Girl Guides of Canada Bill
Private Bill--Second Reading
November 5, 2020
Moved second reading of Bill S-1001, An Act respecting Girl Guides of Canada.
She said: Honourable senators, Bill S-1001, is an act respecting Girl Guides of Canada. The Girl Guides of Canada was incorporated by a special act of Parliament that was originally passed in 1917. The act sets out the terms of incorporation for the Girl Guides of Canada. There have been minor amendments to the act over the years, in 1947 and 1961, to address the needs of its operation. Otherwise, the governing act remains largely untouched.
The Girl Guides of Canada is proud that its operations have been governed by its act since 1917. Preserving this legacy is important to its heritage as a charity and to protect its exclusive trademark rights in Canada.
The objective of this private member’s bill is to reflect the approach of Girl Guides of Canada as a modern charity seeking administrative amendments to its acts. The key amendments to the Girl Guides of Canada Act are administrative in nature and seek to incorporate certain provisions of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, update language to reflect Girl Guides of Canada goals and mission, and to make administrative edits to the Girl Guides of Canada procedural provisions. The act also provides valuable input that was used by the Girl Guides of Canada and the Senate law clerks in the drafting of this bill.
Honourable senators, the current situation is that in the Forty-second Parliament I introduced this bill, Bill S-1002, which went right up to third reading. The bill did not pass the Senate before Parliament dissolved for the forty-third federal election. In the Forty-third Parliament, on February 5, 2020, I again introduced Bill S-1001, and unfortunately there was prorogation, so there was no proceeding. The bill did not pass the Senate before prorogation. Bill S-1001 was introduced again by me on October 29, 2020.
Honourable senators, I have spoken a number of times in this chamber on the Girl Guides of Canada and I will not repeat my remarks. I will adopt my previous remarks.
Honourable senators, many of you have asked me what the Girl Guides have done with the sale of cookies during the COVID period. As you know, they come knocking at your door every year. This year, through the generosity of Canadian retailers who have stepped up, the Girl Guide cookie sale is still continuing, but now you can buy them in your store. I encourage you to buy them.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Senators Duncan, Martin, Tannas and Mercer for their help to get this bill adopted in the Senate.
Senators, I ask for your support to this bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Senator Jaffer. I rise on behalf of Senator Linda Frum, the official critic of the bill, to put her words of support on the record at this time.
Honourable senators, I’m happy to support this bill of Senator Jaffer’s, and I want to thank her for several years of tireless work sponsoring this bill.
The Girl Guides of Canada is indeed an important organization, and coming to Parliament to make changes to their way of administering themselves, so that it accommodates their modern vision and goals, is part of their tradition. It is something they hold dear.
The bill has been around since the last Parliament. It was thoroughly reviewed by the Banking Committee in 2018. Senator Dalphond proposed an important amendment to it at the committee, that the Girl Guides themselves agreed to. It was incorporated into the bill that is before us today.
I think it’s time, honourable senators, to move this bill along before the Girl Guides regret their decision to go through Parliament to make these changes.
Honourable senators, respectfully, with deep gratitude, I live and work in the traditional territory of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation.
I rise today to briefly speak in support of Bill S-1001, the Girl Guides bill.
Honourable senators, I do appreciate that there are many in this chamber, senators and staff, including pages, and Canadians watching who hold the Girl Guides of Canada near and dear to their hearts. We are looking forward to ensuring the passage of this bill. It’s a necessary administrative matter for the Girl Guide movement, as Senator Jaffer has explained so well on several occasions. Thank you for the opportunity and the technology that allows me to present to you today.
Colleagues, I would be remiss in representing my region, the Yukon, if I did not speak to this matter. Girl Guides have a long history in the Yukon, beginning with the first group in Dawson City in 1914. I noted that Senator Frum in an earlier address to our colleagues made reference to the first Girl Guide camp in Canada. Perhaps it was the second girl guide camp that was held June 11, 1915, at Rock Creek in northern Yukon.
Cookies and camping might be what is commonly associated with the Girl Guides. Allow me to share with you a broader perspective. This recipe for guiding, from the 2nd Whitehorse Pathfinders published in Yukon Trails, the Guiding newsletter, in 2000:
The ingredients are: 3 cups of human rights, 12 cups of respect, 10 cups of love, 4 cups of honesty, 1 cup of trust, 8 cups of water for tomorrow, 2 cups of friendship, 3 cups of cooperation, 4 cups of spirit and 5 cups of nature.
Honourable senators, that recipe speaks to the very Canadian values we hold dear; values we discuss in the Senate today that have been demonstrated in the guiding movement for some time. As an example, we often talk about inclusivity. In 1953, Lena Tizya, whom we might refer to as an Indigenous young woman, the records say simply Loucheux Yukon Girl Guide from Old Crow, Yukon, was chosen by the Commonwealth Youth Movement and Girl Guides to represent Yukon and Alberta at the Queen’s coronation celebration. The beautiful beaded purse she took with her is entrusted and on display at MacBride Museum in Whitehorse.
I could discuss at length the value of Guiding as an inclusive organization for women and girls and those who identify as girls. However, that would take more time and I believe senators are familiar.
That recipe for Yukon Guiding and Yukon Girl Guides has been a very special element of my life, receiving my Canada Cord as a Girl Guide, serving as the Yukon’s provincial commissioner, being the first Yukoner elected to the national executive of Girl Guides have been very special moments in my life. I believe it helped me to develop life and leadership skills.
And that’s just me. There are many Yukon women leaders who would say the same. Former commissioner — or what provinces know of as lieutenant-governor — and now a member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, Geraldine Van Bibber; other former MLAs, Minister of Health, the late Joyce Hayden; former Deputy Premier Elaine Taylor; and several distinguished Yukon public servants and community volunteers, including Nancy Campbell and Janet Mann, are just a few of the women involved in Yukon Guiding who, throughout their public lives, have developed the very Canadian values the Girl Guide movement represents, and whom I believe would support this bill that we are discussing today with our thanks.
The rest of the recipe for the Guiding movement is not unlike the recipe for a successful Senate, which I hope will pass this bill today. Here is the method for this recipe: In a large room of different people, mix human rights, respect and love together with honesty, trust, water for tomorrow, friendship, cooperation, spirit and nature. Honourable senators, I thank you for your kind consideration of my remarks and your thoughtful passage and support of this bill brought forward by Senator Jaffer on behalf of the Girl Guides of Canada.
Thank you. Mahsi’cho. Gùnáłchîsh.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
(Motion agreed to and bill read second time.)
Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the third time?
(On motion of Senator Jaffer, bill placed on the Orders of the Day for third reading at the next sitting of the Senate.)
