Parliamentary Speeches
683 speeches by Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe — Page 10 of 14
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, my colleague just reiterated that the government sent people to Qatar to talk about human rights. Come on. The minister's briefing note proves that the Department of Foreign Affairs tasked him with promoting the sale of armoured vehicles. It was even in the key messages of his briefing note. Armoured vehicles are tanks. I have a news flash for everyone: Qatar is not going to use tanks…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to pick up on the point raised by my colleague from Outremont. I thought her question was very interesting, but we did not get an answer. We are talking about responsible government, yet we have heard the leader of the Conservative Party say that he would cut $1 billion from CBC/Radio-Canada's $1.2-billion budget. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about that…
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With regard to the Government of Canada’s discussions with the United States of America on the Safe Third Country Agreement, since January 1, 2022: (a) how many meetings, virtual, in-person or by phone, have there been where Roxham Road was discussed; (b) for each meeting in (a), which public office holders participated in those discussions, including their full name and title; (c) what briefing d…
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With regard to the request from the promoters of Democratic Spaces and Cuba Decide to impose targeted sanctions on 12 Cuban officials and entities responsible for gross violations of human rights in the aftermath of the protests of July 11, 2021: (a) has Global Affairs Canada (GAC) reviewed this request; (b) what information does GAC have on the human rights situation in Cuba, and how is GAC curre…
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Madam Speaker, it is precisely because we are in contact with people who have been on the ground there for many years that we need to pass such legislation. Every day and every week, we meet people who tell us what they need, and we speak on their behalf. That is more or less what my colleague wanted to say as well. We need to go and get the information from those who are really experiencing the s…
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Mr. Speaker, after six years of repeatedly asking for Roxham Road to be closed, after repeating hundreds of times that asylum seekers should not be greeted by RCMP officers, after saying over and over again that the influx far exceeds Quebec's capacity, we see that Roxham Road is finally closed. That is good news. It should have been done a long time ago. Now, as we know, before we celebrate, we n…
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Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I was here for the President's speech. We understand that the Liberals are proud of their accomplishment and that they are happy. We are happy, too. However, there are still many unanswered questions, and many people are wondering, starting, I imagine, with Mr. Pierre Guay, who owns land near Roxham Road and is a generous Liberal Party donor. Mr. Guay signed leases estimated a…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech. If the government was as quick to introduce this bill as my colleague was in reading his speech, Bill C‑41 would have been passed a long time ago. I want to congratulate him because I have never heard someone say so many words so quickly. There are a lot of things in this bill. Members know that I care a lot about this bill. With the su…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member for Bruce—Grey—Owen on his French. I have a great deal of appreciation for him. I know that he has a direct connection to Afghanistan, because he served over there. We thank him for his service. I thank him for the opportunity to say how frustrating this is and has been. He and I are part of a group of parliamentarians that also includes our friend from Edm…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent question. I think this bill was supposed to strike a balance, which is no easy task when it comes to any discussion on terrorist financing. I understand how difficult it can be for legislators to draft a document that strikes this balance, and I think it has been achieved to some extent. Where we do see problems now has more to do with how this…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I are in the same position and we feel the same way. This is a bill that we need to pass, but it is truly imperfect and is not acceptable to the very organizations that asked us to create this bill. We need to find solutions. Earlier in my speech I talked about that a bit. I do not know whether my colleague had the opportunity to hear it. I think that the members fr…
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Madam Speaker, I have been waiting for this day for more than a year. We are finally debating a bill that should have been introduced a long time ago. Last year, I had the honour of sitting on the Special Committee on Afghanistan with my colleagues from different parties, some of whom are with me today. I was one of the vice-chairs. It was at the meeting on February 7, 2022, already more than a ye…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I was going to ask a question about my Conservative colleague's speech, but there was a question a moment ago from a Liberal member about my Conservative colleague's speech. I must admit that, as a good Quebecker, I was “flabbergasté”. I know Kenny Chiu. I worked with him. He is a respectable, upstanding man who deserves respect. In the last question from the Liberals about my frien…
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Mr. Speaker, at last, there was light. At last, after six years of inaction on Roxham Road, the federal government sent the Minister of Immigration to the United States to renegotiate the safe third country agreement. I have a very simple question for him, but it is a question to which nobody has ever received an answer. What does renegotiating the safe third country agreement mean? What concrete …
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What a surprise, Mr. Speaker. We are not asking the minister what the results were in Washington. We already know. There were none at all. We saw it from the first second that he showed up alone to the scrum yesterday without an American representative by his side. That must have been embarrassing. Obviously, we will not talk about results, but can we at least know, as a famous politician said, wh…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister made a rather unexpected comment as the House was rising for a two-week recess. He said that we all want Roxham Road to close. That was news to us. For years we have been asking the government to close Roxham Road, explaining that Quebec has exceeded its capacity, that it is not safe and that it is creating an illegal human smuggling industry. Now he tells us that h…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister also said that simplistic solutions will not be how it is done. We agree on that. Speaking of simplistic solutions, there are just 17 days left before the Conservative leader's ultimatum expires, but we will come back to that. We have a simple solution, not a simplistic one. It involves suspending the safe third country agreement. That way, there will no longer be a…
