Parliamentary Speeches

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, as it relates to the government's management of its legislative calendar, I think that is more a question the member can direct to his House leader. The government can call any bills that it wants at any time during Government Orders. I understand that the House is going to be sitting until midnight to consider Government Orders. However, we are now in the rubric of motions, where m…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his comments, but I do think this is an important debate. Of course, the House will be continuing debate until midnight, so the government will have an opportunity to bring forward Government Orders. This is a motion that is important to discuss. I want to ask the member about testimony we heard from representatives of the National Resistance …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I move that the 12th report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, presented to the House on Monday, June 5, 2023, be concurred in. It is a pleasure for me to rise to be able to speak to this important committee report, which deals with the House's ongoing condemnation of the Taliban for its horrific violence against the Afghan people. While I am moving this concurre…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, this motion deals with the listing of a terrorist organization, the Taliban, and highlights that, in the context of recognizing the need for special provisions to bring in humanitarian assistance, we also need to be firm in denouncing the Taliban. It is saying that, while we want to find ways of getting humanitarian assistance in, the Taliban needs to continue to be a listed terrori…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, on the matter of the consultation requirements, the House leader said that House leaders were consulted. He did not consult with our caucus in the drafting of this at all. He consulted with the NDP maybe—

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of Justice a question specifically about those people in prison who are accessing medical assistance in dying. This is a concern, obviously. Those who are wrongfully convicted, and others, may, sadly, be in a situation where they are pursuing this. Reports indicate that concerns have been raised by various experts about this, that Canada is a leading provide…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, at the same time as the committee adopted this bill, we adopted a motion that my Conservative colleague had put forward, which was a clear denunciation of the Taliban. It included identifying the system of gender discrimination it has built and is building and called for the continued listing of the Taliban as a terrorist organization. It is very important that we work closely with wo…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to address the House today concerning this important piece of legislation, Bill C-41, the trigger of which is the crisis in Afghanistan, but which, more broadly, seeks to establish a framework for allowing vitally needed short- and long-term development assistance to get into areas controlled by terrorist organizations. I want to start my remarks toda…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I do have many concerns about this legislation, although I do think the member gilds the lily a bit. The irony, in relation to her comments, is that the development sector has overwhelmingly said that it would like us to pass this bill, though it has also been critical of various aspects of it. I know the member worked in the sector previously, but I do not think sh…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives have many questions about how this regime would work in practice, but we also recognize the urgency of having some kind of legislative framework that would allow urgently needed assistance to be delivered in Afghanistan. This reflects what the Afghan Canadian community and development stakeholders are looking for. Sadly, we are a little behind the eight ball in Canada. M…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, as I said, I certainly agree that this bill has been improved through the committee process. I think it improves on the absence of a bill in this context, although there is still a lot of work to be done. This is why Conservatives proposed a very tight timeline for review, so that we will be able to revisit the subject a year from now. Our government has moved far too late on this, bu…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I do not think it is quite correct that the Conservatives, when in government, never accepted opposition party amendments. It was very good to be able to work constructively with members of all parties, including the governing party. Of course, the context we have right now is a minority Parliament. There was the opportunity for the opposition to come together and make changes to the …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with the points the member made about the timing. This has been raised multiple times by multiple committees. I think there were two different motions adopted at the foreign affairs committee. Prior to that, there was a recommendation in the report from the Special Committee on Afghanistan. If we had been on top of it timing-wise, we would probably already be at that o…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I regret to advise the member that she has not kept up on the unfolding of events at the foreign affairs committee at all. We had a dispute at the committee about aspects of the committee's agenda. Our view was that the committee should prioritize work on the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and other studies the committee had already agreed to. Nonetheless, despite that dispute, we eventu…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I appreciate your taking it under advisement and returning to the House at the appropriate time. The question is Question No. 1398, and the response was tabled on April 13.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am immensely enjoying the remarks of the leader, but the members in the front row this evening are repeatedly interrupting with regular points of order. I actually had another point of order I wanted to raise briefly while I am on my feet, regarding—

