Parliamentary Speeches
1,041 speeches by Alexandre Boulerice — Page 18 of 21
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I have a very simple question for him. The Liberals and the Liberal government are very good at accusing the opposition of delaying the proceedings and making Parliament dysfunctional. I would like him to comment on the Liberals' filibustering at the Standing Committee on National Defence to try to protect their defence minister, who no longer dese…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona for her interventions, which are always extremely relevant, heartfelt and full of humanity. To quote Shakespeare's Hamlet, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. I get the impression that something is rotten in the office of the Minister of National Defence. He has abandoned the men and women of the armed forces time and again. He …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my NDP colleague for his excellent question. Again, let us put ourselves in the shoes of people who are suffering and who were victims of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault, people who are now watching the Liberals and the defence minister attempt to cover it all up. Those people must feel frustrated and abandoned. Unfortunately, the Liberals have abandoned the men an…
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Mr. Speaker, in the middle of the pandemic, what brilliant idea did the Liberals come up with? They cut the Canada recovery benefit by $800 a month beginning in July. That means it will drop from $500 a week to $300 a week. Are the Liberals really that heartless? Entire sectors, such as arts, culture and tourism, are still struggling. Will the Liberals finally come to their senses and reverse the …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. Unfortunately, I think we have had the answers for a long time, and that is the problem. I think the solutions are there. During the five years of Operation Honour, which was supposed to change the culture within the Canadian Armed Forces, 581 sexual assaults and 220 incidents of sexual harassment were reported in the military. The Deschamps re…
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Madam Speaker, I am always really pleased to disappoint a Liberal. It makes my day. Honestly, I have seen better attacks. We could talk about many Conservatives, including Jason Kenney, who are responsible for a whole bunch of bad decisions. I would just like to tell the parliamentary secretary that he often accuses the opposition of slowing down the work, filibustering and making Parliament dysfu…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. All of this business with the Minister of National Defence seems like one big cover-up operation. Unfortunately, we are not talking about a military operation on the ground. We are talking about an operation to save the minister's skin and his ministerial position. I think the member said it well. The trust has been broken, and the victims of thi…
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Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, I believe you will find the unanimous consent of the House for the following motion: That the House: (a) support the unanimous consent motion adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec on June 9, 2021, recognizing primarily that, (i) the Charter of the French Language explicitly recognizes the right of First Nations and Inuit to maintain and develop their languages and…
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Madam Speaker, in my opinion, it is very cynical on the part of the Liberal government to use an opposition day of one of the opposition parties that wishes to discuss the French fact to table a bill aimed at modernizing the Official Languages Act at the last minute. In my opinion, they are making political hay. The idea is to get on the right side of the debate. It is even more cynical, since the…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. He provided a very interesting historical perspective. We also agree on the three points raised in this motion about the Constitution and recognizing the Quebec nation and French as its official language. However, we have a concern about recognizing French as the common language, and I wonder if he shares that concern. In his view, would this not…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, which was overwhelmingly in English. I understand that he wants to defend the rights of the historical English-speaking minority in Quebec and is therefore doing his job. However, given that French has been the official and common language of Quebec since 1974 under Robert Bourassa's Liberal government, what is he afraid of?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the leader of the Bloc Québécois for his speech and his motion. We are talking about a motion to recognize that Quebec has the jurisdiction to amend its section of the Constitution to state that Quebeckers form a nation, which is recognized by the House of Commons and by the NDP in its platform, and that French is the only official language of Quebec. As my col…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I want to share her enthusiasm and love for the French language, especially with the children of newcomers. I find it very touching. Would this motion recognizing that French has been the official language since 1974 and the common language not hinder the National Assembly from recognizing indigenous languages, the languages spoken by those who l…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her question. I would also like to thank her for inviting me to meet with representatives of a few Franco-Albertan associations. The meetings were very interesting and enlightening. I am on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Right now, we are conducting a study on post-secondary education at certain universities, including Campus Sai…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for La Prairie for his speech. In today's motion, I think that there is consensus, not unanimity, on the three parts. We have minor concerns about the recognition of indigenous languages by the Government of Quebec. We would not want that to undermine or contradict that recognition. My colleague is also his party's House leader, and I would like to hear what he th…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his intervention. On the defence and protection of French in general, I would like to ask him this. Why introduce a bill on modernizing the Official Languages Act today, when there are six days left in the session? Does that mean there will not be an election this fall?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, June is pride month for the LGBTQ+ community. Yesterday was World Blood Donor Day. However, in Canada, we do not have any reason to celebrate. World Blood Donor Day reminds us that the Liberals disappointed people by breaking their promise to put an end to the ban that prevents gay men from donating blood. That is even more shameful given that it is pride month. This discriminatory me…
