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Results: 1 - 15 of 58
View Ginette Petitpas Taylor Profile
Lib. (NB)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Karen, please, never apologize. It's family first. When our kids need us, they need us. Anyway, I just needed to say that.
Madam Chair, I would like to at this point move a motion from the floor, perhaps with a bit of a preamble.
Last week, when we had Ms. Qaqqaq appear before the committee, she made some compelling arguments with respect to indigenous languages being included in the ballots. After much reflection of those conversations that we had, and listening attentively, I've spoken to my Liberal colleagues. We all agree with respect to the motion that we want to bring forward.
If you will allow me, I will take a moment to read the motion:
That, pursuant to its mandate to examine issues related to Elections Canada under Standing Order 108(3)(a)(vi), the committee undertake a study of the measures necessary to ensure that the Chief Electoral Officer is empowered to require that ballots for electoral districts be prepared and printed in the Indigenous language or languages of electors, using the appropriate writing systems for each language, including syllabics if applicable, in addition to both official languages;
That this study include meaningful consultation with Indigenous language speakers and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis leaders across Canada;
That this study include consideration of the status Indigenous languages and the rights of Indigenous language speakers across the country;
That the Committee report its findings and recommendations to the House;
That, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the Government table a comprehensive response to this report; and
That the Committee resolve to undertake this study as its next order of business.
That is the formal motion, Madam Chair. [Technical difficulty--Editor] today.
That will be forwarded to all members in both official languages.
Again, I want to stress that Madam Qaqqaq's comments that she made last week really made me reflect a lot, and I think made many of our committee members reflect. I think it's truly imperative that we take on this study and that we take it on as soon as possible.
Over the course of the weekend, I had a chance to speak to one of my brothers, who works in Iqaluit, and Cape Dorset for a number of years. We were speaking about this matter that came before the committee. He indicated to me that if we want to increase voter participation in these territories, it's really, really important that we do our part.
I know that last week we ruled it out of the scope of our study, but I think moving forward, it's really important to look at this matter seriously, in hopes that for the next election, or whenever we can, we'll be able to have their languages on the same ballots.
Those are my comments. Thank you.
View Ruby Sahota Profile
Lib. (ON)
Ms. Petitpas Taylor, thank you for that.
I myself did not want to rule that out of order, but procedurally, after advice and after looking at what Bill C-19 entailed...it felt like it was one of those technical issues that I wish wasn't really a technical issue.
I'm glad you brought this forward, because I'm committed to this too. Whether we move forward as this committee or in another committee later on, it's figuring out how to support indigenous languages on the ballot in the future, and as quickly as possible.
We'll hear from a few people who wish to speak to this.
Mr. Nater is up first.
View John Nater Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think I saw the motion just come through to my email. That was going to be my first question.
Again, my only comment about this is that we're doing another study to look into this. We need to remind the current government that they are the government. They've been the government for nearly six years. They've actually proposed three bills on electoral reform. One in the previous Parliament was just left unmoved and unloved on the Order Paper and never proceeded past second reading.
Here comes the government once again, from the deputy whip, wanting to have a study to look into this, to propose something to happen at some point in the future, knowing full well that today is the final committee meeting of this sitting of Parliament. We cannot meet over the summer, because the government has not come forward with any proposals for hybrid meetings during the summer, so the earliest this could be undertaken is at some point in September, when we are all back in person in Ottawa. There is no other option right now, other than 338 of us returning to Ottawa on September 20, when we know the Prime Minister is seriously thinking about, and all the measures point to the fact he's going to take a trip over to the Supreme Court to ask the administrator to dissolve Parliament at some point this summer to cause an election. None of this is going to be happening or changed prior to an election happening. There is speculation they will appoint a Governor General, so he may not have to go to the administrator, but to the Governor General.
Again, I don't have any qualms with the actual motion. Obviously, it's something we're going to support, but it's just so typical of what we're seeing right now: talk and no action. If the government wanted to go forward with this, they could bring forward legislation. They could bring forward an angle to actually make this happen, rather than asking this committee to undertake a study.
