Parliamentary Speeches
708 speeches by Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe — Page 13 of 15
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, once again, yesterday, the Prime Minister refused to give Quebec the immigration powers it is asking for. He justified it by saying that it was “because protecting French and francophone immigration is very important”. Of course it is important. That is exactly why Quebec wants to be responsible for all its immigration. Quebec's future as a nation, where French is the common and offic…
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Mr. Speaker, the Société nationale des Québécoises et Québécois du Saguenay—Lac-Saint‑Jean hosted its Soirée reconnaissance des patriotes, or patriots recognition gala, this month. Three young people from my region earned the well-deserved honour of being named the next generation of patriots for 2022 for their community involvement. I want to first congratulate Jeanne Bouchard, from Université du…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Outremont for her speech. As people know, I think debate in the House is very important. We have different arguments, but at least we are able to debate them. That reminds me that, when my colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia was delivering her speech, my colleague from Winnipeg North did not listen for one second. To add insult to injury, he th…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the senators and members who have gotten involved, directly or indirectly, in tackling the issue of human trafficking, slavery and forced labour in Canada and Quebec and elsewhere in the world. I sincerely thank Senator Miville‑Dechêne, in particular, for her commitment. I do not think my colleagues will hear me thanking senators in the House very often. I am, howeve…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I would like to highlight the great work he does every day on defending international human rights. I sincerely congratulate him. I have worked on files with him, and I am pleased that he spoke on this matter today. Does he believe that Bill S-211 solves everything? He will probably answer that it does not. Does he believe that Canada must p…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: Whereas there is a significant amount of evidence and testimony indicating that the government of the People's Republic of China is committing large-scale, systematic atrocities against the Uighur people and Turkic minorities of East Turkestan—
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Mr. Speaker, enough is enough with Roxham Road. The Premier of Quebec wants the Prime Minister to close this loophole now. If things keep up, 36,000 irregular migrants will enter Quebec via Roxham Road this year. Quebeckers are the ones who have to foot that bill. We already take in 92% of the irregular migrants arriving in Canada. Quebec simply does not have the capacity to provide services and h…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister can unilaterally suspend that agreement. He does not need anyone's permission. He needs to do his job. He has another job to do, as well. He needs to pick up the tab. Asylum seekers are a federal responsibility. Right now, Quebec is being forced to invest $50 million in apartment buildings for irregular migrants. It is costing Quebeckers $72 million in last-resort a…
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Madam Speaker, as I often do, I will start by making the topic accessible to those watching. In Lac‑Saint‑Jean, I have a youth council, and we have a small Messenger group. We sometimes send each other stuff. Whenever I have a speech to make, I ask them if they have anything to say, and they really like that. I asked these young people in my riding, who are of different faiths, by the way, to read…
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Madam Speaker, I am going to make something clear: They will not have me believe that an opposition day is important to them. The proof is that, in January 2020, the Bloc Québécois moved a motion to increase EI sickness benefits for serious illnesses from 16 weeks to 50 weeks. There was a vote on this motion. The motion was adopted. Only the Liberals voted against it. Because there was a minority …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, last week, my colleagues were nodding off because we were discussing Bill C-8 so late at night, so this week, I want to keep things a little lighter. There is no need for my colleagues to worry. I will not upset them too much this evening. In fact, I am even going to be optimistic. Motion No. 44, which was moved by my hon. colleague from Surrey Centre, is very timely. The good weath…
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke about traditions. If no one ever updated anything, we would be stuck in the past. The speaker used to wear a bicorn with a wig, and that was changed because society changed. You will not see anyone walking down the street today wearing a bicorn, except maybe if it is Halloween. Logically, we need to be as inclusive as possible, and my colleague spoke about that. Rig…
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Madam Speaker, what is next? What is next? In light of what I have heard, what is next is an independent Quebec.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there is an immigration crisis, but when Quebec asks for more control to address the issue itself, the Prime Minister says that Canada will continue to be in charge because Quebec is not a country. It is as simple as that. Imagine hearing that when you are one of the 29,000 immigrants living in Quebec whose application is stuck in Ottawa's broken machinery. They will not help because …
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec does not run Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, but maybe it should. If Quebec had full control over immigration, immigrants chosen by Quebec itself would have their permanent residence served up on a silver platter. Right now, it takes an average of two and a half years for the federal government to process applications; some have been waiting for 13 years. The fede…
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Mr. Speaker, at the federal level, there is a backlog of 29,000 permanent residence applications from Quebec immigrants. Some people have been waiting since 2009. Yesterday, the Liberals blamed Quebec, saying that if Quebec really wants to improve wait times, it only has to increase its immigration cap. Those 29,000 applications came from immigrants who have already been selected by Quebec, who ar…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party says the Bloc wants to pick a fight. The parliamentary secretary just said that the immigration crisis is Quebec's fault. They are the ones picking a fight. The federal government is currently in court over cases that have dragged on since 2009. That has nothing to do with François Legault's targets; his party did not even exist in 2009. It is not Philippe Couillard'…