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Mr. Speaker, for six years now the federal government has repeatedly said that it is negotiating with the Americans on Roxham Road, but no one has heard anything about it. Who is negotiating on behalf of Canada and with whom? What are the objectives of the negotiation? How often are discussions held? When did the negotiations begin? What is the target date for seeing some results? Who does the neg…
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Mr. Speaker, it is nice to hear the Bloc Québécois's work on the refugee file being recognized, for once. This government just admitted how hard we are working and how much we care about the future of migrants and of Quebec. I thank my colleague. Now, that does not change the facts. We still do not have an answer about the negotiations. People advocating for asylum seekers have the right to know. …
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Mr. Speaker, not only is that our view as well but we hold the same positions as migrants who are calling for the suspension of the safe third country agreement. That is the crux of the impasse at Roxham Road. Migrants are being exploited. Children are crossing alone in winter. People are being detained indefinitely. The United States is on one side of the border. They know that it is dangerous, b…
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Mr. Speaker, authorities are concerned about an 846% increase in irregular border crossings. Border services are worried, saying, “it is extremely dangerous, particularly in inclement weather, which our Swanton Sector has in incredible abundance”. It is not the federal government saying so, it is the Americans. The Americans are worried because it is dangerous to cross the border through the woods…
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Mr. Speaker, I really appreciated my hon. colleague's speech. I agree with him. The Liberals are putting more money into the oil and gas industry than the Conservatives did before them. I believe that is unheard of in Canadian history. The oil industry has never had so many subsidies. Unfortunately, I have a question and I am not sure my colleague will be happy that I am asking it. At this moment …
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Mr. Speaker, the government is making up scandals when it comes to Roxham Road, but the real scandal is that Roxham Road has become a network for the exploitation of asylum seekers, in cahoots with the American authorities. The real scandal is that U.S. customs officers have become smugglers, right under the government's nose. The real scandal is that Ottawa knows about this and accepts it. The sa…
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Mr. Speaker, let us hear what the people who advocate on behalf of asylum seekers have to say. Frantz André of the Non-Status Action Committee said that the government must begin by suspending the safe third country agreement if it wants to demonstrate that Canada is not the 51st state of the United States when it comes to accepting refugees. He is right. The United States is part of the problem a…
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Mr. Speaker, right now at Roxham Road, there are smugglers who are peddling illusions to migrants to exploit them. There are unaccompanied children in the woods in the middle of winter, and there are people being detained indefinitely. That is what is happening at Roxham Road. That is what the federal government is condoning. Refugee rights groups themselves are calling for the suspension of the s…
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Mr. Speaker, are you tired of the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple? Pollution, crime and city noise getting you down? You need the all-inclusive Roxham tour. Hop on a free bus to Plattsburgh, where a taxi will take you to fabulous Roxham Road. Once you are on the other side, take advantage of free housing, welfare, health care and education for your kids. The all-inclusive Roxham tour is just wa…
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Mr. Speaker, let us be serious, then. It is our moral duty to take in asylum seekers. It is a matter of human decency. If the life of a man or a woman is in danger in their country of origin, we need to answer their call for help. However, the situation at Roxham Road verges on the absurd. Now the Americans are using this irregular point of entry to wash their hands of their own responsibilities a…
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the immigration minister, I do not see talking about migrants as a problem. While New York is sending buses of people to Roxham Road, there are tragedies unfolding as well. La Presse reported this morning that dozens of children are crossing at Roxham Road alone. These are children as young as 10 years old who are unaccompanied. This is no joke. The government has known this fo…
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Madam Speaker, I understand you were speaking with someone else, but there are members of the Conservative Party talking to my colleague while he is making his speech.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, as we speak, rescue workers are still searching for survivors of yesterday's powerful earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The death toll is now over 7,000 and climbing. We are witnessing a race against time. It is a chilling story, a true catastrophe. The earthquake comes on top of a very serious humanitarian situation. Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since 2011, and the Bloc Québéc…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, that is proof that we should vote for this motion. It would allow us to get to the bottom of some of the questions that we have. Is it a contract or is it an arrangement? That is a good reason to vote for this motion. The parliamentary secretary to the government House leader just illustrated the relevance of such a motion and investigation. Getting back to his question, if I tell my …
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Mr. Speaker, the colour of the clothing would not bother me, because I am colour-blind. I have heard it said that I have trouble dressing sometimes. Once again, I completely agree with my colleague. The government's refusal to debate is starting to get really worrisome. The last time it refused to debate, it called an unnecessary election and look at the result. That is how the Liberals debate. If…
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Mr. Speaker, it was not me who said that. It was one of our colleagues. I could not agree more. I think it is disrespectful toward public servants, who want to work to the best of their abilities. By hiring external firms, the government is essentially sending public servants the message that they are incapable of doing their jobs. It is very disrespectful. The Liberals may have used certain firms…
