Orders of the Day

Private Members’ Statements

ALT-RIGHT MOVEMENT

R. Singh: Today I rise in the House to make a statement on a very serious issue that we are facing globally. That is the alt-right movement. We know that in recent years hate crimes, the rise in white nationalism, has increased. We have seen the surge, not just in Canada but all over the world.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Just in February, we had a really horrible incident in New Zealand, in Christchurch, where almost 50 people died and more than 50 got injured. We know that the person who did it was influenced by this alt-right movement. He got influenced mostly on line by all the material that was being spread.

I remember, in 2016, when the election was happening across the border and Donald Trump was running, the kind of rhetoric that we were hearing from south of the border. We saw some incidents happening here in Canada, especially in B.C., when racist flyers were being distributed in different communities — in such a beautiful, multicultural province.

I was quite concerned, as a person who takes a lot of passion on this issue, a person who has always talked about racism very, very openly. I remember organizing a rally, in the fall of 2016, about this hatred that was happening. I remember talking to people, and they said: “Uh, no. It is not that big an issue. Maybe it is an issue south of the border. Maybe it’s an issue in other parts of the world, but in Canada, we are such a multicultural, peace-loving country. This is not an issue.”

[10:05 a.m.]

Today I’d really hoped that they had been right. But we know how this issue has become even more prominent in recent years. I just want to give some stats:

“Recent data from the polling firm Angus Reid has shown that Canadians are ‘alive to’ the threat of white supremacy in this country, and figures from Statistics Canada found a sharp uptick in hate crimes in recent years. Police-reported hate crime in Canada had been on the rise for a few years before taking a sharp upswing in 2017, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.

“There were 2,073 reported incidents that year, up from 1,295 in 2014; 1,362 in 2015; and 1,409 in 2016. The biggest increases in 2017 were in crimes related to race, ethnicity and religion.

“Also, an opinion poll by Angus Reid showed that 88 percent of Canadian respondents found prejudice between people of different races and nationalities to be a cause for concern. Racism toward Indigenous peoples concerned 79 percent of the respondents, and 70 percent were concerned about anti-Semitism. In B.C., more respondents found white-supremacist attitudes to be a cause for great concern.”

When I was doing my research for this statement and looked at these statistics, I just don’t really have words for how I felt about it. That’s one of the reasons I’m making this statement today, because it is a concern. We all need to be very, very concerned.

What happened in Christchurch — we cannot see that as an isolated incident. We know that globally, we are seeing the phenomenon of hatred, especially hatred against our Muslim brothers and sisters in the form of Islamophobia, but also hatred in the form of homophobia and anti-Semitism. Also, hatred against immigrants in general has been on the rise. If we want to say that it’s just targeted at one community, we are basically not addressing the real issue. If I’m not a Muslim and I’m not being attacked, that does not mean that it might not happen to me tomorrow.

Another very serious thing came to light just in recent months. We had a very important function, a South Asian community event that happened in Surrey, which happens every year. That is our big Vaisakhi celebration. This year, at the Vaisakhi celebration in Surrey, more than 500,000 people participated. It was a very, very good event. I think all walks of people participated in it.

Something that was very concerning came to light that evening. Vaisakhi happened on April 20, and there were some Facebook posts that came out, using some threats, like: “Having such a crowd, what a pressure cooker bomb could have done in that crowd.” I’m very glad that it was taken so seriously by members of the community, but I also want to applaud the member for Delta North for reaching out to the Surrey RCMP, and I really want to applaud the Surrey RCMP for taking very strong action as well.

Just after that, on April 27, we saw a report coming out of the Globe and Mail, a national daily, which talked about the rise of the far-right in Canada. The report says about these people:

“They come from all walks of life. They are tradesmen, soldiers, a student teacher, a financial analyst, an aspiring lawyer, among others, and they are in every province, in communities large and small. They gather on the Internet to strategize and seek pathways into mainstream politics. They are anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, sexist and racist. They are young and radicalized. They are the new far-right in Canada.

[10:10 a.m.]

“The Globe and Mail has obtained a trove of 150,000 messages posted between February 2017 and early 2018 that reveal the private communications of a loosely aligned….”

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

T. Wat: As the opposition critic for multiculturalism, it is my honour to respond to this very important statement put forth by the member for Surrey–Green Timbers.

Charlottesville, Quebec City, Christchurch, Pittsburgh — these four amazing cities are united by one harrowing point. They all have been sites of violence perpetrated by the so-called alt-right. This reactionary movement has brought together some of the worst elements of a political force: white supremacists, violent misogynists, anti-Semitism — lunatics that were normally considered so marginal and so few that we thought we would never have to seriously consider them as a political force.

Yet in some countries, like Germany, Sweden, Greece and, most recently, Spain, parties influenced by these movements have gained seats in parliament. These parties generally, though not always, tone down the blatant racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia common to the movement. But they still signal to their supporters that they have not abandoned their ideals and push for policies that would drastically limit legal immigration and would prevent public expressions of cultures not considered to be appropriate by the movement.

The alt-right stands for everything we don’t stand for. They want to spread hatred and mistrust; we want love and understanding. They want to go backwards; we want to move ahead. B.C. has long been proud to be a multicultural society. As the walls of this House know, we have taken responsibility for our failings in the past. Most important to me was the formal apology to Chinese Canadians issued by the previous government in 2014 for injustices they had suffered at the hands of more close-minded governments.

It bears mentioning that multiculturalism, though rallied against by the alt-right, contains so many facets and opportunities to learn and understand the world and people around us. One of these types of teachings is that of traditional Chinese Confucian culture, which values harmony, family and respect for elders and teachers in the community. In Confucian thinking, harmony refers to a society where everyone fulfils their responsibilities and creates a harmonious situation where the whole country prospers.

Modern Chinese society tries to maintain harmony between humankind and nature, between people and society, between members of different communities and between mind and body. These teachings, though interpreted differently over centuries, mean that someone bent on being unharmonious, like members of the alt-right and their creed, stand in the way of prosperity and growth as people, as a nation and as communities — persons who seek to coexist harmoniously with all others. That is why the alt-right movement is so wrong. By its very basis, it is unharmonious.

We need to fight for and strengthen our belief that Canada should be a multicultural society that exists harmoniously. We need to support and stand up for people who are targeted by members of the alt-right. We need to instil in our young people values of a society that values diversity and multiple points of view. If we do this, we will be able to keep this menace at bay. We owe it to our families, our friends, our co-workers and neighbours to do just that.

I look forward to the member’s response.

R. Singh: I really would like to thank the member for Richmond North Centre for her take on this very serious issue. I totally agree with her that we, as a society, need to take action to deal with this issue.

[10:15 a.m.]

When I was doing this statement, my intentions were, obviously, to tell about the stats and about the issue that we are facing but also what we, as leaders, need to do to face this and to help prevent this kind of movement and this kind of hatred, which is being spread in our own province as well. Experts also say that facing systemic racism head-on can help stop it.

I’m really glad for the measures that world leaders have taken. Especially, I really want to say a few words about the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern — her stance and her message of unity and solidarity that she gave after the Christchurch attack. She has also rallied all the world leaders to…. She wants Facebook, Google, Twitter and all the social media to help slow the spread of the violent rhetoric that is being put on line.

If it comes to our province…. I’m really glad of the stance of our government and what we are doing by establishing the Human Rights Commission, which was missing from B.C. for so many years. We know that education is the key role. A lot of times when these things happen, it is coming out of ignorance, when young minds get lured by discontent, by the on-line rhetoric, the white-supremacist rhetoric that is being put on line. We really need to guide them and educate them properly. We need to work together and not have this kind of hate against any community.

Really, I’m very thankful that we have the…. Whereas we have the world leaders like Jacinda, we have the leaders here in Canada, too, with the statements that came from the Canadian Prime Minister, the opposition leader and also the NDP leader. They are very significant in these times — especially the statement given by our Premier, John Horgan, after the Christchurch attack.

Deputy Speaker: No names, Member. No names.

Continue.

R. Singh: Okay. I’m sorry. By the Premier of the province — the way he talked about Islamophobia and white supremacy and said that they have no role in our province.

Deputy Speaker: Now you can conclude.

R. Singh: Also, we are living in a very, very beautiful province, and we have to keep it.

VAPING

T. Stone: This morning it gives me a great deal of pleasure to rise and to speak in this House, again, about the emerging public health challenge that we see in our province and, indeed, we’re seeing right across North America. That is the rapid increase in vaping or e-cigarette use amongst our youth. As everyone in this House knows, e-cigarettes, or vaping, as it’s called by many, is an emerging public health issue, particularly as it relates to youth.

