Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I do not doubt the member's sincerity, but the way to honour the victims is by punishing the perpetrators. It is very simple. The member, the Prime Minister and the entire cabinet voted for my motion to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity. In 2012, Conservatives listed the Quds Force and listed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, but since taking power the Liberal government has don…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I was just trying to follow the language on mine, and there was one line that may have been missed: and that the House call on the government to immediately list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. Did the member mean to read that part of the motion?
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I wonder if there would be unanimous consent of the House—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
—for the following motion: that the House call on the government to immediately list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, as a terrorist entity under the—
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today about a subject very close to my heart, which is the contribution that Taiwan could make to global discussions around health. The report we are debating and seeking to concur in reflects a motion proposed by my colleague from Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. I want to congratulate him for his excellent work on the health fi…
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Mr. Speaker, a member of the government wants to know why I have more confidence in the response of Taiwan's public health authorities than in his government's response. Very simply, it is because Taiwan had fewer deaths per capita and had fewer cases per capita. Why would I take a parochial approach to this and say that my country's way is right when the data shows that Taiwan's approach clearly …
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. The Chinese government focuses more on its political interests than on the lives of its own citizens and those of other countries. It is now obvious that this government is committing genocide against a minority group and that it has no respect for human rights. We must be clear and realistic. We must try to work more with the other democratic cou…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for what is clearly a passion for our relationship with Taiwan. Just to pick up on the last point he made, I think we see something like a global competition emerging between democratic countries with a belief in pluralism and inclusion and, on the other hand, those with a rigid authoritarianism. Of course, there are different kinds of regimes in Russia, Iran a…
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Mr. Speaker, I am all for the right of peoples to decide for themselves about their future. I think that Quebeckers had the opportunity to make a choice and they chose to stay in Canada. In my opinion, it was a good choice.
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Mr. Speaker, in her speech, the member focused in particular on the need to improve governance at the World Health Organization. I agree that there is a desperate need to improve aspects of the WHO's governance and behaviour. One of the most scandalizing things for many people who have followed these issues in the last few years was this massive sexual abuse scandal in Congo. Many women were comin…
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Mr. Speaker, in the midst of this important discussion about including Taiwan in international organizations, we are seeing an increasing belligerence and aggression from the Xi Jinping regime. Many observers have noted that there is some risk of an outright invasion attempt by the Xi Jinping regime, and it is my view that Canada needs to contemplate that possibility, be prepared with a strong res…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, many of our constituency offices were inundated over the summer and in fact we are still dealing with the impacts of an overwhelming volume of complaints about the government's mishandling of passport applications. It is ironic that the government, which wants to expand its influence in more areas of Canadians' lives, has shown itself completely unable to manage its basic responsibili…
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Mr. Speaker, rather than acknowledge the significant and ongoing failures, the member is trying to congratulate his government for maybe now doing marginally better than the disastrous situation we dealt with in the summer and the spring. I may have low expectations of the government when it comes to delivering basic services, but Canadians should be able to expect more in terms of the response. W…
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Madam Speaker, I have a very simple question for the hon. member with respect to the government's plan to triple the carbon tax. He is laughing because he thinks it is funny. Canadians who are struggling to afford gas, groceries and home heating do not think it is funny. The government is intent on tripling the carbon tax, and Canadians are already struggling under the impact of the carbon tax. Wi…
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Madam Speaker, it is interesting, going back to the previous Liberal speaker, that Liberals do not want us to be talking about the carbon tax today. It is not surprising that they do not want to hear us talking about their plan to triple the carbon tax. The reason we are raising this, of course, is that it speaks to the Liberal government's approach to affordability. The Liberals are presenting th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister speaks about our being “all together”. We were all together four years ago when the Liberals voted with the Conservatives to immediately list the IRGC as a terrorist entity. The minister, the Prime Minister and the entire cabinet voted for my motion to immediately list the IRGC four years ago, yet they did not do it. That is the problem. We have more empty words from the …
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moved: That the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development presented on Monday, September 26, 2022, be concurred in. Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague and friend from the riding of Wellington—Halton Hills. Conservatives are seeking to have the House of Commons condemn the fake so-called “referendums” held in Russian-occupied part…
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Mr. Speaker, as a principled opposition, we agree with the government when we agree with the government, and we criticize them when we think it is on the wrong path. It has made some decisions on Ukraine that have been good decisions. It has also made some decisions that have not been good. In particular, it is important for us to critique the decision to waive sanctions on Gazprom turbines. In th…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member that there is so much more we need to be doing here in Canada on cybersecurity. There is more that we need to be doing to combat efforts by various foreign states that interfere in Canadian affairs. We see these efforts take various forms, with cybersecurity, hacking and other kinds of infiltration. The Russian government is doing this. We know there are other …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree there is so much more work that needs to continue to be done to stand with Ukraine, address this invasion and combat this unprecedented aggression. We will continue to call on the government to step up further and, in particular, condemn these referenda and cancel the sanctions waiver that was granted to the Gazprom turbines.
