Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, is this real life? I ask because that answer was pure fantasy. We have inflation landslides and no escape from poverty. When will the Prime Minister open up his eyes and see? He is not a poor boy, but he should have some sympathy. For too many Canadians, opportunity had just begun and now the government is going to throw it all away. Money is not easy come, easy go in this economy, so…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition I am tabling is similar to that tabled by a number of colleagues. It is to support Bill S-223, a bill to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking. This bill has passed the Senate twice and the House once in its current form. It is now stalled at the foreign affairs committee, and petitioners want to see this bill passed as soon as possible. Families of vict…
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With regard to COVID-19 transmission within Canada: (a) how many Canadians are known to have contracted COVID-19 while on a domestic flight (i) between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021, (ii) between July 1, 2021, and October 29, 2021, (iii) between October 30, 2021, and November 29, 2021, (iv) since November 30, 2021; (b) how many Canadians are known to have contracted COVID-19 while in an airport (…
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With regard to engagement with the Russia embassy in Ottawa, since February 23, 2022: (a) how many meetings, phone calls, or email exchanges have occurred between ministers, ministerial staff, parliamentary secretaries, or public servants, and representatives of the Russian embassy; (b) what were the (i) dates, (ii) times, (iii) details, (iv) objectives, (v) outcomes, of the meetings or exchanges …
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Madam Speaker, the first petition I am tabling today is with respect to violent clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It is timely in light of recent further aggression across the border from the Azeri side. Petitioners want to see peace, and they want to see a negotiated settlement. Petitioners are calling on the government to act specifically around the issue of the continuing detention of Arm…
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Madam Speaker, finally, I am tabling a petition that raises the concern of citizens about a Liberal plan to apply a political values test to charitable status determination. It is raising significant concern throughout the charitable sector that the Liberal plan to politicize charitable status will jeopardize the status of hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitab…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, respectfully, that was a particularly insubstantive response to some very serious and legitimate concerns. What I said in my introductory comments was that international monitors have identified democratic decline, particularly around the ability of institutions to check the power of the executive, as being a key concern in Canada. The parliamentary secretary made no mention of the …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight. Objective International analysis shows that Canada faces democratic decline. Our democracy in Canada is not about to cease to exist, but it is weakening under pressure from the Prime Minister. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or IDEA, in Stockholm is the global authority on democracy evaluation. Its data underli…
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With regard to the government’s position related to allegations of genocide as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide being committed: is it the position of the government that (i) Canada or actors in Canada are currently committing genocide against any group, (ii) the Government of Sri Lanka has committed genocide against Tamils, (iii) the Government o…
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With regard to Canada’s international development assistance since 2016: (a) has the government funded the provision of any healthcare services in a country or place where those services are illegal, and, if so, what are the details, including what services were funded, broken down by country; (b) has the government funded any organizations that provide healthcare services in violation of local la…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition that I am tabling speaks to the carbon tax, particularly the cost that the carbon tax imposes on farmers and ranchers. This is particularly evident in light of increasing fuel prices. The cost is impinging very significantly on farmers. There are a number of asks that are highlighted in this petition, such as immediately exempting all direct and indirect input cost…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to table some petitions. The first petition I want to table is on a very serious human rights issue. It is on the situation in Pakistan, particularly Pakistan's blasphemy law. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom notes that the blasphemy law has “contributed to egregious human rights abuses and fostered an overall atmosphere of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, unfortunately, I only had five minutes. I can speak for hours on almost any subject, but on this subject I had a lot more to say. The member raised some important points. I would say, at the same time, that some of the polices of the government that supposedly are about responding to climate change are also having a negative effect. Agriculture polices around limiting the use of ferti…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition is returning to the subject of international human rights. This petition is about the situation in Afghanistan. This petition came in prior to the Taliban takeover, at a time when there were significant concerns about human rights challenges facing the Hazara community in Afghanistan, and sadly, the situation has gotten so much worse following the Taliban takeover.