Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. As members of the House are aware, we open with prayer each day, and I am hoping you can rule on whether members will be protected from prosecution by parliamentary privilege should Bill C-9 pass.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Conservatives on the justice committee tried three times to let the committee prioritize the study of the much-needed bail reforms on which it would be possible for us to have a consensus. What was so pressing that the Liberals did not want to study their own bail bill? They launched a full-scale assault on religious freedom in this country that risks the prosecution of tho…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to present a petition on behalf of Canadians alarmed that Liberal-Bloc amendments to Bill C-9 would be used to criminalize passages of the Bible, the Quran, the Torah and other sacred texts. A lot of this concern emanates from the fact that the man who is now the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture said that prosecutors should be able to “press charges” for …
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Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour, as always, to rise on behalf of the people of Elgin—St. Thomas—London South. My colleague from Barrie South—Innisfil did a tremendous job explaining the breadth of Liberal obstruction right now. There is a logical inconsistency here that I do not believe should be all that surprising coming from the Liberal Party, but they are obstructing their own agenda. The Li…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It was very noisy. The member clearly did not hear the question, because he did not answer it. How are the Liberals voting, with or against the—
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to say that our motion is already delivering results. The Liberal chair has called a justice committee meeting for tomorrow to do clause-by-clause review of Bill C-9. It is an eight-hour meeting. My question to the member opposite is very simple. Will the Liberals be voting with the Bloc to remove religious protections from the Criminal Code?
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Mr. Speaker, when I first came here, I understood that committees were to be masters of their domains, but committees are also a product of the House of Commons. When committees fail to do their work, it must be raised in the House of Commons because there is no way to raise it on a non-existing committee meeting's agenda. I would love nothing more than for all of us to be able to have these discu…
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Mr. Speaker, I have not had the opportunity yet to sit in on a transport committee meeting, so I cannot speak for what is happening there except to say that there does seem to be a pattern here spanning multiple committees. I understand the citizenship and immigration committee has no meetings scheduled for this week. At the environment and sustainable development committee, the minister has not a…
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Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure to work with my colleague. We have very different ideas on some of the things that are coming before the committee, but I always know where my colleague stands. I and my colleagues on the justice committee remain ready to deal with clause-by-clause consideration on Bill C-9. We are 100% opposed to the assault on religious freedom that has been proposed and discu…
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Mr. Speaker, as a new member, I do not know how I am supposed to allow it to become law when that member's party is not calling the meeting, Again, I am new here, but I do not believe it is possible to let any justice bills become law when the Liberals keep cancelling meetings.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to rise and speak to Bill C-218. In less than a week, it will be 15 years since I almost lost my life to suicide. I overdosed. I was in the hospital for seven weeks. For much of it, I was on life support and had to be resuscitated multiple times. Over Christmas, my parents did not know if they would have me as their son, moving forward. It was the culmination of a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, groceries are so expensive that Canadians cannot afford the baloney the Liberals are selling. What the average Canadian family will have to spend on groceries this year is $17,500. A single parent in my riding making minimum wage would need to work 1,000 hours, half their year, just to put food on the table for their children. This has doubled since the Liberals took office in 2015. T…
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Mr. Speaker, the latest food price report confirms what Canadian families were well aware of, that grocery prices are still going up. The average Canadian family will spend an additional $1,000 on groceries next year, and this is seven months after the Prime Minister said Canadians would judge him by the prices at the grocery store. Well, that is what Canadians are doing, and they are wondering wh…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Harvest Bowl, a tremendous initiative in Elgin County that tackles reducing food waste and food insecurity. Harvest Bowl collects food such as vegetables from local farms that would otherwise go to waste and turns it into delicious and nutritious dehydrated soup mixes. Harvest Bowl founder Donna Lunn and her incredible volunteers distribute thousands of soup …
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Mr. Speaker, my question is for the chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Yesterday the Liberals got up in question period and accused Conservatives of obstructing work on Liberal Bill C-9, which takes aim at religious freedom and freedom of expression. The Liberals said they wanted to conduct clause-by-clause review today, but this morning, the Liberal chair cancelled the m…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith for all she has done to champion the fundamental freedoms of all Canadians, and certainly those of faith. What is so important here is that this legislation was brought in under the guise of protecting religious communities from hate. That was how the Liberal government sold this legislation. However, the most vocal critics of it have been…
