Parliamentary Speeches
582 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 2 of 12
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to Bill C-14, which is quite a substantial bill with a relatively broad scope. It is clear that this is something that the House has been very interested in. Several private members' bills have been introduced that deal directly or indirectly with the same subject as Bill C‑14. I expect that this will open the door to some very interesting debate, if not …
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Mr. Speaker, there is a lot to unpack in this question, but I would like to repeat a statistic I mentioned at the beginning of my speech. There are more accused persons awaiting trial in prison today than there were, say, five years ago. During the Liberals' time in office, more accused persons have been kept in prison than in the past, yet the Conservatives are complaining that it is not enough. …
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Mr. Speaker, indeed, we should base our decisions much more on data and science than on media hype, which can sometimes be politically slanted, but can also lead to decisions that do not achieve the desired outcome. Unfortunately, when it comes to releasing accused persons, if we had more data, we could make better decisions. I still think that it is worth sending the bill to committee because it …
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Mr. Speaker, Quebecor announced last week that it is laying off 87 employees in its media division. Over the past two years, nearly 800 people have lost their jobs at TVA. That is a tragedy for Quebec culture. It is a tragedy for news diversity in Quebec. Quebec's largest private television network is teetering on the brink, and Ottawa is just watching it die a slow death. How many more layoffs wi…
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Mr. Speaker, try to imagine how the people at TVA feel about the Liberal message. The Liberals are talking about historic investments in culture, but there is not a penny for TVA. The government does not care about them. That is the message that the Liberals are sending to the people at TVA. These same Liberals are the only ones who refused to appear on TVA, which was asking for money because it h…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is looking at the wrong paper. The Liberals are cutting their program to plant two billion trees. That is what I asked about. They also reduced carbon pricing, and they are also using Bill C‑5 to bypass their own environmental assessments. All the environmental measures introduced under Justin Trudeau, as feeble and inadequate as they were, are being abandoned one by one.…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have announced that they are scrapping their plan to plant two billion trees. This proves once again that they have completely missed the point. Everyone laughed at them over this program, not because it was a bad program that needed to be scrapped, but because the Liberals were simply incapable of planting the trees. Everyone laughed at them because, year after year, the…
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Mr. Speaker, democracy has spoken in more than 1,000 municipalities across Quebec. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I would like to congratulate all the mayors and councillors who won last night. I want to wish those who were running for re-election as well as the first-time winners every success in fulfilling their mandate. They can count on the Bloc's friendly co-operation. I would also like to …
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Mr. Speaker, we are just 24 hours from the budget being tabled and the government is still threatening an election. Quite frankly, the public is not impressed because it voted for a minority government. A minority government is supposed to work with the other parties to get its budget passed. The government can take its pick of potential supporters. There are three to choose from, so it is ridicul…
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Mr. Speaker, the government is talking, but it is not negotiating. The government is listening, but it is not hearing. Canadians do not want an election. What they did want, however, was a minority government. Had they wanted the Liberals to behave like a monarchy, they would have given them full control. For three elections in a row now, voters have been telling them to work with the opposition a…
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Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago, Quebeckers came within a hair's breadth of forming their own country. Now, the yes camp is back in action. I have a message for all the Quebeckers who were part of that movement. It is time to roll up your sleeves and start again. To all the Quebeckers who, like me, were too young or not even born yet, to those who have changed their minds or who were living abroad, my m…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is welcome to join the yes camp when he finally realizes that that is where he belongs. Until then, he is not the one who gets to decide what is important to Quebeckers. Quebeckers themselves will decide what is important to them, including their future as a nation. The Quebec nation deserves to make all of its choices on its own, like any other nation on this planet. If …
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Mr. Speaker, this is a minority government. If the government wants its budget to pass, it will have to negotiate with someone. At this morning's scrum, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons confirmed that he is talking with the opposition parties, just not negotiating. He said it himself. He does not even call that negotiating. He says that the opposition's requests regarding princ…
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Mr. Speaker, what I am hearing is “let us keep talking”. The Liberals do not want to negotiate for support for their budget. They admit it openly. They do not want to invest in health care. They do not want to correct the injustice that exists regarding seniors' old age pensions. They do not want to transfer funding for housing and infrastructure with no strings attached. They do not want to pay b…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to the question of privilege raised last Friday by the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes concerning the posting of new forms on the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner's website. If what the member alleges is true, then that is a clear violation of the rules established by the House, which could lead to a finding of contempt of Parliamen…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have forgotten what it even means to work together for the common good. They are telling us to vote for their budget even though they have completely ignored Quebec's needs. Now they are shocked to be told that they need to get to work. One week remains before November 4. The Liberals are well aware of our demands concerning health care, seniors, housing, access to home o…
