Parliamentary Speeches
582 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 11 of 12
Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I always enjoy listening to my colleague. I would like to go off on a bit of a tangent, though my question is related to this evening's topic. Many observers of the conflict are pondering whether the international response to the invasion of Ukraine could end up deterring or encouraging China's designs on Taiwan. Should we keep that in mind as we analyze the conflict in Ukraine?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the primary victims of war are always the citizens, and this holds true again in this case. Half a million Ukrainians have already had to leave their country, leaving behind not only their loved ones, but their entire lives. As parliamentarians, we have a historic duty to help them. The government recently announced that it would match every donation Canadians make to the Red Cross, b…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I would like her thoughts on the following. We know that the Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary strength, courage and resilience. While 500,000 people have left Ukraine so far, it is possible that in future, that number could be closer to five million. We hope not, but it could happen. In order to be prepared and avoid the same unfortunate …
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Thunder Bay—Rainy River said something interesting. He said that the only brother who kills his brother is a madman. Well, a distant cousin who watches the brother kill his brother might also be described as a madman. What does my colleague think about the possibility of imposing equally severe sanctions on Belarus as are being imposed on Russia?
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Durham said that the last time he rose in the House was on January 31. I too rose on that day to speak to the issue of Ukraine. At the time, the focus was on diplomacy. Many journalists had pointed out gaps in what was happening in government: high employee turnover, five different ministers in six years, no foreign policy white paper for at least 17 years. Are we at th…
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Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for his speech. I would like to hear his thoughts on a very specific question. All day, the Conservatives have been saying that we need to build pipelines to supply Germany and other countries, as a way to sanction Russia. We all hope that the war will be over very soon. Once peace talks start, will my colleague call for an end to construction on pipelines that are …
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his heartfelt and emotional speech. We do indeed feel a sense of unity. The Bloc Québécois has offered its full support to the government today, indicating that we want to work with the government, because this cause is much bigger than all of us. I would like to know whether my colleague has anything to ask of the opposition. Are there any issues on which he …
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Madam Chair, I thank my esteemed colleague from Montarville. I always enjoy listening to him. He mentioned in his speech that he was a bit surprised by the very quick international response. We had another surprise earlier today. Switzerland emerged from hundreds of years of sacrosanct neutrality. I wonder if my colleague shares my impression that this too marks something of a turning point in the…
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Madam Chair, it is always nice to hear the different views of the parties in the House on issues that are a bit more divisive. One of the things we discussed tonight is what to do about Russian diplomats in Canada. Do we expel them or not? I agree that they are contributing to the disinformation. Even today, it was claimed that the demonstrations endangered the lives of diplomats, even though they…
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his speech. As I said just now to the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, it is interesting to hear all the party members' points of view that may be a little different. This evening, though, there is a broad consensus. We like using discussion as a way to determine our positions. To help me make up my mind, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the pos…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Ukraine is calling on its allies to impose sanctions immediately. Moscow has already announced that it recognizes the independence of the Donbass territories, which is the first step toward annexing them. Ukraine is already experiencing cyber-attacks, a naval blockade, military pressure, and a disinformation campaign seeking to justify an invasion. Last week, the Minister of Foreign A…
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Mr. Speaker, tensions are escalating again between Russia and Ukraine. Armed conflict is imminent. Let us look at the evidence. Even though no Russian soldier has set foot in Ukraine yet, the country is already under attack. For weeks, the Government of Canada has been claiming it will impose harsh sanctions against Russia in the event of an invasion. The attack has started, and Ukraine needs supp…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, in her speech my colleague spoke a lot about how serious the situation was to justify the enforcement of the Emergencies Act. She described a lot of situations that are indeed very serious. That said, I will not get into certain issues, such as the fact that a business was not able to deliver biscuits. My question is the following: What would my colleague say is a necessary condition …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech by my colleague from Davenport, whom I like very much. From what I understand, she agrees with the principle of using the Emergencies Act, because she agrees with how it is being applied and the rules for enforcing it. However, this is special legislation that is supposed to protect us from arbitrary government. It is to be used only in emergency situations wh…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague from Mirabel. First of all, I would like to say that I will be doing something that I normally do not do. Rather than ad lib my speech, which is something I tend to strongly favour for parliamentary debates, since it makes them much livelier, I will be reading it from beginning to end. That is my way of trying to help out the supp…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I remind members that the Emergencies Act states that the government must have done everything possible. However, before invoking the act, the government made no attempt to co-ordinate the various police services. That is proof that the nuclear option, as some members are calling it, was used without justification. The work was not done. The only measure not permitted under existing…
