Manitoba’s lone Liberal MLA and the Tory health critic have urged the NDP government not to kill their private member’s bills, which are aimed at protecting people, before the legislative session concludes next month.
On Thursday, Cindy Lamoureux and PC MLA Kathleen Cook shared a podium and asked the government not to let their proposed legislation die on the order paper.
Lamoureux’s Bill 209 would amend the Provincial Court Act to require provincial court judges to be educated about intimate partner violence and coercive control in intimate partner and family relationships. It would also require judicial justice of the peace candidates to participate in continuing education on sexual assault law, intimate partner violence, coercive control in relationships and social context, including systemic racism and discrimination.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux’s Bill 209 would amend the Provincial Court Act to require provincial court judges to be educated about intimate partner violence and coercive control in intimate partner and family relationships.
Known as “Keira’s Law,” the measures became law at the federal level and in Ontario last year.
It’s named for four-year-old Keira Kagan, who was found dead next to her father’s body at the base of a cliff in a Milton, Ont. in 2020. Her father had been granted access to Keira even though 53 court orders had been issued against him for violent and unpredictable behaviour.
On the final weekend of Keira’s life, the court forced her mother to hand her daughter over to her father for his weekend visit despite his increasingly violent behaviour and knowing that his custody rights would be curtailed the following week.
Lamoureux’s Bill 209 passed second reading and sailed through the committee stage without any amendments. She asked the house Thursday for it to receive third and final reading by the Nov. 7 deadline, but was denied.
“There’s no reason, outside of playing political games, why they would allow this legislation to move this far along… if they weren’t planning to support it,” said Lamoureux who is expecting her first child Nov. 3.
“I’m appealing to this government, I’m appealing to Manitobans, to put pressure on this government to do what is right: protect survivors, provide resources for judges and judicial JPs and stand up for all these advocacy groups that have been fighting so hard here in Manitoba,” Lamoureux said.
“We need this NDP government to do what is right — call Bill 209 to third reading and a vote before Nov. 7 so that the survivors of intimate partner violence here in Manitoba have more resources,” she said.
A spokesperson for government house leader Nahanni Fontaine said she is reviewing correspondence Lamoureux submitted on Wednesday, but declined to comment further. “Our government does not conduct house business through leave on the floor of the legislature.”
PC health critic Cook was also rebuffed in the house Thursday when she asked that her private member’s bill, Bill 221 – The Earlier Screening for Breast Cancer Act, be called to committee no later than Oct. 30.
During debate on the bill last week, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced the province would lower the breast cancer screening age to 40 by the end of 2026, echoing the timeline in Cook’s proposed legislation.
On Thursday, Cook told reporters that sending her bill to committee would allow public input on reducing the age for self-referral for breast cancer screening and require the minister to report annually on the number of screening mammograms performed.
“The only thing that’s in the bill the minister hasn’t already committed to is the transparency and accountability of reporting annually on the number of screening mammograms done,” Cook said.
“I can only conclude that the minister doesn’t want to be transparent and accountable with Manitobans on that front,” she said. “Otherwise, there’s no reason not to pass this bill.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.