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Mr. Speaker, I share the aspirations of the parliamentary secretary for unity in support of Ukraine. Of course, in pursuit of that end, the official opposition will continue to challenge the government in areas where it is falling short with respect to providing the necessary supports for Ukraine. It is not just the official opposition that has raised these concerns; other long-time allies of the …
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I wish her members were in the House.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I would like you to review the fact that previously in this session the Speaker has ruled that if there are noes, there is no right to complete a presumption of unanimous consent when members have already made clear that there is none. The Speaker—
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, today in the House, the Conservatives put forward a motion with a simple ask of the government: to recognize the harm being done to Canadians by the government's high tax, high borrowing, high spending, high inflation agenda, and to stop the damage by committing to reverse planned tax hikes, which are scheduled to take effect automatically next year. We have been very clear. The Con…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to table three petitions before the House. The first petition deals with the issue of forced organ harvesting and trafficking. The petitioners have submitted this petition in support of Bill S-223, a bill that would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad to receive an organ taken without consent. This bill has passed in the Senate three time…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am tabling deals with the issue of a commitment that was made in the Liberal election platform on page 4. The commitment was to revoke charitable status from organizations that take a particular position on a contentious social issue. The petitioners are concerned that this proposal would have broad implications, such as removing the charitable status of schools,…
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition I am tabling is with respect to the persecution of Falun Gong. The petitioners are highlighting the persecution of Falun Gong in the petition I am tabling. They are deeply concerned about it. They want to see the government take measures on it, which include combatting forced organ harvesting and trafficking and using the Magnitsky act to target individuals who have…
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Madam Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. I want to, respectfully, just draw your attention to an exchange that I had with the Speaker on June 9 of this year. The context was that the member for Kildonan—St. Paul sought unanimous consent for a motion and was cut off in the middle by the Speaker because of a number of nays. I asked the Speaker, “Mr. Speaker, I wonder if you could clarify the …
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member has entirely missed the point. Higher taxes are not an environmental plan. They have not worked, and the government members think that even further increasing taxes is going to somehow achieve a different result. It will not. Let me put to the member something that is very obvious. Even proponents of carbon taxes generally admit it, and that is that the very purpose …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this important debate tonight about the impacts of hurricane Fiona on eastern Canada. As members know, I represent a riding in Alberta. We live in a big country, where a natural disaster could affect one part of the country and not another. I also know we are a community of solidarity, where people in Alberta follow events in other parts …
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Mr. Speaker, I think a really simple thing for the government to do would be to say, as a policy statement, that it will work to identify all of the dollars that have been donated for this purpose and match those dollars insofar as it will set aside, in a fund for relief, the number of dollars equivalent to the amount it estimates has been contributed. That formal calculation does not have to all …
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Mr. Speaker, of course it makes sense to have resilient infrastructure, infrastructure that is fit for purpose and that can respond to these things as much as possible. I am not an engineer. There are probably limits to one's ability to build for all possible events, but I would assent in principle to the idea that we should as much as possible, in the process of rebuilding and in the process of b…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to underline that nothing in my speech was to take away from the great work that the Red Cross is doing in eastern Canada or in other parts of the world. Of course, it does have partnerships with local organizations, and I hope it will do its best to engage some of those local organizations. However, fundamentally, it does not change the point that there are many other worthy o…
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Madam Speaker, that is the best question I have received all day. I did not live during the tenure of the previous Trudeau government, but I can say that my grandfather made sure that I knew about what happened. My grandfather was working as an engineer in Alberta during the national energy program, which was the last time we had a prime minister named Trudeau, and the last time we saw those kinds…
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Madam Speaker, I have already identified a number of areas of spending that I think are not only not necessary but actually make Canadians worse off. It is a reasonable principle to have dollar for dollar to be able to identify those areas while talking about spending increases. Just to zero in specifically on the Green Party's emphasis on defence spending, it kind of misses the reality of what is…
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Madam Speaker, I do not mind the heckling from the government minister over here. I know he has strong views in support of the Liberal agenda, and he is using his voice in the House to defend Liberal policies. Many Canadians are disappointed by the fact that the NDP have really sold out. They have sold out on principles they used to articulate. I look at the bill before us, and regardless of what …