Now, I want to start off by being very clear here that I do recognize, and I think my colleagues do recognize — I think most British Columbians do recognize — that there is a role for e-cigarette use as a smoking cessation tool for adults who are trying to stop traditional smoking. There is no question about that. The problem, however, is that we have estimates that suggest that upwards of 30 percent of our youth in grades ten through 12 in our middle and high schools here in British Columbia are engaging in vaping on a regular basis.

The stories that I heard prior to the private member’s bill I introduced a number of weeks ago, and the stories I have heard since, are quite telling. I have heard from many parents. I have heard from many teachers. I have heard from administrators. I have heard from the B.C. Teachers Federation, which was pleased to publicly come out and support the kinds of changes that I’m proposing in the private member’s bill which I introduced to this House.

[10:20 a.m.]

Everyone is united in wanting to do more to protect the health of our children. The simple reality is this. While we have done a very good job in this province at really driving down tobacco use, particularly amongst youth, we see a very significant increase in vaping or e-cigarette use amongst our youth. In the United States, the U.S. Surgeon General just last December declared e-cigarette use, with respect to youth in the United States, as an emerging public health epidemic.

Now, more troubling is the reality that recent studies, including one just a couple of weeks ago here in Canada, suggested that most teens, most of our youth who are engaged in e-cigarette use, aren’t aware of the fact that these products, more often than not, include highly addictive nicotine.

The reality of this fast-growing, fast-emerging industry is that these products, these e-cigarettes — pod mods, as they’re now called — are very sleek. They’re very small. They’re easy to conceal. They don’t have any smell. You can get customized skins for your e-cigarette, your vaporizer, just like you can get a customized skin for a cell phone. The juice that is used in these products is highly, highly addictive but also comes in kid-friendly flavours like bubble gum and cotton candy and melon and cream.

All of the above makes e-cigarette use, vaping, very attractive to our youth. So more must be done to keep these products out of the hands of our kids, all the while recognizing that these products do play a role as a smoking-cessation tool for adults.

The bill that I introduced weeks ago would ban the sale of flavoured products. At the very least, I hope that government here in British Columbia and the federal government will move on banning those sweet, dessert-type flavours, those kid-friendly flavours which study after study after study indicate are not the flavours that are chosen by adults. These are flavours that are very popular with youth.

Secondly, we do believe that we need to limit the retail access to these products — make it more difficult for our kids to be able to access these tools. My bill proposed tougher retail controls by limiting the sales to vape shops, tobacco stores and pharmacies. Is that a perfect solution? No, it’s not. But again, it’s an attempt to try and restrict access to these products, to keep them out of the hands of our kids. My bill provided tougher penalties for non-compliance with all of the above.

In addition to the measures in my bill, we do believe that there needs to be more action on the part of the federal government. We are cautiously optimistic that the federal government is in the process of consultations to develop new regulations, particularly as they relate to advertising of vaping-related products where these products might be seen by youth. This will include ads at both physical and on-line points of sale where youth are allowed to shop as well as mass platforms like billboards and public transit.

The folks who are selling these products wouldn’t be allowed to air within 30 minutes of any television or radio show meant for youth nor publish in any print publications and social media platforms accessible to youth. There would also be a requirement for health warnings, regardless of whether the product includes nicotine.

The federal government is looking at the prevalence of the use of these products with our youth and what more can be done to keep them out of the hands of our youth. Again, the challenge is that things tend to move fairly slowly in government in general, particularly at the federal level. So while we’re encouraged by the activity there, we are hopeful that the provincial government here in British Columbia will take some interim steps to focus on this.

I will quickly run out of time here. I’ll have a few more minutes after the next speaker. I do want to talk for a moment about the need for more resources to also be invested in programs in our schools to focus on prevention, to focus on supporting youth when they come up against that judgment call, that decision point on whether to engage in the use of these products or not.

There are some very good examples of these kinds of prevention programs, like Preventure, a program that has been piloted in a number of schools, particularly up in Vernon, and has resulted in some pretty significant declines in the usage of these kinds of products. We also would be calling for some additional support to help our youth who have become addicted to nicotine. I’ll have more to say about that in a moment.

[10:25 a.m.]

B. D’Eith: I did want to thank the member for Kamloops–​South Thompson for bringing this very important issue to the House. I really believe that this is an area where I can see a great deal of potential cooperation between all three parties, especially in relation to vaping products for children and youth.

This is a relatively new phenomenon, and it means that the law has to evolve with the changing times. I know that quite a lot of work was done — including by the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, who is in the House right now — in 2016, around flavoured cigarettes.

Vaping is a very similar issue, because of the use, as the member said, of flavoured juices that are clearly meant to entice young people to start vaping. The problem, of course, is that children and young people are getting products on line and from non-approved sources. So they have no idea, really, what’s in these e-liquids, whether it’s chemicals or nicotine. That’s very alarming to me — to think that B.C. youth are potentially inhaling harmful products that they don’t even know are there. In addition to this, the addition of nicotine makes many e-liquids highly addictive, and many young users of vape products have no idea that there’s actually nicotine in their product.

Of course, as the member said, vape was originally sold as a way for smokers to wean off cigarettes. As a tool to battle this, in the arsenal of trying to get people to quit, it has actually been a very positive thing. The problem is that vaping can do the exact opposite for young people because it’s the perfect delivery system for nicotine. What’s happening is that vaping is becoming a gateway to actually smoking cigarettes.

This is exactly what happened to one of my sons. We discouraged him from vaping — he and his friends were all vaping — but he was convinced it was safe and did it anyway. For a while that’s what he did, but then he started smoking cigarettes. While we’ve got him to quit the cigarettes, he’s still vaping.

I think that in this day and age — with everything that we know about smoking, in particular — to have something in the market that’s actually leading kids to smoke cigarettes is really unacceptable. I know the problem is of course that kids, the teenagers, think they’re invincible at this point. I had to remind my children that my grandmother and my aunt are both not with us today because they smoked cigarettes. They both ended up having ten to 20 years shaved off their lives. They didn’t even get to meet my grandmother, their great-grandmother, because of this.

Also, because it’s a relatively new phenomenon, I think a lot more work has to be done to study vaping. If you listen to the tobacco companies…. I know that on the Finance Committee, we heard from some tobacco lobbyists, and they were really excited about how safe vaping was. Of course, the next day the Cancer Society came in and said the exact opposite. I think I’ll tend to side with the Canadian Cancer Society on this, and other jurisdictions that are showing that vape is really potentially hazardous.

Of course, vaping actually isn’t allowed on school grounds right now, but that’s an enforcement issue.

What do we need to do to get young people to stop vaping? Well, I think education is really important. I know that the new physical and health education curriculum actually allows teachers to lead lesson plans and have discussions and engage students in this discussion. I think that’s really important. I think, as the member said, that we do need to work together as a Legislature and include young people, principals, vice-principals, the B.C. Teachers Federation, the Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, for example, local communities and the students themselves to ensure that we deal with this head-on.

Now, we do have the laws and regulations from 2016, but this is an evolving matter. It’s my understanding, from talking to the Minister of Health, that the federal government is now reviewing this and is going to be proposing some changes to legislation and regulation. Once that’s done, the Minister of Health will review the present provincial legislation and regulations.

I wanted to really thank the member for bringing this up. It’s something that hits me at home, hits many of us around our communities. I really appreciate him bringing this statement to the House today. He certainly has my support in terms of trying to tackle this issue head-on.

[10:30 a.m.]

T. Stone: I do want to thank the member for Maple Ridge–​Mission for his very thoughtful comments on this topic. If we can’t all unite behind strategies and initiatives to best protect the health of our kids, then I don’t know what we can unite on. I’m very pleased to hear his comments on behalf of him and his colleagues.

I was indicating, in my previous remarks, that more resources are needed to invest in prevention programs, to invest in awareness programs in our schools. There are a number of pilot programs that have proven to be highly effective. The problem is that they are only pilots in a very limited number of our middle and high schools across this province.

One such program, known as Preventure, is a program that is all about focusing on that link between addictions and risk factors. This program works by having our youth self-report their personality style. Then those students who identify with one of four key traits are invited to a workshop session where they learn how their personality affects their behaviour. Those four key personality traits are impulsivity…. The second would be thrill seeking or sensation seeking, the third is sensitivity to anxiety, and the fourth is hopelessness. This program has been in place in Vernon for a couple of years now and has actually resulted in a pretty significant decline in a range of addictions in the schools where it’s been deployed.

We need resources to invest in these kinds of programs. In addition to that, we need more resources to support our youth who are already addicted. I have heard from a number of parents who have said: “It’s great that you’re focusing on doing more to prevent the use of e-cigarettes with our youth, but what about our youth who are already addicted?”

We need more resources available, particularly focused on youth — resources like the smoking cessation clinic at Vancouver General Hospital, which does have an accepted treatment program. That’s nicotine replacement therapy. The government does pay for 12 weeks of a nicotine patch. That was actually implemented under our former government, back in 2011.

