Debates of the Senate
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Debates of the Senate 1st SESSION . 42nd PARLIAMENT . VOLUME 150 . NUMBER 114 OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Tuesday, May 2, 2017 The Honourable GEORGE J. FUREY Speaker This issue contains the latest listing of Senators, Officers of the Senate and the Ministry. CONTENTS (Daily index of proceedings appears at back of this issue). Debates Services: D'Arcy McPherson, National Press Building, Room 906, Tel. 613-995-5756 Publications Centre: Kim Laughren, National Press Building, Room 926, Tel. 613-947-0609 Published by the Senate Available on the Internet: http://www.parl.gc.ca 2869 2870 THE SENATE Tuesday, May 2, 2017 The Senate met at 2 p.m., the Speaker in the chair. I also find it regrettable to see the troubling lack of reaction by members of the government, especially the Prime Minister, who Prayers. has openly declared himself a feminist in Canada and abroad. Honourable senators, this commission is the primary SENATORS' STATEMENTS international organization exclusively dedicated to the promotion of women's rights and gender equality. JOURNEY TO FREEDOM DAY On April 22, the executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, Hon. Thanh Hai Ngo: Honourable senators, I rise today in a Canadian, said and I quote: commemoration of the annual Journey to Freedom Day, which was marked for the third time on April 30. This day Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women's rights is like commemorates the journey countless Vietnamese refugees made making an arsonist into the town fire chief. to escape communist oppression after the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. At that time, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees fled to the sea in search of freedom. Like Mr. Neuer, I believe we can legitimately question the motives that favoured Saudi Arabia behind closed doors at the UN. That country is known as one of the worst places in terms of Over 60,000 brave refugees were welcomed into Canada with the rights of women and girls. It may be the most misogynistic open arms, thanks to the Private Sponsorship of Refugees country in the world. Program. These new Vietnamese-Canadian citizens made Canada their home thanks to that generosity. A report published by the World Economic Forum in 2015 This year is a historic one for the Vietnamese-Canadian ranked Saudi Arabia 134th out of 145 countries with regard to the community. Our values are embodied in the yellow- and red- promotion of gender equality. This damning record is especially striped Vietnamese freedom and heritage flag. Over the weekend, relevant when it comes to the participation of women in economic this flag was raised in Queen's Park for the first time. Yesterday, development, the labour market, and political life. the said flag was raised alongside the Canadian flag for the first time on Parliament Hill. More recently, Human Rights Watch's World Report 2017 condemned the fact that the male guardianship system remains [Translation] intact despite pledges to introduce reform. It was truly an honour to see the Vietnamese freedom and heritage flag raised on Parliament Hill. This flag that flew freely in Under this system, women cannot do ordinary, everyday things the winds over Parliament represents an historic event. This without courting retribution from their husbands or the religious occasion marks 42 years of success of the Vietnamese community police. Girls face the harsh reality of forced marriage. in Canada since the dawn of its modern era. In December 2015, 38 women were elected or appointed to [English] councils with a total of 3,159 members across Saudi Arabia, which is just over one per cent. I think it is fitting that this year, as Canada celebrates the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of Confederation, parliamentarians According to the report, Saudi authorities ordered municipal mark the occasion by wearing scarves adorned with the colour of councils to apply the guardianship system to their meetings by freedom for the first time in both the House of Commons confining women to separate rooms and allowing them to yesterday and in the Senate today. Thank you all, dear colleagues, communicate with their male colleagues only by video link. for wearing the freedom scarf as a statement of the Journey to Freedom Day and in honour of Canada's humanitarian tradition. Honourable senators, this is 2017. We would never allow [Translation] gender-based segregation policies like that to govern debate here, in the other place, or in any United Nations body. UNITED NATIONS Join me in speaking out against Saudi Arabia's election to the ELECTION OF SAUDI ARABIA TO THE COMMISSION Commission on the Status of Women. It is time for the Prime ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN Minister to walk the talk and stand up for the Canadian values of advancing women's rights and promoting gender equality around the world. Hon. Josée Verner: Honourable senators, I rise to denounce the recent election of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women for a term of four years. Hon. Senators: Hear, hear! May 2, 2017 SENATE DEBATES 2871 [English] Colleagues, 10 days ago Senator Housakos and I, along with our wives Demi and Betty, had the honour of accompanying Mr. Oh's great grandson, Victor, as he and his wife, Rosabela, returned for the very first time to Fujian province and his SPEECH AND HEARING MONTH ancestral home on top of this mountain. Hon. Terry M. Mercer: Honourable senators, May is Speech and Hearing Month. Each May, Speech-Language & Audiology We, of course, were driven up the mountain in a modern bus, Canada, SAC, raises public awareness about communication albeit on a very winding road. We then walked the last half a health. SAC represents 6,200 communications health kilometre on the same path that Mr. Oh and his family had professionals across Canada. I am proud to recognize the work walked down 130 years ago. The path had been paved for us, just of each speech-language pathologist, audiologist and two days prior to our arrival. There were no cement trucks or communications health assistant across Canada. cement mixers anywhere in sight. Indeed, all of the concrete had been mixed and carried up the mountain by hand. The ability to communicate is fundamental to our everyday lives. One in six Canadians has a speech, language or hearing Here Senator Oh received a hero's welcome as most of the problem. In fact, I'm wearing hearing aids to communicate with village was there to greet him. The fireworks were something to you and everyone else in my life. Hearing loss is the third-most- behold. Senator Oh was honoured and revered like no one I had prevalent chronic condition, behind arthritis and hypertension. ever seen. He was truly their hero. He was a Canadian senator, appointed on merit, and he was one of theirs. Honourable senators, this year SAC is encouraging everyone to take the communication awareness social media challenge led by After a great meal and a ceremony, Senators Oh, Housakos and the Pan-Canadian Alliance of Speech-Language Pathology and I planted a tree in Senator Oh's honour, a tree that we are told Audiology Professional Associations. will live for hundreds and maybe thousands of years. Try to imagine yourself with a hearing or speech problem. How From here we travelled a couple of hours to a tree plantation. would you communicate a message to others if you had difficulty Again, Senator Oh was the hero. The local people had built a communicating? You could use sign language, written words or giant wooden structure, under which we again had tea. After tea, pictures, or perhaps use a communication board or an app on we moved to the plantation where three signs were erected, one your phone. You can take the challenge by using for each of us — Senator Oh, Senator Housakos and me. They #communicateawareness and include reactions to the difficulties had three rows of tea shrubs laid out for us, and we were asked to you faced, how it made you feel and how others responded. plant these shrubs. Here is where my and Betty's agricultural experience showed as we had our row finished before team Oh or team Housakos had even finished half of theirs. Honourable senators, too often we take for granted the ability to communicate with each other, so I encourage you to pay attention to your communications health and spread the word We were promised that the fruits of our labour would be about the important work the professionals do to help us realized in about two years, and that they would regularly send us communicate and learn. our tea after each harvest. So we can now say that we are doing our part for ``all the tea in China.'' THE HONOURABLE VICTOR OH Colleagues, Senator Oh is an example of entrepreneurship and ambassadorship both in Canada and abroad, and he was rightly Hon. Donald Neil Plett: Honourable senators, 130 years ago, honoured. I am so proud that I was part of this. We are truly Mr. Xu Wah Oh gathered up his meagre belongings, took his wife fortunate to have him in the Senate. Colleagues, please join me in and three sons, and left his home in Anxi County in the Chinese recognizing a great Canadian and a great friend, Senator Victor province of Fujian. Oh. They walked down the mountain they lived on, a trek that took Hon. Senators: Hear, hear! more than one full day. They then continued walking another four and a half days to the city of Xiamen where they boarded a sailboat destined for Singapore, a voyage that would take the better part of two and a half months.