Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it seems the members across the way misunderstood my meaning, whether intentionally or not. I think it is wonderful when members stand up in the House and speak on behalf of their constituents. The member for Winnipeg North speaks quite often on behalf of the government, maybe occasionally on behalf of his constituents, but the point is that he spent 20 minutes telling us there have…
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Mr. Speaker, I will never feel remorse about voting against measures put forward by the government. Canadians, looking back over the last seven years, are asking themselves if things are more affordable than they were seven years ago, or if they are better off financially than they were seven years ago. I think virtually all Canadians are saying no. There may be a few exceptions. There may be indi…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not going to say, in the House of Commons, whether someone should be charged in a particular case. There may be other facts of that case that the member did not mention in her question. Therefore, I will leave considerations around that to the appropriate authorities. I will say that I am supportive of the framework of this legislation, in terms of facilitating civilian oversight…
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Mr. Speaker, it is often said that the Liberal backbench is revolting. That may be a reason there is unrest in the Liberal caucus over the fact that only a small number of members are given an opportunity to speak. It is hard to speculate on what does and does not happen in the Liberal caucus room, but I agree with the member that it is a bit odd.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question from my colleague, who always adds a great deal to the debate. I know there is a great deal of concern, in the greater Toronto area specifically, around increasing crime of various kinds, including property crime and violent crime. The government's approach of saying it is going to reduce sentences overall, and trying to use the rhetorical shield of racia…
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Mr. Speaker, it would be very important, in the development of these mechanisms, for the government to consult with indigenous peoples. I hope that the committee will hear from indigenous leaders about the most effective way to do that. I know that the members on the committee reviewing this bill will be seized with ensuring that indigenous voices are heard and engaged as part of this process. I w…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, as a father and as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, I was profoundly shocked by the Collège des médecins du Québec's proposal to legalize the murder of children with disabilities. Proposals to kill children with disabilities hark back to the darkest chapter of human history. Children with disabilities have inherent value and inalienable dignity. Children cannot give consent, and …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, on Saturday I was invited to attend a rally in Edmonton hosted by the Iranian community, highlighting and showing solidarity with the ongoing protests. My wife was working, so, as I often do, I packed the five kids in the car and we went to this protest together. I had told my children about the situation in Iran and that morning they were making signs to bring. I was so proud of th…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canadians were shocked to learn that the Government of China illegally funded candidates for office here in Canada, starting in at least 2019. How could this happen? How could the Government of China think it could get away with this? Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that a former Liberal cabinet minister and ambassador to China actually directly encouraged the Government …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s response to this year's report from the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on human rights abuses in Xinjiang: (a) what is the government’s position on the report and its conclusions; (b) does the government acknowledge that Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China are facing an ongoing genocide; (c) does the government acknowled…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is an immense honour for me to speak in support of Bill C-281, the international human rights act, and to recognize this as legislation that would bring together a number of important measures that advance human rights. I want to recognize the work done by my colleague and friend from Northumberland—Peterborough South. We were together in Mississauga about a week ago doing a town…
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With regard to the government’s approach to China and Taiwan: has the government made any plans related to how it will respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and, if so, what are the plans?
