Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, if we are going to be in this place, we must use parliamentary language. Imputing thoughts of not caring on another member is completely unparliamentary.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, it is interesting that my colleague from Winnipeg is heckling me as I am saying this, because I am speaking about a bill that should be of interest to everybody in the House. Now the member for Kingston and the Islands is getting in on the act.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, this is what we are talking about: sexual offences against children and adults. When somebody commits a robbery in this country, it is the taking of property by force and they are liable to life imprisonment. When someone's consent and dignity are taken by force when it comes to sexual assault, the maximum sentence is 10 years in jail. We therefore treat the taking of someone's sexu…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. During question period, I received word of the passing of Stephen Soll, a lawyer in my riding. I had the honour of being called to the bar in British Columbia on the same day as his son. I would like to recognize his distinguished career and his advocacy, and give his family and loved ones my best wi…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Before asking my colleague a question, I do wish to recognize the passing of a friend from high school and former constituent, Daniel Letendre. I wish his family all the best, and may eternal light shine upon him. I heard my colleague speaking about small business tax cuts and things of that nature. …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I note one of my colleagues just asked how Conservatives can look themselves in the eye. We are His Majesty's loyal opposition, while the NDP has become the government's loyal coalition. When we look at the past three, four, five or six months with regard to the cost of living increase and all that…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am tabling a petition in support of Bill S-223, a bill that seeks to combat forced harvesting and trafficking of organs. I understand that similar legislation has passed twice in the Senate and in the House in its current form. Families of those who are impacted obviously want to see change, as do a number of Canadians, as reflected in this petition.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, people in Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo are struggling to put food on their tables and fuel in their cars. We know the Prime Minister does not think about monetary policy, and the budget has not balanced itself. We also know that ordinary citizens are under extraordinary financial pressures. Will the Prime Minister cancel planned tax hikes so we can give ordinary Canadians a break?

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, the new Conservative leader will put people first: their retirement, their paycheques, their homes and their country. We need to restore the hope of home ownership. Right now, youth and newcomers cannot get a home because local government gatekeepers block housing with heavy fees and long delays for building permits. This leaves us with the fewest houses per capita of any country in t…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. First, I would be remiss if I did not wish my daughter a happy birthday today. Second, this is the anniversary for many of us of our election one year ago, and I hope I never take for granted rising in the House. I send my congratulations as well to all those who are marking the one-year anniversary …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, the new Conservative leader will put people first: their retirement, their paycheques, their homes and their country. We need to restore home ownership. Right now—

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. It is unfortunate, though, that it is on this occasion that I rise to remember the 96 years of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. That being said, I am honoured to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo to mark the Queen's passing. I take this opportunity to commemorate t…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. government House leader wants to have dialogue, so here is some dialogue. This is supposed to be predicated on COVID, and what we see on this side of the House is that being used as an excuse not to be here. We see people who are here in the morning, on video in the afternoon and then here the next morning. After question period, we see those members on the front benches es…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I just want to know how long the member researched that speech. Did he in fact make a material contribution or was it prepared for him?