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Mr. Speaker, the government pointed fingers at the opposition again this past weekend, complaining that it will not have enough support to pass its budget. As a friendly reminder, the people elected a minority government. That means that voters wanted the government to work with the opposition parties and reach agreements. The government can come to an agreement with the Conservatives, with us or …
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Mr. Speaker, in the lead-up to the budget, the government has accused the opposition parties of playing political games. I need them to explain to me how we are playing political games by demanding that the government provide funding for health care, support seniors with the cost of living and address the housing, home ownership and infrastructure crisis. Our demands are based on the needs of Queb…
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Mr. Speaker, I will tell my colleague what political games and a reluctance to collaborate look like. It is when the Prime Minister meets with party leaders to discuss their budget expectations, when a speech has already been written for that very evening in which he completely ignores their requests. There is not a word about seniors or health care, nor any commitment to transfer money unconditio…
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Mr. Speaker, from October 20 to 26, Quebec is celebrating Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Week. I am sure that everyone in the House knows someone who deserves to be honoured today. I know that my colleague, the member for Mirabel, is thinking about his mother-in-law, who is an educator. Personally, I want to give a shout-out to Ms. Awa, whom I entrusted with my own little guy this morning. …
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Mr. Speaker, a preacher named Uthman Ibn Farooq is on a speaking tour in Canada despite his history of hate speech. For example, he thinks it is okay to capture women and use them as sex slaves. That kind of speech got him banned from the U.K. and even from Canada. However, he will have no trouble making the same kinds of remarks during his video conferences because they are protected under the Cr…
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Mr. Speaker, the Université du Québec à Montréal quickly cancelled a lecture the preacher was scheduled to give on its premises, and this should be applauded. However, fans of hate speech, misogyny, homophobia and the like will still be able to attend seven of his lectures across Canada, including in Quebec, in Brossard. This kind of speech has no place in Canada or Quebec. However, the federal go…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's meeting with Donald Trump was supposed to be about tariffs, but the goal was to eliminate them, not add more. To date, the Prime Minister has not had any wins in Washington, but he has suffered two defeats in the past seven days: new tariffs on our softwood lumber and, since yesterday, tariffs on trucks, which threaten Paccar in Sainte‑Thérèse. That is zero wins a…
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Mr. Speaker, I can hardly imagine that we are any further ahead today on tariffs. The Prime Minister's press conference with Donald Trump focused less on the economy and more on the president's whims, such as sending the National Guard to Chicago. Meanwhile, here at home, tariffs are going up, not down. Workers in industries like lumber and truck manufacturing are worried about their future. Today…
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Mr. Speaker, we commend the Prime Minister on his visit to Washington. We asked for it. It was time. More importantly, however, it is time he kept his election promise to make some gains for Quebec's economy. So far, it has been nothing but one concession after another. He capitulated on the digital services tax. He dropped the global minimum tax on the American tech giants. Talks are even being h…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister announced that he was going to focus on discussions about steel. Steel is important, but Quebec's aluminum and forestry sectors are important too. Not only is the Prime Minister not addressing these issues in his discussions, but the federal aid announced in August for the forestry industry is still not available. While he is in Washington, the Prime Minister needs …
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Mr. Speaker, a week ago, the Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement announced the end of postal services as we know them, including the end of home delivery and the closure of post offices. Not surprisingly, postal workers declared a general strike. The minister's announcement literally signals the end of their industry. Now, passports are being held at post offices, c…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are so out of touch and so irresponsible that they did not even anticipate the crisis they themselves created. For 10 years, they did nothing to modernize Canada Post: no real consultation and no real public debate on the future of this essential service, just silence and inaction. Ten years later, the Liberals wake up, set fire to the place, paralyze the postal service a…
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Mr. Speaker, the regions are also being abandoned in the federal government's reforms to Canada Post. Today Ottawa announced that it is lifting the moratorium on closing rural post offices. This decision will set us back 30 years. People in remote areas rely on Canada Post, particularly to deliver medication. Canada Post absolutely cannot reduce services in rural areas when these are often the onl…
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Mr. Speaker, mail is an essential service, but the Canada Post reform the federal government just announced seems to forget that fact entirely, and in doing so, it has forgotten thousands of Quebeckers. Some seniors need to get their mail delivered to their home, especially those outside the major cities. People with disabilities are also worried about this. Can the government guarantee all Quebec…
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Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary just demonstrated that the Attorney General's position goes well beyond the specific question of secularism. What he really wants is to deprive the provinces of their autonomy, which they won in a hard-fought battle during constitutional negotiations around section 33. On the issue of excessive, pre-emptive or disproportionate use of the provision, this i…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this important motion, and I want to thank my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord for moving it today so that we can debate it. I also thank him for his very enlightening speech. Like him, I will take the liberty of rereading the motion for the benefit of everyone here and the many people who I know are tuning in at home. That the House: (a) call on the governmen…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, and I am happy he asked it in excellent French. The government never misses an opportunity to deflect. However, our role is to hold it accountable for all of its actions, and we can do so on several fronts. That is what we are trying to do today. We can talk about how the provinces need to be able to make their own decisions, and we can simulta…
