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After winning a House of Commons lottery last November held among MPs to determine who would be first in line to present a private member's bill during Canada's 40th Parliament, Papineau Liberal MP Justin Trudeau tabled his resolution, motion M-299, on Oct. 25 in Ottawa. After opening the first hour of debate with a 15-minute speech — which was Trudeau's first before Parliament — there was a five-minute question period.
Has some support
Although Liberal MPs have suggested that they will support Trudeau's bill, its chances of passing are actually considered slim, since private members' bills rarely reach the final legislative stage to become enacted. However, there is apparently also support from members of the other parties. The bill concerns volunteerism — specifically by young adults and the younger generation. It calls for the creation of a policy leading to a national volunteer service, following hearings that would examine such services that have come into being in other countries.
The text of the resolution reads, "That the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Staus of Persons with Disabilities be instructed to consider the introduction in Canada of a national voluntary service policy for young people by analyzing existing programs and using the work done by the Voluntary Sector Initiative in 2003 as its point of departure; by holding public hearings; and by presenting a report to the House no later than October 2009 that would contain among other things a review of similar policies in the rest of the world and a summary of the evidence heard."
Other volunteer initiatives
The program is reminiscent of volunteer initiatives started in several countries during the heyday of liberalism in the early 1960s, such as the Peace Corps in the United States, which was created by President John F. Kennedy. In the early 1990s, President Bill Clinton created AmeriCorps, another U.S. federal government program that operates in conjunction with NGOs and faith-based organizations. The current administration of newly-elected U.S. president Barack Obama has also shown signs of renewed interest in volunteerism among young people.
In a recent interview with NPEN, Trudeau said, "What I've decided to do is to bring forward a bill that will look at establishing a national youth service program, which means that any young persons across the country within a certain age range who say they want to serve their country at the community level they will be given the opportunity to do this.
"We have young people who need to volunteer, we have organizations that need volunteers, and the government has a role in making sure that young people are given opportunities to build their community, to build the country, to get involved, to learn how they can contribute," he added. "And at the same time community organizations here and right across the country will get volunteers who will be able to work and build and help people."
Attacked by separatists
Justin Trudeau has become a lightning rod for criticism from Quebec separatists because of his strongly federalist views, which are very close to those of his late father, former Liberal prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Even an attempt like this to create an apparently apolitical volunteer organization drew the wrath of the sovereignist Bloc Québécois, which saw it as an attempt to undermine Quebec, because the service would function on a nationwide basis.
"The motion presented by Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, aimed at implementing a national volunteer service policy for youth, is an infringement upon Quebec's competencies," is how Bloc MP for Repentigny and youth issues spokesman Nicolas Dufour reacted. "As a true son of his father, Justin Trudeau is proposing a motion which opens the door wide to incursions, by bringing in measures that do not respect Quebec's uniqueness and which step on our rights as a society."
'Federalist propaganda'
Dufour maintains that Trudeau's "badly conceived" proposals would create redundancy with programs that already exist in the province, "representing a waste of money and a perpetual source of conflict," he said. "Not only is this motion full of intrusions into the area of Quebec's competencies, but it also presents, behind the façade of a self-improvement program, an elevated risk of federalist propaganda."