Honourable senators, I was shocked to learn of the discovery of children’s remains. All of the tributes that have been rendered reflect the palpable sadness that is being felt across the country.

I hope that, now more than ever, every effort will be made to right the wrongs of the past. I extend my sincere condolences to all of the families affected.

Colleagues, this year, we are celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the discovery of insulin in Canada. Insulin has changed the lives of millions of people around the world.

In 1921, Dr. Frederick Banting and his young colleague Charles Best began conducting tests in a lab in Toronto under the supervision of the esteemed John Macleod. Their goal was to discover the chemical that is missing from the pancreas of people who suffer from diabetes. At the time, diabetes was a virulent disease and most children who had it died within a few months.

This discovery earned Canadian researchers Sir Frederick Banting and John Macleod a Nobel prize in 1923. This is a real-life example of the quick application of a basic research discovery that benefited patients.

Basic research in Canada is what helped to free us from COVID thanks to the messenger RNA-based vaccines that have been developed. It took a lot of research before RNA was discovered by Montrealer Sidney Altman and before nanotechnology was discovered in Vancouver labs, discoveries that were key to the development of coronavirus vaccines.

As you’ve heard, COVID-19 was more virulent among people with comorbidities, such as diabetes. In Canada, diabetes directly affects 11 million people and costs our health care system close to $30 billion.

I applaud our government’s budget 2021, which supports the creation of a national framework for diabetes. If Canada is to maintain its status as a global leader in health, it must support research.