The problem is that the usage of e-cigarettes amongst our youth is far outpacing the capacity of these clinics to actually help our youth. So we need more clinics. We need more front-line resources.

Last but not least, industry needs to step up here. Industry needs to step up and speak with one voice. Industry needs to be more proactive. Industry needs to look at tougher age verification technology for their on-line sites to prevent sales on line to kids. Industry needs to step up, like a number of companies, such as Walmart and Walgreens and Rite Aid in the United States, that have made the decision to stop selling flavoured e-cigarette products to youth.

If we all pull together — government, parents and industry — we will tackle this emerging public health epidemic for the good of our children for generations to come.

LIVING WAGE

R. Leonard: I rise today to speak about measuring the success of our government’s actions to make life more affordable for the people of British Columbia. We all hear facts and figures about how much funding goes to support various policies and programs, and other numbers are tracked. But what really matters to people who have been struggling for a generation to make ends meet and to those who have fallen further and further behind is whether they are experiencing a more affordable life.

So it’s with great satisfaction that last week we heard that independent, third-party economists at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, also known as the CCPA, attributed two of our government’s biggest actions to the first decline in the living wage in 11 years. Firstly, this government’s historic investments in child care and, secondly, the 50 percent reduction in medical services premiums are credited with playing a major part in making life more affordable for young families.

In the Comox Valley, the living wage went down 8 percent to $15.28 an hour. But what does this mean? What is a living wage? It is one measuring tool to assess affordability, and the CCPA has been calculating it since 2008.

The calculation begins with determining the expenses of everyday living. It is region-specific, because some costs, like rent, vary from place to place. The list is comprehensive but modest and includes shelter — that’s rent — utilities, Internet, communications and even home contents insurance. Then there’s food, clothing and footwear, transportation, child care, medical and dental health care, parents’ education and other household expenses.

[10:35 a.m.]

I did say it was modest. It doesn’t include saving for retirement or for your kids’ future education or owning a home. After expenses are all added up, then taxes, credits, deductions and subsidies are taken into account to determine the living wage. That living wage is the hourly amount that two full-time working parents each need to earn in order to support those basic needs for a family of four, including one child age four and the other age seven.

Why this family unit? Well, it’s representative because in British Columbia, more than three-quarters of families with children are headed by couples, and over half of them have two or more kids. It’s important to note that just over 50 percent of B.C.’s children living in poverty live in two-parent families. The numbers really are staggering when you consider that 40 percent of people living below the poverty line are working. No matter how you slice it, as the CCPA report says: “The story of child poverty is very much a story of low wages.”

The CCPA economists report that the decrease to the living wage is due in large part to our government’s recent investments in child care, which are saving families thousands of dollars this year. We are moving in the right direction to make life more affordable.

Courtney from the Comox Valley, where there is a city named Courtenay, is a single mom with two children age five and under. She says spending less on daycare means she’s able to spend more money on children’s activities and to save for the future. She shared how she has friends who were on the fence about even having children simply because of the expense of child care.

Lisa L. expressed relief over family budgeting when her child care centre became one of the prototypes for child care that will cost no more than $200 a month per child. With one parent working full-time and another part-time, she said, raising two children, paying a mortgage, bills, everyday expenses and groceries all add up quickly. “Since the prototype program has begun, we have felt less stressed about the monthly budgeting. We have a little extra money for savings, fixing something or a fun family outing.”

This year’s report that the living wage went down by $1.31 an hour in the Comox Valley and by similar amounts in other communities throughout B.C. is welcome news. Despite increasing costs of living on many fronts, like rents up as much as 4 percent, heating and electricity up, gas and insurance up, food and clothing up…. But as the CCPA report suggests, the savings from this government’s new child care program more than offset the other rising family expenses.

As the CCPA report says, the core takeaway from this year’s calculation is that public investments to improve child care affordability are making a difference in helping families with young children, whether cost increases in other areas. After a generation — basically, for the first time in living memory for young low-income and middle-income families — people are beginning to experience a bit more affordable living and, with it, some freedom from the stresses of strained family budgets.

Karen, an early childhood educator from the Comox Valley, can now afford to upgrade her education, and she and her husband are saving to buy a home for their family of four.

The CCPA report also credits the 50 percent reduction in MSP premiums as contributing to the reduction in the living wage. We know that after 16 years of unbridled rising costs, our government has just begun its work to put people first. The full elimination of MSP premiums next January will be one of the biggest middle-class cuts in B.C. history and will save families up to $1,800 every year.

We are introducing the child opportunity benefit too. Families with kids up to the age of 19 will have more wiggle room in their budgets.

We can’t control all living expenses, but we can make a difference. Our government is making different choices, choices to make life more affordable, and giving people opportunities that they didn’t dare to dream about.

L. Reid: I’m pleased to respond this morning to the statement put forward by the member for Courtenay-Comox. The living wage definition — this one comes from Living Wage Canada:

“A living wage is not the same as minimum wage, which is the legal minimum for all employers. The living wage sets a higher standard. A living wage reflects what earners in a family need to bring home, based on the actual costs of living in a specific community.

[10:40 a.m.]

“The living wage is a call to private and public sector employees to pay wages to both direct and contract employees that are sufficient to provide the basics to families with children. A living wage enables working families to have sufficient income to cover reasonable costs; promotes social inclusion; supports healthy child development principles; ensures that families are not under severe financial stress; engenders significant, wide-ranging community support; and is a vehicle for promoting the benefits of social programs such as infant development and supported child development.”

Now contrast these points with the reality of the recent decision to treat workers differently in British Columbia. Equity: the quality of being fair and impartial. Equity of treatment. Fairness. Fair-mindedness. Justice. Equitableness. Fair play. Instead of fairness, this House has been subjected to a denial of equity — in fact, a blatant defiance, defence of inequity. The government tells us the recent government decision to apply low-wage redress to unionized employees is not political. They’ve certainly intimated that on many occasions. This decision is a departure from 12 years of past practice.

As discussed, this decision will have a devastating effect on the Richmond Society for Community Living, the people we serve and their staff. Our SCL has approximately 40 direct line staff that are non-union. The majority of our non-union staff work with children and families and early intervention services. Recruitment and retention of qualified staff is a chronic and serious problem for community and other social services organizations. This recent decision will exacerbate an already critical problem and create tension within organizations and between social service agencies. This will impact children and families that rely on service.

You noted earlier that I certainly made the point clearly that a living wage is supposed to support healthy child development principles. That’s what is the stated definition.

Our infant development and supported child development programs serve over 750 children and families every year. A loss of just one consultant to a neighbouring agency will mean a loss of service to 50 families in Richmond, in my riding. This decision will impact social service organizations across the province. Approximately 600 agencies will not receive the low-wage redress for some or all of their employees. The total number of employees that will receive the low-wage redress is approximately 13,000, compared to more than 14,000 community and social service employees that will receive the low-wage redress.

What would you do with 800 additional dollars in your pocket, Mr. Speaker? Save for something special? What could you buy with $800? Something for your mom? Something for your kids? The answer is that it would be your choice. Since April 1, infant development workers and supported child development workers in our province have 800 fewer dollars in their pockets than their unionized counterparts. They absolutely deserve better. There is no question.

I believe that hypocrisy is alive and well on the government benches. In fact, I’m amazed that they have the gall to talk about living wages when they are reducing wages for thousands of workers in British Columbia today.

R. Leonard: Thank you to the member for Richmond South Centre for her comments. I’d just like to add that the living wage calculation was spawned after the contracts of health workers were ripped up and people were laid off in the thousands. So this is a really important aspect of how we look at the world of affordability.

In outlining how the living wage is calculated, a vivid picture emerges about the challenges facing low-wage families. Imagine not having enough money to afford a birthday party for your child or pay for dental care — and, as in the case in 2008, when we saw families ripped apart. Imagine not having children because you don’t see yourself ever earning enough to give them that birthday party, let alone send them to college.

As I said, the CCPA has been calculating the living wage since 2008. Each year, up until this latest report, the living wage went up — up and up — while more and more people fell further and further behind and the number of children and families living in poverty grew. The previous government heard the call for nine years, yet did nothing. Child care costs exceeded inflation, MSPs doubled and the policies that boosted the top 2 percent never trickled down to the families that needed it the most.

This government’s commitment to making life affordable began to take shape when we took office less than two years ago. This current trend downward in the living wage shows how our government’s actions are beginning to help people, and when people have a little economic security, communities and employers benefit, as does the economy as a whole.

[10:45 a.m.]

Despite working hard, not having enough money to buy essentials or pay all of the bills takes its toll on workers and on their children. Low-income earners suffer stress two times more often than higher earners. This results in poorer health and higher health care costs. Poorer health leads to absenteeism from work and reduced productivity. Lifting wages, then, is good for business in the long term.

