Parliamentary Speeches
683 speeches by Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe — Page 5 of 14
Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I have a lot of respect for my colleague from the Conservative Party. We have worked together on a number of files. I simply want my colleagues to ask themselves one question. We are having an emergency debate this evening. Maybe there are people in Lebanon who are waiting to see what solution we come up with to try to get them out of the region. They fear for their children, their …
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Mr. Speaker, I will try to be as eloquent and relevant as my colleague from Saint-Jean. She gave a bit of a preview of what the Bloc Québécois will be talking about this evening. We really want to set aside all partisanship in tonight's debate. This is an emergency debate on how we can have an impact on peace in Lebanon and on the populations affected there. I commend my colleague on her speech. I…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, with whom I have the pleasure of working on a number of international human rights files. I know how sincere and committed she is when it comes to human rights. To answer her question, I hope that the government realizes just how urgent and alarming the situation is. I hope the government has listened to the speeches of all my colleagues in the House today. The q…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think anyone wants us to engage in partisan rhetoric tonight. This is an emergency debate on how we can have an impact on peace in Lebanon, but I think the main issue is how we can repatriate Canadian citizens who are in Lebanon. Many of them are Quebeckers, since Quebec is home to a large Lebanese community. I think that is what we should be talking about today. What matters…
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Mr. Speaker, this is a question that I find a bit troubling because, in the same question, my colleague says that there is a group that is tired of being instrumentalized and wants to confront Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which I support wholeheartedly. These are people who have the courage to say things and who do not want to be instrumentalized. Now, this evening, we are engaged in an emergency deba…
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Madam Speaker, I am asking my colleague the question because I do not have any answers from the government. I asked these same questions and I did not necessarily get a response. This is what I would like to ask my colleague, because I know that she is someone who makes constructive proposals. I would like to know if she has any solutions to propose to help these people who need help right now. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her question in French. I think that the current federal Liberal government has failed in recent international crises. We are having a debate tonight, and there is a chance for them to do the right thing. They should seize this opportunity, listen to the proposals from the opposition parties and get to work.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I remember my first day in the House five years ago. I was impressed by my colleague from Winnipeg North's passion and spirit and by the decibel level he was able to reach in his speeches. Again today, he does not disappoint. From him, I have learned that it is possible to answer a specific question without turning away from it. That is what I like about my colleague. In the report …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, today my party's leader asked the Prime Minister to tell us how important Bill C‑282, on supply management, is to him. The Prime Minister told him that he promised farmers he would never undermine supply management in international agreements again. I would like my colleague to tell me the difference between the Prime Minister's promise and Bill C‑282.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, together, Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba represent 5% of the Canadian population. If they do their part, Quebec will still only be relieved of 5% of the burden of welcoming asylum seekers. Neither Quebeckers nor asylum seekers will notice a difference in the availability of services. Every province must be involved. Quebeckers should not have to look after all of Canada's asyl…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about the four Conservative provinces that refuse to help Quebec. These Conservatives, who have never done their part, refuse to take in a single extra person; meanwhile, Quebec is welcoming half of Canada's asylum seekers. Has anyone ever heard the federal Conservatives ask their buddies to help Quebeckers? We certainly have not. Does the minister think that the federa…
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Mr. Speaker, all that for this. For a year now, Quebec has been demanding a fair distribution of asylum seekers among the provinces. Today, the Minister of Immigration announced that this was not going to happen and that his task force is disbanding. There will be no distribution, except with the two voluntary provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba. I want to thank both these provinces …
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Mr. Speaker, he himself blamed his own government after a week. It is a good thing that the minister is admitting that he waited too long. However, he has not even come close to making up for the mistake he admits making, because asylum seekers still have not been relocated. A record number of asylum seekers have applied for welfare because they are waiting months for their federal work permit. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member is mixing up some private conversations. The minister also said that it is always easy to look back and say, “We should have done this, that or the other thing”. The easy thing to do would have been to listen back then. The Quebec government warned him. The Bloc Québécois warned him. Economists at the big banks warned him. Even his own officials had warned his gover…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Immigration admitted on Saturday that his government had waited, and I quote, “a little too long to slow down” immigration. Quebec has been sounding the alarm for years. The Bloc Québécois has been warning him about this for years. We gave him facts and he responded with insults. Does he realize that we would not be in this mess today if he had listened to Quebec's war…