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Madam Speaker, that is a disgusting misrepresentation of what people of faith stand up for and do for this country every day. It is this rhetoric to which the Liberal government has decided to hitch its wagon in pushing forward with this amendment. Violent rhetoric, regardless of whether it is cloaked in religious belief or not, is inexcusable, already illegal and not subject to the religious defe…
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Madam Speaker, when I was young, I said a great many things I regret, have paid the price for and apologized for. I was proud to stand in the House yesterday and support the bill of my colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola to put in strict penalties for people who commit intimate partner violence. However, when the Liberals engage in this cancel culture game, they are proving why they cannot be …
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Madam Speaker, this is another example of Liberals trying to silence and censor people they do not agree with. This is exactly why we cannot let in what they are trying to sneak in through the back door with Bill C-9 passing. This is a Liberal government that has taken every opportunity to put religious freedom and freedom of expression in its crosshairs. This is a Liberal government that freezes …
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moved: That it be an instruction to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights that, during its consideration of Bill C-9, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (hate propaganda, hate crime and access to religious or cultural places), the committee be granted the power to travel throughout Canada to hear testimony from interested parties and that the necessary staff do accompany the committee.…
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Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to the motion adopted on Thursday, November 20, regarding Parliament's unwavering commitment to protect children from sexual exploitation. This was a very important motion, and we proceeded with a very rigorous debate in this committee. We unde…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her question. Given that she voted for the budget and now says she regrets it, maybe more time to review the budget is necessary for all of us. I do not take a position on the specific timing of the budget, but I do not respect the Liberal government holding the country hostage by saying to the opposition parties that we must pass…
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Madam Speaker, unlike my colleagues on the Liberal benches, I do not enjoy thinking about taxes all that often, because every time I do, the blood pressure goes up. I think we need to have a wholesale re-evaluation of government spending. Let us stop looking at Canadians as though they are an endless source of money, or as my Francophone colleagues say, une vache à lait.
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Madam Speaker, I think it is very difficult when a government tries to shoehorn a large suite of changes into a single bill and then turns around to accuse Conservatives of not working on the government's timeline. We need to get it right more than we need to get it done quickly on some of these things. I will go back to comments I made earlier about the priorities the government has set out. The …
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Madam Speaker, I am glad our hon. colleague pointed out how much the Prime Minister enjoys travelling. The reality is that Conservatives do support a strong economy, which is why we were saying that we need to get rid of capital gains for profits that are reinvested in Canada. It is why we need to get rid of the consumer carbon tax and the industrial carbon tax. It is why we need to eliminate the …
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, which represents so much of what we have in this country. We have the larger city of London and rural communities such as Eagle and New Sarum. We have burgeoning communities like St. Thomas, which were once viewed as small farming towns but now are growing to tens of thousands of people, who ar…
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, there have been discussions among the parties. I believe that, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to revert back to tabling committee reports.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, when GM shut down the CAMI plant and laid off 1,200 workers, the industry minister claimed she was on it. She said she was demanding a full update from GM within 15 days, and that she would offer transparency to Canadians. This was 39 days ago. There is no clarity, no plan and no relief for auto workers in Elgin, St. Thomas and London, whom the Liberal government told it would have th…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the plug for my book. If the member were to read books instead of talking points, the country would be in a better place. Food prices have risen almost 40% faster in Canada than in the United States. Beef is up 17% and chicken is up 6.2%, and now the Liberals are adding a fuel tax that will make gas 17¢ a litre more expensive. Driving in my riding and in rural Canada is n…
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Mr. Speaker, the current Liberal government is the most expensive in Canadian history. Every dollar the Prime Minister spends comes out of the pockets of Canadians and drives up the cost of everything, especially food. At the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank, there is record demand. Four out of five Canadians say that food is their top expense pressure, and the Liberals are standing by their industrial …
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Mr. Speaker, the President of the Treasury Board said the government is “spending less to invest more”. The Prime Minister said the deficit would be capped at $62 billion, but this budget has it at $78 billion. Is 78 more or less than 62?