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Mr. Speaker, watch out, the Minister of Official Languages just woke up. She just announced the introduction of an official languages bill, but it is June 15 and Parliament closes in six days. She knows her bill has no chance of being passed, but she is still going ahead. That is called playing politics with the francophones of the country. It is Liberal cynicism at its finest. It is not serious i…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Chicoutimi—Le Fjord. We are talking about the use of French and about defending the French fact here, in federal institutions, so I would like to hear the member's thoughts on something that the NDP has been calling for for several years. The Conservative Party's position is not clear. Would the Conservative Party make it mandatory for justices of the Supre…
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Madam Speaker, I will share my time with my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby. I am pleased to take part in the debate on this extremely interesting motion as the work of the House draws to a close. The motion before us is quite interesting because it articulates certain facts that are well established, some of them for quite some time. This motion is therefore both political and symbolic, bu…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her question. We both worked in the union movement. Using French at work was always very important to the organization I worked for. There were francization committees in institutions and companies. The union also had francization programs and plans. It is extremely important to protect and maintain the French language in the workplace. Where t…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her very relevant comment and question. Web giants do not pay tax in Canada, despite the Liberals' promises. We are told they will as of January, but we shall see. For the time being, they do not pay. Furthermore, they do not contribute to the production of content for television or film, nor to the music industry, which is very important. Having new players a…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a bit of a softball question. I see exactly where my colleague is going with this. It is a fair question. The minister mismanaged the bill and explained it poorly. He did not take the time to make the bill watertight. Once the genie of doubt is out of the bottle, it is very difficult to put it back in. This is why the NDP agreed to pause the committee to bring in the heritage …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Yes, it is a shame to see these political games, but the reality here is that we have to win our seats and our ridings through elections. Unfortunately, there can be a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. Historically, the Conservatives have never been big supporters of the cultural industry or our artists. The cuts made by Stephen Harper…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comment and question. I feel some of his frustration. The government handled the whole thing very poorly. I completely agree with his assertion that we should have spent the past year debating this bill. It is so important that the Liberals should have put it on the agenda much sooner, which would have enabled us to be much more efficient and systematic in…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his comment and question. The Conservatives will have to speak for themselves. People have raised legitimate questions. As I said earlier, when the issue is freedom of expression, taking our time, doing the work, checking, listening, talking to experts and getting opinions from the right people is the right thing to do. However, I have to say th…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. We agree that it is time to roll up our sleeves to preserve our culture and take care of our artists and artisans. We all agree on that. I would like my colleague's assessment of the Liberal government's management of this bill, which is so important. Initially, this bill was botched. We are now at the end of a parliamentary session and the governm…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for his remarks. Obviously, we have often discussed the fact that we need to support the cultural sector, that the Broadcasting Act is outdated and archaic and that digital platforms need to be included. We agree on the principle that web giants should be co-operating to help protect our artists. However, this afternoon, we are talking about this t…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to a bill that is important to me. It is not so much the bill itself, but what it will do and the sector it will affect. This bill could really change things in the future. Before speaking about the principles and general thrust of Bill C‑10, and as we are officially discussing at this time a supermotion to expedite the business and the…
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Madam Speaker, I have a very simple question for the Minister of Finance. Many people in the cultural sector, including those who work in theatre, music, live shows and festivals, are very worried that this budget means the end of direct assistance for workers. That may be all right for the majority of people, but workers and businesses in the cultural sector will need targeted assistance. Why is …
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Mr. Speaker, Jatinder Singh is an Indian truck driver who lives in Park Extension. He is an essential worker who provided a valuable service during the pandemic. He is being deported on June 15, five days from now. Because of his political activities, he fears for his safety if he is sent back to India, not to mention the fact that the COVID-19 outbreak raging in India right now would put his heal…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent question. Indeed, we cannot understand why the Liberals are creating two classes of seniors in this country. People aged 65 and over used to be able to count on certain rights and services. They had access to certain programs, like OAS. Now the Liberal government says that people aged 75 and older will receive a 10% increase, and tough luck for p…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Saint-Jean for her question, and I completely agree with her. There are aspects of Canadian tax law that the government could change, namely a regulation or two, without even having to introduce a bill. This would eliminate all kinds of excessive tax avoidance and even tax evasion. However, the government is not doing that because its hands are tied by the peopl…