Obviously, I suspect Liberal members of this committee got a bit of a push-back on social media regarding that last meeting. That's the joy of being a parliamentarian, taking that backlash. Now they're going forward with something to try to calm those concerns.
The Liberals are the government. You have the legislative powers at your disposal. You have the entire apparatus of government at your disposal. You have the Privy Council Office. You have the entire mechanisms of government to do something, and here we have a proposal to move forward with another study.
Those are my comments. I will leave it there, Madam Chair.
I'm very snarky today, so I do apologize for that.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
View Kirsty Duncan Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. I will keep my remarks very short and I hope we will get to a vote.
I think it's incumbent upon us to allow people to vote in their language. I would hope with all the pandemic planning that has gone on for an election, there is the possibility a study could be done quickly, and perhaps people will be able to vote in their language.
Thank you.
View Blaine Calkins Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Chair.
Look, I don't have a problem, and I'm not impugning the motives of the mover of the motion. I don't have a problem at all with the procedure and House affairs committee studying barriers keeping people from being able to vote. This is something that should be of concern at all times to members of Parliament, particularly to those members who are regular members of this committee.
The wording of the motion already presumes that the issue is as prevalent as has been stated by an individual colleague in the House of Commons, and the solution is also presumed in the text of the motion, which basically says that the problem is real and that the solution is to do it this way. If that's the case, then I don't know what we're going to study it for.
I'm from a riding and represent a riding that's largely unilingual, even though there are many people in the riding who do speak different languages, but most everybody I know who is a Canadian citizen and eligible to vote gets along just fine in one of the two official languages. I know, even here in the province of Alberta, that there are polls, and we used to ask these questions during the census—and I'm pretty sure we still do—about what languages people operate in. We would know about different regions of the country. Elections Canada would have access to information on different regions of the country and what primary languages are being used in a particular polling station. It wouldn't matter if it were one of our traditional aboriginal languages, whether it's a language that's being used in the north by Inuit, whether it's a language being used in Vancouver by those speaking Cantonese or Mandarin or those in a neighbourhood in Toronto who would be speaking a dialect from South Asia.
The notion of being able to print our ballots in more than the two official languages presumes that there's no alternative way to communicate to prospective voters what's on the ballot in a language that they can relate to. That would be something maybe as simple as having an interpretive sign placed inside the voting box in the particular language that cross-references with the ballot, for example, but that's not what's going to be discussed in the terms of this motion, because the motion already presumes what the solution is.
I would be much more satisfied, Madam Chair, if the motion were not as descriptive on what the solution is and more descriptive on what the problem might be. Then the mover of the motion would find that they would get much more support from this member of Parliament.
View Karen Vecchio Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you very much.
I would like to put forward an amendment to delete the last two lines of this motion. Specifically, I'm looking at the timeline in which we're going to be pre-empting this study rather than doing the NDP study that was put forward.
I believe this is an extremely important study that we're talking about. Last week, when Ms. Qaqqaq put forward those motions, we know that, throughout the entire study, we had not heard too much specifically on what we need to do for indigenous languages. That being said, we do know that the minister could have put things like this in the bill, knowing the importance of it. Minister LeBlanc could have put something in there to make sure that this wasn't happening so that, when these amendments were put forward last week, it was not outside the scope of the bill.
Ruby, I know that was a very difficult decision for you to be in, because it's a no win, to be honest, when you look at that.
I would just say that we should not put the timeline in front. This is something that the minister could do with the support of members of Parliament, but we should be doing the work that this committee just suggested we should be doing as well. We do know that we have privilege motions still sitting on the table waiting for us. Kevin Lamoureux is sitting there waiting for us. Will Amos is sitting there waiting for us. I'm sure, by the way things are going, that we may have more by the end of the day, such as the information that came out from yesterday's health committee. We know, at the end of the day, that it, too, may be coming to us, so I'm very concerned.
I'm saying, “Minister, please do your job so that PROC can do our jobs”. Thank you.
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
NDP (MB)
Thank you very much.