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Madam Speaker, the War Measures Act was created with several scenarios in mind, but nothing specific. One of the tenets of a law is that it must not apply to a specific situation. It must be devised for general application to prevent it from being abusive. That is why there are criteria for determining whether the Emergencies Act may be invoked. I do not see how it is useful to think of a very spe…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. To justify using the Emergencies Act, he mentioned the fact that several Ottawans, including some of his employees, were bullied. This past December, we passed Bill C‑3 to criminalize intimidating a health professional and people wanting to obtain health services. I would like to know what justifies the use of the Emergencies Act now, when it was…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the interesting question. I answered that question directly in my speech. I said that I am very worried that a request from a province or city that had failed to respond to a national crisis could become a justification to use the act. Failure is not one of the criteria set out in the act. All available resources must have been exhausted first. Unfortunately, …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am thoroughly convinced that the NDP leader was not happy about announcing his support at the outset, unlike the Minister of Public Safety, who said he was proud to support the Emergencies Act. The NDP's current position is inconsistent with the history of the party and the legacy of Tommy Douglas, which they claimed to represent when marking the anniversary of the Emergencies Act. …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, today I would like to honour Sylvie Brosseau, whose extraordinary 38-year career will draw to a close on February 25 when she embarks on a well-deserved retirement. Over the course of nearly 38 years, Sylvie held various positions at NexDev, the economic development organization in Haut-Richelieu. As the executive director since 2019, Sylvie led a number of files that are key to the r…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, Ontario has just declared a state of emergency, but you would not know it on Parliament Hill. What started as a protest against vaccine mandates is transforming into a full-on siege of downtown Ottawa. It is transforming into blockades in Windsor, in Manitoba and in Alberta. These blockades are threatening the supply chain and the economy. It is also transforming into an internation…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from North Island—Powell River for her speech. She did a great job of explaining how the bill does not repair all of the harm that has been done to seniors. Members have mentioned the interest seniors had to pay, but their health deteriorated too. In the best case scenario, the government is fixing only a little of the damage that it has done. Would it not have …
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is saying that we need to move quickly with this bill. However, even if we were to pass the bill today, nothing would change for seniors until the summer. I remind members that we have been sounding the alarm on this issue since August. Could the minister tell me at least one other thing, aside from the bill being debated today, that she has considered to address the situ…
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Madam Speaker, reinforcements are on their way to Ottawa for the weekend. Once again, these reinforcements are not coming to support the police, but rather the occupiers. The Ottawa police chief requested an additional 1,800 officers four days ago. Police officers and the Parliamentary Protective Service have been working around the clock and deserve federal support. Will the minister confirm that…
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Madam Speaker, my question does not pertain to the substance of the bill specifically, but rather to the closure motion. It is quite clear that all members want to pass this bill quickly, and yet gag orders are still being used excessively. Does my colleague not think this bill should at least be sent to committee for study so that we have the opportunity to ask government officials and ministers …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands for his question. People have done certain things, as he described. We have seen it happen from the beginning of the crisis. However, people have been doing these things individually, and they are often called out by others around them or shamed on social media. The problem is that we let these people join forces. They have assumed …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, nor should they be a reason to encroach on the jurisdictions of others. I imagine that is what my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie was hoping I would say, but I would certainly not say that to him. However, they do not prevent collaboration and that is what we have wanted from the start.
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I would have liked to start by saying that I am quite pleased to rise to speak on the situation we are discussing this evening. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I would have preferred it if we did not have to do this at all. However, it is necessary. I will not go back over everything that has happened or the many regrettable incidents caused by the ongoing occupation, as my colle…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I will be quick. I obviously do find this deplorable, and I too can see my phone blowing up out of the corner of my eye. It is unfortunate, because we probably would not have reached this point if the situation had been brought under control quickly. I am guessing the members of the Quebec National Assembly did not receive as many hateful messages after last weekend's protest, since t…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know what is going on, but the Conservative Party seems to be all over the place these past few days. This morning the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles called for the streets to be cleared so that residents could get their city back. It is one thing to express an opinion and to protest, but it is a whole other thing to blockade a public roadway, which is illegal. I…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. For starters, he said a lot about the underused housing tax. The Bloc Québécois completely agrees with this concept, but there is just one small problem. This is yet another federal incursion into an area of jurisdiction that has not been used so far: property tax. We think that, instead of interfering, it would make much more sense for the federal…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona the same question I asked the member for Kitchener Centre earlier. The Bloc Québécois agrees with the NDP and the Green Party that underused housing should be taxed. What rubs us the wrong way, though, is the federal government grabbing a piece of the property tax pie, the one remaining area of jurisdiction it has not yet encro…
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Madam Chair, I thank all my colleagues for staying so late. We are starting things off with a bang today. The fact that there was unanimous consent to have this debate may indicate how important the Ukraine file is, as many have pointed out. I would like to come at the issue from a different angle. I do not want to talk about what can be done now. This evening's debate in the House may change very…
