Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, frankly, even from this member I expect better. My position has been clear: yes to peaceful protests, yes to those calling for an end to mandates and no to illegal blockading of critical infrastructure. I would say this consistently across the board, regardless of who is doing the blockading. I would also say no to the arbitrary abuse of power by the government to target people who …
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Madam Speaker, I have been clear that I do not agree with the emergency measures being used in the first place. I think law enforcement already had the tools they needed and that has been clear. Certainly, it should be all the more evident now, even to those who were maybe on the fence before, that the border blockades had either already ended or were well on their way to ending at the time the em…
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Madam Speaker, in any other situation, the member would understand how problematic it is to cast such broad generalizations about groups of people, as if the protesters had all assaulted journalists and as if the protesters had all engaged in border blockades. This is utter nonsense. The member should know that tens of thousands of people have gone out across this country to engage in protests abo…
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Madam Speaker, I want to ask the member a question about civil liberties. There are many Canadians who will have donated to the convoy before recent developments, certainly without any criminal intent. They maybe donated as an expression of their concerns about mandates, before any of the blockades had started. Based on the justice minister's comments to Evan Solomon, it appears that the governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague makes excellent points. I think what the government is trying to do here is simply widen the precedent that it thinks has already been established. It wants to do more and more of this legislating by programming motion, instead of having bills properly studied as they should be. Initially, maybe the government is looking at legislation that people generally agree is requi…
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Madam Speaker, I would encourage the member across the way to not be so dismissive of the role and functioning of Parliament. The rules of Parliament do not exist to protect just members of the opposition but also members of the government, who will one day be in opposition. The member did not at all address the actual issue we are debating right now, which is the Conservative amendment to the gov…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to join the debate on Government Motion No. 7, particularly the amendment from my colleague for Cumberland—Colchester. Toward the end of my speech, I will make some comments on Bill C-12, a bill with respect to seniors. It is a bill that Conservatives support. It is a bill that would address long-standing gaps in government support for seniors: perverse outco…
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Madam Speaker, I have been entirely consistent on this, as have many of my colleagues. Having a bill like this, or any other bill, pass at all stages without study does not make sense. We need to be studying bills to understand their provisions, understand the application and make sure that whatever is intended by the bill is actually being done by the bill. That is where, critically, the role of …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from the Bloc makes some good points. The Liberals will consistently attack and criticize anyone who disagrees with them. The fact is that this is a problem of their own making, but it is also a problem that is more likely to happen when they are not carefully going through the legislative process and ensuring that everything is carefully analyzed along the way. What we…
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Mr. Speaker, I do, but the member for the NDP, who I assume is going to, sadly, vote with her party on this issue, is also making the case for why it is important to study these issues at committee, to consider gendered impacts and other issues that the government may not have fully considered in the context of drafting. Committees have the expertise to understand these issues, to identify them an…
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to understand what was particular about that moment in March and April of 2020. We did not have many of the tools that we now have. Our view as a party is that we should be moving beyond a virtual Parliament and having these debates in person. Nonetheless, we have these tools available to us. These tools were not even available at the beginning of the pandemic. We had …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for her commitment, her sincerity and her passion. She presented us with a wish list for a world without scarcity, which I would say, quite honestly, is not the world we live in. That is a function of the reality of the human condition, not of anything else. She and I both hope for a world in which scarcity does not exist. In the world we live in, we have to face t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I hear regularly from Canadian charities working overseas about the damage direction and control regulations are causing. These silly regulations force charities to spend millions of dollars in unnecessary legal fees and obstruct genuine partnership by requiring donor control. Could the government tell us if it will finally listen to the sector and support our efforts to end outdated …
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Mr. Speaker, respectfully, that was a much worse answer than I was expecting. This is a question about direction and control. Again, to the minister or some minister, we want an answer about direction and control regulations. Bill S-216 has been before this Parliament and the Senate for years in the same form. Surely the government is aware of it. Surely the government has heard from someone in th…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that members will be disappointed to hear this, but I will be sharing my time with one of my colleagues. We are at a critical time in this nation's history. We hear a lot of, frankly, intentional efforts by other parties to misstate the Conservative Party of Canada's position, but I think it is important to put some clear things on the record about what we are proposing in term…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands is eager to interrupt me, of course, because I am pointing out clearly the misinformation that has come specifically from speeches by members of the government during this debate. It is ironic that he would rise on a point of order to try to interrupt me when I am explicitly responding to things that members of the government have said. I know h…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not going to disagree with the member, but here is the point: We were saying these things in the House two years ago, and the record shows it. The record shows that in my very first interventions in March 2020, I said to the Minister of Health that we should look at the countries that have been most successful at fighting the virus and do the things they did. I suggested looking …
