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Results: 91 - 105 of 208
View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-05-10 14:05 [p.19327]
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Mr. Speaker, our Franco-Manitoban weekly paper, La Liberté, will be celebrating its 105th anniversary on May 20.
La Liberté is a national leader and has received many national prizes, including awards of excellence from the Association de la presse francophone and the Canadian Community Newspaper Awards, but where it really shines is in its community involvement.
Thanks to its partnership with the Franco-Manitoban school division and Collège Louis-Riel and its “Dans nos écoles” columns, we learn about a growing and inspiring future generation. Through its advertorials, we discover the vitality and diversity of our francophone organizations.
La Liberté tells our story, and its perspective is unique to our community. Our newspaper is not a French version of the daily news. It is a true reflection of the diversity and many perspectives present in our French-speaking community.
Happy birthday to La Liberté.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-04-26 12:10 [p.18785]
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Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to rise in this chamber, as it always is, to speak in favour of this important motion. I would like to thank my colleague from Timmins—James Bay for putting this important motion forward as well as for his powerful commentary earlier this morning.
Before I begin, I would like to note that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Labrador, with whom I serve on the indigenous caucus and who has devoted her life to advancing indigenous rights and reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a complex, extremely significant process, in which I believe every Canadian has a role to play. Reconciliation to me begins with respect. We must respect each other's cultures, languages, traditions, and distinct identities to advance toward reconciliation.
Reconciliation is the reason for this debate today. The Prime Minister stated in 2015 that, in partnership with indigenous communities, the provinces, territories, and other vital partners, he planned to fully implement the calls to action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I know that, as a government, we still remain committed to fulfilling this promise, and we must do so correctly.
Not all the calls to action will be easy or quick to implement. We must not treat the calls to action as simply a checklist, but rather a true pathway to reconciliation.
The Prime Minister committed to working with all other important partners in completing these calls to action, which include the Catholic Church and the Pope. Call to action 58, in the Truth and Reconciliation report, is very clear and deliberate in its request:
We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to Survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.
Our Prime Minister has worked diligently to try to secure this apology from the Church. He requested the apology personally from the Pope while in a private audience. It is unfortunate that in the last few weeks we have seen a reluctance on the part of the Church to issue such an apology.
I would like to focus the short time I have to speak on the process of healing that our communities must go through to work toward reconciliation. It is important to remind people of the history of residential schools and of the cultural genocide that was undertaken by the Government of Canada through its various policies and laws, all with the aim of destroying indigenous peoples' spirituality and individual cultures.
Residential schools were one such tool of genocide and were designed to “kill the Indian in the child”. The role of the Catholic Church and other Christian faiths in the schools is undeniable. While they were funded by the federal government, they were run almost exclusively by churches and religious orders. The schools were created because of the government and churches' belief that indigenous children had to be indoctrinated into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living as a means of assimilating into mainstream Canadian culture.
Indigenous children were not allowed to speak their language or to practise their spiritual and traditional customs. For many students, their ancestral spirituality was forcibly replaced with Christianity.
When speaking about residential schools, we often neglect to speak about the impact of the forced assimilation to Christianity and the loss of traditional spiritual teachings. Unsurprisingly, Christianity and its teachings were a fundamental aspect of residential schools by virtue of the fact that they were administered and run by churches and religious orders. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report references the spiritual violence the students endured at the schools. The report states that the Christian teachers saw the students as pagans who were inferior humans in need of being raised up through Christianity. Students were taught to reject the traditional spiritual traditions and beliefs of their families and communities in favour of Christian religions.
The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, which I believe was completed in the late eighties, also wrote about the impact of the forced spiritual assimilation in residential schools, citing Grand Chief Dave Courchene Sr., who said, “Residential schools taught self-hate. That is child abuse.... Too many of our people got the message and passed it on.”
The report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry also said:
Many Aboriginal grandparents and parents today are products of the residential school system. The development of parenting skills, normally a significant aspect of their training as children within Aboriginal families, was denied to them by the fact that they were removed from their families and communities, and by the lack of attention paid to the issue by residential schools. Parenting skills neither were observed nor taught in those institutions. Aboriginal children traditionally learned their parenting skills from their parents through example and daily direction. That learning process was denied to several generations of aboriginal parents.
The abuse and forced assimilation have led to intergenerational trauma, which is the lasting legacy of the residential school system. By removing children from their traditional family structures and subjecting them to violence, abuse, and forced assimilation into Euro-Canadian values and cultures, a cycle of abuse was created, which is still affecting far too many indigenous families today. The abuse the children faced in residential schools is as undeniable as it is shockingly cruel and undeserved. These young first nation, Inuit, and Métis children deserved far more from government.