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Mr. Speaker, in the spring, the Liberals promised a plan to spread out asylum seekers among the provinces. It is now the fall, and there is no plan, but that is not stopping Conservatives from concocting ways to sabotage the non-plan before it even sees the light of day. Quebeckers are trapped in the middle, and their public services are overwhelmed. Some asylum seekers in Quebec are unable to get…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal-sponsored surge in temporary immigration is creating serious problems when it comes to delivering public services. Look at what is happening right now with asylum seekers. Four provinces are refusing to help Quebec by shouldering their fair share of the responsibility. I am talking about the Conservative premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the provinces that are refusing to help Quebeckers in welcoming asylum seekers: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta. What do these provinces have in common? They have Conservative premiers. Those Conservatives are telling Quebeckers to deal with it themselves, to take care of the asylum seekers for them, while they continue to mock them. To be clear, th…
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Mr. Speaker, the asylum seeker issue is going nowhere. The Liberals promised that Quebec would finally stop being the only one making a superhuman effort to welcome asylum seekers with dignity. They promised a fair resettlement strategy by this fall. Fall is here, but there is still no plan. Quebec is still taking on an utterly disproportionate share of responsibility for welcoming asylum seekers,…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Calgary Shepard. We get along very well, he and I. We are able to work together. I think we are both able to set aside partisanship and work on improving bills sent to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, on which we sit. I agree with some of the points my colleague made in his remarks, particularly when he said that the situ…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the policy on pathways to permanent residency for Hong Kong residents (hereinafter the policy), which falls under humanitarian and compassionate considerations: (a) how many applicants under the policy were approved in 2023, broken down by month; (b) how many applicants under the policy have been approved since the beginning of 2024, broken down by month; (c) what is the policy’s sp…
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With regard to the approval rate for French-speaking international students: how many study permit applications, other than extension applications, did Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada process in (i) 2023, (ii) 2024 to date, in total and broken down by country of residence?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, Bill C‑71 is a good start for correcting a flagrant and absurd injustice. It is a good start and it can also give us a guideline we can follow should there ever be a complete reform of citizenship status, in terms of what it means, what it represents and what being a citizen of a country entails. It is indeed a good idea that we should all be working on. Bill C‑71 is a step in the r…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the notwithstanding clause is back on the table. As I was saying, there is a strange atmosphere in Parliament at the moment. I just gave a speech, but I am not sure whether my colleague was listening. When he asked his first question, however, he seemed to have understood my remarks to the House. Earlier on, I said that when it comes to a bill like Bill C‑71, there should not be any…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that rarely happens. I get the impression that my colleague took my speech and summed it up as a question. He is repeating the question back to me as if it was a short, one-page summary of my speech. That is exactly what I said. The Bloc Québécois supports the principle of Bill C-71, just as it supported the principle of Bill S-245. We are working hand in hand with the NDP and the L…
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Madam Speaker, yes, I tend to agree with what the member opposite just suggested.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, some might find it strange for a Bloc Québécois member to speak on a Canadian citizenship bill, but it will be easier for these “lost Canadians” interested in reclaiming their Canadian citizenship to acquire their Quebec citizenship once Quebec becomes a country. I am therefore pleased to speak on this question. A few months ago, I stood in the House to speak to Bill S‑245, which so…
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Madam Speaker, I will discuss it with my team, as they say. I would be happy to study such an amendment, but in order to propose such an amendment, we must vote in favour of the principle of the bill and send it to committee. I therefore humbly suggest that my Conservative friends vote along with everyone else in favour of the principle of the bill so that it can be sent to committee. Then we will…
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Mr. Speaker, I am anxious for Quebec to become a country so that we do not have to listen to the bickering of these three federalist parties. It will happen one day; I guarantee it. I listened to my colleague's speech. Something we have agreed on since the beginning is that it is offensive to have wanted to change the date of the election, especially for a completely unreal reason, namely that tha…
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Mr. Speaker, the real question being asked today is this: What was the government's reason for pushing back the election date from October 20, 2025, to October 27, 2025? The reason it gave had nothing to do with municipal elections. It was about the Indian community's festival of lights. In my colleague's opinion, how could anyone draw a connection between a religious celebration and the date of a…
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Mr. Speaker, let me reassure my colleague that the Bloc Québécois will be voting against this budget. One of the reasons we will be voting against this budget has to do with the government's commitments toward the oil and gas industry. The budget commits up to $83 billion by 2035 to an industry that is raking in record-breaking profits while contributing to global warming. I would simply like to k…
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Mr. Speaker, there are people talking. If people want to talk, they should do so in the lobbies.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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: That the House recognize that: (a) China is carrying out a policy of systemic cultural assimilation against Tibetans; (b) Tibetans, as a people and a nation, can claim the right to self-determination; (c) as such, they are empowered to freely choos…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona so much. We work together on several files involving international injustices and human rights. We work together amazingly well. Now, however, we may have a disagreement over Bill C‑40. As we have mentioned throughout this debate this evening, we were very disappointed with the way the NDP members voted on a Bloc Québécois amendment…
