Senator Tony Dean

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-86. Specifically, I’d like to speak to the proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code found in Division 15 of Bill C-86, which intends to modernize labour standards in federally regulated private sector workplaces. First, a brief overview of federal labour standards: These standards establish minimum working conditions in the federally regulated private sector. These conditions include, among other things, hours of work, mini…

Honourable senators, I rise to speak today on this bill because, for health reasons, I may not be available to do so in the days that follow, if indeed debate does continue into the days that follow. I offer some personal and professional reflections on this legislation. I want to speak briefly about the right to free collective bargaining and the options that are available in terms of alternative dispute resolution when occasionally that right to free collective bargaining and…

Honourable senators, I rise to add my voice to support for Senator Miville-Dechêne’s motion this afternoon, which seeks to reaffirm the importance of both official languages as a foundation of our federation. It’s also important, I think, to take a moment to recognize the many languages inherited from those peoples who were here a long time before all of us. I’m speaking today not only as a senator who understands his obligation to advocate for and protect minority and linguist…

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. I will begin by thanking Senator Mitchell for his hard work in sponsoring this important bill. Let’s start with the government’s objectives. What do they tell us about this bill? They say it is legislation designed to deliver better rules for the assess…

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-59, An Act respecting national security matters, and its proposed objectives with respect to Canada’s national security organizations. I start by commending Senator Gold for his hard work in sponsoring the bill. I will briefly speak to the overall objectives of the bill but want to focus my remarks on how it would tackle the siloed nature of our security organizations and their review processes, and thus improve oversight for…

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill S-251, An Act to amend the Criminal Code dealing with the independence of the judiciary and to make related amendments. I know that I join with other colleagues here in saying that I support the bill. It has been somewhat of a voyage of discovery for me in learning about the issue of mandatory minimum penalties. Senator Pate, I thank you for bringing our attention to the complexities of this issue and for the wealth of informat…

*Please note that I have acknowledged in recent correspondence I did make an error in my statement when talking about methods of suicide. Firearms rank third among the major causes of suicide, following asphyxiation and poisonings. If car exhaust fumes and drug related deaths are considered separately from poisonings, firearms related suicides involving firearms would be ranked second. According to Statistics Canada, 77 per cent of all gun deaths were suicide, 2 per cent higher…

I am the final speaker this evening, as I understand it. I won’t be taking my 45 minutes. I want to start by offering a few thanks. The first is to my independent senator colleagues, who, over the last seven months, joined me in a journey of learning about cannabis and its problems and the challenges across the country. It has been an interesting journey. As late as yesterday, one or two of my colleagues were still landing on where they wanted to vote, which is evidence of keep…

Honourable senators, I rise today as sponsor of Bill C-45 on right of final reply. I obviously want to comment on what I think has been helpful second reading debate on the bill. I thank all senators on every side of this place for speaking to this bill, which aims to take a public health and safety approach to cannabis through legalization, public education and regulation. And given some of the discussion earlier this afternoon, I make these remarks in the spirit of compromise…