QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
National Action Plan on Combatting Hate
February 14, 2024
Senator Gold, love was in the air at last evening’s one-year anniversary celebration of the parliamentary Pride caucus co-chaired by our colleague Senator Cormier. The co-chair MP Blake Desjarlais’s message was one of love and unity above hatred and division. All speakers asked that the human rights of LGBTQ2SIA+ Canadians of all ages be protected and not get caught up in partisanship. Senator Gold, we know politicians listen to Canadians, and when Canadians are well informed on issues of diversity, inclusion and human rights, they’re more likely to respect others. What is the status of the National Action Plan on Combatting Hate promised in last year’s budget?
I don’t have a specific timeline, Senator Coyle, but I’ll bring your question to the attention of the minister. This government has been clear from day one — and continues to be — that it not only respects the rights of all Canadians to love whom they love, to express themselves as they express themselves and to be their authentic selves, it has brought forward legislation in this chamber to provide for strengthening our human rights legislation and our Criminal Code for those who are gender fluid, gender diverse and wish to express themselves differently than perhaps their biological sex would otherwise suggest. It is at the forefront, and not only in this country, but in the Western world, in giving legal effect to this fundamental human right. It is a commitment of this government and something that affects — if I may — me personally, and, in that regard, I take your question seriously and will bring it to the attention of the minister.
Senator Gold, Fae Johnstone, trans woman and human rights activist, said at last night’s event:
We have already changed the world for queer and trans people. We have rolled back decades of misogyny and bigotry. We won’t stop until we have created the more free, more equal and more socially just future all our families deserve.
Senator Gold, what, specifically, is the Government of Canada doing to protect the rights of trans adults, children and youth across our country?
The Government of Canada is working in its area of jurisdiction to support transgender and other non-binary Canadians, and it has spoken out as well to those initiatives outside of its jurisdiction, which, in the government’s opinion, regrettably cause risks to those non-binary members of those communities and their families.