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I would ask that the Speaker call in particular the parliamentary secretary across the way, who should be listening to this point, because in the midst of heckling this point, the parliamentary secretary was in fact one of the offenders in the course of these events. The members opposite should take seriously their obligations to follow the rules in this place. Instead of heckling, …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, earlier we had a situation where members of Parliament were using props in this House. They were not speaking, but they were very clearly holding up props and making comments about them. It seemed to make a total mockery of the rules around props, and people it seems had brought in items that were supposed to represent certain things that were in relation to past comments the speake…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I want to briefly, while I have chance, raise concerns about the response I received to Order Paper Question No. 1398. I think that I did not receive a response to this question, so I wonder if the Chair could review the matter and return to the House about it. It was a question regarding gender parity among staff. The question identifies a number of specific areas where I am lookin…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this is not a feminist policy. It would increase taxes on women as well as on men, and it would subsidize particular choices and not others. It would create a fiscal pressure by subsidizing people who use particular kinds of child care arrangements, and it would offer no support to shift workers, those who choose to stay at home for periods of time with their children, those who are…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I had a lot to say about the previous speech on royal titles, but I will focus on the subject matter of the speech that was just given. In terms of this issue of carbon taxes being a market mechanism or whether it is a market thing or not, I think the important point is that of course they involve the possibility of incentives and training and they recognize those realities, but funda…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The minister is not allowed to, even inaccurately, refer to the presence or absence of members. I do not think she was actually here for the whole debate, but regardless, she is not supposed to claim she was here, if I understand the rules around presence and absence.

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I would just again commend to this hon. member the reading of the annual report of the Trudeau Foundation, which will testify to all the points I have made with respect to the organization's structure and the continuing membership of the Prime Minister on the foundation. I would put to the member, as well, that, yes, the Prime Minister's Office is a four-storey building. We are not …

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am speaking tonight about the inconsistencies between the government's claims about the Trudeau Foundation and the actual facts of what has happened in terms of the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Trudeau Foundation. There are a couple of key points that are, I think, not disputed. The Trudeau Foundation was founded with a $125-million grant from the Government of …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, at a basic level, I struggle to understand the fairness of taxing all families and subsidizing some child care choices and not others. People make a variety of choices, and they have a variety of approaches to child care. Some of those reflect their circumstances, the kinds of jobs they have, their choices about the division of labour and these sorts of things. How is it fair that a…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question from my colleague. It is a generally a pleasure working together on the public accounts committee, although today we had to sit through extensive filibustering from the Liberals because they do not want to allow us to look at documents from the Trudeau Foundation. Nonetheless, it is usually a pleasure, and any lack of pleasure is not the fault of the ho…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I have raised a motion that is not a dilatory motion. It is a debatable motion. We are debating it. When the debate on this concludes, we will proceed with the daily routine of business, which will provide the member an opportunity to make his request for an emergency debate. I suggest that, if he wants to learn more about these procedural issues, the Conservative House leader would…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am going to table a number of petitions that relate to the human rights situation in Hong Kong. First of all, the petitioners note how recent Hong Kong graduates can apply for open work permits under a temporary public policy for Hong Kong residents. In June 2021, there were two pathways, stream A and stream B, announced to Hong Kongers who worked or studied in Canada to obtain perm…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the next petition is one I had a number of copies of and has been in my desk for a little while. It is, in some respects, a little bit dated, but I think it is always worth a reminder. The petition calls on the Government of Canada to end all COVID-19 mandates. I am pleased to table that as well.

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the ongoing, horrific and unjust detention of Mr. Huseyin Celil. The petitioners note that they were very pleased to see the release of the two Michaels who had been detained for 1,000 days in China. They note that Mr. Celil has been detained for over 5,000 days, that he is a Canadian citizen and a person of Uyghur ethnic origin who had been vocal on advoc…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to present a number of petitions to the House today. The first petition is the same as the petition my colleague presented with respect to the human rights situation in Turkey, Pakistan and Bahrain. The petitioners are concerned about officials in all three of these countries committing human rights violations against thousands of Turks, including Tur…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, of course there is a wide variety of factors that impacts energy prices. There is a wide variety of factors that impacts prices for anything, but when we add a tax on top of energy prices, then we are saying that, whatever the market price would have been, we will make it higher by taxing it. It is inevitably true that, regardless of what the market price will be and the other facto…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the next petition is also about the situation in Hong Kong. The petitioners note the injustices that have been inflicted against Hong Kong and how people who have been involved in the democracy movement might have faced politically motivated prosecutions and, as such, they might be considered inadmissible to Canada under the current approach being taken. The petitioners are concerned …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I welcome colleagues, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak about Bill C-281, the international human rights act, and to congratulate my colleague. Over this journey we have had together on this bill, I have been working to get his constituency's name right. It is Northumberland—Peterborough South. I want to recognize the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South for putting …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, given the critical nature of this debate, I wonder if you could confirm that the House has quorum.