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Madam Speaker, at the risk of repeating myself, we are not saying that the government should not disagree on the notwithstanding clause. It absolutely has the right to do that. However, if it wants to get rid of it, it should hold constitutional talks instead of using the courts to sidestep what could be a very meaningful political debate. We think that is cowardly, and that is what we are speakin…
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Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I missed the beginning of the question, but I think I got the gist of it, and I just answered it, in part. The courts should not be tasked with examining the use of the notwithstanding clause. We are not saying that there should not be any discussion on the notwithstanding clause. We are saying that the government is using the wrong forum.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' intervention in the challenge to Bill 21 is a constitutional power grab, as their statements today showed. For them, the problem is more than just secularism. For them, the problem is that Quebec can use the notwithstanding clause to pass laws that Ottawa does not agree with. The Liberals want to weaken this clause, the only tool that allows Quebec to not be subordinate …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are doing more than just challenging Bill 21. They want a say in all Quebec legislation. Their factum implies that Quebeckers lack the judgment to be allowed to pass their own laws without Ottawa's oversight. As proof, they offer utterly apocalyptic examples, such as the possibility that Quebec might use the notwithstanding clause to legalize slavery or arbitrary executio…
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government is attacking much more than secularism at the Supreme Court, it is attacking Quebec's parliamentary sovereignty by amending the Constitution without debate through the courts. This is a blow to the basic function of the notwithstanding clause, which is to protect democracy from a government of judges. If the federal government wants to amend the Constitution, th…
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa's brief to the Supreme Court challenging Bill 21 is the stuff of conspiracy theories. In their challenge against state secularism, the Liberals are claiming it would create a slippery slope that could lead to nightmare scenarios, such as the banning of places of worship. They even suggest that Quebec could reinstate slavery or executions. It says a lot about how Canadians see Q…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not only Bill 21 and state secularism that Ottawa is attacking at the Supreme Court, it is worse than that. By attacking the notwithstanding clause itself, Ottawa is attacking the ability of our National Assembly to vote democratically on any law that is supported by Quebeckers without having to beg Canada for permission first. This is an attack against secularism, but it is als…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no such thing as pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. It is a myth invented to keep Quebec from deciding for itself. The federal government is openly asking the courts to nullify part of the Constitution with no political debate and no say from politicians, in a bid to take fundamental powers away from Quebec. This is not a legal debate. It is a constitutional power…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the promotion of Canada, including contributions to third parties, between April 1, 1995, and March 31, 1996: (a) what was the total cost incurred by the Government of Canada, broken down (i) by agency and department, (ii) by month; (b) what are the details of all internal and external communications and briefing materials between Option Canada, the Canadian Unity Council, Conseil Q…
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With regard to the organization of the Unity Rally (love-in) in 1995: (a) what funding was provided by the federal government for its organization, broken down by department; and (b) what resources were allocated by the federal government and Crown corporations, especially Via Rail, broken down by department and Crown corporation?
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is taking advantage of the distraction caused by the G7 summit to force his Bill C-5 through under a gag order. It is an attack on Quebec and indigenous peoples. Fortunately, some people are paying attention. Yesterday, the Assembly of First Nations threatened to take legal action if Bill C-5 is passed without adequate consultation with indigenous peoples. Also yest…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Beaches—East York is certainly not the only Liberal who is uncomfortable with Bill C-5. There are other Liberals who did not go into politics to force pipelines on Quebec without its consent and without a credible environmental assessment. There are other Liberals who did not go into politics to undermine reconciliation efforts by forcing energy projects on indigenous p…
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Mr. Speaker, during question period, you asked my colleague from Repentigny to withdraw comments that you deemed to be unparliamentary when he was talking about the fact that the Liberals lied during the election. His comments were therefore about events that occurred outside the House. I would like to know if it is possible to clarify whether the rules about parliamentary language extend to thing…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been hearing my Liberal colleague say over and over again that, during the election, they promised to have the bill enacted before July 1. I find that a little presumptuous. It implies that, during the election, either the Liberals thought that they would form a majority government, which is not the case, or they really did not take the work of members of Parliament into accoun…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister thinks that he is Pierre Poilievre. He wants to impose closure on Bill C‑5 so that he can make all the decisions about energy projects. He wants to be able to unilaterally decide, by executive order, which projects will go ahead in the national interest, and he wants to be able to unilaterally define what the national interest is based on his personal opinion. He wa…
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Mr. Speaker, when the Conservatives want to pass a Liberal bill under a gag order and Danielle Smith supports the federal Liberals in Ottawa, it is clear that the oil companies are the ones who are really behind Bill C‑5. Quebeckers did not vote Liberal to have Conservative policies that benefit oil companies and Danielle Smith imposed on them under a gag order. If Quebeckers had wanted Pierre Poi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my leader for his excellent speech. It is always a pleasure to hear him speak. I would like to hear more of his thoughts on the Liberals' line about how they have 44 Quebec MPs in the House. We know that the Prime Minister cavalierly disregards democracy and the role of parliamentarians. There may be 44 MPs, but there could just as well be 72 or 128 or 343, and they would all …
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