Parliamentary Speeches
1,100 speeches by Andréanne Larouche — Page 1 of 22
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to join my colleagues in wishing the member a happy retirement. As women in politics, she and I help make up barely 30% of Parliament. I truly wish her a wonderful retirement. Although we do not always share the same values, we live in a healthy democracy. Of all places, this is the very space where we should be able to debate. More importantly, we must not be afraid…
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Mr. Speaker, with just two weeks to go before July 1, hundreds of people still cannot find housing and are at risk of becoming homeless. Municipalities are investing to address the unprecedented homelessness crisis, including Montreal, which has tripled its budget. Quebec has also increased funding for this issue in its latest budget. The only government that is not doing more is the federal gover…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is always ready to work, but the moral of the story is that I will no longer listen to the men when casting my vote today. That is the end of that. I confirm that I, too, am voting against.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to echo the sentiments of my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord and reiterate another point. Certain groups have written to us because there has been a great deal of disinformation coming from the Conservatives. At the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the Bloc Québécois tabled certain amendments it felt were essential. During one debate, I even heard people go …
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Mr. Speaker, I have a quick comment and then a question for my colleague, whom I thank for her speech. I will add my thoughts on this democratic issue. While the government was busy manufacturing its majority, it did not accept any of the 11 recommendations from the Bloc Québécois. In such a context, the government should have talked to us and listened to us. However, this government has a tendenc…
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Mr. Speaker, June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. At a time when fraud targeting seniors is gaining attention, let us remember the importance of staying vigilant and taking action against the various types of abuse, including financial abuse. Seniors between the ages of 65 and 74 face age discrimination, since they do not receive the same pension amount as seniors aged 75 and above. This is…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. I listened carefully to my colleague. Does he believe that the amendments proposed in committee will really ensure that the bill effectively addresses this hate speech that should not even be happening in the first place? Does he believe we have the necessary tools to tie all this together properly?
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Mr. Speaker, July 14 is just around the corner. No one asked for this New Horizons reform. This is a complete nightmare for volunteers working to improve the well-being of seniors. Community organizations that still do not have a business number will not have time to register by July 14, and that is not to mention the hundreds of others at the local level who simply cannot register because of thei…
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Mr. Speaker, the reform of the New Horizons program is putting community projects for seniors at risk. Our organizations have one month to submit their projects. In the meantime, Ottawa now requires them to register as a business, which can take up to 10 months. In addition, the criteria exclude small groups like some local FADOQs and Cercles de fermières; their parent organizations are registered…
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Mr. Speaker, I will ask my colleague a question in my capacity as vice‑chair of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. The committee is concerned about homelessness and is currently conducting a study on the subject. One of the issues raised by the Bloc Québécois regarding Bill C‑14 has to do with the provision making i…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I know that he has taken an interest in the issue of women's safety. He even participated in a few meetings of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Bill C‑16 incorporates many of the recommendations made by the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. These recommendations are based on requests from survivors and victims, particularly w…
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Mr. Speaker, it is true that committee members worked as non-partisanly as possible. In the course of our other proceedings, members of various parties asked questions of the victims and the witnesses who appeared. Incidentally, as part of other studies, we asked people whether Bill C‑16 should be passed. Everyone we heard from asked us to vote in favour of Bill C‑16 and explained to us why it is …
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Mr. Speaker, the member is right: Representatives from those Quebec organizations did indeed come to testify about shelters. What we are seeing at this point in time is that wait lists keep getting longer. When I say that waving a magic wand will not fix things, Build Canada Homes is a prime example of that. We do not really know what it will amount to; it is still very unclear. We have a lot of q…
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Mr. Speaker, I would say that listening to victims is what works best. As the representatives of many police forces said, the first step in addressing coercive control is to include it in the Criminal Code so that police have the tools they need. Otherwise, it is too difficult for them to act or to be proactive and act sooner. That is what this does. Recognizing coercive control means recognizing …
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, the Bloc Québécois proposed amendments to try to avoid some of the inconsistencies we see in Bill C-16. As I said in reference to section 810 of the Criminal Code, we want the criteria to be more objective than subjective. That was one of the amendments that had been proposed by my colleague to address this situation. That is the kind of amendment we would have liked to inc…
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Mr. Speaker, based on what I heard tonight in this debate, I am not sure if my Conservative colleague has consulted with his colleagues. There are two things I have taken away from the testimony we heard at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women's recent meetings on the issue of violence against women. First of all, the victims said that Bill C-16 was a necessary step. They said that we nee…
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Mr. Speaker, I will try to restore some calm because I am ashamed right now. Unfortunately, I am reliving a scene I witnessed at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, where, instead of listening to victims, my Liberal and Conservative colleagues were bickering back and forth. The victims left in tears, and I am reliving that moment. Members on both sides can laugh and argue about this, bu…
