Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member mentioned human trafficking. I believe she is one of the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group to End Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, and I want to thank her and all members who are involved in that group, including my Conservative colleague from Peace River—Westlock. This is a very important issue, and it requires additional action. I agree with the point …
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Madam Speaker, thank you for announcing to the House that I will be delivering the late show later this evening. If, after this speech, the member for Winnipeg North and others feel they have not heard enough, they can certainly stick around. Just to preview a little, I will be speaking at that time about the Liberal McKinsey scandal, about the fact that the government—
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and address a packed House this afternoon. The government often calls its legislation “historic” and often it is not historic. However, in a very formal sense this is a historic piece of legislation insofar as it establishes rules around national historic sites. Just as a preface, though, to the points I would like to make about this legislation, I imagine t…
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Madam Speaker, I disagree with some aspects of the member's characterization of my speech. Part of the obligation of members of Parliament is to provide a broader and deeper analysis of the principles involved, and I think I have done that. Maybe the member can take some time this evening to watch the speech again on CPAC. He might enjoy that. Perhaps it will be edifying to him and those he watche…
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Madam Speaker, if that did not make it on the record, the member for Winnipeg North shared that he has my speeches on repeat when he goes home. Unfortunately, it has not had the desired effect. You would think that if he were really watching and listening, he would—
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I share the hon. member's criticism of many of these companies. Frankly, they talk a good game when it comes to corporate social responsibility or community engagement in North America, but they completely fail to apply those principles in other countries. Some of the companies, for example, were very happy to talk about Black Lives Matter in North America, but they were not in Chin…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. It is a pleasure to work with the Bloc on these issues. As for Bill S‑211, as I was saying, I believe that this bill is positive. It helps in achieving certain objectives, but it does not encompass everything that needs to be taken into account. There are several other measures to bring in. I had asked the government to do more in order to achi…
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Madam Speaker, I think I did a panel with my hon. friend precisely on the Indo-Pacific strategy. I told him, at the time, that the Indo-Pacific strategy sounds, in certain respects, like the Liberals are trying to talk like Conservatives, but they are still acting like Liberals. This is the problem. If we read the Indo-Pacific strategy, sure, there are some pieces in there where Tibetans are menti…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this important topic, and I want to recognize the work of my colleague from Dufferin—Caledon, our shadow minister for trade, who is thinking very much about how to not only advance Canada's economic interests in trade, but also apply moral values and principles to the approach we take to trade and the importation of products. When most Canadians think ab…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising today to present a petition that relates to a significant public health concern for Canadians. The petition is from Canadians who are concerned about the over-prescription and dangers associated with benzodiazepines, or benzos. Petitioners note that this class of drugs carries significant risks associated with both use and withdrawal. A recent study revealed that over half…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I wonder if the Liberals plan to make Gerry Butts the rapporteur. Their sense of independence seems to be off the charts. In all seriousness, the member's response is absurd. He says his government has been in power for eight years, and he asks why the Conservatives did not see this problem coming and fix it beforehand. He said we are the ones responsible. He is saying the Liberals …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister is under immense pressure on the issue of foreign interference, and it is no wonder, when he cannot answer very simple, basic questions and instead resorts to feigning outrage on every possible pretext. How dare the opposition ask these questions. How dare we insinuate that the people involved are failing to put the national interest first. How dare we suggest tha…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and support Bill C-289 from my colleague, the member for Simcoe North. I want to congratulate him for taking on this important issue. This is a bill aimed at combatting money laundering. As we move towards the second reading vote on this bill, I wanted to share a few thoughts that reflect conversations I have had. In particular, I have had conversations with…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is quite a thing to be accused of ranting by the member for Winnipeg North. I am so sorry to have disappointed him with my speech. I recall in an earlier exchange he referred to me as a “mischievous little guy”. I framed that and put it on my wall. That is truly having a ride. The goal I set out from the beginning was to be thus recognized by the member. He asks what changes to t…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak to Bill C-27 in the House today, a bill that deals with issues related to privacy, as well as the way that the government interacts with large corporations to protect, or not, the privacy of Canadians. I want to say at the outset that I am deeply concerned by the fact that the government has clearly been captured by certain corporate interests. It is…
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Madam Speaker, my short answer would be that, no, we should not trust the government. My slightly longer answer would be that over the last few years, we have seen various actions through COVID and various other actions contemplated by the government. In all of these actions, there is a great deal of concern about people's privacy. Because of the way the government has acted in the past, there is …