This leads me back to reconciliation and the need to heal our communities and our people. It is only through healing and full reconciliation that we will be able to bring peace to indigenous communities and break the cycle of violence that we too frequently see.
We can do our part as government in helping to revitalize indigenous culture by empowering and giving the necessary tools to indigenous people to learn about their own culture, language, and traditional spiritual beliefs. However, the government cannot replace the simple power of an apology when it comes to healing. The government has formally apologized for its role, but it was not the only institution responsible. All actors must now apologize for their role in these schools, just as the Protestant churches have done previously.
It is vital to take a survivor-oriented approach to healing. We need to listen to residential school survivors and their families when making decisions about reconciliation. That is what the members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada did, and that is what led to the commission's report and the calls to action.
These calls to action reflect not only the survivors' wishes, but their needs. They take into account what survivors need to make the journey to healing.
In closing, it is very clear that the survivors are requesting an apology and the survivors deserve an apology. That is why I am supporting the motion today, to call on the Pope to issue a formal apology to the residential schools survivors and their families.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-04-26 12:20 [p.18787]
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Mr. Speaker, I do not accept the assumptions of that question. I do not believe we are failing on the calls to action. There were 94 calls to action. Our Prime Minister and our government are fully committed to implementing all of them, and we are taking on some very significant recommendations as we speak. I sit on the indigenous and northern affairs committee. Right now, we are debating the merits of UNDRIP. We are having a very significant discussion, with many legal experts coming forward. We believe that UNDRIP is a significant enough recommendation. We have to take the time to do it properly. It would be impossible to do all 94 calls to action within the first mandate, so this is a process that is going to continue well into the second mandate.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-04-26 12:23 [p.18787]
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Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. I am ashamed to say that in the province I come from, Manitoba, there are well over 10,000 indigenous children in the care of child and family services. That embarrasses me. We should all be collectively ashamed of that fact.
This is a priority for our government. Through the Minister of Indigenous Services, we have put forward a plan to partner with the provincial government and with indigenous child welfare organizations to turn that around. At the end of the day, it is not government that is going to do that. It is the people on the street. It is the people on the ground. It is the families and communities throughout our country, including Manitoba. Therefore, we need to put maybe even half of the dollars into prevention rather than apprehension. We need to put a significant amount of money into community development, to develop those young parents, those young fathers and mothers, and really build capacity within indigenous communities across the country.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-04-25 15:12 [p.18740]
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Mr. Speaker, during the last election campaign, our party committed to renewing our nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples.
In Manitoba, the Kapyong Barracks property was declared surplus by the Department of National Defence in 2001. The site comprises 40 buildings and over 65 hectares of land. Unlike the previous government, we are approaching reconciliation with a whole-of-government approach.
Can the Prime Minister inform the House as to what role DND and our government are playing in reconciliation with first nations in Canada?
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-04-18 14:16 [p.18469]
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Mr. Speaker, an important event is happening this Saturday in my riding of Saint Boniface—Saint Vital. It is the 30th anniversary of the St-Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre.
“World class” is a term often used to refer to the St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre: world class because it attracts top researchers from around the world; world class because it makes important scientific breakthroughs, like the recent PEG-2S antibiotic, which can help in the global fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
The Albrechtsen Research Centre has been committed to excellence from the very beginning. Initially led by Dr. John Foerster and now by Dr. Grant Pierce, the centre is known around the world for its innovation in cardiovascular research, neurodegenerative diseases, and agrifood.
I am really disappointed that I cannot be there on Saturday, but I will be there in spirit celebrating with them.
I wish a happy 30th anniversary to the St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-03-29 11:01 [p.18253]
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Mr. Speaker,
In mid-April, Winnipeggers will don everything and anything white, A white-out is coming, and the Bell MTS Place will be a sight.
After a long snowy winter that wasn't so warm,My hometown is bracing for another big storm.
“We are coming for Stanley” is our new chant of choice, for Wheeler, Laine, Hellebuyck, Scheifele, too many to voice.
For Perreault and his team, we’ll chant and we’ll cheer,They’ll lead us to victory, year after year.
Over the past couple of weeks, our city has tasted much victory,Our curling Team Jones and our Bisons women's hockey,You see, Mr. Speaker, Winnipeg is aglow, as we rise together, and say, “Go Jets go.”
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-03-22 11:58 [p.17841]
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Madam Speaker, it is always interesting when we hear from hon. members who were previously in government and their recollection of the glory days of the Stephen Harper government. What they do not tell us is that during those glory days, the 10 years Stephen Harper was in power, they had the lowest GDP growth since the dirty thirties. They ran deficits. They are vehemently anti-deficit when they are in opposition, but when they were in government they ran deficits nine out of 10 years, and they had the worse job creation record since the 1950s.