Let’s not forget that children from low-income families suffer. Working harder means more time away from the kids, adding to everyone’s stress. Children are less likely to do well in school, will have poorer health outcomes as they grow up and are less likely to do well in the workforce. We need well-trained workers, and we would do well to make sure our children grow up to be bright contributors to our future economy. And let’s not forget that small business owners are workers too, so providing for affordable child care and reducing and eliminating regressive fees and taxes support them too.

Without the measures we’ve taken to reduce the costs of child care and MSP, the living wage would have gone up significantly. Rather than going down 8 percent, it would have, in reverse, risen that amount.

Seeing the dial move to reduce the living wage is good for people and good for business. There’s a way to go, but we are on the right path.

MY FIRST JOB

I. Paton: I’ll try and keep this non-partisan, as are the rules on Monday morning.

The title of my statement this morning is going to be on first jobs. I rise in the House today to do a bit of reminiscing. Everyone remembers their first job and how these opportunities not only helped them buy that new bike or pay for college but also played an important part in developing their character and work ethic. These benefits are life-long, and I’m sure that many of us here today think of their first job as being the beginning of their road to this chamber, actually. I know I do.

I’m sure everyone in this House likely knows by now that I’m a third-generation farmer. I’m still living on the farm that I was born on 62 years ago in Delta. As a kid growing up with my grandfather and my dad, we learned to do chores in the morning and at night, at milking time. I learned to drive a pickup truck at age 12. And of course, I learned to drive a tractor at a young age as well. I also learned how to milk a cow when I was just eight or nine years old. When you grow up on a farm, your parents always make you work.

In my family, we were never, ever told or allowed to collect unemployment insurance. It was: “Get out there and find yourself a job.”

The whole family would head out into the field to help with the harvest. I remember this vividly, and I think many B.C. farm families would have similar stories. I see this many times, travelling Canada, in the dairy farming industry in Quebec and Ontario. They’re all very small family farms, and the entire family would be involved. The kids would get home from school, they would help with chores, and they would help with milking. They didn’t have the money for hired help in Quebec and Ontario, with some of these small dairy farms that only milk 35 or 40 cows.

A few years ago a friend of mine moved about an hour out of Saskatoon from Abbotsford and started a dairy farm in Saskatoon. We were there for a tour on FCM. I took the mayor of Delta and a few of my fellow councillors out to my friend’s dairy farm.

The school bus came down this long, dusty road to their farm about an hour out of Saskatoon, and three young kids that belonged to my friend got off the school bus. We were looking around the dairy farm, and it was getting around milking time. All of a sudden, these three young kids came to the barn. They quickly got out of their school clothes and put their books away. All three of them were in the barn with their boots on, ready to do chores and get the cows up for milking time. It goes to show you the benefits of young people working, especially in the agriculture industry.

When I was nine — this will be hard to believe; not too many people remember this — my first job was at McClary Stock Yards in Vancouver. There used to be a bridge called the Fraser Street Bridge that went from No. 5 Road over to Fraser Street. In the ’60s, in the ’50s, there was a stock yard that sold cattle on the Fraser Street edge of the river in Vancouver. My dad was the auctioneer. At age nine, in the summertime, I would go. I got a job with a cane to herd the cattle that came out of the auction ring and pen them in the correct pen for whoever happened to be the buyer of those cattle.

It may seem like a lot of responsibility for a nine-year-old, and it was, but that did not mean that I was incapable of doing it. The pressure to do a good job ensured that I learned the trade quickly. I got paid a few bucks, and that got me on my way and got me my first paycheque, chasing cattle down the alley at McClary Stock Yards in Vancouver.

I also started mowing lawns and continued to help with picking potatoes, milking cows for the neighbours and, on our own farm, driving the tractor and throwing a lot of hay bales when I was a young person. Not exactly glamorous, but everyone has to start somewhere.

[10:50 a.m.]

Most importantly, these jobs gave me my first impression of the importance of hard work. It also gave me the first taste of the rewards, both material and more abstract, of a job well done. In my teens, I started to expand my horizons as bit. Some of the positions I held during this time included a gas station attendant. Back in those days, it was full service. Two of us would run out to a car. One would fill up the gas tank, and the other would open the hood and check the oil. That’s what you did back in the days at full-attended gas stations.

I was a playground supervisor for Delta Parks and Recreation. I worked in a parts warehouse in Vancouver on 1st Avenue for General Motors. I worked as a boatbuilder on the Fraser River, building wooden-hulled fish boats for Wahl’s Boatbuilding. I worked at Crown Zellerbach cardboard plant on the edge of the Fraser River, and I also was a golf course greenskeeper, among other things that I did.

When you’re a teenager growing up on a farm, there’s only one thing that you want. You want to make some money, and you want to buy your own pickup truck. These jobs allowed me to do just that. People talk about intergenerational divides, but I think buying that first car or pickup truck is still something that many teenagers long for. Solid, stable jobs, such as many of those available to young people in the agriculture sector, allow them to do that.

I held all of these positions while continuing to help out my family on the farm, my own farm. My jobs never interfered with my studies. If anything, it actually helped them. Having a summer job not only gave me spending money, but it also helped me save for purchasing my first livestock and eventually got me enough to enter university. I don’t think there was a year during high school or university that I did not work during the summer. In my mind, that was what summertime was for. While this was my story, I’m sure we could go around the chamber and hear many similar tales from similar MLAs in this building.

I remember graduating from UBC in 1979, and I couldn’t get a full-time teaching job. So the first offer I got was milking cows. Having just gotten married in 1979, and just out of university, I went off and milked cows for six months until I got my first teaching job. I taught school for a grand total of about one year, and I decided that I’d rather go back to the family farm and the family farm auction business.

My point is clear. All of these experiences played a fundamental role in equipping me with valuable life skills and helping me build a strong character. They teach self-worth and self-respect as well as independence and responsibility.

Another interesting job I had growing up was joining the local volunteer fire department. As a kid growing up in the farming area of east Delta, it was kind of a rite of passage that you would join the volunteer fire department. It wasn’t for the money. I think we got paid $16 per call-out, whether the call-out was for half an hour or for a burning barn that had us out for 12 hours. But I learned to drive a fire truck. I learned to be responsible, how to work with older people in the fire department, and I grew up very fast, facing many horrible car accidents along Highway 99. I saw some of the grimmest things you’d ever want to see as a 17-year-old on the volunteer fire department.

Now, of course, we need to ensure that youth are safe at work. We wouldn’t want to be sending 15-year-olds with no training into the woods as tree fallers. If there is something to laud about the culture of many jobs today, it’s that the importance of safety is recognized by employers.

S. Malcolmson: I am getting very nostalgic here. My first job was as a goat milker. I have very clear memories of the old alarm clock in my granny’s cabin going off, the feeling of importance. I was up before anybody else, walking through the meadow with my rubber boots and getting all of the dew and bugs and flowers on them and arriving a bedraggled — I don’t know — ten-year-old, nine-year-old. As long as I grabbed Gretchen the goat by her one remaining horn and kind of arm-wrestled her into where we needed to go, the rest of the goats would follow. It was a big responsibility and a real sense of power, probably for the first time in my life, and no harm came of it.

So when the members of the Nanaimo, Duncan and District Labour Council came to meet with me a couple of weeks ago to talk about kids who are harmed in the workplace, I was blown away. In 2003, the age of work was reduced to 12 here in the province. That has put kids into risky workplaces.

[10:55 a.m.]

This is what I heard from the labour council in Nanaimo. They said that 12-year-olds can work now in most industries, including food service, accommodation, farming, construction, even manufacturing. This is a serious health and safety risk for these young people. Commercial equipment is dangerous, not appropriately sized for children, and safe operation requires expensive training and supervision.

These are not conditions in which our kids should be working, and doing this type of work has real consequences. Kids are getting hurt. They say: “Since 2003, over 2,000 children under the age of 15 have claimed work-related health care costs due to injuries” — 2,000 kids since 2003. “This number only reflects the number of reported injuries. We know that many injuries go unreported, especially where the employer is the child’s own parent.”

They went on to say: “The government must do more to protect children by prioritizing their schooling and health and safety, not work. When youth are ready to go to work, there need to be rigorous rules in place to ensure that they are protected from injury and death.” That’s a quote from the Nanaimo and District Labour Council.

So I’m really pleased that our government has brought in protections. The legislation that was tabled just last week, or two weeks ago, will broadly raise the age that a child may work from 12 to 16, and will better protect the safety of 16- to 18-year-olds by putting in place tough restrictions on the types of hazardous work that they can be asked to perform.

Now, we heard from people, of course, that younger people want to work, that 14- and 15-year-olds want to be able to participate in the workforce when it’s safe, and I want that, too. Under the proposed changes, which are now making their way through the House under our Labour Minister, 14- and 15-year-olds will need parental consent to do only certain types of light work, which will be laid out in the regulations.