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With regard to the special immigration measures and program announced by the government for Ukrainian migrants following the start of the further Russian invasion on February 24, 2022: (a) how many people have come to Canada under these measures; (b) how many applications to come under these measures are currently in process; (c) how many applications to come under these measures have been rejecte…
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With regard to Global Affairs Canada and the Tigray region of Ethiopia: (a) how much money did the government spend on international development for people in the Tigray region between September 1, 2021 and September 1, 2022; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by programs and projects which received the funding, including how much each program or project received; (c) what is the government’s positi…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, in certain respects it has been a weird fall. Right now, as colleagues know, we are in Adjournment Proceedings, which is when we can follow up on questions asked earlier in question period. A few weeks back, I asked about the government's plan to triple the carbon tax, therefore increasing the cost of gas, groceries, home heating and other goods that increasingly feel out of reach f…
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Madam Speaker, it is clear that the parliamentary secretary has not cancelled his Disney+ subscription, because he still seems to think money grows on trees. I will put the following points to him. The Governor of the Bank of Canada has said that inflation here in Canada is being caused by domestic policy. The same has been said by the former governor of the Bank of Canada and future leader of the…
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Mr. Speaker, the people of Iran are at a critical point in their history. The protest movement in Iran, aimed at ousting the radical dangerous regime, has an incredible amount of momentum right now. I salute the courage and the heroism of the people involved in this movement. At the same time, the horrors of this regime have been going on for decades. There have been various protest movements over…
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Mr. Speaker, the member from the NDP is making jokes about my cough. I will not take it personally, and I wish him well. The legislation we have in front of us does not respond to—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, there is a lot I could say about that member's contributions to the House. I will come back to it in due course, but I do want to get in some final points. Bill S-5 is a piece of legislation that contains some things that Conservatives can support. We look forward to proposing amendments to aspects of the legislation. A major concern of my constituents is the fact that this legislatio…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that his government's plan is to triple the carbon tax over time. It tells us it is going to be tripled, and that we will get to that tripling, but only through little increases that we will barely notice. The member is right, it is increasing on April 1, and those increases add up insofar as they impact virtually all of the goods that individuals consume. Moreov…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. In principle, I agree with the idea of a right to a healthy environment. I also mentioned the problem with the designation of plastics as toxic in general. That is not something that is changed by the bill. It is a pre-existing problem regarding the intentions of the current government. As the member suggested, that is both a positive and a negat…
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Mr. Speaker, respectfully, unless the member disagrees with his party, he supports the idea of imposing increasingly higher taxes on gasoline, so I think it is contradictory of the New Democrats to say, on the one hand, that they want to impose taxes on gasoline, which are specifically designed to raise the price, but on the other hand maybe there is some other backdoor mechanism we can use to red…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that now is not the time for half measures. The Deputy Prime Minister said that this is a terrorist organization. We have, as the parliamentary secretary mentioned, a terrorist listing regime in Canada, and the government has persistently refused to use that terrorist listing regime to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The question is, why? Why acknowledge the …
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here in the House to address the government's bill, Bill S-5, and more broadly to address the environmental policy approach taken by this government. Sadly, we are seven years into the tenure of this government, and it still does not have an environmental plan. It does not have a plan to address the challenges we face in terms of climate change or various othe…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, once in every generation, there is a game-changing invention, something that dramatically changes all of our lives and brings us from the past into the future. For us, today, that invention is the ArriveCAN app. For just $54 million, one can enter one's name and birth date, answer some questions and upload some documents. This app actually has a mind of its own. It sometimes tells peo…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I thought the Prime Minister loved vacations, whether visiting the Taj Mahal, flying to private islands, surfing on Truth and Reconciliation Day or spending $6,000 a night on a hotel room in London. At the same time, his over-priced arrive scam app kneecapped Canadian tourism, and now he is forcing Canadians to cancel a visit to grandma or a trip across town by tripling the carbon tax…
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Mr. Speaker, they also made sure they found a hotel in London that cost $6,000 a night. I am seriously trying to imagine what they could get for $6,000 a night. It must have been an incredible time. Did champagne come out of the faucet, or was he busy planning his leadership campaign? Did the bill include the cost of bail for the Minister of Environment? I am sure it was such a wild time that Bill…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I thank the sponsor of this motion and everybody who is joining us for this debate. I know there are many people present in the precinct and following along online. I have the honour of being the co-chair, along with my friend, the mover of this motion, of the parliamentary friendship group for Uighurs. That is one of many reasons that I am proud to speak in support of Motion No. 62…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the current Liberal government is desperate to justify their dishonest and unjustified use of the Emergencies Act. We have seen a series of misleading statements and outright fabrications about these protests, and it is part of the pattern of dishonest behaviour we have seen by the Minister of Public Safety and by the Minister of Emergency Preparedness. The Emergencies Act is an ext…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the implication of the parliamentary secretary's remarks is that any means are justified and we are either on the side of the protesters or on the side of using the Emergencies Act. Many Canadians might not have agreed with things that were done in the protest but also do not agree with the suspension of civil liberties. In particular, the parliamentary secretary danced around the c…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, she is doing indirectly what she cannot do directly, and she knows it.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, that was, bar none, the worst speech in this context that I have ever heard delivered in this place. The member—
