Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Gerald Giam has been in Halifax, Canada, recently for the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, held this year from August 20 to 26, along with PAP MPs Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten SMC), Rachel Ong (West Coast GRC) , and Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC).
In a Facebook post on Friday (Aug 26), Mr Giam thanked Ms Nicole Seah, the WP’s Youth Wing President, for helping cover his Meet-the-People Session duties while he’s been away, along with the Bedok Reservoir-Punggol volunteers.
The conference brings together more than 500 parliamentarians and others from across the Commonwealth for the purpose of address critical issues facing Parliaments today.
Mr Giam posted a number of photos from the event, including several where he is with Malaysian politicians Ms Ras Adiba Radzi and Mr Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin and Indian parliamentarian Biswajit Daimary.
“Among the workshops I attended was a Youth Roundtable on Cyberbullying, where I learned from other MPs how their Parliaments are dealing with this scourge, which particularly impacts young people.
I had many excellent exchanges of ideas with MPs from dozens of Parliaments around the Commonwealth, including Malaysia, India, South Africa, UK and Australia, and learned some really useful pointers from how they organise their constituency work, their parliaments and their political parties,” wrote Mr Giam.
He added that he, the PAP MPs and Parliament manager Mr Joey Chua, were hosted for dinner by the Honorary Consul-General of Singapore, Mr Chua Chia-yi, and that the party was also taken on a tour of the port of Halifax by senior executives from PSA Halifax.
“Halifax has one of the largest natural harbours in the world. With an outer harbour two kilometers in width and eight kilometers in length, Halifax also has one of the deepest harbours,” wrote Ms Ong in an Aug 27 Facebook post. She also put up photos of the visit.
On her part, Ms Yeo, who attended a workshop on a sustainable Parliament at the conference, said that she “spoke up on how sustainability goals cover sustainable jobs and dignified livelihoods. I shared about how the Singapore Parliament debated extensively on creating frameworks for Women Returning to Work, and strengthening the ecosystem for Caregiving, which in turn, creates both careers for women and allow women to retain their careers.”
/TISG