Are they trying to sabotage the commission's work, or will the Prime Minister direct all departments to fully co-operate with the commission, now?
View John Duncan Profile
CPC (BC)
View John Duncan Profile
2012-12-04 14:24 [p.12829]
Mr. Speaker, the federal departments are all co-operating now. That is the point of this whole exercise. We are doing this in good faith, and we doing it in the spirit of reconciliation.
View Guy Lauzon Profile
CPC (ON)
moved that Bill C-350, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (accountability of offenders), be read the third time and passed.
He said: Mr. Speaker, finally we are at third reading of Bill C-350. My private member's bill would encourage accountability and responsibility in our federal offenders. The bill would help ensure that offenders are held accountable for the monetary debts they owe. I think we can all agree this should be done.
As we have heard in committee, Bill C-350 raises important issues about the way in which offenders are held accountable for outstanding debts.
The evidence is clear. The cost of crime is immense in our society, to the tune of $99.6 billion a year in both tangible and intangible costs. That is not $99.6 million, but $99.6 billion in tangible and intangible costs.
We have heard, loud and clear, from victims of crime, victims' families and victims advocacy groups that offenders must be held accountable. We have heard these calls and are responding to them with several legislative measures.
We have supported legislation to address vexatious complaints by offenders have overburdened the complaints and grievance system with frivolous complaints.
We have also introduced legislation to double the victim surcharge owed by offenders and to make the payment mandatory in every case and without exception. While making the victim surcharge mandatory fulfills another of our commitments, we have the proper structure in place to ensure that it is paid.
This is where Bill C-350 comes into play. It would ensure that in cases where an offender is awarded money by a final decision by a court or tribunal, it must first be distributed in priority order to fulfill outstanding debts to child and spousal support, restitution orders and victim surcharges and any other amount owed as a result of a court judgment before the remainder goes to the offender.
We have seen strong support for this legislation from committee witnesses, including the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. The ombudsman clearly illustrated what this legislation would mean for victims of crime. She said:
For victims of crime who have already experienced loss and trauma, the additional legal and financial burden of having to track down moneys owed to them as a result of a crime committed against them can simply be overwhelming. This cannot and should not be the reality. Victims do not deserve to be revictimized. It is for this reason that measures that encourage the enforcement of the payment of restitution by offenders to victims are a necessary and welcome step forward.
This then is really the aim of Bill C-350, to reduce the financial burden on victims of crime. Bill C-350 puts in place a structure that would ensure that a monetary award from the Crown is first directed toward the offender's financial obligations outside the penitentiary walls. In particular, it would ensure that offenders are fulfilling their family responsibilities by continuing to pay court-ordered spousal or child support, or by paying restitution orders and victim surcharges.
I would like to take a moment to recognize the great work done in committee. Its members carried out a thoughtful and thorough study of the legislation in a non-partisan way, and I am grateful for that. The amendments put forward and subsequently passed in committee have served to strengthen and clarify the original bill. The amendment made at report stage further strengthened the bill's mandate, as it adjusted the wording to ensure that common law spouses will be eligible to receive payments under the legislation.
The proposed bill addresses a very specific section of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, section 78, which addresses payments to offenders. We are proposing changes to the law to ensure that money owed to the offender is distributed to meet his or her financial obligations. Here it is important to clarify that we are not talking about all moneys. This legislation deals only with those specific cases in which an offender has successfully won a monetary award as a result of a final decision by a court or tribunal.
This could include a case against the Correctional Service of Canada or another federal department. When this happens today, the CSC or other federal department would pay out the reward directly to the offender.
Of course, offenders are already obligated to pay their debts while in prison. Under the recently passed Safe Streets and Communities Act, they must participate fully in a comprehensive correctional plan, which among things includes addressing their court-ordered obligations.
However, there is no law specifically ensuring that they honour these obligations. This legislation does just that and prioritizes child and spousal support. Sometimes the offenders' families are also victims. In many cases the children or spouses of the offender face the strain of having lost the income of their partner and perhaps even lack the basic necessities.
To promote accountability among the offender population and ensure that victims and families of offenders are not further burdened, Bill C-350 will set out in law a means of ensuring that offenders honour their obligations according to the set priorities for repayment.
In this case the award must be paid out in the following order of priority: first, any amount the offender owes as a result of a spousal or child support order; second, any amount the offender owes as a result of a restitution order; third, any amount owed as a result of a victim surcharge; and fourth, any other amount owed by the offender as a result of a court judgment.
At committee concerns were raised regarding how this system of repayment might work in practice. These were realistic concerns. Amended wording now clarifies and addresses these concerns.