These changes are about employer-employee relationships; they’re not about family chores. So 14- and 15-year-old children will be allowed to do certain forms of light work that are safe for their health and development, like stocking shelves in a convenience store and babysitting, obviously. A lot of people made all their allowance doing babysitting. Other forms of work will require a permit from the director for anyone under 16.

That’s, again, to make sure that there are extra layers of concern over anybody that thinks that they themselves are capable of doing that harder work but are not in a position to. The legislation also maintains the existing regulations that allow children to work in recorded and live entertainment — again, as long as they’ve got parental consent. That’s that extra piece that’s so important.

Another piece of protection that supports young workers, and that I was so glad to see, was recognizing that servers working on tips don’t actually get to take those tips home all the time. Those are hard-earned. I know that a lot of young folks working in the service industry, at any young age, rely on them so much. This is, again, a new regulation that is embedded in the legislation. Employers will be prohibited from withholding tips or other gratuities from workers, deducting amounts from them or requiring them to be turned over to the employer. Tip pooling, of course, is still allowed, but it has to be done in a fair way.

I. Paton: I thank the member for her response. I have talked about the importance of first jobs to me personally, but I think it is also needed to talk about how the employment of young people provides a net good for society. Work provides something meaningful for youth to do, something they can be proud of that makes them feel like they’re contributing to their community and something that rewards them for a job well done.

We should also recognize that keeping busy also helps deter youth from getting into trouble. On the Lower Mainland, I’ve seen gang activity continue to grow, and I think it’s troubling that gangsters often reach out to and recruit young people — some in their teens, some even younger than that.

Many of the youth who join these gangs are vulnerable. Perhaps they’re missing some connection in their lives and find it in this group, which has made them feel like a somebody. They’re offered false friendship, money, cars and things that seem glamorous on the surface. Before they know it, they’re doing things they never thought they would do and engaged in a criminal lifestyle that’s much easier to get into than to get out of.

[11:00 a.m.]

I think we want to ensure that youth are not restricted from opportunities to work, to keep busy and to better themselves. Let’s help find them hobbies or work that they enjoy and that would help them make money honestly. That would give them a better way to make a name for themselves. It’s good for them, and it’s good for our communities.

In closing, I always speak up for the agriculture sector. It is the largest employer of youth in our province and provides well-paying jobs that keep young people busy and engaged.

[J. Isaacs in the chair.]

These young people are able to learn how to work the land in a safe and responsible manner, how to tend to animals and how to run a business, often their own family’s. They develop so many life skills that you just can’t learn when you’re sitting in a classroom.

Our schools and educators do a fantastic job, day in and day out, but it’s my belief that when youth also have the opportunity to be part of the working world, to get their hands dirty and to earn for themselves, the benefits are tremendous for our young people.

Hon. J. Darcy: I would ask that the House consider proceeding with Motion 13 standing in the name of the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed with Motion 13 without disturbing the priorities of the motions preceding it on the order paper.

Leave granted.

Private Members’ Motions

MOTION 13 — OPPOSITION TO
CONVERSION THERAPY

N. Simons: It’s a pleasure to be able to stand here and propose the motion:

[Be it resolved that this House affirm its opposition to the practice of conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, questioning, transgender, queer, two-spirited, intersex or any other minor.]

That, of course, refers to minor persons. I think that this motion…. We’ve seen legislation across North America, Europe and other countries that specifically prohibits the practice of trying to change the character of a young person through therapy. I’m kind of disappointed, in a way, that this even has to be talked about, not because it’s not an important issue but because I think…. What we know as a society is we should be a little bit further past this. We shouldn’t even be considering that this is even a possibility.

We do see it happening in other jurisdictions. We see some cases and a recent movie, in fact, Boy Erased, of this practice that takes place, perhaps out of sight. That’s partly what this motion is hoping to bring out. Is this occurring in British Columbia? If it is, it shouldn’t be. If it is, it should be outright illegal. I don’t think any regulatory body would allow their practitioners to participate in this kind of activity.

I think it should be clear that it’s not only professional counsellors that should not be engaged in this practice, but nobody should be engaged in this practice. I’m looking forward to hearing comments from others in this House, but I think that on the face of it, when you’re a child growing up in our society, you should be encouraged to live the most authentic being that you can be. That does not include the removal of that person from their place of where they live, from their comforts, in order to be told that there is something bad about them.

We know, in our society now, that there is nothing wrong with anyone if they’re expressing their identity — their gender identity, their sexual identity. That should not be the subject of a discussion or an effort to change, and that should be something that all children in this province are protected from.

As a social worker, if I were to ever have found out that a child was being required to undergo some sort of therapy to change their identity, that would certainly involve further investigation on the part of the social worker. The psychological health of a child is something that we need to protect and something that we need to encourage, enhance and support. Any therapy that could be considered conversion therapy would have absolutely nothing but negative impacts on a child. In fact, it would be a therapy to try to ensure that a young person live an inauthentic life.

[11:05 a.m.]

As a legislator, as a human being, as a child, as a sibling of many, as a god parent and as a person in this province, I would like it to be quite clear that in British Columbia, like in other jurisdictions that have made it explicitly so, this is not a practice that we can affirm. In fact, it’s a practice that we would and should collectively denounce as a problem, as bordering on abuse to a child if, in fact, they’re subject to any effort from any adult to change who their essential being is.

With that, I’m pleased to present and table this motion to the House. I look forward to the comments of my colleagues.

J. Thornthwaite: I rise in this House to support the motion: “Be it resolved that this House affirm its opposition to the practice of conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, questioning, transgender, queer, two-spirited, intersex or any other minor.”

Conversion therapy is the pseudo-scientific practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual. Medical, scientific and government organizations have expressed concerns over the validity, efficacy and ethics of conversion therapy.

In fact, the World Health Organization wrote in a 2012 paper that reparative and conversion therapies have no medical indication and represent a severe threat to the health and human rights of the affected persons. They constitute unjustifiable practices that should be denounced and subject to adequate sanctions and penalties. Similarly, I might add, is female genital mutilation, another barbaric human act.

Conversion therapy seems to suggest that any sexual orientation other than heterosexuality is wrong and something needing to be fixed. That is simply not true. Adolescence is a confusing time of uncertainty. Bodies are changing, and hormone levels are fluctuating. The added stress of navigating sexual orientation can have a detrimental effect on the mental health of adolescents.

In these tumultuous times, youth should have access to support systems and resources that help them navigate this difficult time. In fact, we know that gay-straight alliances help contribute to a safer school climate. The research from the Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre at UBC’s School of Nursing determined that not only do gay-straight alliances make schools safer for LGBTQ students but also among straight students.

They should not be told that they are broken or that something is wrong with them because of their sexual orientation. It’s a shame that in 2019 we still have to have these discussions about what’s right or wrong with regards to sexual orientation.

Unfortunately, history presents many examples of individuals being punished for their sexual orientation. One prominent example includes that of Alan Turing, as depicted by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2014 film, The Imitation Game. I recommend everybody see it, if you haven’t. Turing is credited as the father of computer science, cracking codes made by the Germans’ seemingly unbreakable enigma machine during the Second World War. The work done by Turing is overshadowed by the fact that he was a closeted gay man in 1952, a time when being homosexual was outlawed.

Turing’s fate takes a tragic turn when he is chemically castrated. Peter Gajdics wrote, when he was spurring the whole idea that Vancouver become the first Canadian city to ban conversion therapy…. He said:

“Over six years, the doctor prescribed near fatal dosages of various concurrent psychiatric medications. He directed me to ‘release my pain’ and to ‘feel my rage’ during prolonged sessions of primal scream therapy. He injected me weekly with ketamine hydrochloride, an animal anaesthetic, before ‘reparenting’ sessions, where I would lie in his lap like a newborn baby so he could nurture me as my new ‘daddy.’ He even used aversion therapy, exposing me to a stimulus while simultaneously subjecting me to some sort of discomfort — all in an effort to…‘flip over to the other side’ to my supposed ‘innate heterosexuality.’”

Thankfully, in Canada, we have laws against discrimination based on religion and gender or sexual orientation. I’m very proud that during…. When we were in government, we brought forward improvements to the human rights code to give specific identity to gender expression and identity as well as introducing the SOGI policies in schools.

I also have spoken in this House about the trail-blazers at Seycove Secondary on the international Day of Pink, the fact that they have a rainbow crosswalk on their school grounds. I want to give credit to teachers like Andrea Yeo. She has brought this issue to students in North Vancouver to the forefront.

[11:10 a.m.]

In summary, as a community, we need to continue to be trail-blazers, to focus on acceptance and understanding. The rights of the LGBTQ community are human rights, and we must not allow intolerance to fester. We have to continue to speak out in the Legislature and beyond in support of all of our LGBTQ citizens.

