Parliamentary Speeches
184 speeches by Anthony Housefather — Page 2 of 4
Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that the government is proud of the work of our public service. They work hard for Canadians every day, and the experience of working in the public service should be the same no matter where someone is in the country. We have adopted a common hybrid work model that aims to foster the kind of culture we need to best serve Canadians. While any transition of this scal…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I want to come back to the last question. What I understand from it is that we are now interpreting the UN as saying that if a country has missiles being thrown at it in an attack by another country, it is not allowed to respond. Does the hon. member think that is a logical thing for the NDP to be proposing?
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, one issue had to do with a number of Jewish community buildings this year, including in Montreal in my own riding, where people gathered around the buildings, screaming hateful things and blocking access to or exit from them. That was totally unacceptable. Municipalities and provinces can do a better job of controlling that by passing zoning bylaws at the municipal level, or laws at…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I can certainly say that there is no ambiguity when it comes to defending Montreal's Jewish community. The federal government has absolutely no tolerance for anti-Semitism in Canada. Unfortunately, the problem is that the Conservatives are trying to blame the federal government for decisions made by Mayor Plante, decisions made by municipal authorities and decisions made by the prov…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I voted against the NDP motion in March. That was one of the reasons I did so. I do not agree that there should be a restriction on licensing shipments to Israel. A perfect example is that, today, Iranian rockets fell on Israel. It is an absurd idea that Israel is a friend and ally but that we would not give it the opportunity to defend itself against Iranian and Hezbollah rockets. …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, there is one party that does want war. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran. This summer, I was in Argentina. It was the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA, the Jewish community centre in Argentina, which was the deadliest attack on Jews between the Holocaust and what happened on October 7. That attack in 1994 killed 85 people and wounded 300. Who was the attack carried out b…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, tomorrow night is the beginning of the Jewish new year. Normally, this is a festive time, one of joy and celebration. However, this year there is a shadow. The last year has been an annus horribilis for Jews. Next week is the anniversary of October 7, a day Hamas attacked Israel, slaughtered over 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds of others. Then a wave of anti-Semitism swept across …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, the ICJ has a ruling, not on the West Bank but on the genocide claim, that has been cited multiple times by the member for Edmonton Strathcona. I want to quote from a BBC article: The interpretation “that the court had concluded that the claim that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was ‘plausible’” was disputed and discounted by “Joan Donoghue, the president of the ICJ at the t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, inflation is down, interest rates are down, car theft is down, gas prices are down, emissions are down and all Conservatives can do is frown. I just do not understand why we do not have a team Canada approach. The Canadian economy is getting better; things are getting better. Why do Conservatives not try to work with us and make things better? That is the kind of House of Commons I …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in response to parts (a)(i) and (a)(ii) of the question, the “Direction on prescribed presence in the workplace”, found at https://www.canada.ca/en/government/publicservice/staffing/direction-prescribed-presence-workplace.html and as introduced in December 2022 and fully implemented since March 31, 2023, required employees who are eligible for a hybrid work arrangement to work onsite …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as a non-agent crown corporation, the public sector pension investment board, or PSPIB, upholds an autonomous, arm’s-length operating mandate. PSPIB is subject to disclosure requirements as set out in the Public Sector Pension Investment Board Act and the Access to Information Act and reports to the President of the Treasury Board. Information concerning the activities of PSPIB is pre…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the 2024-25 Main Estimates included funding of $15,344,268 in program expenditures funding for the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada. This is an increase of approximately 8% relative to $14,212,216 in program expenditures funding presented in the estimates in 2023-24. This additional funding for the office reflects salary increases due to new collective agreements. Simi…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in response to part (a) of the question, as per the 2021 agreement between the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the proposal to extend eligibility for early retirement benefits to the Border Services (FB) group was brought forward for consultations held through the Public Service Pension Advisory Committee, or PSPAC. The PSPAC was establi…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), in the context of the hybrid work model for the federal public service, the Information and Privacy Policy Division of the Treasury Board Secretariat, or TBS, engaged the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or OPC, on Access to Information and Privacy Implementation Notice 2020-01: Guidance on delays resulting from measures to mitigate the impact of novel…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the direction on prescribed presence in the workplace applies to all public servants, including deputy heads. In addition to setting a minimum number of days in the office, currently 2-3 days/week or 40-60% of an employee’s schedule, the direction allows for certain exemptions in exceptional cases, for example for medical reasons. Ms. Blewett has been under medical care since March 11…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Madam Speaker, enough is enough. On Wednesday, a Jewish school in Montreal had shots fired at it. On Saturday, two men opened fire at a Jewish school in Toronto. Last night, a synagogue in Vancouver was attacked. Over the course of the last seven months, Jewish buildings and stores have been vandalized; encampments have been set up at universities, where posters extolling terrorist groups and glor…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, our government is definitely committed to reaching agreements with