I'm quite supportive of the intent of the motion. It's consistent with the amendment that we presented to Bill C-19. Of course, I do want to echo comments that have been made already. I mean, it would be nice to see this coming directly from government. I would rather study it in the context of a bill. I think there is enough knowledge out there. Indigenous peoples have been here and speaking their languages long before Canada was an entity. It's not a mystery that they're here. It's not a mystery that they have their own languages. I think we're finally coming to a place as a country where we're willing to acknowledge that instead of trying to erase that reality.
It's really just a question of a concrete proposal for legislative change. We tried to make that change when it came to Bill C-19, because it appeared to be a way to do it. We know that there will already be a lot of barriers to voting as a result of the pandemic.
With the caveat that I really would like to see the government come forward with something.... If we're not going to be studying this until the fall anyway, that's a lot of time for the government to draft a bill and bring it forward in the fall. That would be [Technical difficulty—Editor] to a simple committee study that doesn't have the ability to then go ahead and enact, in legislation, whatever the conclusions of our study might be.
I'm certainly prepared to support this study, but I would really like to see some leadership from the government in getting it going so that at the end of the study we're changing the law instead of recommending to government that they go away, take more time to figure out how they might draft an amendment, and then have to study it all over again.
View Ruby Sahota Profile
Lib. (ON)
Absolutely. That's fair too, but we can only do what we can do here. Hopefully, this pushes that ball forward a little bit.
As I mentioned, this committee previously had undertaken to have interpretation of indigenous languages in the House of Commons, and we were able to have that implemented in the House. I see that as a big success, or a success—a step forward, at least. Hopefully, we can achieve something else that we can be proud of.
Monsieur Therrien.
View Alain Therrien Profile
BQ (QC)
It's late. I supported what Ms. Qaqqaq proposed to us last week. Despite the fact that the chair did her job and told us that it was out of order, I nevertheless stressed how important it was to agree with this request.
Quebec is a nation of francophones, and we have been in a precarious position since 1763. You know Quebec's history. We are truly attentive to all peoples when they want to assert themselves and impose and preserve their language. As a gesture of solidarity, given what we are experiencing in Quebec, I will support any measure to promote and protect indigenous languages.
View John Nater Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Very briefly, through you and through Ms. Petitpas Taylor, I would like to thank Kevin Collins, legislative assistant to the president of the Privy Council, for drafting this motion. If we look at the metadata of the document that was sent out, it was drafted by the minister's office, which shows the.... I don't even know what word I want to use. Again, the minister's office is drafting a motion to send to a committee to undertake a study on this. The president of the Privy Council, the individual responsible for the Elections Act, responsible for the Privy Council Office, responsible for this, is putting it through to a committee to do a study on this.
That was the only comment I wanted to make. It was just to express my concern about that.
View Ruby Sahota Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
We have about a minute. I think we could do the two votes.
We have Ms. Vecchio's amendment. She would like to remove the last two bullets, essentially, or the last two sentences—reporting back to the House, a comprehensive report, and then also a timeline, I guess.
View Ruby Sahota Profile
Lib. (ON)
Let's have a vote on that amendment and then on the main motion.
(Amendment negatived: nays 7; yeas 4)
The Chair: Okay, we'll have a vote on the main motion.
(Motion agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)
The Chair: That brings today's meeting to an end. I hope you all have a fabulous next couple of months with your constituents doing things in your community.
Hopefully we will see each other back, who knows, maybe sooner rather than later. I don't know exactly when that will be, but hopefully in September, at least.
I wish you all very well.
The meeting is adjourned.
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
NDP (NU)
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
2021-06-17 11:08
Matna. Thank you, all, and thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it and the time and space here.
We have thought of great things happening, and of course we know that in this amendment we're looking at indigenous languages and ensuring that we see that on the ballot. Bill C‑19 is about protecting democracy. It's about ensuring that indigenous peoples can be included in the voting process.
I look and think of my riding in particular where about 84% or 85% of the constituency is Inuk and where for the majority of those people, about 60%, their mother tongue is Inuktitut. That's not including whether or not they actually speak the language, that is just encompassing their first language. Nunavut in particular can be viewed as an already very indigenous language-based riding, if you will.