S. Furstenau: It gives me pleasure to join with my colleagues from both the government and official opposition to speak in support of the motion: “Be it resolved that this House affirm its opposition to the practice of conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, questioning, transgender, queer, two-spirited, intersex or any other minor.”

As pointed out by my colleague from the official opposition, conversion therapy is the pseudo-scientific practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological or spiritual interventions.

There is no reliable evidence that sexual orientation or gender identity can be changed. Medical bodies overwhelmingly condemn the practice, warning that conversion therapy practices are ineffective and can be seriously harmful. Attempting to force somebody to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, an integral part of who they are, is associated with trauma, increased rates of suicide and significant impacts on people’s mental health.

While it is believed this practice is, thankfully, uncommon in British Columbia, there have been advertised sessions in the past few years, and these types of “treatments” may still occur behind closed doors. Our staff have spoken with people whose lives have been deeply impacted by this, and the stories are heartbreaking.

I stand here today with people around the province resolute that it is time for our province to take action to protect people from this harmful practice and determined to bring us in line with many other Canadian provinces who have shown leadership on this human rights issue. Manitoba has partnered with Seniors and Active Living, regional health authorities, health profession regulatory colleges and Manitoba Health to ensure that conversion therapy has no place in their health care system.

Ontario passed a landmark law banning conversion therapy on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children and preventing medical practitioners from billing OHIP for it.

The leader of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party called for members of the House of Assembly to come together and ban conversion therapy for youth in the province. Each party tabled their version of a conversion therapy ban and worked collaboratively to pass one unanimously in September.

This month the Canadian Bar Association sent a letter to the federal government calling for them to impose a specific ban on conversion therapy. The federal government has also received a petition asking for them to take action on conversion therapy. While they condemned the practice, they declined to take action, stating it was a responsibility of the provinces to address.

So let us address it. Let us join our fellow provinces and other countries and states that have taken action against this abhorrent practice. Let us live up to our claims of valuing diversity and inclusion. Let us protect our children by standing up for them and saying we accept them for who they are and who they were meant to be.

Every person deserves to be part of our community without fear of discrimination, harassment or violence. It is the responsibility of leaders in our community to ensure that we provide a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of the community, including those who identify or are perceived to be LGBTQ+.

The work of addressing stigma, bias and discrimination against people who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is ongoing. We must continue to be vigilant against those who promote hatred and try to turn back the clock on the progress we have made as a community.

Over the last many months, my office has been consulting with leaders in the LGBTQ2+ community and people who have suffered conversion therapy, while working on a bill with legislative drafters to ban the practice in British Columbia. Notice of our bill will be tabled this afternoon, and the full private member’s bill will be put before the House by the end of this month.

Following the leadership and the spirit of collaboration shown in Nova Scotia, I thank the government for initiating this important motion and the opposition for supporting it and invite both the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Liberals to support our bill or bring one forward of their own proposal.

[11:15 a.m.]

Conversion therapy forced on youth is child abuse. It is not welcome in our province. Let us stand together to show LGBTQ2+ British Columbians that they are accepted, they are valued, they are loved, and they are safe.

D. Davies: Thank you to the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast for putting this motion forward. I will be speaking in favour of this motion today.

Before we dive into this serious and disturbing topic, I want to express pride in our province — that all three parties have come together and have been very supportive of LGBTQ+ British Columbians and moving forward in a positive way. It seems like one of the few issues that all three parties can stand up and agree on. The acceptance of this community is certainly a positive shift that I have seen, even in my lifetime.

The government of Canada issued a formal apology in parliament to members of the LGBT community in November of 2017. I’ll read it here.

“It is with shame and sorrow and deep regret for the things we have done that I stand here today and say: we were wrong. We apologize. I am sorry. We are sorry….

“To members of the LGBTQ2 communities, young and old, here in Canada and around the world, you are loved, and we support you….

“To the trailblazers who have lived and struggled, and to those who have fought so hard to get us to this place, thank you for your courage and thank you for lending your voices. I hope…you look back on all you have done with pride.

“It is because of your courage that we are here today, together, and reminding ourselves that we can, and must, do better.

“For the oppression of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirited communities, we apologize. On behalf of the government, Parliament, and the people of Canada: we were wrong. We are sorry. And we will never let this happen again.”

That was an official apology that was issued in parliament in November 2017.

I think change is a good way to look at this motion before us, because it really does reflect how we have come as a society in respecting the rights of people of all ages. When my parents were in school, they could’ve been strapped for being left-handed. Hard to believe today. This would have been in the 1940s and 1950s. Not only was this common practice, but it was the attitude all the way through school, from kindergarten up. By the way, my parents were both left-handed.

To do this in school today would be met with universal condemnation. The teacher would likely lose their job and not teach again, and rightly so. There was a fundamental change in the collective mentality of all British Columbians against this behaviour.

On a large scale, a little over 100 years ago, a small portion of British Columbians were able to vote for members in the House. Women didn’t, though, get the right to vote until 1917. Chinese and South Asian Canadians were not allowed to vote until 1947. Indigenous and Japanese British Columbians had to wait until 1949.

Fast-forward to today. In the last number of years, we have had members, and have members, from all of these previously disenfranchised groups elected here into this chamber who have served proudly as members on both sides. I think and hope a similar shift has happened and is happening in the LGBTQ+ communities.

Today we are standing in this House to condemn conversion therapy, as it is totally unacceptable in our society. We believe that children and teens in our province should be respected, no matter if they’re straight, gay, lesbian, trans or identify in any other way. This is not a behaviour that needs to be changed but a fundamental part of who these people are.

For this reason, I consider the issue before us a human rights issue. Individuals have the right to be accepted as they are. They have the right not to face discrimination or hatred for who they are. I’m comforted in thinking that a generation of children will go through school believing that the idea of conversion therapy is as crazy as the idea of someone being beaten for using their left hand just to write their notes.

That is what lasting change looks like — that and the support by all parties in this House on a motion that reaffirms this chamber’s commitment to human rights.

[11:20 a.m.]

J. Rice: When I was 14, I struggled with depression. I was suicidal and unable to focus on anything or concentrate in school. I aimlessly rode buses around the city, avoiding going to classes, and carried a heavy, dark cloud over my head.

I sought guidance for my mood disorder from a counsellor at a youth drop-in centre in downtown Ottawa, where I met a gentle, soft-spoken woman. She was a caring, compassionate youth counsellor. She was really hip, I thought, because she wore Doc Marten shoes. This woman made me feel heard, and I revelled in her attention. I felt I had a connection with her.

It wasn’t long before she asked me if I was gay. I answered “probably,” but I wasn’t sure. She confided in me that she, too, was a lesbian but that she was going to therapy to cure it. She told me that in God’s eyes, it was a sin, and that I, too, could go to therapy to cure my gayness. To my counsellor, I was depressed because of my homosexual tendencies, and she had a treatment for that.

Growing up with a mother who loved unconditionally and didn’t care if I was gay, straight or anything in between, intellectually I felt that this viewpoint was misguided and that gay people were, in fact, okay. I was seriously depressed, but I didn’t feel it had anything to do with my orientation. I didn’t have clarity in my sexuality, but I was comfortable with that. It was not the source of my depression. I had a mood disorder and was seeking help to cope with that, not trying to be straight.

I was surprised by my counsellor’s perspective because I thought she was so with it, and by contrast, her viewpoint seemed so antiquated. Nonetheless, I really liked her. Heck, I may even have had a crush on her, and I wanted to please her. Together we held hands and prayed. Together we tried to pray the gay away.

I continued to see this counsellor, mostly because I really liked her and the attention she gave me. Little did I know, as a vulnerable youth, I was a subject of conversion therapy.

Conversion therapy is a set of practices that intend to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity to fit heterosexual or cisgender standards and expectations, and it’s often religiously motivated. Therapies can include methods such as talk therapy, electroshock therapy, treating LGBTQ2S+ identity as an addiction like a drug or alcohol issue. While certain therapies, like talk therapy, are also legitimate forms of care for people who experience mental health problems, being gay or trans is not a mental health disorder.

I’m happy to report that I escaped conversion therapy. Today I’m happily married to my wife, Andrea, who’s here in the gallery today. I feel so fortunate to know her and to share a life with her, and I couldn’t be happier, even if I was straight. I celebrate my great gay life. Happily, praying the gay away didn’t work, but it also didn’t cause me serious harm because of the foundation of unconditional love from my parents.

Conversion therapy can cause people to feel that they are not okay to simply be who they are at their very core. This can lead to depression and suicidality in vulnerable people. Being anything other than heterosexual and cisgender does not cause these mental crises, but being repeatedly told by people you love and trust that you are fundamentally wrong does.

Suicide is an epidemic with the LGBTQ2S+ community, with rates of suicide four times greater for queer youth. Nearly half of trans people have considered suicide at some point in their lives. Lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, two-spirited people are normal people and need to be treated as such. If you or anyone you know is struggling to accept their place on the rainbow, please reach out to supportive services in your community and know that it truly does get better.

