In the Chamber - Page 22 of 22

Question: Senate Amendment to Bill C-6 – An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada May 10, 2017 Bill C-6, Citizenship, immigration, Question Period

"Today the Federal Court decided a very important case that weighs in on our work. The case is Hassouna et al v. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. It challenged the government's citizen revocation process... Will the government respect the Senate’s amendment to restore due process in the revocation of citizenship?"

Senators’ Statements: Alan Broadbent, C.M

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada May 10, 2017 Alan Broadbent, charities, Statements

Alan is one of Canada's leading philanthropists. He is chair of the Maytree Foundation, and I had the honour of serving as its president for close to 15 years. I know intimately that his reach and influence in the world of philanthropy is enormous.

Senators’ Statements: Visible Minority Women

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada May 4, 2017 Diversity, Statements, women

As the divide between men and women exists, so does the divide between minority men and minority women. Minority women earn even less than minority men, so there is a double-barrelled glass ceiling: first your gender and then your race.

Third Reading Speech: Bill C-6 – An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada April 6, 2017 Bill C-6, Chamber Speeches, Citizenship, immigration

“Society is not judged by how it treats its strongest, but how it includes its weakest.”

Question to the Minister of Veterans Affairs – Federally Funded Infrastructure Projects and the Hiring of Veterans

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada April 4, 2017 employment, infrastructure, Question Period, Veterans

"In my experience, targets matter. What gets measured gets done. Have you set hiring targets for federally funded infrastructure projects and the hiring of veterans? What are these targets? Can you share them with us? What is your progress to date against these targets?"

Third Reading Speech: Bill C-6 – An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada March 9, 2017 Bill C-6, Chamber Speeches, Citizenship, immigration

Speaking in Support of Senator McCoy’s amendments to citizenship revocation procedure

My tribute to Canada’s great storyteller, Stuart McLean

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada February 16, 2017 literature, Statements, Stuart McLean

“He told his stories with compassion, with humour, with respect and with dignity. He invited Canadians to send him their stories and in his hand these stories were transformed into vignettes of humanity. And so he moved us to tears of joy or sadness, in equal measure and often at the same time.”

Speech: Indigenous Women in Canadian Prisons

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada February 8, 2017 Chamber Speeches, indigenous, prisons, women

“I am no authority on the social roots of Indigenous incarceration. I do not pretend to know the horror that our colleague has witnessed. As deeply as her stories touch me, I am aware that I cannot know what separation from my children feels like. I cannot know the sounds and smells of a single segregation cell. Even fragments of these experiences are impossible to imagine. And yet these are just moments in a horrific journey that for some women lasts years, even decades.”