Does the hon. member realize that in the last two years our country has created over 600,000 jobs? Does he realize that unemployment is at its lowest rate in 40 years? Does he realize that during the last trip to India over $1 billion of trade arrangements were made between Canada and India, adding another 6,000 full-time, well-paying jobs to our country?
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-03-20 14:45 [p.17740]
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Mr. Speaker, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital is one of the most vibrant francophone communities in Canada. In schools and community centres, francophone minority communities continue to work to ensure that people can live their lives in French. Budget 2018 includes $400 million to support the vitality of our official languages, particularly by addressing priorities such as immigration, education, and the media.
Can the Minister of Canadian Heritage update the House on our government's official languages projects?
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-02-15 14:10 [p.17288]
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Mr. Speaker, February 16 to 25 is the time to celebrate and sing your heart out in Saint-Boniface—Saint-Vital. Léo La Tuque, the Festival du Voyageur's mascot, and his winter team have been working hard for months to prepare for this huge festival in downtown Winnipeg.
Whereas the more than 150 artists and musicians will have people's bodies swaying, it is the traditional French Canadian food will make their tastebuds sing. There is no other festival like western Canada's largest winter festival.
Grab your voyageur sash, your maple-taffy sticks, and your caribou, and come celebrate our history at the Festival du Voyageur. Hé ho!
Some hon. members: Hé ho!
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-02-14 20:04 [p.17227]
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Mr. Speaker, every time I rise in the House I do so with tremendous pride. I am proud to represent the riding of Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, and I am proud to be a Métis nation member of Parliament.
When I rise, I often think of Louis Riel, who was born in Saint Boniface and currently rests there, because Riel was never granted the same privilege that I am being granted. Louis Riel was democratically elected as a member of Parliament for the constituency of Provencher, not on one or two occasions but on three occasions, yet he was never allowed to rightfully take his seat in the House.
Therefore, today I rise, on the eve of Louis Riel Day in Manitoba, and I reflect on Riel's own treatment by Canada's justice system. Sentenced to death on the charge of treason for defending the rights of the Métis people in Saskatchewan, the jury that sentenced Louis Riel was comprised of six Protestant men of English and Scottish descent.
Over 130 years later, Canada is a much different place, but the colonial legacy of racism and systemic racism remains within our institutions.
The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recently presented in the House its report on the forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination. I had the honour of sitting on that committee during its study and I heard academics and indigenous advocates speak in detail about the systemic racism that exists in our country today. There is no doubt that systemic racism is present today.
It was during this testimony for the study on Motion No. 103 that Senator Sinclair, who was a witness, stated that “systemic racism is the racism that's left over after you get rid of the racists.”
The systems, the policies, the procedures in place within our institutions are very often inherently discriminatory as they were built from our colonial heritage and cultures.
It is the systemic nature of this racism that leads to a higher likelihood that bail will be denied for indigenous people. It is the systemic nature of this racism that means indigenous people spend more time in pretrial detention. It is the systemic nature of this racism that leads to indigenous people being more likely to be charged with multiple offences than non-indigenous accused. It is system racism that causes indigenous people to be more than twice as likely to be incarcerated.
The statistics reveal the shocking reality that indigenous people face within the justice system. In my home province of Manitoba, over 70% of the inmates identify as indigenous, yet the indigenous population of Manitoba is 15%.
Indigenous people are not predisposed to violence or criminality, any more than any other population group. Nothing in indigenous culture predisposes this. Nothing in human nature predisposes this. We must face the reality that the long history of colonialism in Canada has led to discrimination and social inequality. The causes of crime must be examined within this context. There are links between poverty, marginalization, and criminal behaviour, but these factors are, again, steeped in systemic racism.
The justice system itself has historically contributed to poverty in indigenous communities in many ways, such as not assisting indigenous communities in enforcing treaty rights, and other rights. The marginalization of indigenous populations is the result of systemic efforts by the government. One needs to look no further than residential schools. Rather than respect the inherent and treaty rights of indigenous people, the government of the day attempted to assimilate the indigenous population.
By continuing to deny indigenous people their inherent and treaty rights, we have perpetuated a cycle of poverty and marginalization throughout many generations.
The scars left by the residential schools are still deeply felt in our indigenous communities. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald said that we needed to “kill the Indian in the child”, in other words, remove the child from his or her culture, language, and traditions. The abuse and trauma that residential school survivors experienced have lasting repercussions in their own lives, as well as in the lives of their descendants and on the health of their communities.
This denial of culture is still happening today. We do not know what the long-term impacts of the current crisis within the child welfare system will be, but we do know that indigenous children across the country are more likely to be apprehended and placed in foster care.