all of our different public service unions that are both fair to the employees and reasonable to taxpayers. We have already reached agreements with 17 different bargaining units that cover over 80% of represented employees. The best deals are found at the table. We urge the union to come to the table. We are happy to n…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, information regarding the refocusing government spending initiative and planned spending reallocations that will be implemented in 2024–25, 2025–26, and 2026–27, can be found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/planned-government-spending/government-expenditure-plan-main-estimates/2024-25-estimates/refocusing-government-spending.html The refocusing gover…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the Treasury Board Secretariat, or TBS, claims office runs its monthly statistical report on the first working day of the month. The most recent report was run on March 1, 2024. The TBS claims office uses a specially designed client relationship management, or CRM, system that is internal to TBS and has as its primary function the capability to manage and track the submission and proc…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the Treasury Board Secretariat, or TBS, claims office runs its monthly statistical report on the first working day of the month. The most recent report was run on March 1, 2024. The TBS claims office uses a specially designed client relationship management, or CRM, system that is internal to TBS and has as its primary function the capability to manage and track the submission and proc…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the directory of federal real property, or DFRP, found at https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/dfrp-rbif/introduction-eng.aspx, is the central repository for basic information on the Government of Canada’s real property holdings, both land and buildings. The inventory can be searched by various attributes found in the left-hand menu of the website, e.g., by municipality or by electoral district.…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the Treasury Board’s financial policy instruments apply to departments as defined in section 2 of the Financial Administration Act, or FAA. Organizations in the Government of Canada, such as Crown corporations, that are not defined in section 2 of the FAA are encouraged to adopt these policy instruments to the extent possible. Under Treasury Board’s policy on financial management, the…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, today marks the 38th anniversary of the Mad Science Group. Founded in 1987 by youthful visionaries, Ron Shlien and his brother, Ariel, the Mad Science Group has evolved into a national gem. It has ignited the spirits of countless young minds across Canada and beyond. Mad Science has fundamentally altered how children engage with STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. Through…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, it is a real honour to rise in the House to honour Brian Mulroney, who in every interaction I ever had with him, was a compassionate, intelligent and caring human being. I first met Mr. Mulroney when I had just graduated from law school and I went to Florida with my friend Jonathan Cohen. We were in Palm Beach, and Brian Mulroney was taking a walk down the path. The two of us saw the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely not. Again, I think this motion would bring pain to one of two communities in Canada because one strongly wants it to pass and one strongly wants it to fail. Certainly, foreign policy written this way is not a good thing when we would be saying that we are suddenly going to recognize the state of Palestine unilaterally, when for 50 years, under successive Liberal and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am a Canadian. I am a Jew. I am a Zionist. I am proud to have been born in this country. I am proud that my family came here in the 19th century and helped to build this country. My family members fought in World War I and World War II. We are part of Canada and lucky to be so. I have represented Canada in swimming internationally. I have represented Canada as a parliamentarian. The…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to echo the point of view of the hon. member for Eglinton—Lawrence. This was tabled after the entire debate had concluded. How can there be such substantive amendments that nobody has had the chance to see or debate at all? It offends my privileges and the privileges of the people of Mount Royal.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the war in the Middle East has torn the fabric of this country apart. We are seeing people who are passionate and emotional on both sides who are speaking past each other often, and it is tragic to watch. However, I have to say that the main issue I see are the demonstrations that are crossing the line and verging on intimidation and hate speech, surrounding Jewish buildings and doing…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, any death of a human being is a tragedy. We are getting statistics, and the hon. member mentioned the figure of 30,000 from the Hamas ministry of health, but I do not know how accurate that is. I do know that many of those people are Hamas fighters. Of course, there are innocent civilians killed in wars, and we feel horrible for the fact that they are innocent civilians. We have to ca…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I made a technical error in my vote on PMB Motion No. 86 on the seventh vote today, and I would very much appreciate the House's unanimous consent to allow me to change my vote to no.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the increase in anti-Jewish hate over the last two months is a danger to our country and its values, our democracy and our national security. One of the most hostile places for Jews is on campus. Last week, a U.S. House committee heard from the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn State. All three were asked whether a call for the genocide of Jews would violate their code of conduct. N…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I think you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That the House unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks against Israel by terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, and demands that Hamas unconditionally and immediately release all hostages, regardless of nationality…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canada's Jewish community has been here since 1760. We have had high and low points in our history, but never in my lifetime has the 400,000 strong Jewish community in Canada felt so vulnerable. The dramatic rise in anti-Semitism over the last decade has been compounded by Hamas terrorists brutally attacking our friend and ally Israel. This week, hundreds of Jewish community leaders f…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I always enjoy getting questions from my hon. colleague, who is very intelligent. He always asks