CANADA Debates of the Senate 2nd SESSION . 40th PARLIAMENT . VOLUME 146 . NUMBER 80 OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Thursday, December 10, 2009 ^ THE HONOURABLE NOËL A. KINSELLA SPEAKER CONTENTS (Daily index of proceedings appears at back of this issue). Debates Services: D'Arcy McPherson, Chambers Building, Room 943, Tel. 613-995-5756 Publications Centre: David Reeves, Chambers Building, Room 969, Tel. 613-947-0609 Published by the Senate Available from PWGSC ± Publishing and Depository Services, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0S5. Also available on the Internet: http://www.parl.gc.ca 1950 THE SENATE Thursday, December 10, 2009 The Senate met at 1:30 p.m., the Speaker in the chair. that were studied and, at times, amended by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee under her leadership. It is a Prayers. record of which she can be proud. In addition to her excellent committee work, Senator Milne SENATORS' STATEMENTS took on a number of other causes, which she championed in the Senate and quietly behind the scenes. I will highlight two today. First, she waged and ultimately won a seven-year battle to TRIBUTES preserve historic census records. Our history is so important to who we are and what we hope to become in the future. Senator THE HONOURABLE LORNA MILNE Milne's contribution helped to ensure that Canadians today and long into the future can access those historical records. The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I received a notice earlier today from the Leader of the Opposition who requested, The second cause I want to point to today was her determined pursuant to rule 22(10), that the time provided for the work to legalize, and then support, the industrial hemp industry consideration of Senators' Statements be extended today for in this country. She spoke in this chamber only a few weeks ago the purpose of paying tribute to the Honourable Senator Milne, about the challenges she faced and how far the industry has come who will retire from the Senate on December 13, 2009. since hemp growing was legalized. I know many farmers, researchers and others are grateful for what she accomplished. I remind senators that, pursuant to our rules, each senator will Senator Milne has also been active with a number of important be allowed three minutes and they may speak only once. parliamentary associations. Most recently, she served as However, it is agreed that we continue our tributes to Senator vice-president of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association Milne under Senators' Statements and that Senator Milne hold and led the parliamentary delegation at the Parliamentary her comments until the end of Senators' Statements. We will, Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. therefore, have 30 minutes not including the time allotted to Senator Milne's response. I cannot conclude these remarks without thanking her for her work as deputy chair of our own Senate Liberal caucus and as Is there agreement, honourable senators? deputy chair of the national Liberal caucus. Hon. Senators: Agreed. Lorna, we will miss you very much. I know you will be happy having more time with Ross, your children and many Hon. James S. Cowan (Leader of the Opposition): Honourable grandchildren, but we will miss your steady, dogged senators, we are saying goodbye these days to far too many determination in raising issues with the government, and I will excellent colleagues. Today, I rise to pay tribute to Senator Lorna miss you personally as a friend and colleague. Our best wishes go Milne who retires from the Senate this weekend. Senator Milne with you as you embark on the next stage of your life. has been a member of this chamber for over 14 years. She was summoned to the Senate on September 21, 1995, on the advice of Hon. Joan Fraser: Senator Lorna Milne is, among many other Prime Minister Chrétien. She brought to this chamber a wealth of things, a historian, and a historian is, among other things, a experience gained in the service of community organizations such collector and custodian of memories. Memories are the imprints as the Canadian Cancer Society; the Heart and Stroke of our deeds, large and small, on those we meet. They are as Foundation; the Association for the Mentally Retarded; varied as the lives we lead, and as Senator Milne heads into her Rapport House, a hostel for youth with drug problems; the next chapter, I have been thinking about the memories she has University of Guelph; the University Women's Club; and the already created. A few people who I know already remember her, YW/YMCA. to start, as Senator Cowan suggested, there are the hemp farmers and producers who owe their very livelihoods to her. Genealogists In her time here, she has served on many of our standing across the country know Lorna Milne and praise her as a woman committees — the Energy Committee, Agriculture Committee, beyond price because of the work she undertook with Statistics Foreign Affairs Committee, Social Affairs Committee, Transport Canada. She is a genealogist herself. You might ask her one day Committee, Fisheries Committee, Finance Committee, and why the middle name of one of her sons is Wesley. the list goes on. However, the two committees with which she has been most closely associated are the Rules Committee and, of Statistics Canada, I fear, will remember her for similar reasons course, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, both but with less warmth. The former chief statistician learned the of which she chaired, steering their proceedings during a number hard way that you do not pick a fight with Lorna Milne lightly. of high-profile studies. In Europe, animal rights activists will remember Lorna Milne I think of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which last month was who held the dike against the flood for years in defence of highlighted in an international study, as an example to be Canada's seal hunters. They too may not remember her with emulated and of so many other important pieces of legislation warmth but we remember her with warmth for that fight. December 10, 2009 SENATE DEBATES 1951 . (1340) To me, this story absolutely epitomizes Lorna Milne. In the words of Nellie McClung, to which I think Lorna exemplifies, In Saudi Arabia, courtiers will remember her because she was, ``Just get the job done and let them roar.'' Lorna has been getting as I understand it, the first woman to greet His Majesty the King the job done all her life with great results. A devoted mother and of Saudi Arabia without a head covering. I believe she even shook wife, a politician, a community activist and a friend, Lorna Milne his hand, which was also revolutionary and made the front pages gives her all to each and every endeavour she pursues, and has of the newspaper, so there are probably Saudi Arabian women been enormously successful in every one of those roles. who remember her with gratitude as well. Some members of the Ontario New Democratic Party probably As her friend, I have benefited from that friendship and look remember her with a bit of chagrin because little Lorna Dennison forward to it continuing after she leaves; because friendship to was raised within the bosom of the NDP. Her father, William Lorna Milne is golden and Lorna's friendship, in my view, is not Dennison, mayor of Toronto at one time, was also, as was her only gold, it is studded with diamonds. mother I believe, a pillar of the NDP. Lorna was raised knowing how to run political campaigns, until one day along came Ross Thank you Lorna for all that you are. Milne who swept her off her feet and into the Liberal Party. Hon. Gerald J. Comeau (Deputy Leader of the Government): An Hon. Senator: Good job, Ross. Honourable senators, on behalf of our side, I too want to join in wishing Senator Milne a happy retirement. Others have talked Senator Fraser: She became a Liberal, and it would be an about her determination, her many accomplishments in the understatement — as I am sure Senator LeBreton will agree — to Senate and her active participation in everything that goes on in say she is a passionate Liberal, but we on the Liberal side have the Senate and I can vouch for those qualities from our side benefited from her ever since. definitely. As well, I can vouch for her determination as some years ago, we were on different sides of the statistics issue, to In the Senate, we will remember her as chair and member of which Senator Fraser referred. I can attest to the fact that she has committees, and we will remember her because she is dogged determination because I was on the receiving end of it. indefatigable, loyal anda woman of absolute integrity. I believe I lost my position on that one, so honourable senators can see how well she accomplishes her tasks. We will remember that she is a good friend. She is a truly good friend of warm and generous heart, a source of support when needed, a source of sustaining libations sometimes, and I shall I can confirm to her family that when Lorna was in Ottawa, she remember her, above all, for her laughter. If there is a bad day, was definitely here in the Senate, from gavel to gavel, and so she Lorna can find the source of laughter in it. I shall remember, first was where she was supposed to be. She was right here with us and of all, the peals of laughter bouncing off the ceilings in the East I can vouch for that.