Parliamentary Speeches
836 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 1 of 17
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let us look at the Prime Minister's record so far. He betrayed the climate. He betrayed our culture by leaving billions of dollars on the table. He made multiple concessions to Donald Trump with nothing to show for it. Also, Quebec's economy was hit the hardest by the tariffs, yet it received the least support, especially for the lumber industry and for steel and aluminum processing. …
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Mr. Speaker, as we take stock of this parliamentary session, there are two things that Quebeckers will remember. The first is how the Prime Minister betrayed the environment by putting an end to Canada's fight against climate change and by pushing the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie to resign. The second is how the Prime Minister betrayed our culture by sacrificing the creation of French-language …
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Mr. Speaker, our Prime Minister has nothing but contempt for the work of Parliament. He is ramming through draconian laws using closure. He is concentrating all powers in hands of cabinet. He is using those powers to deregulate industry for the benefit of primarily American companies or to suspend certain laws. On the international stage, he says that he wants to form an alliance of middle powers …
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Mr. Speaker, July 1 is fast approaching and, when it comes to tackling the housing crisis, there is a prominent local figure who stands out from the crowd and refuses to give in to fatalism. Jean-François Tremblay, an impact real estate investor—but more importantly, a man of compassion—is demonstrating that it is possible to innovate and take concrete action to meet a fundamental need like that o…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are confusing their parliamentary majority with the right to do what they want, when they want. The time allocations never seem to stop, which is especially odd considering that their bills are certain to pass. Yesterday, it was Bill C‑30, which authorizes the government to approve the use of previously banned pesticides. Today, it is Bill C‑22, which authorizes the invas…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister talks a good game. After Davos, where he called for middle powers to stand together, on Saturday he said at the G7 that the strands of a new world order could be woven together. The problem is that it is all talk. In real life, the Prime Minister is breaking with Europe by scrapping the digital services tax. He is distancing himself from the European Union by scrapp…
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Mr. Speaker, I did not even mention the Keystone XL pipeline, which is good for the U.S. but bad for all the countries working to fight climate change. I did not even mention Bill C‑30, which would allow previously banned pesticides to be approved. That will be good for the U.S. factories that manufacture Monsanto products, but it will be bad for our trade relations with Europe, which operates by …
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Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, 70 scientists from 17 countries updated the climate change data from the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement's global warming target is no longer achievable. Sea levels continue to rise at twice the previous rate, and the number of days with extreme marine heat has tripled. What is to blame? Well, it is fossil fuels. What is the govern…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister just said that the amendments returned to us by the Senate are relatively simple to deal with. Like my Conservative colleague earlier, I was of the impression that the House would likely pass this bill fairly quickly once it returned from the Senate. I wonder what message the government is sending by imposing time allocation on a bill on which there otherwise seems to be …
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I love my colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands but, unfortunately, when she raises her voice, that risks damaging the interpreters' hearing. I urge all members of the House to be conscientious. Sudden outbursts like that can unfortunately affect other people.
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned briefly, this amendment deals with the confidentiality of records. Bill C‑14 addresses legislative gaps in the Youth Criminal Justice Act regarding how long records should be kept. For example, in cases where the charges were withdrawn or discharged, there were inconsistencies, and in some cases, no time limit was specified at all. To ensure the law is properly applied,…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not listening to the science when it comes to the environment, just as he does not listen to his former environment ministers, his net-zero advisory body, whose members have resigned, or even his own members, according to media reports. He does not listen to anyone except the interests of American oil and gas company owners. He is keeping all the power in his own…
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Mr. Speaker, on the bail issue, I can understand my colleague's position on the Senate amendment. However, it does come with certain guidelines. A judge who grants a person who has committed a crime in recent years the opportunity to be designated as a surety must demonstrate that it is in the interest of justice and must record the reasons for their decision in the case file. Does my colleague no…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be relatively brief in my comments on the amendments proposed by the Senate. Let us not forget that we are actually debating the Senate's proposed amendments today, as opposed to the substance of Bill C-14, since we have already debated it in the House and it was passed on division. I will nevertheless take the liberty of making a few comments on the substance of the bill, but …
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Mr. Speaker, to answer the parliamentary secretary's question, it is important to remember that the measure has still not been adopted. In fact, it does not exist until the bill receives royal assent. We made these recommendations in committee proactively and asked the Chief Electoral Officer some questions directly. Who better to answer our questions than the Chief Electoral Officer himself? He c…
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Mr. Speaker, I only wish I had other suggestions. The questions were put to the witnesses. We were coming back to the idea that technology advances so quickly that we are always lagging behind, which is why it is perhaps important to review the legislation on a regular basis. The law's current provisions serve a legitimate purpose, but I still get the sense it will never be enough. That is why it …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question in excellent French. I am very grateful for that. As for the funding loophole, I previously talked about it when I was answering my colleague's question. In terms of the security of the ballot boxes, this was a Conservative amendment that was very interesting on the substance, but not as interesting in form, in our opinion, because it wanted to in…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleagues are leaving for what we hope are greener pastures. I imagine most of them are heading to committee meetings. Hopefully they will go well. There are not many meetings left before the session ends. I would like to say a few words about Bill C-25. Since we are nearing the end of the process having debated it in the House and discussed it at length in committee, I am not goi…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister sacrificed the future of francophone culture at the hands of Donald Trump. He is completely giving up on the 10-year struggle to get American web giants to help fund creative works and news. What has he gotten in return? All he has gotten is yet another escalation of hostilities from Washington. After seeing Canada surrender on the culture issue, President Trump res…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk for his kind words. First of all, I really appreciate it. He is a colleague that I hold in high regard. There is a lot in that question. I think that many people have learned a number of lessons, sometimes different ones. However, the one that is perhaps the most objective and applies to all parties, and even more so to the publi…