P. Milobar: I stand here to speak to the motion in opposition to the practice of conversion therapy. Being that it’s 2019, it strikes me that it’s unfortunate that we do need to have this conversation still, but it’s critical that we do as a society. It’s one of these topics that I think is very important, and I do want to thank the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast for bringing this forward.

[11:25 a.m.]

It’s something that…. I think, as we’ve heard throughout the morning already, that it’s critical to make sure that we keep shining a light and awareness on issues like this — that youth in our communities do have the right to be able to be proud of who they are and to be able to seek out the type of life that brings them joy and happiness. We should not be putting false practices in their way to try to lessen what they are struggling with and what they are trying to make sure that they can move forward with.

You think of all the advancements we’ve made in society in terms of acceptance, moving forward on a wide range of topics and issues. The fact that we’re still needing to debate or highlight just the plain wrongness of conversion therapy is sad in itself. All of our youth deserve, as I say, the right to be able to seek out the type of life that they would like.

You think of the sports realm. You think of what’s happened. I was reflecting on my time as a coach with my own kids versus the type of coaching that was presented to me when I was their age. We don’t tolerate those types of coaching practices anymore, yet there still seems to be an underlying tolerance to things around conversion therapies in segments of our communities. There shouldn’t be. There should be no doubt about it. There should be no need to continue to try to have to shout down these types of wrong-minded practices that are out there.

It’s unfortunate that there are still people out there preying upon the vulnerable, as the previous speaker mentioned, preying on their vulnerabilities and their confusion in life. The teenage years, the younger years of anybody, are confusing enough for people, let alone when you’re trying to struggle through in a household that may not be as accepting of who you truly are. To have conversion therapy avenues open to parents and guardians is wrong. They should not be able to seek out and find people that are willing to make, essentially, their child’s life that much more difficult and that much more confusing for them.

People peddling the conversion therapies of the world, as the UN has rightly pointed out, should not be doing so. You see all sorts of documentaries on various channels and with the streaming services now of just how wrong these therapies go. The intended outcome, first off, is an impossible one to try to achieve. It’s starting from a very wrong spot, a very wrong mindset that if only there was a bit more praying — if only there was a bit more, essentially, brainwashing — people would change how they were born and how they are wired to be. That’s simply categorically wrong.

There is no place, especially for our youth, to feel that they need to change who they are, that they, unfortunately, do not have a loving home that would enable them to be able to live their happiest adolescent years that they could in a very confusing time for them, in a time that would be a higher level of confusion, angst, worry, potential depression and all those types of issues that would come with already feeling like you don’t quite fit in and you don’t quite belong.

To have that advanced further by your parents or your guardian seeking out people that would stand to try to validate those parental feelings, which are totally wrong and should not be there, simply cannot stand.

I do thank the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast for bringing this forward. It’s an important topic. It’s one that, unfortunately, we need to keep pressing. We need to keep saying: “It is not acceptable. It is not right.” It’s one of those things that cuts across ideological lines.

D. Routley: It gives me pleasure to stand up and support this motion, which would seek to bring light to the conversion therapies that are being enforced or imposed on young people around the world but even here in British Columbia.

[11:30 a.m.]

It was only a few weeks ago that I gave a statement in this House in the words of a young, transgender man named Elijah Boyle and spoke about the importance of understanding and the danger of complacency.

We heard a statement earlier today about the rise of the alt-right movement and all that goes along with that. It all comes from the same bag of rotten potatoes — racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia. It all comes from the same batch. It’s important that we as elected people offer our support to any vulnerable citizens, regardless of why they have become vulnerable. It would be irresponsible for any of us to do any other than that.

Young Eli was devastated when the Prime Minister passed on supporting a ban on conversion therapies. Eli supported the Prime Minister because he believed that he would stand up for transgender people. Not only was he crushed by that act, but I saw the development of a kind of cynicism inside him and his girlfriend — or maybe a confirmation of cynicism that they had been resisting, that nothing could change. That’s really unfortunate for all of us.

I want to speak to people who are living in the closet and who are afraid to come out. They’re afraid because of their personal safety, a shunning that they might experience from the people who they love, a loss of relationships and a loss of respect from people that they respect. I understand it. Many people suffer.

We can all have an effect here with the words that we use. We will have an effect here with the words we use, whether we want to or not. But I think we should want to, and we should direct that effect to supporting vulnerable people everywhere.

This motion affirms that we all care about the wellness of every child and youth in this province, that we will protect them. It states clearly the values of this province, the values of the people on this side of the House, and fortunately and very beneficially, I believe, the values of all members.

The member for Vancouver–West End tried three times to introduce a bill that would protect transgender rights by introducing them into the B.C. human rights code, and three times that failed. Finally, the previous government did act to do that.

It’s very unfortunate that one member did vote against that and did not support it. I understand that a person’s beliefs might prevent them from actively, inside themselves, supporting this, but we have a double duty of responsibility here — elected to protect people and make their lives better. We cannot contribute fuel to a fire that’s burning in our society right now, referred to by the previous statement on the rise of the alt-right movement.

It is important. All the words we use, particularly here, are important. We live in a time when fear and hate are being manipulated by some in political positions of power — fear and hate as we approach climate insecurity and many other challenges as a species. It’s in times of fear that times become fearsome for those who are vulnerable. Words matter.

Eli said, and these are his words: “Quiet complacency with homophobic and transphobic ideologies is far more harmful than those who spout hate from a place of ignorance. Trans people who are not accepted by those around them are 44 percent more likely to attempt suicide, while that percentage drops to 4 percent when they are acknowledged and accepted. Just acknowledging trans people as valid is suicide prevention.”

Those were his words, and I absolutely agree with him. We can’t be complacent. We have a responsibility to act and to act in good faith and a responsibility to call out those who would manipulate this hatred that was growing.

Numbers and words matter. Ask any marketing specialist. Eli knows this. Me, I consider this to be, essentially, a guide to living in the closet. This is how you’ll suppress yourself, and it is terrible.

[11:35 a.m.]

M. Stilwell: Thank you for the opportunity to speak today in support of this motion — the motion that the House affirm its opposition to conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, transgender, queer, two-spirited, intersex or any other minor.

Adolescence is a tumultuous time. Bodies are changing. Hormone levels are fluctuating. It’s causing mixed feelings and immense amounts of stress. Growing up is tough. It’s full of uncertainty, and adding the stress of wondering if your parents will love you for who you are or if your classmates or your teammates or your friends will continue to accept you can be terrifying. Unfortunately, this is a sad reality for many young people.

Youth deserve the freedom to experience these growing pains without being told that the way they are is wrong or that the feelings they’re having are wrong. In a perfect world, youth wouldn’t be told that the way they were born was wrong or a mistake. They wouldn’t feel like they have to hide who they are for fear of rejection from their family or their peers. They would be accepted, and they’d be treated the way we all wish to be.

I believe that everyone should have the right and the opportunity to be themselves without the fear of discrimination. Society can only benefit from a breadth of views and perspectives. We’re all human, and even though there are differences among us, whether it’s through gender or cultural or religious or even political lines, this country is known for being progressive and for respecting and honouring the differences between you and me and everyone else.

Here in British Columbia, we are blessed with a diversity of landscapes, beliefs and cultural backgrounds. Having that privilege — to live in a place that is rich in individualism and that does its best to ensure the basic human rights for all — is a great one.

In Canada, there are laws in place to protect the rights and the freedoms of the individual. We’re entitled to dress however we like, speak the language that we want, eat what we like and practise any religion that we want. In a perfect world, our ideological differences wouldn’t cause conflict or cause members of a majority group to repress a minority group. And although these laws are in place to seek protection of our rights to believe what we want and love who we want, there is so much more that needs to be done.

The prevalence of hate crimes is still rampant. The amount of hate speech flying around on the Internet, in workplaces, in classrooms and locker rooms is still rampant. There’s no legislation or law or means of enforcement that is big enough or powerful enough to completely eradicate discrimination. That has to come from society. And little by little, we can come together over our differences by treating everyone as equal.

We should be united over the things that make each and every one of us unique, not divided. These differences present unique opportunities for us to learn from one another. We all come from different walks of life, which means we all bring something valuable to contribute. There’s no right way or wrong way to live, and it’s certainly not a politician’s job to tell people who to love or what god they should pray to or if they should pray at all.

I speak in this House today not as a member of the Legislative Assembly but as a person who fundamentally believes that individuality should be celebrated and not condemned. I think these differences are what make Canada and British Columbia great. And I think that on both sides of this House, that is something we can all agree on.

S. Chandra Herbert: I’m proud to stand today as a member of a government but, more importantly, as a member of a Legislature that is opposed to conversion therapy. It’s been inspirational to hear the words of members of all political parties united to say that this practice, a practice which harms LGBTQ youth immeasurably and thus harms society, is something that we do not stand for in British Columbia, and it is not accepted or acceptable here.