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Mr. Speaker, tonight we are debating Bill C‑16, tabled late last year. What still impresses me, however, is the timeline. For months, if not years, the Standing Committee on the Status of Women has been calling for progress on a number of issues: court delays, the criminalization of coercive control and, as the Bloc Québécois and other stakeholders have also urged, the issue of intimate AI-generat…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of what happens behind the scenes, it certainly does look like someone is hiding behind the curtain. I will leave it at that. Bill C‑16 is the topic of discussion tonight. In all seriousness, this bill seeks to better protect women. However, the problem I see from the outset is that this bill will not solve everything. I will be talking about that, and I know that my colleagu…
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Mr. Speaker, it is true that people often view a legal ruling as a magic wand that will fix everything. What we keep hearing in committee is how important it is to focus on prevention. I mentioned this just yesterday to the Minister of Women and Gender Equality. I also told her about an important study on the rise of masculinism and anti-feminism, and that the Standing Committee on the Status of W…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and fellow member of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, which is examining Bill C-20, the Build Canada Homes act. We heard that Quebec, through the Société d'habitation du Québec, will have the final say on the Build Canada Homes projects. However, several witnesses who appeared bef…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a bit of disinformation because the bill we are studying this evening essentially reiterates the Bloc Québécois's proposal to restore mandatory minimums for serious crimes. It also echoes the Bloc Québécois's idea about the potential recruitment of young people at earlier stages and about deepfakes. This bill is making progress on a lot of fronts. I think we have reached the …
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This is the third time I have talked about this bill, though I am not a member of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. This bill ended up being extensively discussed by the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I have already talked about it a lot. I may come back to Bill C‑16, but I also want to use my speech to talk about the fact that protecting women also requires better ho…
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Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to speak to Bill C‑259, an act to amend the Canada Labour Code regarding fair representation. I thank my colleague for tabling it. We are debating a fundamental principle of our democracy: the freedom of workers to organize freely. This right is not a privilege. It is a right that has been recognized by the courts, by international conventions and by our own laws…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech and her bill. I will have an opportunity to speak about it later, but I have a question for her. Around the world, we are seeing democracy losing ground in an uncertain economic context. Unions exist. We know that, in times of economic uncertainty, it is essential to stand up for workers independently of management. In a context where democratic r…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for Winnipeg Centre for raising this important issue in the House today regarding Bill C‑16. We sat together on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I know that she cares deeply about this issue. I also want to thank her for pointing out that services have to form part of a continuum, and that the situation of women has to be addressed proactively, espec…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C‑16, an act to amend certain acts in relation to criminal and correctional matters in regard to child protection, gender-based violence, delays and other measures. This bill was studied by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. It is the result of extensive deliberation and numerous studies on violence against women, including studies conduc…
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Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague contributed to this discussion at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, but I would like to hear him elaborate further on this matter. The Bloc Québécois proposed amendments to Bill C-16, but they were rejected. This leaves a certain inconsistency in the bill. On the one hand, the bill modernizes the offence of criminal harassment by introducing objective …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, today we are debating a simple yet fundamental question: Is it acceptable for people who have worked their entire lives, raised their families, paid their taxes and built our communities to now be living in poverty? Bill C-261, introduced and vigorously defended by my colleague from Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, aims to restore fairness for seniors and allow them to live…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question and comments about my speech. I also want to commend her for fighting for the feminist cause. Regarding the Bloc Québécois's amendments, as I mentioned earlier, there are some inconsistencies. For example, the offence of criminal harassment is supposedly being modernized by the introduction of objective criteria. However, when we talk about sureti…
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Mr. Speaker, my response will be brief. This is an important step. It is good to strengthen the Criminal Code, but if the government does not give Quebec the financial resources to address these new offences within its legal system, if the government does not provide community organizations with the necessary resources, and if the government does not look at the bigger picture, as part of a contin…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for introducing this bill. We have been passing the baton to one another, and I now pass it on to the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon. My colleagues and I at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women are currently hearing from witnesses as part of a study on senior women. We are hearing about older women finding themsel…
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Mr. Speaker, that is another issue that the Bloc Québécois wants to tackle. Obviously, I am talking about this material, the distribution of this material depicting children, especially with the increase in deepfakes and the fact that images of children can be used. That is one of the things the Bloc Québécois is calling for. This violence against children should not exist. We could do better and …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to come back to the first point my colleague raised, namely the issue of coercive control. Following the release of the report on rebuilding trust, I met with MNAs in Quebec City who asked me to take action. At the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, I proposed a study on coercive control. The study was conducted, we produced a report, and we tabled it. Together wi…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I shared some time together on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I know she cares a lot about this cause. In her speech, she talked about the dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants, who were doing unpaid work, and the fact that women were disproportionately affected. Can my colleague tell us how repealing section 107 would help women and p…