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Mr. Speaker, not only does that have nothing to do with my question, it has nothing to do with the business of the House either. Contrary to Europe, the Prime Minister capitulated on streaming levies. Contrary to France, he capitulated on the digital services tax. He exempted American multinationals from the global minimum tax. He ended his countertariffs. He is trying to persuade the provinces to…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. She hit the nail on the head. The problem of interference stems from an inability to identify the source. One thing became clear in committee, and that is the fact that, unfortunately, we will always be one step behind. Hostile foreign actors will always have vast resources at their disposal that allow them to find legal loopholes. The problem is…
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Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent of the House for the following motion: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, a member of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying—
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, this time, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent of the House for the following motion: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, a member of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying from the House of Commons may have a dissenting or supplementary opinion appended to its first report by tabling it with the Clerk of t…
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Mr. Speaker, for CUSMA, the Prime Minister's concessions to the Americans go even further. Through Bill C-5, he has granted himself the power to suspend laws in order to build new pipelines. The big winners are the shareholders of oil companies, 60% of whom are American. Under Bill C-30, he is granting himself the power to re-approve banned pesticides. The big winner is Bayer, which sells Monsanto…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister keeps granting concession after concession to Donald Trump. By July, the PM had already scrapped the digital services tax on U.S. tech giants. In August, he dropped Canada's retaliatory tariffs. This week, he cancelled the levy on American online broadcasters, and he did all of this without getting anything in return. The Prime Minister met with Quebec and the provi…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is abandoning Quebec culture to please the web giants and Donald Trump. First, he scrapped the digital services tax, which represents a loss of $1.4 billion per year, in exchange for absolutely nothing. Today, he is ordering the CRTC to waive every penny of the levies charged to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and yet the European Union imposes le…
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Mr. Speaker, let us take a look at the Prime Minister's recent record. The Prime Minister is turning his back on culture in favour of digital giants like Netflix and Amazon. The Prime Minister is abandoning the fight against climate change in favour of the oil companies' American shareholders. The Prime Minister is handing control of pesticides over to multinational agrochemical companies. No prim…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is neglecting culture yet again. After scrapping the digital services tax last summer without getting anything in return, yesterday he scrapped the proposed increase in levies on tech giants for Quebec cultural production. His first instinct in dealing with Donald Trump was to hand out billions of dollars in gifts to the tech giants and pass the bill on to taxpayers…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister's $600 million is paid for by citizens. The minister is replacing billions of dollars in contributions from platforms like Netflix with $600 million from taxpayers' pockets. Regardless of whether citizens are subscribers or not, they are still going to pay. However, other countries around the world are demanding significant payments from streaming platforms and they have …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce C‑279, An Act to repeal the Clarity Act. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to introduce Bill C‑279, an act to repeal the Clarity Act. This bill simply seeks to repeal the federal Clarity Act, which allows Parliament to override the will of the people by a simple majority vote of 50% plus one. The Clarity Act does two things. First, it allows the Hous…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the Liberals keep backtracking on environmental issues time and again. Their backtracking even led the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie to resign. Despite all this backtracking, the Liberals keep repeating that they will meet their greenhouse gas reduction targets. We are wondering how. That is why, last Thursday, the Bloc Québécois demanded to see the figures the Liberals…
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Mr. Speaker, clearly, the minister still does not have the figures. We want figures for this year, because this is the year the Liberals announced a new pipeline and new LNG projects, cut Alberta's industrial carbon price, scrapped the oil and gas emissions cap, suspended the clean electricity regulations, cancelled the carbon tax, and the list goes on. Today, even though they do not have any figu…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec's elected officials have condemned the Prime Minister's drift toward authoritarianism with his Clarity Act. I would like to draw his attention to a reaction that might inspire him. The leader of the Quebec Liberals said, “We in the Liberal Party of Quebec are both federalists and democrats”. Yes, it is possible to be a federalist, a democrat, and a Liberal all at once. It is po…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Quebec National Assembly unanimously condemned the Prime Minister for his authoritarian statement that 50% of the votes cast plus one would not be enough in a referendum. It reaffirmed its support for Quebec's Bill 99, which defines a clear majority as 50% plus one, just like all democratic votes around the world. It declared that no parliament or government may impose …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has to respect democracy, but yesterday he did the opposite by announcing that he would use the Clarity Act to meddle in Alberta's referendum question. The provinces and Quebec have the right to ask their citizens any question they choose in a referendum. Citizens have the right to answer freely, and the majority wins with 50% of the vote plus one. Only two groups a…
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Mr. Speaker, respecting democracy means not only avoiding interfering in referendum questions, but also avoiding interfering in the people's answer. A clear majority is 50% of the votes plus one. As the Prime Minister knows, all his laws are passed with a majority of 50% plus one. His own majority is 50% plus one. Even his own parliamentary secretary for justice said that the rule is 50% plus one.…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois agrees to apply the vote and will vote in favour.
