Honourable senators, on Thursday, May 23, the National Association of Friendship Centres, MPs Jean Crowder and Chris Warkentin, and I hosted a luncheon reception to celebrate friendship centres in Canada’s urban communities.
The National Association of Friendship Centres’ board of directors and staff were present at this event, as were their counterparts from the Assembly of First Nations, the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Canadian Building Construction and Trades Association.
Honourable senators, I rise to speak at third reading of Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Criminal Code.
This bill amends the Criminal Code to change the rules concerning mandatory surcharges. The purpose of the bill is to double victim surcharge amounts and to make them mandatory for all offenders convicted of a criminal offence…
As many of you are aware, Kinew James, a 35-year-old federally sentenced Aboriginal woman, died at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon on January 20th, 2013. Ms. James had mental health needs, having admitted to self-harming behaviour and had threatened to hang herself while incarcerated at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario. And [...]
According to the Correctional Investigator’s recent report, Spirit Matters, Aboriginal offenders account for 22 per cent of Canada’s incarcerated population, while they make up 2 per cent of the Canadian population. The situation of Aboriginal female offenders is even more concerning. Aboriginal women account for 32 per cent of all federally incarcerated women, representing an increase of 86 per cent over the last decade.
Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-27, the First Nations financial transparency act, and I would like to read into the record a letter that was received by the vice-chair of the committee, Senator Dyck.
Today’s blog post is to pay tribute to former Senator Laurier LaPierre, who died in December at the age of 83. Senator LaPierre came to national prominence on the CBC program, “This Hour has Seven Days,” a weekly news and currents affairs program that aired on CBC from 1964 to 1966. It’s well-known that Senator [...]
Earlier this afternoon, the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, led by former BC Attorney General Wally Oppal, released its report, Forsaken. The report includes four volumes: I. The Women, their Lives and the Framework of Inquiry: Setting the Context for Understanding and Change II. Nobodies: How and Why We Failed the Missing [...]
Yesterday, I asked the Leader of the Government in the Senate a follow up question on missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls: Hon. Mobina S. B. Jaffer: Honourable senators, I have a supplementary question to Senator Dyck’s question. I have asked this question before. I am a senator from British Columbia. In [...]