…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition is about a 2021 commitment in the Liberal election platform to politicize charitable status determinations and to strip charitable status from organizations that take positions on abortion that the Liberals do not agree with. This is similar to the values test the Liberals previously imposed on the Canada summer jobs program, which would deny funding to worthy or…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition that I am tabling highlights ongoing concerns about human rights abuses taking place in Ethiopia. Some of the particular asks are dated, but there continue to be concerns about humanitarian conditions, as well as political violence, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Petitioners want to see the government increase its engagement with the country of Ethiopia to suppo…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is in support of a private member's bill on organ harvesting and trafficking. It is a bill that has passed in the Senate and is currently before the foreign affairs committee. The bill would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without the consent of the person who the organ is coming from. The petitioners wan…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the human rights abuses targeting Uighurs and calls for a stronger response from Parliament and government. The petitioners note a past Associated Press article reporting information on forced sterilization and abortion, coordinated campaigns of birth suppression, and mounting evidence that Uighurs are being subjected to political and anti-r…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, in terms of companies that are continuing to do business with Russia, there are two possible circumstances. We could speak about those that may be violating sanctions, and we could also speak about cases where the sanctions are not preventing them from doing that. We need to continue to push for tougher sanctions, and we also need strengthened sanctions enforcement. The member has tal…
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Madam Chair, we are in the House tonight talking about probably one of the most critical issues that we are going be confronting in this Parliament. We are talking about a global food crisis and we need to talk about it more. We are talking about a global food crisis in which hundreds of millions of people's lives and well-being are at stake. We know already that 181 million people are expected to…
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Madam Chair, it is a pleasure to work with my friend across the way. We agree on many issues. We disagree on some as well. I would say, respectfully, that I think inflation is caused by a number of factors. We had a significant issue of inflation prior to the invasion of Ukraine. A significant part of that is the government's approach to spending. We have run up more debt in the past seven years t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister is desperate to blame someone else, but there is only one person who is under investigation and that is the Minister of Public Safety. The state of his credibility is grievous and irremediable. It is completely untenable to have a Minister of Public Safety who misleads the public about advice he is receiving from the police. Respectfully, so that his important office can …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I wanted to ask the hon. member a fairly specific question about the content of his speech. He spoke about charter statements and the importance the government attaches to charter statements. We have seen multiple cases in which the government has table-dropped amendments to its own legislation and it has not offered a revised charter statement to line up with that change in policy.…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Communist Party continues to commit horrific acts of violence against Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims: acts that this House has rightly recognized constitute genocide. Actions by Parliament and the government continue to be vitally needed to more effectively block products made with Uighur forced labour, halt complicity in organ harvesting and prevent Canadian imports fro…
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Madam Speaker, we need to be very clear that there are no mandatory minimums for personal possession-related offences for drugs. Our party does not support mandatory minimums for personal possession for personal use offences. We do believe that it should be against the law to possess drugs for personal use, but we do not support mandatory minimums in those cases. I am concerned about the fact that…
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Mr. Speaker, I wonder if you could clarify the process. Is it your ruling going forward that if a member is saying “no”, you will stop the reading of the motion? I think we have had cases where some members were saying “no” and yet the member continued with the unanimous consent motion.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today to Bill C-5, a piece of government legislation aimed at reducing sentences for crimes, including very serious crimes such as sexual assault, kidnapping and weapons trafficking. Many of my colleagues on this side have ably spoken to the core issues in this bill, in particular the question of whether lower sentences and conditional sentences a…
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Madam Speaker, if I could speak to the same point of order. In this case, I provided my notes in advance to the interpreters. I have a great deal of respect for what they do. It is a bit of a challenge when members want to deliver a certain amount of content in a limited time frame, and we are under time allocation of course as well, but I think it is a question of the ability of members to need t…
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Madam Speaker, I hope the interpreters are able to deliver the content, but I am entitled to give my speech as a member, and I hope that, given I have provided the notes in advance, this issue will be addressed. I was speaking about under-representation in post-secondary institutions. I imagine if I were to propose that the way to reduce under-representation of Black and indigenous peoples in univ…
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Madam Speaker, the member identified a number of stakeholders who have a particular point of view, and I do not doubt that the committee heard from a broad range of stakeholders with different points of view on the bill. My point was fairly specific. It was simply to say that when we broaden the range of discretion for decision-making in a situation where the decision-maker may, or likely does, ha…
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Madam Speaker, clearly, judicial discretion and parameters set by legislators both have a role. The question of what is the appropriate sentence for a particular category of crime is a philosophical question. It is a moral question. It is something that in a democratic society the legislature, in general terms, should pronounce on. The question to what extent those broad parameters apply to the pa…
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Madam Speaker, it is interesting listening to the debate. The government claims that this bill is about systemic racism and in particular about the overrepresentation of Black and indigenous people in our prison population. If we read the bill, the bill makes no mention of racism and no mention of Black or indigenous communities. There is nothing in there about programs or processes to address the…