[11:40 a.m.]

I’m glad that this conversation — and I thank the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast — is now out in the open. For years, a number of us have spoken with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and other places to ensure that the B.C. government was not in any way funding, allowing people to bill to support this practice, allowing public funds and resources to go into supporting this. I’ve been assured by the Ministry of Health, specifically, that there is no way, currently, that somebody could bill to accept money to do a practice like conversion therapy.

Now, that’s different from Ontario. Ontario, I understand, introduced legislation to make it clear to actually ban that billing category from existing in their health legislation. In B.C., there is no such category. So for a number of years, that hasn’t been possible. I’m really happy to hear that.

However, when I say I’m glad this has become visible, I say it because the idea of a therapy to convert you from what you are to something else is really about, at its core, invisibility, about erasing people’s identities, making them disappear, eradicating them from the planet, from their ability to exist.

I’ve spoken with one of the most outspoken people in B.C. about the practice of conversion therapy, Peter Gajdics. I’ve met with him a number of times. He believes, and shares quite strongly, that this harms people for many decades, could change their entire reality. He believes that what happened to him should happen to no one else. I thank him for his campaign to make this clear. Vancouver, of course, thanks to his advocacy, passed a resolution banning conversion therapy in Vancouver.

Of course, I think, united today as a House, we’ll be clear that we, as a government and as an opposition, all together say it shouldn’t be allowed anywhere in B.C.

On Friday, we had the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in B.C. I think people celebrating that day will acknowledge that today we are also taking a step forward. Of course, we’ve changed our human rights code to involve gender identity and expression. That took long, long years of advocacy, but we got it done.

Just as importantly, we are now proactive in our school system, with the sexual orientation and gender identity policies embedded in all classes. Because it’s not enough to say: “Don’t tell people they shouldn’t exist.” I think it’s just as important to say: “You exist, and we love you for your existence. We celebrate your ability to be who you are.”

For a long time, going through the school system, you would be forgiven for thinking that LGBTQ people didn’t even exist. They didn’t appear in any curriculum. There were no stories about them. Certainly, growing up, that was the way it was for me. I think the few times I saw LGBTQ folks, it was in movies about them dying because of AIDS. Certainly, people growing up in my generation saw AIDS and LGBT folks as somehow correlated, because there was such little education or information out there, just phobia and stigma.

I want to thank all of those who have gone before for educating, for advocating, for protesting, for being locked up, for doing what they needed to do to spread education and advocacy so that we could get to today, to be taking the step that, united as a government and as an opposition, we could be opposing this. Because a few years ago you’d never even hear words like “trans” in this House. Indeed, when I joined this Legislature back in 2008, I think the word “transgender” had never actually been said in this chamber before. That was ten years ago, 11 years ago. How is that possible? But indeed, society is progressing at a fast pace, because we’re uniting together.

Thank you to the member for putting this on the floor so that we can all unite and so that ministers and everybody can go back and think of ways they can affirm people’s value, their ability to exist and, indeed, the joy that the great diversity in our province should bring us all. Thank you. I gladly support this motion.

M. Bernier: First, I want to thank the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast for bringing this important topic to the House today. Obviously, it’s one that we’ve heard that members on both sides of the House, all our three parties, support. It’s an important topic. As was mentioned by a few people, it’s unfortunate, actually, that it even had to come to the House to begin with, that we needed to even have this discussion. But it is important to bring awareness on a topic that should not even require a debate or discussion anymore.

[11:45 a.m.]

Before I get too deep into my comments here, I do find it quite upsetting and appalling that the member for Nanaimo–North Cowichan, in a situation where I thought the House was all on the same side, where the House was all supporting in a very good debate, had to try to politicize it with inaccuracies of what happened in this House. I expect the member, at the end of this, to stand up and withdraw his comments because not one person in this House voted against the Human Rights Code Amendment Act. In fact, it passed unanimously in this House, and the member said the opposite. So I expect the member opposite to stand up and withdraw his comment afterwards for not being accurate in that.

More importantly, let’s talk about the issue at hand here, which is an important topic. When we look at conversion therapy, and you look at the history of it…. It is absolutely, incredibly disappointing when you look at what’s happened through society. But what’s really inspiring is how we learn, how we move forward and how we become more accepting. The last thing that we need in society, with our youth, is the pressure, the stigma, the feeling of not fitting in, the feelings of not being allowed to be who you are.

Suicide is the third leading cause of deaths in our youth. Most stats have shown that the majority of these students and youth are LGBTQ or students who are questioning or students who are feeling not accepted because of who they are. Stats were done in 2010. A poll was done. So 59 percent of LGBTQ students were verbally harassed in schools, 25 percent were physically harassed in schools, and 73 percent of our students reported that they actually felt unsafe going to school because of their being open and LGBTQ.

That’s why we actually brought in policies in the past to try to ensure, if nothing else, that schools have supports and teachers have resources. Yes, a policy is just words. But the enactment of the policies in our schools to try to help students to feel accepted, to feel safe, to feel they belong and to have a place to go to, whether it’s for resources or for teachers to be able to be that sometimes front-line support and sometimes the very first person that a student will open up to….

When I was the Minister of Education, I travelled around the province. Some of the stories that I heard were quite scary, quite sad. When I hear young students in high school telling me: “I can’t change who I am. Why are people trying to force me to change? I don’t belong. I don’t fit in….” I even had one student say to me: “I’d rather have cancer, because at least then people would understand that I’m sick, and I can get help, whereas being LGBTQ — this is who I am. Why do they think I’m sick? There is nothing wrong with me.” Conversion therapy was brought in because of that, and I’m so glad that this House is actually standing up, as we are in so many countries around the world, and banning this practice.

It’s time that we actually, as society, start thinking and working on the things that are actually important on making life better for people. You know, life is short as it is. We need, as a society, to make sure that we’re supporting, accepting and allowing people in our society to be who they are so they can enjoy the life that we all expect all of us to have.

M. Elmore: I’m very proud to rise and speak to the motion moved by my colleague from Powell River–Sunshine Coast. “Be it resolved that this House affirm its opposition to the practice of conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, questioning, transgender, queer, two-spirited, intersex…” people.

[11:50 a.m.]

Conversion therapy, also known as sexual reorientation, reparative or gay cure therapy is premised on the assumption that homosexuality or trans identity is a mental disorder and that these individuals should change either their sexual orientation or gender identity to heterosexual or cisgender.

Conversion therapy forces these individuals into a deep pit of shame and constitutes a deep transgression and violation of these youth. It cuts to a deep level of psychiatric…. It creates emotional damage and is also a cause for depression, substance abuse and even suicide.

Conversion therapy is condemned as a dangerous, unnecessary and ineffective practice by every major psychotherapy, medical and mental health organization. As well, the World Health Organization states that these practices lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people. There is a global epidemic that we’re seeing around conversion therapy.

Likewise, we are all part…. Today I am very pleased that we have unanimous support for this motion in the House in our response here in British Columbia. We’re part of the global movement to fight back and end conversion therapy.

We know that there have been long-standing efforts over many years by many individuals who have suffered through conversion therapy, and it’s created a critical mass. Now it’s broken through to the mainstream, with the successful movies Boy Erased or The Miseducation of Cameron Post to raise awareness of conversion therapy and to contribute to the growing trend condemning the practice.

I came out as a lesbian when I was 18 years old. It wasn’t easy. I sat down at the kitchen table with my mother. I was crying. She was crying. There were tears streaming down our faces. I said: “You know, I think that I’m attracted to other women.” My mother was…. She didn’t really understand, but she told me that she loved me and would accept me and support me, whatever I was going through.

When I told my sister, she was really angry at me. I was taken aback. She was angry at me because I hadn’t told her for so many years. She thought that if I had told her earlier…. She didn’t think it was any big deal. So it was a challenge.

I began advocating around raising awareness, around ending homophobia and transphobia. Individuals — we’re complex. People are born on a continuum of biological sex, a continuum of gender identity, a continuum of gender expression and a continuum of sexual orientation. We know that human rights recognizes this — our British Columbia code for human rights — but there is a need to continue to raise awareness, to support youth and to end this practice.

There is a campaign to end conversion therapy. It was launched by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. It’s called #bornperfect. I encourage everybody to tweet and support that.

I’d like to just end with a quote. We must relegate these therapies, conversion therapies, “to the dustbin of history and ensure every child knows they were #bornperfect.”

I’m very pleased to speak in favour of the motion, and I’m so honoured and pleased to be joined by all members of this House in unanimous support for this motion.

M. Elmore moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. J. Darcy moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Deputy Speaker: The House is adjourned till 1:30 this afternoon.

The House adjourned at 11:54 a.m.