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Madam Speaker, as usual, I was impressed by my colleague's speech. That is to be expected, since he is a Bloc Québécois MP, after all. I want to make one thing clear. We hear the same argument every time: If a unilingual francophone were to apply for the job, would we not want them to have the job because the incumbent should be proficient in both official languages? They make the same argument ev…
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Mr. Speaker, I did not speak right away because I was waiting for the light to go on. Likewise, it would be nice to see a light to go on in the brains of some members of the House, especially those making comparisons between squirrels and the CBC. Let us get back to the matter at hand. We know that the Canada Border Services Agency, the CBSA, has serious governance problems. The ArriveCAN file exp…
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Mr. Speaker, “Quebec is no longer able to welcome asylum seekers with dignity”. This quote from a support centre for immigrant communities appears on the front page of a newspaper. The director talks about families with children living in cars and families crammed into bachelor apartments. The director says that “these people deserve some measure of dignity, and right now, especially with the hous…
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Mr. Speaker, here is another quote from the director of the Centre d'appui aux communautés immigrantes de Montréal, who said, “Maybe we need a more balanced distribution of asylum seekers among all Canadian provinces.” She is right. It is deeply unfair that she and community organizations in Quebec end up shouldering this burden. It is unfair that people like her are forced to say no to families w…
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Madam Speaker, I think we will disagree. Our parties are unlikely to vote the same way. However, I found one thing rather fascinating when the bill was being studied in committee. Do members realize that the commissioners who will sit on the new miscarriage of justice review commission will not be required to be able to speak and understand both French and English? Why is that? It is because, when…
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Mr. Speaker, there are meetings, but no action. While the minister does nothing, community organizations on the ground are unable to find housing for families. They are forced to put people on wait lists for food hampers. How does one begin to explain a wait list to a hungry child? The premiers are meeting on Monday. Quebec is calling for an even distribution of asylum seekers and the reimbursemen…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is finally going to meet with François Legault on Monday to talk about immigration. It is about time, after leaving Quebec to deal with a record influx of newcomers. Monday should be the deadline for the federal government to stop offloading its responsibility. Quebec is calling for a temporary reduction in immigration and for French requirements in federal programs…
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I am speechless, Mr. Speaker. If the federal government thinks that $1 billion is a lot, then all it had to do was take care of asylum seekers sooner, rather than sit back and watch the bill get bigger and bigger. The government could have also kept the bill lower by doing its job, especially when it comes to work permits. According to Quebec, asylum seekers represent nearly 20% of social assistan…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a cost related to asylum seekers. There is also a responsibility. We have to house them, care for them, educate them and provide them with French classes. We have to allow them to work, something that Ottawa is incapable of doing. Asylum seekers currently represent 20% of social assistance recipients in Quebec. The Prime Minister says, “come to Canada, oh downtrodden of the e…
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Mr. Speaker, these are troubled times. There are troubling situations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Mexico and just about everywhere on the planet. Add to that global warming, institutionalized violence and war, and these are troubled times indeed. It is easy to understand why people from around the world are seeking refuge. That means we find ourselves with record numbers of asylum seekers,…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals themselves do not respect Bill 101. Quebec's French language commissioner is clear. There are currently 20,000 people coming to Quebec every month who need French classes. Only 8,000 of them register with Francisation Québec, which cannot keep up. We simply cannot maintain our current immigration levels without weakening the French language in Quebec. In fact, that is the…
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Mr. Speaker, financial resources are a key aspect of our integration capacity. However, it is hard to ask people to learn French when they cannot even manage to feed themselves. In Drummondville alone, the food bank has seen a 97% increase in use this year. It has to turn people away. That increase includes asylum seekers and foreign workers. A disappointed immigrant told the organization, “I didn…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec's French language commissioner is sounding the alarm. Quebec is unable to ensure that such a high number of immigrants learn French. It is well and good to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, but there are currently 642,000 people in Quebec who do not speak French. Only 70,000 of them have been able to join French language classes, which is a record, but that is nowhere nea…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am grateful to my colleague. We work together on the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and I enjoy working with him a lot. I prepared a short speech tonight. I hope people are ready. It is probably one of the best speeches I will ever give in the House. When it comes to international relations, it is hard to look away, especially considering all the headlines that …
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday we asked the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship about the distribution of asylum seekers. He replied that we were confusing capacity and willingness. I would like to remind him that, this year alone, Quebec has opened the equivalent of more than 50 schools to provide introductory classes for the children of asylum seekers. Now that is willingness. Meanwhile, O…
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Mr. Speaker, with those sorts of comments, we can more easily see why Ottawa has been asleep at the switch for months when it comes to asylum seekers. If the minister still thinks that this problem has to do with a willingness to welcome asylum seekers rather than the capacity to do so, then he is really missing the point. Meanwhile, there are people lining up at food banks. There are people who h…
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