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Madam Speaker, respectfully to my colleague, I have a number of points on this. Number one is that we have major challenges in our existing health care system. Rather than address those challenges, the parties of the left—
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Madam Speaker, I would be happy to have that debate in detail at another time. I think that, in front of us, we are discussing the issue of affordability for Canadians. There is a lot of work to be done on the health care front. There is no doubt about that. There have been many challenges that have been exposed through the COVID pandemic that require significant work. I look forward to further an…
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Madam Speaker, I will be very clear. I am proposing, fundamentally, as a first step, that the government commit to reversing planned automatic tax increases for next year. The member thinks that this is not going to matter to Canadians for a long time. It will matter to Canadians right away. Canadians who are struggling to pay for gas, groceries and home heating will immediately be affected by the…
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Madam Speaker, I know the member for Timmins—James Bay is excited to hear the rest of my remarks and it sounds like he is chomping at the bit for the privilege of debate that may be coming. I look forward to his remarks. I would encourage him to make sure he has consulted with the rest of his party around the position he takes on that, because there may be some differences of opinion around that i…
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Madam Speaker, we are here in Parliament today talking about the affordability crisis that so many Canadians are dealing with, and in a way it feels like progress that we are even talking about this, because most of the debates that happen in Parliament are scheduled by the government, and for two years the government has been ignoring the problem of “Justinflation” that so many Canadians have bee…
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Madam Speaker, I am sorry to have to interrupt today's debate, but this is an important question of privilege. I will be as brief as possible. I rise on a question of privilege regarding threatening comments made by Mr. Dale Smith, an accredited member of the parliamentary press gallery, following a question I raised in the House yesterday. I am raising this issue as soon as possible after having …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to be able to resume the remarks I was making previously on this bill to create Hindu heritage month, a bill recognizing the immense contributions of the Hindu community to Canada's national life in so many different areas. The last time this motion came up, I was also speaking about the way we have moved from using heritage months to recognize ethnocultural co…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a simple question for the government member who just spoke. The government talks often about how much money it is giving to people, saying that it is going to give them more money here and more money there. Does the government appreciate that it does not generate its own money? The money it gives away, it takes from either present people or from future generations. In fact, the…
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Mr. Speaker, respectfully to my hon. friend, there seems to be a bit of a confused sense of who is responsible for what. He says the federal government does not impact the price of gas or groceries and does not prepare cakes; it is not the one making and setting the price for this. This seems to ignore the fact that the federal government is responsible for fiscal policies and, indirectly, for mon…
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Mr. Speaker, the government's tax increases are causing a national unity crisis, and those tax hikes will target those who can least afford to pay. The Prime Minister knows that more carbon tax increases will divide our country further and make life even less affordable, but the Prime Minister has taken the same approach all along: to raise taxes on working people, put basic necessities like trans…
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The last petition that I will table today then relates to an Order Paper question that I put on notice yesterday about the situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Some of the specific acts in this petition are somewhat dated, although we have seen the resumption of conflict, so it is relevant again. Petitioners want to see and are calling for an immediate end to violence and for restraint on a…
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition that I am tabling highlights the ongoing detention of Mr. Huseyin Celil, who is a Canadian citizen in China. The petitioners note that they are pleased to see the release of the two Michaels, but they want to see this government advocate for Mr. Celil and other detained Canadian citizens with the same level of intensity that was applied in terms of advocacy for the …
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition that I am tabling has a number of asks with respect to the ongoing, illegal, genocidal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The petitioners begin by noting the various facts surrounding the invasion, including the fact that Ukraine was initially invaded by Russia back in 2014 and that what we have seen this year is a further invasion that really builds on and is consiste…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a number of petitions to table today. First of all, I stand in solidarity with my many colleagues who are tabling petitions in support of Bill S-223. For those who do not know, this is a bill that seeks to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking. This bill has actually passed the Senate twice and the House once in its current form, but it is currently stalled before the …
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