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Mr. Speaker, we do need to be careful. We do not want to wind up with inflation that prompts extremely excessive interest rates for our economy. However, we also need to put things in perspective. Every country in the world has increased its debt during the pandemic. We are not alone in that. The same thing happened in Europe, Japan and the United States. In this context, our debt-to-GDP ratio is …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my Conservative colleague for his moving and heartfelt speech. It will be hard for me to follow that, and I will not be able to convey such a deep respect for human dignity in light of the horrific events that occurred all over the country and throughout its history. I thank my colleague for his speech and I will do my best to speak to Bill C-30, the budget implementation bill…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Joliette for his speech. His passion for securities is remarkable. That was very interesting. I would like to raise a more long-term issue. Although there are some good things in this budget, there is a lot missing. I will get into that later during my speech. I think this budget is short-sighted. We are emerging from a pandemic, but I do not see any long-ter…
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the WE Charity scandal, we now know what to do with the Liberals. We need to hold their hand and tell them, no, it is not okay to think only of the interests of their filthy rich cronies, and no, it is not okay to give WE Charity privileged access to the finance minister's office. They really are like little kids and have to be told everything. If they are not told wh…
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Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, I think you will find the unanimous consent of the House for the following motion: That the House recognize that the police brutality we are witnessing in Colombia constitutes a flagrant violation of the rights and freedoms of the Colombian people and firmly condemn the actions of the police forces and the Colombian government, which is preventing its people from prote…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to table a petition signed by hundreds of citizens who are very concerned about the offshoring of some of Air Canada's activities. Whereas: Air Canada receives hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance from the government; Air Canada helps create jobs, but outside the country using Canadian taxpayer dollars; and 20,000 employees were laid off by Air Canada in 2020, …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. I was pleased to see that the Conservatives are interested in the housing issue, because it is a veritable crisis across the country, including in my riding in Montreal. However, there is something missing in their motion. There are two words that do not appear anywhere: “affordable” and “social”. Affordable housing and, in particul…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. We noted that there was no funding in the last Liberal budget for the urban aboriginal strategy. My colleague lives in an urban area and represents the people there. Some 40% of indigenous people live in urban centres and, although they represent only 5% of Canada's population, they account for 30% of emergency shelter users. Can my…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Joliette, who always has something interesting to say. There is a shortage of social housing, yet social housing is the best tool for putting a decent roof over people's heads and reducing poverty. Does my colleague not also think that social housing can benefit people who want to buy a home, because it helps cool the overheated housing market?
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the fantastic member for Vancouver East. Like the member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, I was shocked to see that the Conservative motion is about housing. It is rare that we hear them talk about this subject. So much the better if their motion talks about housing because it is a real subject, a real issue and a real problem. Does the motion present real so…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, which deals with a major concern. I would like him to come visit my riding of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie one day. He would see that the idea of a socially mixed environment and diversity is extremely important in the projects that we put forward, when we are able to get funding. The Liberal government has been dragging its feet for three years. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her extremely pertinent question. There is a whole history behind the cuts to funding for social and affordable housing that were carried out by both a Liberal and a Conservative government. The Liberals abolished the program in 1993. As I just mentioned, investments are barely half of what they should be, half of what is required. Additionally, Quebec is only…
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Mr. Speaker, we need a diverse supply of housing in Canada. I agree with my Conservative colleague that there is a shortage of rental housing in all sectors. I obviously emphasized social housing because the NDP believes it is the best way to lift people out of poverty, but there is also a shortage of rental housing in the private sector. My colleague is quite right. However, I want to stress that…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have never been great advocates of combatting tax evasion. They have always preferred protecting the interests of their super-wealthy friends who take advantage of the system. The latest budget proposes a corporate beneficial ownership registry for Canadian companies, but that is not enough. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been pushing the government and reminding it…
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Mr. Speaker, 215 is the number of voices forever silenced. That number, 215, now represents the innocence lost to savage, racist acts. Sadly, these 215 victims are just the start. We are only beginning to understand the magnitude of the gaping wounds caused by genocidal acts in Canada. The Prime Minister can no longer talk his way out of this. If he truly understands the suffering of indigenous pe…
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is too bad that it has come to this. It all started with a botched bill, a job half done. It seems as though the Liberal government wants to continue to do things halfway when there are 34 important amendments left to consider. The Minister of Canadian Heritage spoke about the importance of making web giants contribute. We agree with the principle of that. In fact, we voted…
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Madam Speaker, Air Canada executives are making out like bandits, bandits who are receiving $6 billion in public funds, bandits who are taking advantage of the wage subsidy for workers, bandits who have shamelessly laid off thousands of employees, bandits who are adding insult to injury by giving themselves obscene bonuses. Why does the minister not speak out against Air Canada? How can she sugges…
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