Claudia on Non-Disclosure Agreements Act - Bill No. 144

THE SPEAKER « » : The honourable member for Dartmouth South.

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I'd like to move second reading of Bill No. 144. It's Groundhog Day in here today. This is a piece of legislation and a policy direction that we, in the NDP, have been fighting for for years in this Legislature and that we will continue to fight for because we believe that it is so important.

Most of what we have to say has been said but I'm not sure anyone is listening so we're going to say it again. The legislation that we have brought forward today is based on model legislation. It has been in force in P.E.I., it is in force in some version in 17 states, it was passed federally in Ireland, and we think it's a bill whose time has come here in Nova Scotia.

In almost every case, when this bill has passed through a legislature, it is as a result of public outcry when abuse is discovered. We've had that public outcry here, but we have not passed the bill. A Canada-wide petition to restrict NDAs has surpassed 15,000 signatures. I'll table that. The Nova Scotia Federation of Labour and its member unions, which represent 70,000 workers across the province, recently voted in favour of actively pushing this government to pass legislation to restrict the use of NDAs.

The Canadian Bar Association passed a resolution, with 94 per cent of lawyers supporting, to push for NDAs to be banned in cases of abuse, harassment, and discrimination. Once again, we're seeing widespread public support for this bill, and once again we are seeing a government saying no. Both Acadia University and the University of King's College have signed pledges to stop using non-disclosure agreements in their universities and in decisions.

Julie Macfarlane, the co-founder of Can't Buy My Silence, has recently said: "If they don't want to pass it, explain to us, why not?" This is the question that we are here to ask today. This is why we brought this forward for debate – why not? The answer of, Some people told us it's not good, is not a good enough reason. The government has repeatedly defended doing nothing with little evidence to support this approach. The government has continuously left us with more questions than answers. This government has delayed acting to stop the trauma that is being inflicted upon mostly women. Now it seems that this government is altogether denying women, gender-diverse people, and all victims the solution that would stop this trauma from occurring.

The longer this discussion drags on, the clearer it becomes that this government is unwilling to do what is needed. This is their playbook, filled with quiet decisions and backroom deals and what they perceive as the path of least resistance. We have seen the things that come out of this playbook - the bad development deals and the waste of government money, with little oversight.

We've done our best to hold this government accountable for things. We've done our best to advocate on behalf of Nova Scotians who deserve better and our work on NDAs and their misuse in this province is no different. NDAs supress information. When they are misused, the suppression of information is a common tactic. This is also a tactic that has been used by this government. Just because this government prefers to supress information doesn't mean that we stop asking questions about it.

The misuse of NDAs should not be a political issue. The government should not be applying this playbook to this matter. Today and yesterday, as we talk about inaction on legislating the misuse of non-disclosure agreements, we can see the outer limit of how bad that is.

Again, I want to remind people that our bill regulates the misuse of non-disclosure agreements. That's because non-disclosure agreements were developed for trade secrets - trade secrets like those in the government's wine policy, perhaps. They are now routinely used to cover up incidents of sometimes-criminal wrongdoing, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and abuse. They are used all the time. By definition, every day that the government chooses not to legislate - chooses to be behind the times, chooses to go slower and not faster, to be a follower and not a leader - the more people are being abused, the more people are being doubly traumatized and unable to speak about it. For that, this government should be ashamed.

Speaker, I'm tired of no answers. I'm tired of, Some people disagree. I'm tired of telling victims that this government doesn't support them. That is why we are asking this government to finally address this issue and pass this bill.