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I am so sorry. I will keep reading: “...a more active and visible Canadian presence internationally”, said a former diplomat who represented Canada in Africa and also wishes to remain anonymous. Also coming under fire is the Prime Minister's bad habit of appointing deputy foreign affairs ministers who have never served in an embassy abroad. “The fact that the vast majority of top officials at the …
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his very good question. As my esteemed colleague from Montarville already mentioned, we do not think that sending arms to support Ukraine will make Russia shake in its boots. That is not going to have a tangible impact on the ground. I will refer back to my speech, specifically to the idea that sending arms does more than just send a message. In that context, …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, we heard members from the governing party mention several times that the crucial thing, the thing that matters most in this case, is diplomacy and deterrence. Many have criticized the government's diplomatic efforts, saying that it was focusing a bit too much on soft power in circumstances that did not call for it. The actions taken may also be causing some confusion. The Ukrainians are…
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for the question. I will take this opportunity to mention that we work really well together at the Standing Committee on National Defence. That is part of what all members want to work on, in other words, recruitment and retention within the Canadian Armed Forces. It is about improving the image of the forces, which has been tarnished over the past few years. It i…
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Madam Chair, in fact, the Bloc Québécois's position is to not close the door entirely on the use of weapons. Nor did I say that that should follow diplomatic efforts. Both things can actually be done in parallel. They have to be done in parallel, because if there is a shipment of weapons, the message needs to be properly received. We can send weapons and maybe irritate Russia more than anything el…
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Mr. Chair, all evening in this debate, the Conservatives have been going on and on about Ukraine's requests for weapons. I would like my colleague to comment on whether she believes that what Canada can bring to the table in terms of weapons would have much of an impact on the ground. In that context, does she agree with me that we should use diplomacy instead of weapons? Does she recognize that t…
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Mr. Chair, the importance of diplomacy in resolving the conflict has come up a lot in tonight's debate. Some people put it second, some put it first, but everyone has talked about it. This crisis may have exposed certain shortcomings in Canada's ability to engage in credible diplomacy. Several ambassadors have complained in the press about the very rapid turnover in certain embassies and the loss …
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for her speech. I would like to expand on the question posed by my NDP colleague, who serves with us in committee. As we can see, cybersecurity is very important, especially with respect to enemies such as Russia. Does my colleague share my opinion that it is important to have better cybersecurity for ourselves and so that it can be better shared with our allies w…
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Madam Chair, I want to elaborate on the question that was just asked. We are talking about higher numbers of troops on the Ukrainian border. We are somewhat concerned that Russia will use other tactics to ultimately annex Donbass, mainly by supporting the rebel troops in that area. How can diplomacy have a role to play when things are being done in a clandestine way? I do not know if my colleague …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, that is kind of what we are proposing. Lockdown orders are not necessarily the reason arts and culture workers do not have work. Even without lockdown, venues are still not operating at full capacity. Lockdown is not necessarily a criterion, because we are more interested in the types of workers affected. I think we can all agree on this, because it is part of our basic demands.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, science and the precautionary principle should take precedence when it comes to pesticides and GMOs. The government seems to be moving away from transparency when, really, more transparency is needed. The government seems to be listening to the industry much more than to farmers and people who want to know what is on their dinner plates. The Bloc Québécois is proposing an investigat…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I let the cat out of the bag at the beginning of my speech, when I said that we did not intend to support the Conservatives in their attempt to split Bill C-2 into two parts. Also, generally speaking, when we think about bills and how we are going to vote, we think about who the bill is intended for and who it focuses on. We therefore have no intention of throwing a wrench into the …
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Madam Speaker, as members will recall, Health Canada caused quite an uproar over the summer when it sought to increase the allowable limits for pesticide residues on food. The public backlash pushed the government to delay that bad decision, as it was on the eve of the election campaign. The ongoing close relationship between Health Canada and the biotechnology and pesticide industry is troubling.…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, there are so many great shots I could take here, that I do not even know where to start. The best solution is definitely independence. There is also no doubt that health transfers are needed. Quebec could have done so much more if it had received its fair share. If we just look at the federal government's areas of jurisdiction, the bill clearly shows that some important work should …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I want to say right away that I will be sharing my time with my wonderful, passionate and fascinating colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé. I will start by being a good sport because I always like to find the good in any motion, bill or supply day topic that is presented. I will start by saying what I like about it. However, unfortunately, the thing I liked the most today was the hist…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned that he is proud that agreements have been signed with 10 provinces and three territories. However, he did not mention that it took not one or two but three years for the agreement with Quebec to be signed. In those three years, no new housing could be built and the price of materials went up, which means that it costs more to build now than it did initially. Wh…
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