Senator V. Peter Harder

Honourable senators, I rise today to bring attention to a matter that has particular relevance as our country navigates the new and challenging economic environment in which we are living. November is Financial Literacy Month, and it carries a special significance this year given the strain so many of our fellow Canadians are currently facing and might be facing over the coming months. It behooves us all to prepare for what many experts predict will be an unsettling period, already marked by inf…

I rise today in support Bill S-7, An Act to amend the Customs Act and the Preclearance Act, 2016. I do so, however, with reluctance given the substantial amendment regarding threshold of search made to the bill at committee stage and endorsed in this chamber at report stage. In my view, this amendment will create an unnecessary risk for the importation of obscene and dangerous material to our nation, the victimization and revictimization of children depicted in such material and an added burde…

Welcome, minister. I’ll follow up on a question asked by my colleague Senator Loffreda with respect to global food shortages as a result of events in Ukraine. It’s not just wheat, but also canola, barley, sunflower oil and a vast array of grains that are in turbulence in the global market. As you well know, food prices have shot up. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization suggests that we’re at the highest levels of food costs since the index was created, and it is rising by over 10% a mont…

My question, Minister Bibeau, is a bit of a follow-up to Senator Boisvenu’s question. I seem to be following up everyone else’s questions. It is with respect to canola and the export market in China. First of all, congratulations to you and the officials who have worked for so many years now on this issue. My concern is that as the market in China now opens, we take advantage of the enhanced value that production facilities that have been added since the market closed, and that we export an…

Honourable senators, “Governments make mistakes.” Those were the words I spoke in this chamber on May 1, 2019, to commemorate the then one-hundredth anniversary of one such mistake, when the following order-in-council was passed by the Government of Canada. It read, in part: Whereas the minister of immigration and colonization reports that owing to conditions prevailing as the result of the war, a widespread feeling exists throughout the Dominion, and more particularly in western Canada, that s…

Honourable senators, for almost three months, Canadians have watched in shock and horror Russia’s unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine. As we are all aware, on February 24, 2022, without provocation, Russian forces initiated a comprehensive invasion of Ukraine. This egregious step was a blatant violation of international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the rules-based international order. Those attacks have caused widespread devastation of Ukrainian infrastructure and property and unnec…

Honourable senators, before I begin my remarks on the Senate inquiry into the federal budget, I want to start by underlining what the inquiry is and what it isn’t. It is not a vote on whether or not to approve the budget unveiled by the Minister of Finance, nor is it an effort to amend the budget or to move a motion to condemn or improve it. Senator Gold, I want to assure you that my views on the budget bill and the Senate’s approach to the budget bill have not changed. However, this is an oppor…

Honourable senators, it gives me great pleasure to welcome representatives from Queen’s University to our chamber today. Queen’s is a leading university, with more than 27,000 students from across Canada and 126 countries around the world. I am pleased to count myself, along with Senators Moodie, Lankin and Black, among its global network of over 150,000 alumni. As one of Canada’s leading research institutions, Queen’s produces highly skilled graduates across a range of professions and discipl…

Honourable senators, it wasn’t that long ago when taking a drive down Highway 7 west of here, just past Perth, would lead you to a little rest stop where you could feed Coca-Cola and ice cream to a pair of black bears confined in a roadside cage. The stop was one of many such enclosures during the 1970s meant to lure you off the road to grab a bite, either on the way to Ottawa for a vacation or heading home in the opposite direction. Snapshots of smiling young kids standing in front of the cages…