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Mr. Speaker, in March we were lamenting the fact that immigrants in Quebec had to wait 28 months for the federal government to process their permanent residency applications. Now, just a few weeks later, that delay has jumped to 31 months. The feds are 31 months and 29,000 files behind, some of which have been languishing since 2009. There is an immigration crisis. The minister cannot just say tha…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I do not know if she is listening, but I must commend the member for Saint-Jean for the thorough job she has done. She gave a remarkable speech during the previous reading of this bill, which has greatly inspired my speech today. She was again inspiring today when she asked her question to the House and especially when she moved the motion about a woman's right to have free reign over…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Joliette has been working on this issue for years and making suggestions to the government about tax havens. It is appalling that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer in a G7 country. The wealth gap is getting wider and wider. The kind of situation we are in today is bound to happen when Bay Street has so much power and influence within the g…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech, which was indeed very passionate. It is obvious that he cares deeply about that issue. I do not think that this is the first time he has talked about this problem in the House. Was my colleague surprised that the government asked him questions about what should be done? The government has been in power for six years, but it clearly has not d…
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Madam Speaker, I would first like to congratulate my colleague on how much his French has improved. It is obvious that he is working on it, and it is coming along. I support everyone in Lac-Saint-Jean. With what we have seen of Bill C-8, unfortunately, I cannot imagine how we could vote in favour of it.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am not an economist, but I am pretty sure that we will not fix the inflation problem by extolling the virtues of cryptocurrency. There is one thing I do know, which is that seniors are always the first to suffer as a result of inflation. Their purchasing power has not increased, although groceries, gas, prescription drugs and housing costs have all gone up. Everything has gone up.…
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Madam Speaker, given what time it is, I will try to keep it interesting because I can see that many of my colleagues are nodding off. That is rather ironic, considering that one of the topics covered in Bill C-8 deals with giving people a place to lay their head. It is no secret that I like to remind myself regularly who I work for. The answer will not surprise anyone. I work for the people in my …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to seek the unanimous consent of the House to share my time with the valiant member for Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères.
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Madam Speaker, I listened closely to my hon. colleague. One thing that was left out of the economic update, Bill C‑8, is obviously the health transfer increase that Quebec, the provinces and the territories have been calling for unanimously. Everyone wants health transfers to be increased to 35%. I think that the Conservatives agree with us that the health transfers need to be increased. The only …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, they cannot even name the problem, so it will be really difficult to solve it. There is a backlog of 29,000 files, and there are court cases that have been dragging on for 13 years. These are people. They are not files; they are people. That is what the Prime Minister is forgetting in his quarrel with Quebec. The federal government has proven, year after year, that it is either incapa…
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Mr. Speaker, last Friday the Prime Minister refused to grant any immigration powers to the Premier of Quebec. It would be less insulting if the federal government were the least bit competent, but everything it touches is a disaster. The wait time is now 31 months for Quebeckers applying for permanent residence. There is a backlog of 29,000 case files. The government is being sued by people who ha…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, April 24 marked the 107th anniversary of the genocide of the Armenian people. Let us come together to honour the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians whose lives were cut short beginning in April 1915, and everyone else who experienced exile, starvation and grief. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, the party that initiated efforts to have the House of Commons recognize the genocide, I wa…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for the member for Nunavut. I think she understands the concerns of Inuit communities better than anyone in the House. I also think she is best suited to stand up for these communities here in this House and to explain what is happening in the north. Would she have preferred that the agreement between the NDP and the Liberals focus on a concrete plan to …
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Mr. Speaker, I have a very simple question for my hon. colleague. Also, I would like to thank him for his speech. We all know that the Liberals are great at talking the talk, but not so great at walking the walk. Just think the war in Ukraine. It has been 63 days, and they have yet to charter a single plane, even though they had no trouble getting one for the Aga Khan trip. Look at what they are d…
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Mr. Speaker, Manon Tombi is a young mother seeking permanent residence who has been abandoned by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Even as she was grieving the sudden death of her partner, she learned that, because he was the primary applicant on their file, their application was cancelled. Because her partner died, she had to go back to square one of a protracted process that had alre…
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Mr. Speaker, I also have some coupons for two-for-one subway sandwiches, if that helps. Seriously, the minister is taking us for fools. As of two weeks ago, we had already received 140,000 applications from Ukrainian refugees. It is going to take more than Aeroplan points to get them out of there. It is going to take chartered flights in an operation befitting a G7 country that is home to the seco…