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Madam Speaker, there were discussions among parties beforehand. There was an agreement to adjourn this debate to the evening, so it would not take place during Government Orders' time in the hope that we could have a substantive conversation about the fact that, in the world's second-largest economy, the government is committing an ongoing genocide. Instead of addressing those very real issues, th…
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Madam Speaker, for the member to try to make a grand point—
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order—
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Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure to work with the member's colleague from the Bloc on many of these issues. His colleague proposed the amendment. He talked about this in relation to an Olympic boycott, which was, I think, one potential way of the international community sending a strong signal. Unfortunately, that signal was not sent early enough with sufficient magnitude to achieve the result …
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Mr. Speaker, one of the other aspects of context for this motion is that Uighurs who have fled from China and are in other countries are increasingly facing threats and pressure because the Chinese Communist Party seeks to exert influence beyond its borders and is, in fact, putting pressure on some of these other countries around the world. Sometimes we see efforts to co-opt international organiza…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciated a lot of the member's speech. I did not agree with everything. I think, for instance, it is important to note that I and other members of my caucus have spoken out repeatedly about human rights in Yemen and some of the other examples she mentioned. The arms deal she referred to was signed prior to the start of the Yemen war, and we have been very critical of the atrociti…
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Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure working with my friend opposite on the Tibet friendship group, and I thank him for speaking to the motion today. The motion identifies the fact that Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims face an ongoing genocide. The member quite eloquently, especially in the final minutes of his speech, made precisely the case for that genocide recognition. There was a motion in thi…
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Madam Speaker, we speak often about family-friendliness. My daughter is in town, and I was in the lobby with her, listening to the speech—
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Mr. Speaker, I look forward to speaking to my friend's motion on Wednesday, and I thank him for his work on that. The member spoke at the end of his speech about a united front. I know that he was not referring to the United Front. Maybe we need a united front to counter the United Front. As well, I agree with his point about the fact that, as a state party to the genocide convention, we have obli…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are pleased to submit a dissenting report. We thank the witnesses for their work. Our dissenting report makes a number of important points. We note, for example, that the Canadian government has primarily distributed doses of AstraZeneca that were not recommended for use in Canada. We sought to understand how the government could justify recommending against a vaccin…
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, presented to the House on Friday, April 29, be concurred in. I appreciate the opportunity to open debate, a debate that I understand will be, by unanimous consent, continuing this evening, on the sixth report, which deals with the ongoing injustices facing Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims and the wo…
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Madam Speaker, of course members are welcome to pick up on whatever themes they think are most important in the conversation, but the opportunity to raise issues of concurrence is an important part of the process here. We have, I think, an understanding today about the majority of this debate taking place into the evening. This is the kind of dialogue that has happened with respect to this report.…
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Madam Speaker, we will see how the vote on this proceeds tomorrow. Following that vote, there will be votes on other measures. There are sometimes instances where the government may not want to proceed with something but also not want to talk about it. For example, we have the issue of forced organ harvesting and trafficking before the foreign affairs committee. We think we should move that issue …
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Madam Speaker, we may have an opportunity in future to debate in greater depth the particulars of the issues the hon. member raised. I agree that Canada needs to stand strong on issues of human rights. I agree that Canada needs to resist the potential threat of foreign interference. Respectfully, I do not think her characterization of that agreement is accurate. There have been and there should be…
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Madam Speaker, I look forward to speaking to Bill S-5 when the time comes for that. The member misstated what I said in that I believe this is a debate that should happen and that we would benefit from having happen. I simply pointed out, as well, that Bill S-223 is an important piece of legislation that relates to the rights of Uighurs and was scheduled for the foreign affairs committee, but the …
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure working with my colleague from Peace River—Westlock. I know the issues around forced labour and human trafficking are ones that he has worked on for as long as he has been in this place as well. This is an issue that has been going on for decades. There was a detailed report done on it by David Matas and the late David Kilgour, two Canadians revealing the prevalence…
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Madam Speaker, I have a number of petitions to table before the House. The first petition highlights concerns about the protection of conscience. It notes that coercion, intimidation or other forms of pressure intended to force physicians and health care workers to become parties to something that goes against their conscience, such as euthanasia or assisted suicide, should not be allowed. It woul…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition is about a proposal put forward in the Liberal Party of Canada's 2021 platform to deny charitable status to organizations that have convictions about abortion that differ from the Liberal Party's views. This could jeopardize the charitable status of hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations that have a different opi…
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