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With regard to the government’s policy on Somaliland and reaction to requests for support to rebuild the Hargeisa market: (a) what is the government's position with respect to Somaliland’s claim to independence; (b) have ministers or officials met with representatives or employees of the Government of Somaliland in the last seven years, and if so, what are the details of all such meetings, includi…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, respectfully, the member shared general values but did not respond to important specific questions. Our allies have taken stronger responses to ensure that the rubber meets the road here, for instance, by withdrawing funds to the WHO in the DRC. Expressing these aspirations and concerns is not lining up with the strong measures being taken by our allies. I also asked the member a sp…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Minister of International Development assumed his role after significant concerns were raised about the approach he took while he was defence minister to respond to sexual harassment and assault allegations within Canada's military. It is important that he be willing to take a different approach in his new portfolio and raise the bar in calling international organizations to acc…
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Madam Speaker, it does appear that the parliamentary secretary was barking up the wrong tree here. The problem for the Prime Minister is that he appears to think that trees will plant themselves. The parliamentary secretary knows that trees can plant themselves under certain circumstances, so they are unlike budgets, which cannot balance themselves, as we have demonstrated. I know that other membe…
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Madam Speaker, in my riding, carbon capture and storage is very important. It is a technology that is working, that is being supported by the private sector. The NDP has constantly attacked carbon capture and storage, claiming that it is not working, when we know that, in fact, it already is working. It is an important way of working with industry to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissio…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, although I am actually supportive of the idea behind this, I do want to have clarified if the member's inaccurately characterizing events at the foreign affairs committee is consistent with what is supposed to happen under the rubric of requests for emergency debate. The member made a number of comments that are just wholly inaccurate. Conservatives have sought to adjourn the existing…
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Madam Speaker, my question is on the point the member was just speaking about, the issue of dental care. People pay taxes to the government and then the government decides how to fund dental care. Presumably that is the policy objective of the government. Why does the government not simply cut taxes or provide additional financing directly to low-income individuals who are identified as vulnerable…
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Mr. Speaker, the last petition I will table is in support of the bill currently before the House on forced organ harvesting and trafficking. This bill has been adopted unanimously at second reading and is now before a committee of Parliament. Petitioners hope that this is the Parliament that finally successfully passes legislation to prohibit Canadian complicity in forced organ harvesting and traf…
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition that I am tabling is on an important domestic economic matter. It highlights how the government's system of carbon taxation and the GST being applied amounts to double taxation on essential goods and services and additional costs for consumers. Particularly at this time when so many Canadians are struggling with affordability challenges as a result of high gas price…
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Mr. Speaker, today we have on the Hill with us Mr. Enes Kanter Freedom, who is an NBA player and a well-known human rights activist. In the process of welcoming him, I am pleased to present this first petition, which is calling on the House to formally recognize that Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China have been and are being subjected to an ongoing genocide. Petitioners note the various for…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the human rights abuses targeting Falun Gong practitioners in China. In particular, petitioners want to see the government apply sanctions to those involved in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
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This is not a joke, Mr. Speaker. We have a distinct culture, different festivals. We use the same language as some other parts of the country, just like Quebec uses the same language as some other parts of the world. Does the member agree with me that Alberta is a nation and has the right to be recognized as such? This is not a joke. It is very serious.
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It is in Hansard.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Stockholm is the global authority on evaluating the performance of democracies. It provides objective analysis on the health of democracies. In the key category of checks on government, Canada’s score has dropped precipitously since 2015. We are now lower than the United States and every single country in western Eu…
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Madam Speaker, I have no choice but to find myself in violent agreement with the member that there should be proper consultations. I would just emphasize that those consultations should be with members of the House, not just with House leaders of recognized parties. When there is a unanimous consent motion, the idea is that the House as a whole is expressing itself. There needs to be a mechanism f…
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Madam Speaker, with respect to these issues of representation, the Conservatives supported the bill saying that no province's number of seats should drop, and I think I have been clear about that. I also think the principle of representation by population is an important principle in our democracy. We need to recognize that Quebec's identity is important, Alberta's identity is important and Britis…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member did not listen or he did not want to listen. IDEA, the organization I referred to that ranks global democracies across a series of metrics, draws on various metrics, and Freedom House is part of the input data that IDEA uses. IDEA ranks democratic performance across a range of metrics including civil liberties, checks on government, pluralism and other metrics. What …
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc members point out we are into a debate on a different motion than what was scheduled for today, which was the one day when we were supposed to be talking about the rules of the House and the impact on our democracy. I will endeavour to make the link. The Standing Orders and the Speaker, I believe, should work to preserve and protect the rights of members and the health of o…
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