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Mr. Speaker, I first wish to thank the Bloc Québécois members for voting for our motion. It is too bad we did not have more support from other members in other parties. The motion was clear in calling on the government to put forward a plan to end all mandates, and of course many Canadians would like to see that plan involve unwinding these mandates as quickly as possible, especially when many of …
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Mr. Speaker, it is very disappointing to see the NDP basically giving up all its principles as part of whatever deal it has with the government. The NDP used to understand very well the importance of parliamentary scrutiny of legislation and of a minister testifying about bills, and there should be opportunities to propose amendments at committee. This is such a basic thing about how parliamentary…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the petitioners are highlighting the fact that protesters have come to the capital city speaking out against government tyranny, and they are deeply concerned about measures that make life less affordable. The government has labelled these protesters as terrorists and used various intimidation tactics, including torture and giving police a shoot-to-kill order. I am talking, of course,…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am presenting highlights the Chinese Communist Party using the arbitrary detention of Canadian citizens as a bargaining chip through hostage diplomacy. There has been great relief in Canada about the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. However, it is important to know that over 115 other Canadians are still being detained in China. In particular, this pet…
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Mr. Speaker, we are halfway through the Beijing Olympics and Canadians want to ensure that Parliament continues to hold the Chinese Communist Party to account with respect to human rights. The case of Peng Shuai reminds us that athletes are just as vulnerable to acts of repression and violence by the CCP. Surveys show that seven out of 10 Canadians are worried about the health and safety of Canadi…
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Mr. Speaker, the fourth petition I am tabling, also about human rights in the PRC, highlights the situation in Hong Kong. It notes that Canada needs to be committed to free and fair trials, judicial independence and the rule of law. There have been increasing violations of fundamental human rights in Hong Kong. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to facilitate access to Canada, and …
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Mr. Speaker, the fifth petition I am tabling is in support of Bill S-223. 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 whose organ it is, and would create a mechanism by which someone could be deemed inadmissible to Canada because of their involvement in forced organ harvesting and trafficking. This is an important…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague raised a number of important points, including access to naloxone. I would like to hear the Bloc Québécois's opinion on whether companies like Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family and McKinsey, whose products fuelled this crisis, should be held accountable. Does he agree with me that the government should pursue these companies for compensation and use those resources to pro…
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for his speech and for the stories that he shared. I want to ask the member about accountability for some of the companies that have been responsible for in some ways causing and certainly fuelling the opioid crisis. There has been a lot of litigation in the United States targeting Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, as well as McKinsey, and they have been forced …
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Mr. Chair, I want to probe one aspect of the member's speech. He talked about the issue of safe supply, and other members have talked about safe supply policies. The term safe supply can be used in different context. I would support, for instance, providing substances like suboxone that can be used in treatment. Suboxone can help treat opioid dependency and also has the benefit of being quite tamp…
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Mr. Chair, I want to very strongly agree with the aspect of the member's speech where he talked about affirming the immutable human dignity of everyone in our society, recognizing that those who suffer from substance abuse disorders need to be greeted with love, care and empathy. Many members of the government, as did this member, spoke about advocating for the further liberalization of drug laws,…
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Mr. Chair, I want to follow up to clarify my earlier question, because maybe my French is not as good as I thought it was. The issue that I want to raise and get the member's perspective on is that we know that the opioid crisis was on some accounts started, and was certainly fuelled, by certain companies, such as Purdue Pharma and others that presented misinformation about the risks of addiction …
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Madam Speaker, let us talk about irresponsible. We hear members of the government say either we believe everything they say or we are with the conspiracy theorists. Might I suggest there is a healthy level of skepticism in between being a believer in conspiracy theories and trusting the government with everything. There are a lot of Canadians who legitimately do not trust the government. A report …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak to the House tonight about the ongoing convoy protest movement that is happening across the country, as well as about the federal mandates that have spawned this response. Let me say at the outset that when people have disagreements about important public issues, I think it is so important that they take the time to talk to each other and try to unders…
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Mr. Speaker, I think I made my views very clear in my speech. This member should take the opportunity to go out and engage in dialogue, and try to come to an understanding of what the significant concerns here are. What I really focused on in my remarks is the fact that we should be ending mandates and ending the continual squeezing of that minority who have chosen not to get vaccinated and all th…
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Mr. Speaker, I do want to be clear. I did not mention this specifically, but I think it is critically important that people are able to protest and that we minimize the negative impact on the lives of people in this city. There should be effective dialogue, between protesters and the city, that allows necessary access and transportation to occur. I think that dialogue can take place if the Prime M…