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the citizens of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. The hon. minister has talked about the fact that we need to have resolute debate in this place, and here we have the antithesis of that, the cutting off of debate with the help of the government's coalition partners in the NDP. How does the minister reconcile the fact that Conservatives are more …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. What we just saw was what I would call feigned magnanimity. Quite candidly, this is the most divisive government I have ever seen, and we have the hon. member here waxing eloquently and even pontificating. Seeing as the Pope is coming to Canada, let us call it that. He is pontificating about the ne…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the citizens of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I will look directly at the member and say that on this side of the House, we care about gun crime. I spent three years of my life invested in doing everything I could with respect to my job when it came to gun crime, and I believe that my colleagues share that same sentiment. We do not want to s…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I hearken back to my maiden speech today to discuss something I am passionate about. It is time we stop using the phrase “child pornography”. Words matter, and the term child pornography sanitizes the extreme harm caused to children. Pornography describes media between consenting adults. Children can never consent to sexual activity with adults. This is why any sexual depiction of a c…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, Conservatives have not been misinforming about the bill. Conservatives want the best bill possible, and we will not apologize for fighting for that.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I do not distrust the institution so much as I distrust the government. Let us go through it here. The budget will balance itself. We will have modest deficits, I believe $10 billion. The budget will be balanced, set in stone, by 2020. Law enforcement asked for the Emergencies Act. There is also going to eat caviar with Russians when they have recently invaded Ukraine, and blaming p…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the member's question was actually just posed to my hon. colleague. I am not sure if my colleague heard, but my hon. colleague from Lakeland just answered this very question. If we are going to get into a battle of duelling experts, then we can certainly do that because Professor Michael Geist, a professor of law, somebody whose life revolves around this, has been highly critical of…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf on the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Before I begin, I want to take care of a couple of things. First, there were three people in my riding who were tragically killed over the weekend, including a four-week-old infant. Last I heard, there was a young person as well who remained in critical condition after this tragic motor vehicle acc…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, in response to a question from my hon. colleague, the hon. parliamentary secretary essentially laid the blame with the Conservative House leader for the amendments at committee being rammed through. The last time I checked, it was the Liberals and their coalition partners who have a majority there, so who is he to place the blame on the Conservatives for those amendments being ramme…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. My colleague mentioned that shows like The Beachcombers and, if I understood his argument correctly, shows like Corner Gas may not be possible in the future if not for a bill like Bill C-11. Can he point the House to precisely where in the bill it empowers shows like Corner Gas and The Beachcombers…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, this question allows me to raise a vital point. The sentence for robbery is a maximum of life in prison. Breaking and entering has a maximum sentence of life in prison. These are offences that we often see. Robbery is taking property by force from somebody. Sexual assault is taking a person's dignity by force, a person's sexual inviolability, yet sexual assault has a maximum of a 10-y…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary referenced Newt Gingrich, saying that mandatory minimums were not successful in the United States. In my view, the United States' experiment with mandatory minimums was completely different than the Canadian approach. In the United States, sentences are often 10 times what they are here, and it has the three-strike rules. We do not have that in Canad…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. At the outset, I will note that I will be splitting my time with the member for Provencher. Believe it or not, this is an area that is close to my heart as somebody who previously taught a sentencing class and somebody who worked in the criminal justice system, both in federal corrections as a defe…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Members would think that the hon. parliamentary secretary was speaking to the private member's bill just tabled by my colleague, the member for Kelowna—Lake Country, because he focused so many of his comments on the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. As somebody who worked in corrections, I c…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leadership race has nothing to do with the member's speech and he should not be getting into it.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I found it interesting that during his speech, the member said we are not going to be dealing with conditional sentence orders on some sort of sexual offence, as I heard it, but I cannot remember the term he used. I will remind him that about two weeks ago, I brought up a case in the House where a seven- or eight-year-old was victimized by the child's caregiver. That person received a…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague brings up a great point. Section 718 of the Criminal Code deals with sentencing, and it talks about the principles of denunciation and deterrence. When we think about these things, we are asking, “What message are we sending to the public?” I would answer the question with a question: What message do we send when a reckless discharge of a firearm can result in a comm…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I know he cares a great deal about this issue and his constituents. When we look at penalties, they are just one part of a bigger puzzle. When we look at Bill C-5, we are asking what the appropriate penalty is. If the member were to consult our recent election platform from 2021, he would see that we have been advocating treating substance abuse di…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we are experiencing an opioid epidemic, and at times I have seen the impacts of that first-hand. There should be serious consequences, particularly when it comes to the trafficking of certain opiates, like fentanyl. I believe we should be denouncing and deterring such behaviour with substantial jail sentences, and in my view a minimum sentence for trafficking in things like fentanyl w…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I have only two and a half minutes left for my speech on Bill C-5. The point I want to emphasize to the House is this: There is a middle ground. We have talked about what the government wishes to accomplish and we have considered how the government should go about accomplishing it. What I would propose and have proposed is to add a mechanism to this law that would allow mandatory mini…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I will expect the apology afterward. How dare the minister wag his finger at me, given his conduct in the House. The minister needs to stop diverting, stop deflecting and start divulging. He said that law enforcement asked for the Emergencies Act. They did not. He misled Canadians and put his own integrity into question. Will he offer his resignation today, yes or no?