My own province, sadly, has over 12,000 indigenous children in care. Too often they are not placed in culturally appropriate homes. Instead, the history of assimilation of indigenous people is being created within this system. This crisis has often been described as the new sixties scoop, another devastating historical wrong perpetuated by government and colonialism.
I hate to say it, but there are people in Canada who grew up fearing indigenous peoples, and particularly indigenous men. They were taught to fear indigenous people. Hate is learned behaviour.
The number of hate crimes perpetuated against indigenous people across the country is still staggeringly high. Compounding the issue is the inconsistent reporting of hate crimes. Victims are too often reluctant to report hate crimes to law enforcement, and we are not able to have an accurate account of hate crimes and hate-motivated violence in Canada. Under-reporting is an acute issue among the indigenous population, due to lack of trust by indigenous communities toward law enforcement.
It is unacceptable that in Canada indigenous men and women are more likely to face violence and murder. In 2015, 25% of murder victims were indigenous. The rate of violent victimization for indigenous women is double that of non-indigenous women. Too many families have undergone the trauma and pain of losing a loved one to violence. I certainly do not want to pre-empt the work of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls commission, but I hope its work will lead to concrete actions to end this ongoing tragedy.
One of the most frustrating issues in this debate is that none of these issues is new. It was in 1988 that the Manitoba government launched the Public Inquiry into the Administration of Justice and Aboriginal People, and it issued its report in 1991. Many of the problems we are discussing tonight were addressed in this report, and I encourage all members to seek out this report, which was co-authored by Senator Murray Sinclair from Manitoba.
However, we are moving toward a path of reconciliation, and I must end my speech with hope, because I feel hope. In spite of all the sadness, anger, and frustration, I genuinely feel hope. We are all in this together, whether we are Liberals or Conservatives, indigenous or non-indigenous. We are all in this together and we need to find our way out of this together.
Indigenous people of Canada deserve better, and I truly believe the actions of the government are working to improve the lives of indigenous people throughout Canada. I was very proud to hear the Prime Minister speak today about building a new rights-based framework in collaboration with indigenous people. This comprehensive strategy would work to fully recognize and implement indigenous rights.
Ultimately, we cannot solve the issues of systemic violence within our institutions without moving forward toward self-determination for indigenous people. This strategy is an important step toward this goal. Further, the justice minister has begun a broad review of the criminal justice system, which will include a review of indigenous participation within the justice system.
Finally, before taking questions, I would like to thank the family and the loved ones of Colten Boushie for taking the time to meet me yesterday. I share their grief for the loss of their loved one. No family should have to face the pain of losing a loved one to violence.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-02-14 20:16 [p.17229]
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Mr. Speaker, I firmly believe—and I do not think there is a member in this chamber who would disagree—that education is a way to a better life, education that is respectful and that respects the cultural heritage of indigenous people, education that respects the indigenous languages of the Métis, first nations, and Inuit people of our country.
I am very proud of what our government is doing. We are investing over $2.6 billion in the next five years for indigenous education, first nations education, and we feel that is something that is a concrete first step. However, there is much more work to do, and we are committed to doing the work that is necessary, in partnership with first nations, Métis, and Inuit people.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-02-14 20:19 [p.17229]
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Mr. Speaker, it is fairly obvious that the member across the way was not present today to hear the important announcement or the important speech this evening by the justice minister on what this—
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-02-14 20:20 [p.17229]
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Mr. Speaker, let me rephrase that. It is fairly obvious the hon. member across the way was not paying attention when the Prime Minister today spoke passionately about our new rights-based framework that we are going to be advancing in partnership with indigenous, Métis, and Inuit populations. It is quite obvious to me that the hon. member across the way was not paying attention when the justice minister, a half hour ago, spoke passionately about leading the way toward better defining the rights that exist in section 35 of Canada's Constitution.
For too long, section 35 has not been defined. We are committed to working with indigenous populations from coast to coast to coast to help define those rights. That is something that is starting immediately, and we are 100% committed to getting the job done.
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View Dan Vandal Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Dan Vandal Profile
2018-02-14 20:22 [p.17230]
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Mr. Speaker, I will repeat that I believe every member in this chamber believes: that education is the key to a better future.
I know that we have been doing some good work on the education front in my home province in Manitoba. The government has recently signed an agreement for a first nations educational authority, representative of, I believe, a dozen first nations in Manitoba, to control their own education and to set the curriculum for the students who are in those schools.
We have to continue talking and negotiating in good faith. We need to listen. One of the hardest things to do in this job is to listen, to really listen without interrupting, and to try to get to a mutual space where there are benefits for all parties. I think that is what “nation-to-nation” means, and we are committed to moving forward in that way.
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