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Mr. Speaker, just listen to what we learned from the CBC. I could not make this up. Imagine. New York is paying for bus tickets to send asylum seekers to Roxham Road. It is the U.S. National Guard itself that is giving out the tickets. The Americans must be laughing it up when they hear Canada saying that it is negotiating to modernize the safe third country agreement. They must laugh even harder …
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Mr. Speaker, did I miss a cabinet shuffle? The Americans do not want to fix Roxham Road. They are sending people by bus. They are using Roxham Road to shirk their own responsibilities towards asylum seekers. Now schools in Quebec are bearing the brunt of those responsibilities. Quebec community organizations are stretched to the limit. Quebec does not have the resources to deal with asylum seekers…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for his speech, which was just as spirited as ever. I really like the motion before us. I think that we need to shed some light on the relationship the government has maintained with McKinsey since 2011. I think that the Conservatives did a good job on this motion because it also covers the period when they were in po…
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Mr. Speaker, I was not planning to start my speech like this, but the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons leaves me no choice. I listened to his speech. He spent most of his time saying that we should not be debating the Conservative motion, that this was not the right place. He even said that this could have been done on an opposition day. I would like …
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Mr. Speaker, it will certainly have a major impact on the Canadian economy but especially on the well-being of families. My colleague mentioned that she wished she had had access to this type of service. Life would have been much easier if the governments of the other Canadian provinces had followed Quebec's lead 25 years ago. Quebeckers were very lucky compared to people in the rest of Canada, be…
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Mr. Speaker, if I understood the question correctly, my colleague wants to know what can be done at the federal level to improve services that fall under provincial jurisdiction. My answer is simple. What happens at the provincial level has to be dealt with in the legislatures of the other provinces and the National Assembly of Quebec, when it comes to Quebec. The federal government has no busines…
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Happy new year, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to see you again. I am glad the rest of Canada is following Quebec's example. Quebec's approach to child care and early learning was groundbreaking. It took the government 25 years to take action and understand that this is a progressive legislative measure. Nevertheless, I am very happy, especially since Quebec's jurisdiction will be respected. In my collea…
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Mr. Speaker, in 2022, Quebec celebrated the 25th anniversary of its family policy. On January 23, 1997, former premier Pauline Marois, then education minister for the Parti Québécois government, unveiled the Quebec family policy. This family policy was developed as a result of major changes in Quebec's population, including an increase in the number of single-parent and blended families, a greater…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure I understand the question. One thing is certain. Quebec did not sign the Constitution. Even though I am a sovereignist, I am going to defend the Canadian Constitution. That is not something that happens very often. The Canadian Constitution is clear about jurisdictions. Unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois always has to be the one to make sure that the Liberals understand t…
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With regard to the awarding of contracts by the government to the private firm McKinsey: (a) how many contracts were awarded by the government to the private firm McKinsey; and (b) what is the value and nature of each of these contracts?
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With regard to the impact of the immigration levels established by the federal government on the French presence in Canada: (a) what studies have been commissioned or conducted by the government to determine what impact the immigration levels will have on the vitality of French in Canada; (b) what studies or proposals for studies have been commissioned or conducted by the government on francophone…
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With regard to the new immigration targets revealed by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in the 2022 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration: (a) how many pieces of correspondence did the government exchange with the Government of Quebec to establish the immigration levels; and (b) what were the contents of these pieces of correspondence?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Roxham Road is breaking records. By the end of the year, 40,000 asylum seekers will have likely used that route. That is why Quebec's immigration minister, Christine Fréchette, is asking the federal government for funding so that Quebec can give asylum seekers money to help them learn French. It is a good idea, one that is both humane and productive, and it would be one way of support…
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Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister says he wants Quebec to welcome 112,000 newcomers every year, what he really means is 112,000 plus the 40,000 from Roxham Road. He expects Quebec to welcome a total of 152,000 people every year, but is he also providing more money for French language instruction? We just got our answer, and it is no. Is he increasing health transfers in response to demographic …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, December 9 is the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. More importantly, it is an opportunity to resolve once again, as parliamentarians, to do everything we can to stop this heinous crime. December 9 is also a day to remember the Uighur genocide. Just yesterday, I reminded the House that nearly t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I find that fascinating. Indeed, I am going to ask my Conservative friends the same question today and I think that not one will answer. How is it that, in 2022, and probably in years to come, the oil companies, banks and major food chains are making record profits and that the Conservative Party, which professes to stand up for the middle-class and workers, is blaming the carbon tax …
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Madam Speaker, what is unfortunate is that, because of the government's inaction on climate change, the Conservatives have come here today with a populist motion saying that the carbon tax does not do anything to fight climate change since Canada is ranked 58 out of 63 and is among the worst countries when it comes to climate change performance. It is a good thing there is a carbon tax. Without it…
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