good questions. In my opinion, we are in a situation where a western democratic country was attacked by a third party, a terrorist group, whose stated purpose is to eradicate that country. The terrorist group's goal is not to create two states but to eradicate the State of Israel. Israel has…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Alexandre Look, Ben Mizrachi, Adi Vital-Kaploun, Shir Hana Georgy, Netta Epstein and Judith Haggai are six Canadians who were brutally murdered in the war launched by the terrorist group Hamas against our friend and ally, Israel. There are over 1,400 dead, scenes of sickening brutality, infants slaughtered and elderly survivors of the Holocaust butchered. Innocent civilians, Israelis,…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I was very concerned by what I heard before. The Jewish people were the victims of the greatest genocide in human history, the Holocaust. Israel is the only majority Jewish state in the world. It sounded to me very much like he accused the state of Israel of being on the verge of committing a genocide. I would like to ask, yes or no, do you believe that Israel is committing or is about …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg South Centre. Let us start by asking ourselves why we are here tonight. We are here tonight because a terrorist organization that has in its charter the destruction of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people launched the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. It crossed the border into Israel. It slaughtered babies. It …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, that is a very important question. Iran is definitely responsible for Hamas having the resources it had to carry out these terrorist attacks. Whether or not Iran was actually involved in plotting these attacks, we do not know yet; I imagine we will at some future date. However, what we do know is that Iran is actively involved with Hezbollah and may well try to get it to create a second…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I also know my hon. colleague to be a very nice and well-reasoned person, and I consider her a friend. We disagree on this. I do not believe that anybody is saying any of the things she just said. Israel will do its best, as always, to make sure to make civilian casualties as low as possible. The difference between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas attacks civilians; that is its goal. Hama…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent speech. Unfortunately, the hon. member may not have heard that the bodies of two of the three Canadians we thought might have been taken hostage were found today. That means the Canadian dead now number seven. Does my hon. colleague agree with me that it was an attack not only on Israel but on Canada, on the United States and on humanity?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague, a good friend who delivered an excellent speech. At the United Nations and at international organizations there is frequently something that happens, which is Israel being treated differently from everyone else in the community of nations. At the UN Human Rights Council, Israel is the only regular item on their agenda. Israel is disproportionately singled out …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for Calgary Heritage on his excellent speech. Like many Jewish Canadians, I have taken great comfort from the debate tonight and general unanimity in the House that Israel has the right to defend itself within international law because it was attacked by a terrorist entity and we are all better off if that terrorist entity is destroyed. There tend to …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his contributions on justice issues. I think we all share the perspective that we want to make Canada safer and make sure that the rights of victims are protected, and I think the legislation goes a long way toward doing that. I wonder whether my hon. friend would be willing to share his reflections on the amendments that were made by the Senate and whether…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to hear from my friend from Calgary Nose Hill, who I have to applaud for founding the emerging technology caucus, which I am proud to co-chair with her. She calls herself Cassandra. I do not think that anybody believes that nobody understands or believes the prophecies she tells. I think she has a lot more credibility than that. Can the hon. member give us an e…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate the speeches from my hon. colleague. It is a pleasure to join him in the justice committee. I have a question related to his articulation of the argument for automatic registration for all sexual offenders. While I think we might agree with that proposition, did the court not strike down exactly that requirement in a recent case? How does the member propose to acco…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I will close with this thought. First of all, we absolutely share the desire, the hon. member and myself, as well as, I think, people from all of our parties, to make sure that everybody in this country has a home, that everybody in this country who is vulnerable is given the chance to have affordable housing. That is what we all need to strive for. As to the question from the hon. …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. Housing affordability is one of the most important challenges in the country today, especially for the most vulnerable people. Everybody needs and deserves a place to call home. It is why we have made housing a priority since the beginning of our mandate. It is why we launched Canada's first-ever national housing strategy in 2017, and it is why…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, in April, members of Parliament observed commemorations of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and the genocide in Rwanda. Remembering is vital, but education is equally important, if not more so. Racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate are proliferating today at an alarming rate, especially online. We need our children to know about the history of genocide and wh…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to spar with the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, who is definitely one of my favourite members to talk to in the House. Let me start by referencing one of the things that the hon. member said in questioning our minister. He said, “The Prime Minister is a very close personal friend of Dominic Barton, who is the managing partner of McKinsey.” As …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would disagree with my hon. friend about whether working out is a way to bond or not. I invite him to come run with me; if you want to join, Mr. Speaker, I would be delighted to have you and the hon. member for Winnipeg North as well. In the end result, the committee should be focused on the big picture questions of whether we should outsource as much as we do and whether the integr…
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