What we're talking about is expanding that and making that more entrenched in our actual policies and the things that we do to ensure that we can see indigenous peoples included in this democracy. Keep in mind that while I have spoken a bit about my riding specifically, there are ridings all across the country that are in the same situation. If we're talking about reconciliation and the need for promoting that, the need for promoting indigenous languages, this is an amazing opportunity of course to be able to do that as well, and it should quite frankly already have been something that's in place. I'm really glad that we're here at least starting the conversation and really have an opportunity to do some really cool stuff and create some change.
We know that the Commissioner of Nunavut has stated that indigenous people's voter turnout reduces when their language is not available on the ballot. We know that Minister LeBlanc acknowledged that a broad view is needed as to what's in the scope of Bill C‑19 and said that the government will not object to something beyond the scope of the legislation if it's designed to further our collective best efforts to come up with the right mix of measures.
Again, this is something that should already be available. We should already be encouraging this. If the federal institution is really invested in reconciliation, here's an action item that we can do to show that to the rest of Canada. We also need to ensure that indigenous peoples like the Inuit can be included in the democratic process.
It was basically on day one of my election where people thought it was my fault as a newly elected member of Nunavut that there was no availability for them to vote in their language. There were so many elders and others who came up to me who said, I wasn't sure if I even voted right, or I decided not to vote. We can't have that happen because people can't have those kinds of clear barriers, and we can be lifting those up.
I really look forward to seeing support for this. Indigenous language is something that is so incredibly important and should be a priority to everybody here on the committee. You have all seen me talking about reconciliation and those talking pieces. Here's an action item. Here is something concrete to do to make change. It's so important that we ensure Inuit and indigenous peoples are included as a part of the democracy.
Let's take it a step further and show them that Canadians also want to learn about indigenous people, want to learn about indigenous languages, want to promote those kinds of things and want to see pride in that. This is Canadian history. This is Canadian people where indigenous peoples are the first of this country. These are the original languages of Canada. Why aren't they on the ballot? Today is an opportunity to see some of that change, to see that availability to be able to actually make change and progress and move forward altogether.
Thank you so much again for the opportunity to be able to speak.
I'll just leave you with this. Imagine if your voters could not vote in English or French. That is very much a situation similar to what many indigenous peoples are facing.
I look forward to your support, and of course this amendment is about ensuring everybody is included in this process, and we want to ensure that happens to the best of our ability.
Thank you, everybody, and I look forward to that support.
Matna.
View Ruby Sahota Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Ms. Qaqqaq.
I think it's very important for you to have explained your amendment.
You made a very powerful and moving speech in the House the other day. I was grateful to have been a witness to that.
On a more procedural issue, this committee has dealt with these issues in the past as well, with the fact that indigenous languages now can be spoken in the House and translation can be provided. I know that perhaps there are still some delays in making the requests and making sure we can have those interpreted on the spot. We can still do better with that, but it's an important step that this committee had taken in the past to make that possible. I do believe that ballots should be available in many indigenous languages.
As for Bill C-19, however, it is a temporary measure in order to make elections safer during the pandemic, and the original bill does not touch upon ballots being changed for this election. Therefore, after having consulted with the legislative clerk, it has been found that this amendment—along with amendment NDP-2—are beyond the scope and principle of this bill and are therefore deemed to be inadmissible as amendments for this bill.
That doesn't mean that.... We do have Elections Canada come and report to us after each election takes place, and I think it would be something that we should be considering as perhaps a change to the bill as is. Maybe Elections Canada officials or the legislative clerk, who is here today, could help explain what they think as to why they think this is beyond the scope of the bill.
Philippe Méla
View Philippe Méla Profile
Philippe Méla
2021-06-17 11:15
Thank you, Madam Chair.
On the admissibility of amendments NDP-1 and NDP-2, since they amend the regular voting ballots—not the advance ballots or the special ballots—we felt that since the thrust of the bill is related to the health and safety of electors and electoral staff, adding new languages to the ballot would not enhance the safety of the people working during the elections or the electors themselves, since they still would have to come to the voting station to vote.
That's the reason why we thought the amendment would be beyond the scope of the bill, since the scope of the bill is quite narrow, due to the fact that it's a limited time span, if you like, in terms of its being limited to the pandemic. That's the reason why.
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