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the minister continues to spread misinformation and cannot be trusted. Like me, the minister was a lawyer in his prior life. We both taught in a law school. I taught about the necessity of being honest. I trust he was honest with the courts. Being honest with Parliament is even more important. He repeatedly told the House that law enforcement requested the Emergencies Act. They did no…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I had no idea that my hon. colleague was going in that direction with that preamble. Obviously, I come from a legal background, and I do agree with my colleague that the courts are sacrosanct and that we have arm's-length relationships. However, what the member is getting at is something that has been an issue in an active leadership race and, frankly, it would be imprudent for me t…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, that may be a first. It is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the citizens of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, especially on such an important night in this Parliament. Every day is obviously important, but when we discuss important motions, when we talk about money and confidence votes, it is an extremely important day. Today we are talking about Department of Justice estimates. One …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, we need to act quickly. When the decision was rendered about the constitutionality or lack of constitutionality of an anti-oil decision from Alberta, the Prime Minister said we would be appealing it right away. Where is that vigour to protect victims here? That should have been the next issue that we were dealing with. We should have dealt with it yesterday.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I do not know if the member did it deliberately or not, but referring to the leader of the Conservative Party as somebody who is a leadership contestant is offside. He should refrain from doing that.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I do not know where to start here. As I understand his speech, the member said reducing the sales tax is repugnant and should not be supported because it contributes to the overall deficit. Is it not the whole point that we are trying to put money back into people's pockets based on their consumpti…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the main point of my hon. colleague's speech was reconciliation in indigenous communities. One issue is this. We know that indigenous people are vastly overrepresented in our justice system, but also in victimization rates, yet her government has left the victim ombud position empty for quite some time now. Is the member able to somehow reconcile the contents of her speech with leavin…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this is an incredibly important question. My colleague raises the point about the court decision being the end of it. It is not the end of it. It is the end of the beginning, because now we move on to the next phase. The next phase is how Parliament should intervene. Parliament creates the laws, and the courts interpret them. The courts interpret law A a certain way. Now we move to …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, with all candour, I have not had a chance to review the coroner's report. However, I did see something tangentially, in passing, in the news. I cannot pass any judgment. The fact that people died in a heat dome is difficult for all of us. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those people. We never want to see this again. My hope is that if there is anything we can do as parliam…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition that is based on the values test. Canada is a landscape that has diverse views and the government has, according to the petitioners, sought to emphasize some views over others when it comes to charitable status and the values test with respect to the Canada summer jobs grant. The petitioners seek to reverse that policy.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, our country's housing crisis is at a critical point. This impacts everyone, including our soldiers. Recently, a senior B.C. officer told soldiers that they should go to Habitat for Humanity for assistance. These are people who are prepared to lay down their lives for our freedom and they are told to go to charity. It is shameful. When will the government provide adequate housing for o…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned about recent events in our justice system. Someone who commits multiple murders is now eligible for parole as though they had committed only one, and extreme intoxication can be a defence for sexual and violent crimes. One event that recently hit me most when I reread it just this morning came in a case from a few months ago of a seven-year-old child sexually vic…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I am sure you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That, given we are approaching the one-year anniversary of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, the House (a) recognize the harm done to Indigenous peoples and the need for healing as demonstrat…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, next week marks one year since the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops residential school. The announcement sent shockwaves through the country and around the world. It opened up the eyes of thousands of Canadians and others to the horrors of residential schools. I offer my deepest condolences to residential school survivors. I thank those who have shown incredible…

Routine Proceedings

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-274, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (detention in custody). Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. This bill addresses a central issue when it comes to street crime affecting Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo and all areas of Canada. It responds to the decision in Regina v. Zora from the Supreme Court of Can…