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Mr. Speaker, contempt is when one considers a person, group or thing inferior. It is a feeling of superiority. When the government of a province or Quebec asks its people a question, it is up to the Government of Quebec or that provincial government to decide on the question, and it is up to the people to answer it. Ottawa has no business getting involved. Ottawa is interfering simply because it b…
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa is currently reviewing the question that the Alberta government will put to its population in a referendum to see if it is appropriate, because Ottawa knows so much better than anyone else what kind of question should be asked. Ottawa knows what is clear and what is unclear to ordinary people. The federal government is so superior, so much better. Good thing the government is h…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois agrees to apply the vote and will vote in favour.
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Mr. Speaker, there must be some Conservatives who are itching to cross the floor. They see themselves in a Prime Minister who promotes the monarchy and the oil sands. We now understand the Liberals' vision. Canada's future is based on dirty 19th‑century fossil fuels. Now at least we know where we stand. My question is simple: Why do the members in that party who still believe in the fight against …
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Mr. Speaker, today we learned that the Liberals have decided to speed up pipeline construction by cutting red tape: too many rules, too much hemming and hawing, too much focus on reducing greenhouse gases and social acceptance. Canada has oil, so we are going to make a fortune, and to heck with the regulations. The Conservatives are losing the battle for the hearts of oil lovers. Soon enough, the …
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Mr. Speaker, no one is going to refuse the support, but it is poorly targeted. To quote the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, “For businesses whose survival is currently in jeopardy, this is not enough.” When support measures leave the most vulnerable businesses behind, I would not call that a success. That is a failure. As Desjardins has shown, the businesses most at risk are disprop…
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Mr. Speaker, in answer to a question from the Bloc Québécois during question period, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons pointed out the Prime Minister's absence. I would like you to either remind him of the rules or withhold his dessert when you send him to the Centre Block dungeons.
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Mr. Speaker, a month ago today, Donald Trump made utterly indefensible changes to his tariffs. Desjardins has shown that Quebeckers are the ones paying the price. Quebec is being hit twice as hard as the rest of the country. A quarter of our manufactured goods are now affected. The employers of 170,000 Quebeckers have been targeted since April 6. That is why Quebeckers need a wage subsidy, to prot…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a bit rich to hear the government say that the time has come to move quickly, considering that the issue has been dragging on for 11 years and that the government tried to sweep the misconduct scandal under the carpet. The government has just told us that since our work in committee is not to its liking, it is going to impose closure. I repeat, the Liberals are imposing closure …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by going over the timeline of the bill we are debating today and by looking at the fact that the government is shutting down debate and completely undermining the hard work completed in committee by opposition and government members alike. If we look back at the relatively recent past, we can see that the whole issue of changes to the military justice system stems in p…
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Mr. Speaker, we will work together on the first step. However, to quote the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, “For businesses whose survival is currently in jeopardy, this is not enough. They need to have the cash flow necessary to maintain their day-to-day operations, not take on more debt or make investments that will only benefit them in the medium to long term.” We repeat: Immedia…
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, the Bloc Québécois's proposal was in line with what Justice Arbour had recommended, while also taking into account the requests of several victims who appeared before the committee. However, the work done by Justice Arbour, who also appeared before the committee at the time regarding Bill C-66, dates back five years. The context may have changed since then. It would ha…
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