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Mr. Speaker, to hear that the member found my speech bizarre is a high compliment indeed. The member raised the issue of foreign money. I will take this opportunity to say to the member that I would love to see a consistent approach taken by parties opposite when it comes to foreign funding and foreign influence in our democracy. Let us have that debate. Let us see that legislation come forward. I…
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Madam Speaker, I would put it to the member that it is not about negotiating, but about listening. It is about listening to the fact that there are tens of thousands of people across the country who are protesting in different ways. Some of them are driving their trucks places and going home and some of them are staying put. The point is that people are concerned about losing their jobs over manda…
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Madam Speaker, I have a specific question for the hon. member around her comments on ventilation in schools. Does the member have an estimate of how long a retrofit to improve ventilation would take in a particular case? I guess that speaks to the question of how long the member expects this pandemic to be going on for. Does the government have estimates for the timelines involved? We saw in the f…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, like my colleagues, and with the Beijing Olympics coming up very soon, the first three petitions I will be tabling deal with human rights issues in China. The first petition is about the recognition of the Uighur genocide. Petitioners note the various crimes being committed against the Uighur people: crimes that have been well detailed by my colleagues. Petitioners call upon the Gov…
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Madam Speaker, the third petition is in support of Bill S-223. This is a private member's bill that has already passed the Senate and that I put forward in the House. The bill would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without consent. This responds to concerns about forced organ harvesting. It has been happening for a long time, targeting Falun Gong prac…
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Madam Speaker, the fourth petition I am tabling deals with human rights issues here at home. It responds to a commitment made by the Liberal Party to impose another values test tied to charitable status. It says that in order to receive charitable status, one has to agree with a certain position of the government when it comes to the question of abortion. Petitioners believe that charitable status…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the challenges that small businesses have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It calls on the Government of Canada to adopt the 2017 recommendations of the Alberta skills for jobs task force and create a bipartisan, equal membership committee to develop a small business action plan that will take into account the realities of all com…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling was signed by Canadians who were very concerned by the government's decision to move forward with the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Effectively, it is suicide facilitation for those who are struggling with mental health challenges. Petitioners note that the Canadian Mental Health Association says that it does not believe mental illne…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the situation of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. The petitioners, as well as members of the House, have been following with great concern the events in Afghanistan. This petition was signed and sent to me prior to the Taliban takeover. Even at that point, there were many concerns regarding the conditions and the treatment of the Hazara people. The peti…
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Madam Speaker, the final petition that I am tabling today highlights human rights concerns with respect to the situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The petitioners are very concerned about the violence that has occurred there, and call on the Government of Canada to be more engaged with the situation, to work with the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to push for human rights improvements,…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition deals with the situation specifically in Hong Kong, and is another human rights issue that falls at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party. It notes various human rights abuses. It calls on the Government of Canada to recognize the politicization of the judiciary in Hong Kong and its impact on the legitimacy and validity of criminal convictions, and to affirm it…
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Madam Speaker, I do want to thank the member for Kingston and the Islands for referencing my podcast, Resuming Debate, which people can download on all available podcast platforms. He might be so lucky as to be a guest one of these days. I do enjoy my exchanges with him on Twitter, especially the last one we had, of which I will not identify the ratios involved, because I do not want to cause too …
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I know there is a general attitude around relevance, but we did see, in questions to my friend, basically a number of members making S.O. 31s instead of asking questions that were in any way germane to the debate. I wonder if you could make a ruling or come back to the House and advise us of the appropriate parameters, because it seems to me that talking …
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Madam Speaker, I want to ask my friend about the rapid test issue, which in an important issue raised in the bill. From my perspective, the government has had a very late stage conversion on the issue of rapid tests. Conservatives have been talking about the importance of investing in rapid tests and their value, and we were saying that before vaccines were even available. When vaccines were not a…
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Madam Speaker, I was a little disappointed to hear the member referencing David Suzuki, who has incited violence towards pipeline projects. I would think that in the context we are living through now, members of the government would appreciate the importance of not being in any truck or trade with those who are communicating in that kind of way. I did want to ask the member about the child care is…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on a comment the minister made with respect to vaccine mandates. One of the concerns I am hearing from my constituents is particularly around how the government's vaccine mandates are affecting services and the access that people have to them, whether or not they are vaccinated. We have the truckers' mandate that is in place, and of course we know that most trucker…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, if you will indulge me, I want to begin by thanking the member for Durham for his excellent and ongoing service to this place. I have a number of petitions to present on international human rights issues. The first petition is particularly important to reflect on this week in light of the opening of the Beijing Olympics. The petitioners are highlighting the ongoing genocide facing Uig…
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