First, as I mentioned earlier, it is now clear that this bill only applies to awards made as a result of a final decision of a court or a tribunal. It is also specifically noted that legal costs should be respected before the award is distributed. Next, the bill now specifically ensures that any moneys owing to the offender under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement is exempt from repayment under Bill C-350.
We have also addressed concerns that the debt repayment priorities under Bill C-350 would override debts owed to the offender under the Income Tax Act or the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. A provision now exists in the bill that will ensure that it will not conflict with these or other similar federal statutes.
Another key concern brought forward by witnesses at committee was that the bill was not entirely clear with respect to the role of the Correctional Service of Canada in the administration of this scheme. In other words, what is the CSC's role in collecting, maintaining and sharing information on offenders and their debt obligations?
Furthermore, the bill was silent on issues of privacy and the sharing of the offenders' information among other departments as needed. As now stated, the CSC will act as a repository of this information. In other words, the onus is on the creditor to provide the CSC with written notice of any debts owed by the offender as a result of judgments or orders, such as on child support payments.
In the event the offender successfully sues and wins a monetary award from another federal department or agency, the latter would need to consult with CSC to determine if the person were a federal offender. The CSC can then provide that department with information on any outstanding obligations of the offender.
Bill C-350 represents an important step forward in our progress to make offenders accountable and responsible to society. Is that not what going to jail is all about? It is about rehabilitating the offender. This Bill C-350 sends an important message to families, children and, most importantly, victims of crime that we have not forgotten about them.
I hope that all members of this House can see the value of and give me their support for my private member's bill, Bill C-350.
View Randall Garrison Profile
NDP (BC)
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on third reading of Bill C-350, and I am pleased to reaffirm that the NDP will be supporting this bill in the final vote.
This is a bill which has the worthy objective of supporting offenders and taking responsibility for the consequences of their actions. However, before I give the wrong impression to the public, let me stress that this is a very narrow bill, which will affect only a very small group of offenders. It applies only to that small group who receive funds as a result of a court-ordered settlement against the Crown. During the course of the debate on this bill, no one has been able to provide an accurate number of those offenders who receive such settlements. However, the sponsor of the bill, the witnesses before committee and the parliamentary secretary have all assured us that this number is very low.
From the beginning, on this side of the House we have said the bill sets out an order of priorities for disbursing such funds. Limited as they might be, it is an order that we can support. The first priority is spousal and child support. I was very pleased to hear the hon. member acknowledge that there are, in addition to the direct victims of crime, often other indirect victims, who are the families and children of those who commit criminal acts. They often lose their main source of income and then end up losing their homes and all kinds of other things, through no fault of their own. The second is payments to victims as a result of restitution orders. Of course, on this side of the House we have always supported offenders having to fulfill their duties under restitution orders. The third is the payment of any victim surcharges that are owing. Finally, fourth is the payment of any civil judgments against offenders. New Democrats can support this order of priorities, and for that reason we can support this bill.
Obviously, getting additional resources to victims and families of offenders, who both often find themselves in dire straits as a result of criminal acts, is a good thing to do. Yet, we still have some doubts about the constitutionality of this bill with respect to federal-provincial jurisdiction. We are supporting the bill based on the assurances from the government as to the legal advice it has received on this point, but we expect to hear further from the provinces, perhaps in debate in the Senate.
We in the NDP would not be supporting this bill had the government not agreed to bring forth one very important amendment. That amendment, which we originally proposed in committee, was to exempt payments from the Crown made under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. We felt it was very important to recognize that aboriginal people who might receive payments as a result of abuse suffered in residential schools would be revictimized, if such payments were taken from one victim and transferred to another. We must recognize that the experience of physical, psychological and sexual abuse in the residential schools was very often the source of the involvement of those offenders with the legal system in the first place.
We are supporting this bill, recognizing its good intentions. We are cognizant of its very limited scope in providing assistance to victims, and while we appreciate the government's support for this private member's bill, we would call on the government to turn its attention now to the full recommendations of the victims ombudsman from last February. That is, not just the increase to the victim surcharge before the House now, and not just this bill, but the full range of recommendations from the victims ombudsman.
Let me conclude today by saying that we will be voting for this bill with the full knowledge that, at best, it will make only a small contribution to repairing the damage resulting from criminal acts. We do so while continuing to look forward to seeing further initiatives from the government to provide more extensive and effective assistance to victims of crime.
View Jean Crowder Profile
NDP (BC)
View Jean Crowder Profile
2012-09-19 14:36 [p.10143]
Mr. Speaker, today is the final day for residential schools survivors to apply for compensation for abuse that they suffered. We know that many survivors, for many reasons, have not been able to apply. We also know that in the last three months we saw a huge increase in the number of claims.
How will the government ensure that the survivors who could not make the deadline still have the chance to access compensation for the abuse they suffered? Will the minister extend the deadline to cope with this last-minute rush?
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