It spread to other countries around the world so i’m very very glad that after two long years of division on covet that we are finally beginning to debate this important matter in this historic house of democracy i did want to begin my remarks by actually i forgot to say this right off
The bat but i’ll be splitting my time with the member from megan so i did want to begin my speech a little bit about talking about what kind of politician i think you have to be to to make a difference in this place and i think every mp in
This house has a bit of a different style and uh when i first came here i i really for me i wanted to be a bridge builder and that really came from when where i grew up and where i went to university i grew up in a small farming community in
Rural manitoba to four generations of canadian farmers so i had very entrenched rural prairie upbringing and values and then i went to university at mcgill university in montreal a very prestigious elite liberal sort of university and i met kids from all over the world with all different political
Views and world views and really got a incredible experience learning about how other people think about the world and i did find that often while parties will disagree and someone will say i’m a staunch liberal i’m a staunch conservative or i’m assange mvp there’s actually a lot more that we have in
Common and something that i found that all parties i believe at their core have in common is that they they do believe that all canadians and all people of of this world deserve to be treated with dignity compassion and respect and so that’s how i approach these divisive issues that we
As mps encounter all the time and they never get difficult or they’re never easy to talk about they’re very difficult issues and i i look to try to build a bridge uh so that we can come together as canadians and agree on a peaceful path forward and that’s how i’ve been
Trying to look at the very divisive situation in ottawa right now and what i’d really like to see is a prime minister who calls for national unity last week i spoke in the house about a lot of the division that we’re seeing in the country between east versus west rural versus urban and
Particularly now during the pandemic and we have heard so much trauma from our constituents if there’s any member in this house that does not believe canadians have been through trauma these past two years they clearly have not been doing their job and listening to their constituents mr speaker it has
Been horrific the things that i’ve heard we hear young children who are so depressed they don’t want to eat eating disorders are through the roof we’ve heard seniors and elderly in our care homes who’ve opted for medical assistance and dying rather than live one more month through isolation and
Care homes i have had widowed elderly women call and cry to me on the phone of how lonely they are and they don’t want to go on i’ve had grown men who’ve called me crying because their businesses are falling apart we know divorces abuse at home alcohol dependency drug dependency all of these
Terrible things are up in our country because people are just trying to cope and are breaking down so from that perspective i don’t really see what’s going on across the country it’s all that surprising to me it seems like an eruption of something that’s been simmering of pain and trauma and
Frustration for two long years and governments have not been listening to that pain and trauma despite having rapid tests vaccines and all different types of tools and scientific knowledge governments have repeatedly repeatedly relied on harsh lockdown measures and divisive mandates to control this virus meanwhile we are seeing a prime minister who today
Got up in the house and again again othered canadians who don’t agree with him this is a man for six years said diversity is our strength but if anybody doesn’t agree with everything he says you’re in the bad books and you don’t get a chance to be heard you don’t have
A right to be heard and again last week i brought i brought to the floor of the house of commons remarks he had said during that 600 million dollar unnecessary election he said so many times before he called that election vaccines for all those who want them
Vaccines for all those who want them it’s a choice he said that repeatedly he must have said it a thousand times and then with date within days of calling that election he was yelling into a microphone at a liberal rally that you have the right not to get vaccinated but
You don’t have the right to sit next to someone who is so to me that doesn’t really seem like someone what did he say in his remarks today he said this is not a fight against one another it’s a fight against the virus those remarks mr speaker suggest very different
Very different so when it comes to an election and scoring political points and winning votes the prime minister is very happy to divide canadians and pick them against each other for their different personal health use i for one am sick and tired of seeing politicians use this as an evil wedge
Tool to rip canadian families apart i can’t tell you how much anger and tears i saw in the last election that was six months ago and now it’s even worse neighbors won’t talk to each other i mean christmas family dinners i mean even if there wasn’t lockdowns during
Christmas it’s almost a nightmare to get families in the same room now if there’s one person who doesn’t share their views i mean it’s it’s a nightmare colleagues at work again last week i shared the story of a social worker a young mom i met during the pandemic on her friend’s step
She was uh sharing with me a story that she got here of the year award last year and this year she and she had gone above and beyond to help people during a pandemic before there was vaccine she stepped up here of the year at her job
And now she said no one would talk to her and she was going to get fired because of one personal health choice that she made as much as others tried there was no convincing this woman otherwise and i just i don’t know how public health officials and public officials get
Behind policies that do that to canadians we are one of the most vaccinated countries in the world and this government continues to use that as a budget to get people to submit to their policies it’s it i’ve never thought that entering politics two and a half years ago at a
Federal level we would see a government that was so keen to divide canadians on something so deeply personal and as i’ve said before and i’ll say it again i denounce any hateful and violent act outside whoever is up to no good who’s ever up to that kind of mischief
And that kind of hateful rhetoric and those actions shame on you but what i’m seeing across the country is people mobilizing because their governments have not listened to them for two years they’ve been experiencing trauma for two years and no one is listening to them so what choice do they have left these
People have all emailed their mps they’ve called them they’ve been turned down by their mps i’m sure there’s members of the public from papineau from the member the prime minister’s writing who’ve reached out who have a different perspective on this who’ve been traumatized and fired from their jobs for a personal health choice
There are millions of canadians millions of them that have been deeply ostracized from society and when you don’t listen to those people they mobilize and we’ve seen protests across this country for sen for over a century and rightfully so we have the right to peacefully protest and i would ask the protesters outside
That they do their best and stay vigilant to stay peaceful but we are seeing other governments around the world step up with lower vaccination rates and say look we hear you you’ve been traumatized we’re moving forward here’s the deadline this is the plan no more mandates no
More masks no more distancing you can travel you can live your life you can hug each other again here’s the date this is the plan here’s the threshold none of that in canada absolutely none of that from the prime minister people have been traumatized and they’re mobilizing because they need some hope
They need somebody in this house of privilege to come down from our ivory towers and say okay little people we hear you so sorry we’ve traumatized you for two years we’re gonna step up and we’re gonna give you some hope here’s a deadline the member opposite is laughing the
People in this house are incredibly privileged you’ve kept pardon me that member has kept his job thousands of canadians have lost their job and he’s laughing about his privilege his own privilege what has he done to serve members that are marginalized during this pandemic in his community mr speaker but laugh at them
In this house of commons shame on that member i would i would ask this government to do everything they can i asked them this two years ago in the house go to other countries see what they’re doing what are the best practices how is it that other highly advanced developed nations like
The uk ireland the netherlands norway denmark germany sweden switzerland how the united states how is it that they have all the same tools we have they have all the economic resources we have they’ve done their citizens have done all the work and made all the sacrifices
Why is it that those citizens get a plan for hope of when we get back to normal when we get our lives back when the people outside you think they want to be here mr speaker those people don’t want to be or they want to be working but that right was
Taken away from them when is there going to be a plan from this prime minister was there going to be compassionate leadership to say this is what this is it you’ve done the work here’s the tools we’re moving forward our public health doctors have told us
As well it’s time to move forward it’s time to revisit these harsh mandates and divisive policies mr speaker i will just end on this i i’m very passionate about this i think we all are from our different perspectives but i will say i will continue to be a
Bridge builder to reach out to try to understand where others are coming from and i would i would it would just be incredible if we could see members of the liberal party the prime minister do the same time to build a bridge mr speaker in commons the honourable member for halifax