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Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to speak to Bill C‑247, which seeks to repeal section 107 of the Canada Labour Code. First, the right to strike, and we need to call it that, is a fundamental right that is recognized by the courts and that is protected by freedom of association. The Bloc Québécois believes that this right must never depend on the political goodwill of a federal government. I rem…
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to read today's Conservative motion and discuss what is missing from the motion. I have a question for my colleague. One of the things we in the Bloc Québécois have noticed is that this Conservative motion is missing something. In the spring of 2025, a vote-buying cheque was sent out to everyone in the provinces, except people in Quebec and British Columbia. While pe…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer a few comments to my colleague. We see that the Liberals' gas tax cut mainly benefits the wealthy, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer; that it is “an unfair and short-sighted measure”, according to Normand Mousseau of the Institut de l'énergie Trottier, which is affiliated with Polytechnique Montréal; and that lowering gas taxes is a bad idea masquerad…
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Mr. Speaker, today once again, we see the Conservatives drawing conclusions. I just returned from a constituency week. Naturally, people talked to me about inflation, about increasing food bank use and about increasing homelessness. They talked to me about all of that. However, what we are debating today would not help any of these people. In fact, $2.4 billion was lost as a result of the Liberals…
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Mr. Speaker, the government likes to brag a lot about the economic update, saying from the get-go that it addresses the cost-of-living issue and that it will solve the current problem of inflation. However, there is not much in this economic statement that actually helps people, particularly those most affected by inflation, such as people on fixed incomes, like seniors. Nothing was announced for …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on today's important Bloc Québécois motion on the U.S. tariffs and the impact on businesses and workers. They absolutely need our support in this time of uncertainty. I welcome this motion, and I am very pleased to speak to it. Since April 6, Quebec has been hit hard by a major economic shock. Donald Trump made a decision to impose new tariffs, wh…
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Mr. Speaker, businesses in my riding are obviously asking questions. The government is taking steps, but the steps often do not match up with the businesses' needs. For example, the loan announced yesterday is smoke and mirrors. It will add a burden for businesses, because the assistance is still in the form of a loan, even though businesses in my riding already have loans. At the economic discuss…
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Mr. Speaker, I sincerely apologize to the interpreters. I never turn the pages like that, but I forgot. They will be going in another direction. The problem is the government's inadequate response. The government was slow to react, and the economic update initially contained no measures tailored to the crisis. While $10.1 billion was collected in tariffs, only $5.7 billion is being redistributed. …
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Mr. Speaker, this government was elected last year by leading people to believe that it would resolve this conflict with the wave of a magic wand. Here we are, one year later, stuck in this situation. We must act now, because negotiations with the Americans have indeed been dragging on. This continues to have negative impacts. Now that we see that the government has not moved forward or advanced n…
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Mr. Speaker, I would respond to my colleague by asking him a question. Did this government really act swiftly to protect the lumber industry? Did it adopt a real aerospace policy? He should be aware that the lumber and aerospace industries and other Quebec-specific sectors tend to be neglected in negotiations and during these troubled times. The government was quicker to help Ontario's auto indust…
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Mr. Speaker, first I want to point out something that is not directly related to today's topic but that still concerns an issue that affects it, although indirectly. I am wearing a red dress pin because tomorrow, May 5, we commemorate Red Dress Day. It is a time to remember missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. There are some topics that are hard to talk about in the House. Allow me to …
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Mr. Speaker, regarding Bill S‑3, I want to hear my colleague talk about the context in his province. At home in Quebec, we have Hydro-Québec and Énergir. In the new context of a majority government, we are going to see more than ever the government, in this federal system, try to interfere in Quebec's jurisdictions and give itself more powers. The Bloc Québécois wants to make sure that Hydro‑Québe…
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Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague from Laurentides—Labelle indicated where we stand on Bill C-266, an act to establish a national framework respecting skilled trades and labour mobility. This bill is presented as a practical measure aimed at facilitating the mobility of skilled workers. Who could possibly oppose credential recognition? Who could oppose streamlining administrative procedures? Who c…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his work on this matter. I had the opportunity to speak at an earlier stage of his bill and took the chance to highlight Quebec's pioneering role in organ donation. More specifically, I outlined the history of Transplant Québec. How does my colleague view this alignment and the fact that people outside Quebec will finally be able to share in Queb…
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Mr. Speaker, as we have seen, particularly at the beginning of the year, people's understanding of history varies greatly. However, there is an old saying: to know where we are going, we have to know where we came from. There are very direct and very close ties between the Métis people and Quebec. My colleague seems to have touched briefly on the historical aspect at the end of his speech. Are the…
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