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, there was some noise there. I do not believe the President of the Treasury Board heard the question. Is 78 more or less than 62?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I wish our high-flying Prime Minister coveted results as much as air miles. Since taking office, he has made 28 trips, flying 153,000 kilometres, which is enough to circle the globe four times. He is off again this week, heading to the United Arab Emirates and then South Africa. That is no surprise from the Prime Minister, who collects passports like Pokémon and identifies as European…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I hear the words “investment, investment, investment” over and over. What I do not hear is the more honest framing of “spending, spending, spending”. If we want to get private sector investment in this country, and certainly in my region, we need the government to abandon the industrial carbon tax and to reduce costly and burdensome regulations. We need the government to admit that it…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to rise in this House. I suspect members opposite knew I had the first late show this evening, and that is why so many of them are still here, which we are not used to seeing in Adjournment Proceedings. I am very grateful for that. I note that the question I am asking of the government comes on the heels of this House's passage of what I will say is a very dangero…
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Madam Speaker, there is a narrative we have been hearing from the Liberals today, which is that the budget they have put forward should just be blindly accepted by all opposition parties, and that if we do not go along with this reckless budget, an election is on our hands. Interestingly, with a member as loquacious as my colleague from Winnipeg North, we can always find something he has said in t…
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Madam Speaker, the member for Markham—Unionville is the embodiment of what the Conservatives have been trying to say, which is that to be a Canadian citizen requires, or should require, a commitment to and an investment in Canada. Can the member, as someone who was not born in Canada, speak to the value of Canadian citizenship and what that should mean for people?
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, the member for Winnipeg North is an experienced member. He knows better than to speak directly to my hon. colleague rather than through you. He was accusing you of doing something, which I am sure you will be the first to admit you were not actually doing.
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Madam Speaker, the question at hand is, what constitutes a substantial connection? Again, the Conservatives worked across party lines at committee to beef up this definition because we do not believe the one in Bill C-3 adequately ensures there is a substantial connection to Canada. I most certainly believe Canadian citizens should be invested in our country. That is absolutely not disputed, certa…
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Madam Speaker, I love how much of a range there is of people, backgrounds and beliefs in this country. It is interesting that, when members of the Liberal government talk about the value of diversity, they never promote diversity of thought and diversity of opinion. That is a form of diversity they do not particularly go for. I hope the Liberal government will truly back off on its attempt to cens…
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Madam Speaker, I do not think we should allow external pressures to force something through that is imperfect. I want to thank my colleague for her question. I respect Quebeckers a lot for having these conversations about identity and nationality. Quebeckers understand their heritage and they have a clear definition of who they are. What bothers me about the Liberal government's approach is that t…
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Madam Speaker, this is a gross misrepresentation of what the Conservatives have been trying to do on this bill. There are already tools available to the government to deal with lost Canadians. The minister has tremendous latitude on this. What we are talking about is not a government that has not been in power for 10 years. We are talking about the value of Canadian citizenship and people who, des…
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Madam Speaker, it is a great privilege to rise on behalf of the citizens and residents of Elgin—St. Thomas—London South. I say that because citizens and residents are two different things. All of them are important to me as a member of Parliament, but they are different. As a country, we have always made a distinction between those who are citizens and those who are not. The reason for this is tha…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that in Bill C-3, after the Liberals rejected the amendments that were passed at committee across party lines, the bar for citizenship has been lowered. I would like to ask the hon. member, very candidly, a very simple yes-or-no question. Does she believe citizenship of this country should be easier for people to access?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as a proud, law-abiding firearms owner, I have the great privilege to present this petition to the House. It comes from law-abiding firearms owners who are concerned about past legislation from the Liberal government and a stream of orders in council that serve no other purpose than to target the law-abiding community of gun owners in this country. The petitioners say that Bill C-21 n…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Bowmanville—Oshawa North's speech was incredible. He and I had a similar experience, starting out working in restaurants. I would rather be scraping crusted lobster off plates than listening to some of the talking points from the member for Winnipeg North. The reason I bring this up is that my hon. colleague was one of the first people in the chamber to identify how har…
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Madam Speaker, with respect, the member is obfuscating. That is not the cause of the problems we are seeing in the TFW program. It is the fast food and hospitality sector and some unscrupulous immigration consultants, not all of them, who have abused the system to the point where our plan is very clear.
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Madam Speaker, I believe the temporary foreign worker program has been so destroyed by the Liberal government that the only way forward is to abolish it. I am very clear, especially as the member of Parliament for a lot of rural constituents and farmers, there needs to be a stand-alone stream for temporary labour for the agricultural sector. That is important and it is part of a long-standing init…
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Madam Speaker, I will say no to my hon. colleague; I noticed it before I got here. It is one of the reasons I wanted to come here, because we do see from the Liberal government a sense of breaking something, then showing up and all of a sudden it is the one we are supposed to trust with the solutions. Again, on the immigration file, I would be remiss to not point out the Liberal government promise…
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Madam Speaker, I am relatively new to this chamber, but I sense a trend, which is that there is no shortage of words from the member for Winnipeg North on any issue imaginable. Not all of us in this chamber, especially new members, have had the opportunities this member has had to engage on issues in this place. I am here speaking about an issue that has been tremendously relevant to youth and the…
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