March 2010
Libby speaking up for affordable housing
Ottawa should revive tax incentives that make it attractive for developers to build more rental housing, NDP MP Libby Davies says. The federal Liberals essentially abandoned any involvement in housing in the mid-1990s, and successive governments have also shown little interest in the file, Davies said Saturday in Kelowna. “There were various programs available that provided incentives for the development of rental housing, but they‘re all long gone,” Davies, who represents the riding of Vancouver East, said after addressing local NDP members.
Libby speaking out against Marc Emery's extradition
VANCOUVER -- Marijuana activist Marc Emery's battle to avoid going to a U.S. prison got a boost this week in the House of Commons. Three MPs -- Libby Davies of the New Democratic Party, Ujjal Dosanjh of the Liberals and Scott Reid of the Conservatives -- presented a petition asking Justice Minister Rob Nicholson not to sign extradition papers that would send Mr. Emery south to serve a five-year sentence for selling marijuana seeds online in 2005.
Nothing solved by eviction - Libby on BC forfeiture laws
On a clear, crisp March morning, Marianne Christine Sullivan sits on a dock at Trout Lake in east Vancouver and talks about being homeless and broke after the B.C. government took her $562,000 home under civil forfeiture legislation....Vancouver East MP Libby Davies says the sad situation Sullivan faces as a homeless person likely means it will cost society far more in the long run than what was taken with the forfeiture. "It is unbelievable this could happen to her," she says. "The fact is, she is now living on the street and suffering from an addiction. What has been solved by making her homeless?
Federal actions for missing and murdered women must be substantive
There was cautious optimism Thursday in response to the federal government's promise of $10 million over two years to address the issue of hundreds of missing and murdered native women in Canada. "It's a start, because five and 10 years ago, the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada never passed the lips of a single cabinet minister, that I'm aware of, over all those years," said Ernie Crey, whose sister Dawn disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in 2000....Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies, whose riding includes the Downtown Eastside where 64 women disappeared from 1978 to 2001, said the solution to this epidemic cannot come solely through "a criminal justice lens."
An Intense Parliamentary Session Ahead
The speech from the throne and the federal budget will be the top two items on Parliament's agenda when it reconvenes Wednesday after a lengthy and controversial prorogation. But the biggest political flashpoints in the coming session are likely to come over two other items that have a common denominator: attempts by the House of Commons to put some restrictions on the traditional powers and privileges of the prime minister. "I think it's going to be a fairly intense session," said NDP House Leader Libby Davies. "It's going to be a difficult working environment."