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Mr. Speaker, after two months, the government has a fantastic solution to help Ukrainian refugees: Aeroplan points. The government is not talking about an airlift or about about chartering flights to go and get people. No, instead, we can donate our Aeroplan points. This means that a mother with three kids will pay $3,700 instead of $4,000 for flights, because some guy named Dave from Regina decid…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, on March 24, what started out as a terrible fire turned into something truly tragic for all of Lac‑Saint‑Jean. I wish to commend the exemplary bravery of Dominic Jean, a father from Normandin who tragically died in the line of duty. Mr. Jean was a courageous and passionate man who did not hesitate to fill in for a sick colleague that night. While fighting a blaze at a dairy farm in Sa…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. NATO is asking its members to allocate 2% of their GDP to military spending. That is the subject of today's motion. However, another international organization, the UN, has also proposed that wealthy countries such as Canada allocate the equivalent of 0.7% of their GDP to the international development of impoverished countries. Under the Liberals…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to the speech by my colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound. This member has first-hand experience in this area, compared to most of us. We have not experienced what he has, so when he speaks to an issue like this one, we should listen to what he has to say. One thing that stood out to me in his speech was how he talked about the need to invest in the members of th…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Calgary Nose Hill for her speech. She told us a lot about how cryptocurrencies create such great opportunities. Peter Callaghan, commander of the Toronto Police Service's financial crimes unit, said, “Cryptocurrency in general is a problem for us, and we realized early on that it was a money laundering tool that could facilitate criminal transactions s…
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Mr. Speaker, flights must be chartered to bring Ukrainian refugees to Canada. According to Michael Shwec, president of the Quebec council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the organization thinks that would be a good thing. Imagine a mother who winds up in Poland with her two children. She has to book and pay for plane tickets herself, so that is a barrier. If the government can help, that is on…
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Mr. Speaker, let us come back to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which was asked yesterday what more the Canadian government could do to help. The answer was this: Relax the visa application process and help with travel. Send planes to bring these good people to Canada. Right now, they have to foot the bill and find their own way to Canada. These people found a way to flee the war. The minister m…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a partial answer to an administrative problem. It is not an answer to the human problem. There are families who need to get out. They have fled the war, but not everyone can afford three or four plane tickets. Hearing that their file has been processed is not what will soothe mothers who left home a month ago with traumatized children. What will bring relief is the day they ca…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the government announced measures to expedite the processing of Ukrainian refugees. That responds in part to the Bloc Québécois's demands, but there is an elephant in the room. The most important element is missing, and that would be the planes. Even though the announcements addressed the 60,000 applications in one fell swoop, the refugees will be quickly disappointed when …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for his excellent speech. He will surely remember that the minister said that it would take 12 weeks before IRCC could lift the visa requirement and adapt its computer system. What does that say about that department and what does the member make of it?
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Mr. Speaker, the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel is a failure that is slowing the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Quebec and Canada. The government needs to arrange to airlift them out and deal with the paperwork once they are safely here. The government can enlist border services officers to help with that. They are trained in immigration and can help collect the biometric data…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not good enough for us, and it is not good enough for Ukrainians. This is day 34 of the war, and we cannot spend any more time getting bogged down in the paperwork. Border services officers can deal with that once Ukrainian families are here. They are already trained, they are in place, and they are already working in airports. They even have prior experience because they hand…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are the only ones saying that this is going well. At some point, a reality check is needed. The government is failing. It does not currently have the resources in eastern Europe to look after refugees from Ukraine. However, it does have the resources here, with border services officers supporting the immigration department. There are probably even some employees working f…
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Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said before the European Parliament that we cannot abandon Ukraine. However, today, Radio‑Canada confirmed that his government is abandoning Ukrainians. He is plunging them into endless administrative chaos, which is preventing them from seeking refuge in Quebec and Canada. Despite our collaboration, despite our proposals and our efforts, the federal g…
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Mr. Speaker, how can it be that, after 33 days of war, there is just one centre in Poland, yes, one, where refugees can give their biometrics? How can it be that, after 33 days, all refugees can do is refresh a website that keeps crashing in the hopes of snagging an almost-impossible-to-get appointment at the only available centre? Does this government think that the war is waged only on Mondays t…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not reassuring in the least. Three weeks ago, the Bloc Québécois asked the government to do better. The situation has evolved since then. The minister's plan to welcome Ukrainian refugees is, by all accounts, a failure. It has gotten to the point that people fleeing the war in Ukraine have to make their way to Slovakia or even Portugal to get services from Canada. These people…
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Mr. Speaker, as we speak, more than half the children in Ukraine have fled the war. In all, 4.3 million children have left their homes. They are either elsewhere in Ukraine, hoping the Russian troops will not catch up with them, or they are in refugee camps. Today we do not want to hear about how Canada has welcomed 10,000 Ukrainians since January. We want the government to tell us what it is doin…
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