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Madam Speaker, some members will recall that way back in 2015, eight long years ago, in the lead-up to that election, the Liberal platform spoke about how the Liberals would end omnibus bills. That went the way of the dodo bird, as did many of their other election commitments. It was such a sunny time, in the rhetoric of the Liberal caucus, and we see the government's management of its legislative…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today and speak in support of Bill S-211. It is an important bill, and the Conservative caucus supports it. We have sought to advance it through the process, and we look forward to seeing it come into force at the beginning of next year, as per the coming-into-force timelines. I was in the hon. member's neck of the woods this weekend, in Toronto, having meet…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary opinion to the second report mentioned with respect to Ukraine. The Conservatives are pleased to fully endorse the main committee's report. Our supplementary opinion identifies three areas where we wish to go further in supporting international peace and security. These areas are as follows: contributing to global energy security and food security, combatting fo…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, there are no surprises in that non-answer, unfortunately. The parliamentary secretary, ironically, cites a number of instances of groups that were listed by the previous Conservative government, and then expects to be congratulated, I suppose, for the fact that the government has allowed these terrorist organizations listed by Conservatives to remain on the list, but has not listed …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, four and a half years ago, I put forward a motion in this House calling on the Government of Canada to list the IRGC, the Iranian government's weapon of terror against its own people and people throughout the world, as a terrorist organization within the Criminal Code. That motion passed this House. All Conservatives and every present member of the Liberal caucus, including the Prim…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, hiring more people at McKinsey is not a jobs plan. The House leader should listen to his Prime Minister because the Prime Minister said of Dominic Barton, “we recruited him”. Now, Dominic Barton admitted in testimony that Andrew Pickersgill, the head of McKinsey's Canadian operations, supplied analysts to the Prime Minister's growth council. McKinsey then used that access to set up sa…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, government services are broken. Liberals have significantly grown the size of the public service while still giving billions of dollars to outside consultants, yet nothing seems to work. The Prime Minister has admitted that he personally recruited Dominic Barton and provided him with preferential access, access that his company, McKinsey, used to do over $100 millio…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, earlier the member from Winnipeg talked about how we all agree that it was wrong that a staffer at Veterans Affairs Canada was talking about euthanasia with a veteran who called looking for help. He asked if we do not all agree on that. I think what confuses me about the government's position is that apparently it objects to the fact that over and over again, when a veteran called i…
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Madam Speaker, there was a proposal from the Quebec medical association to allow children to be euthanized. In particular, that proposal was for infants born with disabilities. It is horrifying to see that somebody, purportedly a doctor, would come before a parliamentary committee and actually advocate the killing of children on the basis of their having a disability, and that the same association…
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Madam Speaker, I agree that we need to provide support to Canadians in all circumstances and that we need to do better to support Canadians living with disabilities. I would make one point in response to the member's question, which is that I believe human dignity is inherent. Dignity is not given by government; it is not given by circumstances. Dignity is inherent in the individual. It is incumbe…
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Madam Speaker, our party has a diversity of views on many aspects of the euthanasia regime in this country. At various stages along the way, there have been Conservatives who have expressed different points of views and voted different ways. My past interventions are well on the record, and I think they have actually been borne out by the experience of this. When we first debated Bill C-14, I said…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have decided to share today for the first time the story of my young cousin Gabriel, who died by suicide on March 25, 2021. I hope his story provides some comfort to others and sharpens our understanding about the impact of the government’s proposal to legalize suicide for those with mental health challenges. Gabriel was born here in Ontario, but spent most of his life in the Unit…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, Canadians are struggling, but their Liberal friends at McKinsey have never had it so good. McKinsey worked for ICE in the United States, where it advised the Trump administration to cut food and medical supplies for immigrant detainees. These are the same people that the Liberals then turned to for advice on immigration, even when the p…
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Madam Speaker, the government has said that its approach is to try to eliminate from consideration those who are suicidal. In other words, those who are suicidal cannot have MAID, but those who are not suicidal can have MAID. On the face of it, this does not make any sense, because by definition a person who is seeking suicide, facilitated through the medical system, is suicidal. The government is…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister across the way would have us believe that this gross largesse for McKinsey is somehow about helping families. Let me assure the member opposite that there will be austerity for McKinsey when the Conservatives take office, and there will be support available for Canadians. Yesterday, the President of the Treasury Board could not answer my question about whether or not McKi…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to speak more about the over $100 million in contracts that the government gave to McKinsey & Company. However, my question tonight is specifically on behalf of the families that have been devastated as a result of the opioid crisis and is about the role McKinsey played. The member wants us to believe that it is a tinfoil hat conspiracy to suggest that McKinsey played…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in other words, the government's approach to the Liberal-McKinsey scandal is to ask the minister to investigate herself. However, we found out yesterday at the government operations committee that she lacks a basic understanding of the record and experience of this company, including its relationship with Purdue Pharma. Conservatives have said Liberals investigating themselves is not …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am speaking tonight about the opioid crisis and the organizations responsible for causing the opioid crisis. It is now a matter of public record that Purdue Pharma, a pharmaceutical company, developed oxycontin, mislabelled it, misbranded it and actively promoted it in such a way that fuelled and, I think, in many respects, caused the opioid crisis that has killed so many people and…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am presenting is with respect to the ongoing detention of Mr. Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen who has been detained in China for well over a decade. The petitioners share a bit of Mr. Celil's background. He is a Canadian Uighur human rights activist who was detained because of his work supporting the political and religious rights of Uighurs. He is a Canadian cit…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition deals with the human rights situation of another minority group in Afghanistan, the Hazara community. The petitioners share some of the history, going back to the 19th century, of violence targeting the Hazara community. They highlight Canada's close connection with Afghanistan, the work that was done over a long period of time, and the lives lost to try to establish…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am presenting highlights a proposal in the 2022 report of the Minister of National Defence's advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination, a proposal that ironically was itself discriminatory. It calls for the exclusion of clergy from religions that have a different view on gender and sexuality than the Department of National Defence. The petitioners call o…
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Mr. Speaker, next I am presenting a petition that raises concern about the second proposed values test we have seen from the current government. It was in the Liberals' 2021 platform. They propose to deny charitable status to any organizations that have views with respect to abortion that they consider dishonest. The charities act already contains a prohibition against dishonest conduct. However, …
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the ongoing, horrific persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The petitioners note that the Falun Gong is the traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that consists of meditation exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. They note that information has been uncovered about vario…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be tabling a number of petitions this evening. The first petition highlights the human rights situation in Afghanistan. In particular, it draws the attention of the House to the horrific violence that has been inflicted on the Sikh and Hindu minority in Afghanistan. It highlights various specific instances and calls on the government, the Minister of Immigration, Ref…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the questions my friend across the way asked was why we insist on talking about Liberal corruption. Why do the Conservatives think that Liberal corruption is an important issue to debate in this House? I want to give two principal reasons. Number one, it speaks to the character of the government. The Prime Minister has, on multiple occasions, been found to have violated ethics …
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Mr. Speaker, today we are discussing McKinsey. I spoke in my remarks about the issue of control. We can have debates in this House about how we approach immigration policy and various aspects of it. What we ought to agree on is that those decisions should be made by people's representatives and that they should be made in a transparent way. If there are conversations happening within the bureaucra…
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Mr. Speaker, certainly on this side of the House, we are prepared to work with any individuals and any parties that want to help us get to the bottom of these scandals that we have seen under the current government. There has been a ceding of control by Liberals to outside consultants. There has been a waste of money in duplication of efforts. There have been conflicts of interest. There are signi…
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Mr. Speaker, in fact the motion that is before the House asks for those records from 2011, so we are quite open to the Auditor General's doing that work as well. My understanding of the record is that there were very small volumes in that earlier period and that there has been dramatic, 50-fold growth under the current government. I would just say that some of the ethical scandals I have mentioned…
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, presented on Tuesday, January 31, be concurred in. I will be sharing my time with my colleague and friend, the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles. I rise today to speak to the House about the ongoing Liberal-McKinsey scandal. This is the affair through which the government gave over…
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Madam Speaker, we would like to request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak today to a bill put forward by my friend from Beaches—East York. I want to wish him well with his explorations regarding the provincial Liberal leadership here in Ontario. It will be interesting to see how he does with the caucus management side given his independent streak. The good news for him is that the Liberal Party caucus in Ontario is such a …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I had a slogan suggestion for his leadership campaign as well. It was “Get high in the polls”, but anyway, I will carry on with my remarks here. I wish my friend well, but I will not be supporting his bill. This bill is about a review of our pandemic preparedness and comes out of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, it is sort of cliche to say but it is obvious, is the se…
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Mr. Speaker, while Canadians have been suffering for eight years under the government, well-connected insiders have never had it so good. Dominic Barton confirmed yesterday that McKinsey's Canadian lead, Andrew Pickersgill, was coordinating support from McKinsey to the Prime Minister's growth council. In other words, his analysts were telling the government what it needed while they were selling M…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, there is no sadder story than that of unrequited love, when one person showers the other with gifts and favours while the other claims to be totally disinterested. I am talking of course about the relationship between the Prime Minister and Dominic Barton. When the Prime Minister spoke about how accessible Barton is, Barton claimed to not even have his phone number. When the Prime Min…
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