Routine Proceedings

moved that the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented on Thursday, October 20, 2022, be concurred in. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to be able to speak to this very important committee report. It has been an honour for me to work as part of the team on the public accounts committee. I will be sharing my time. The 20th report deals with the public accounts themsel…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I apologize for that and I apologize to the interpreters. Canadians are struggling because of increasing costs, and these costs are the result of a failed fiscal policy from the current government. We listen to the way the government talks about spending, and whenever things go wrong, it is not the Liberals' fault. Whenever the Liberals are spending money, they have no sense of the …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the hon. member would like us to believe that the Liberals have a plan. How is that plan going? The carbon tax was supposed to fix this problem, but then the member comes to me to say that we still have a problem. The Liberal plan is not working. The Liberal plan is not achieving results. Conservatives do not believe that increasing taxes on Canadians is the solution. The more effec…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am surprised that the NDP House leader knows so little about the procedural workings of this place. I had no idea that New Democrats were planning to request an emergency debate. Maybe it is on the member's Twitter. I do not follow him on Twitter, so I really had no idea, but—

Oral Questions

Respectfully, on the facts, Madam Speaker, I believe someone may have been trying to get the attention of the Chair online. I cannot say for sure, because I was not online and I am here, but I—

Madam Speaker, with due respect to my friend from Winnipeg North, he is clearly not even paying attention. I have raised an issue of privilege, and he is welcome to make arguments about it—

Madam Speaker, on the same point of order, just logically, I am confused by the arguments from the member for Winnipeg North. He is saying that the Speaker is, in his view, about to make a ruling, and, therefore, that the member should wait to hear the Speaker's ruling before making arguments that would be material to the Speaker's ruling. It seems to be quite logical that members would want to ma…

Madam Speaker, I do think it is material to the requirements here that the government made a last-minute change to the schedule with respect to the calling of Bill C-47. Members became aware of it for the first time in the Thursday question, which was very late in the day yesterday. I understand that it is common for members to write to the Speaker in advance, and that is ideal, but it is ideal un…

Point of order.

Madam Speaker, it was actually a point of order on the process for raising points of order during points of order. This member has, on multiple occasions, interrupted a point of order. When another member is raising and explaining a matter of order, his point of order should not take precedence over an existing point of order on the floor. I think he has also failed to take note of the fact that t…

Madam Speaker, I recognize the correctness of everything you said, but I would add that there is an exception to the Standing Orders in terms of the Speaker's power as it relates to what happens at committee. Standing Order 116(2)(b) reads: A violation of paragraph (a) of this section may be brought to the attention of the Speaker by any member and the Speaker shall have the power to rule on the m…

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to raise a question of privilege in relation to a number of issues respecting the process on Bill C-47 that I believe violate the privileges of members. I will identify at least three distinct situations, or areas, where the privilege of members of Parliament, in my view, was violated in the process of disposing of this bill. I will begin with just a few…

Madam Speaker, that is precisely what I intend to do. The member across the way is heckling and asking what the matter of privilege is. Again, I invite him to listen, and I think he will appreciate the point. I also want to identify, as I said earlier, that there are at least three separate ways in which the privileges of members were impacted by the proceedings on Bill C-47. I will be appropriate…

The heckling continues, but I will continue in spite of it. Page 81 of the third edition of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice states: There are...other affronts against the dignity and authority of Parliament which may not fall within one of the specifically defined privileges. Thus, the House also claims the right to punish, as a contempt, any action which, though not a breach of a spec…

Madam Speaker, if the parliamentary secretary does not like hearing questions of privilege raised, my suggestion would be that the government not violate the privileges of members. There would then be less of a need for questions of privilege to be raised in the House—