Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan. The petitioners are very concerned about an ongoing series of human rights abuses the Hazaras have experienced for centuries. Of course, this has become all that much more acute with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The petitioners want to see the government formally recognize the 189…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights concerns about Bill C-7 from the last Parliament. The petitioners note this bill raised significant concerns from the disability community about how this would really push people toward death instead of giving them options for life. They called on the House to reject this approach of allowing mental illness to be an adoption for assisted death and to pro…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation of Falun Gong practitioners. The petitioners call on the government to apply Magnitsky-style sanctions to those involved in these gross violations of human rights. They mention a number of specific individuals who have been involved in that persecution. They also want to see the government refuse immigration or visitor visas to…
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Madam Speaker, the third petition I am tabling is with respect to organ harvesting and trafficking. We have Bill S-223, which the Senate has now adopted unanimously. It is the third time the Senate has unanimously passed a bill on organ harvesting and trafficking and has sent it to us in the House. Hopefully this Parliament will be the one that gets it done. The petitioners want to see the governm…
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Madam Speaker, the next petition is with respect to the carbon tax and the GST. The petitioners are concerned that the government's carbon tax system results in double taxation, a tax on a tax. They want to see the government eliminate the GST on federal carbon tax levies and additional costs, the newly announced standards charged to Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, I want to ask the minister, respectfully, a question about process. We have a piece of legislation in front us, and I am a bit confused as to why it groups together two very different issues. It groups together a question of benefits for people who are sick, and a question of Criminal Code amendments with respect to harassment and intimidation. I am concerned that the government, it…
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Mr. Speaker, one issue that I worked on, and I know other members have been working on it as well, for the last six years is with respect to the creation of a special program to help the religious minority communities that face severe persecution in Afghanistan. We have been calling for that for six years. Sadly, the government did not act and, in many respects, it is now too late for many of thos…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, in the House, I have worked extensively on international human rights issues, but nowadays, I see many stories from Canada suggesting that we are a country in need of intervention. One recent story that got my attention was from Timothy Que, a 16-year-old who attends Eric Hamber Secondary School in Vancouver. Timothy tried to start a Catholic club, a voluntary association of students …
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Mr. Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present to the House today. The first petition is with respect to the human rights situation in Russia. The petitioners note the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky act in a previous Parliament. They note concerns about serious corruption in Russia, including the attacks on Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, and over 10,000 people being detained d…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition draws the attention of the House to challenges faced by small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It calls on the government to adopt the 2017 recommendations of the Alberta skills for jobs task force.
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition calls on the government to support the expansion of carbon capture and storage technology as a critical force for responding to global carbon emissions. It calls on the government to recognize the role of that technology and support its use and deployment.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights concerns associated with the definition of conversion therapy that was used in Bill C-6, in the last Parliament. Those concerns persist with respect with Bill C-4. The petitioners call on the House of Commons to ban all practices designed to coerce or degrade persons into changing their sexual orientation or gender identity. It also calls on the government…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition speaks to the genocide of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China. It calls on the House of Commons and the government to formally recognize that Uighurs in China have been and are being subjected to genocide and to use the Magnitsky act to sanction those responsible for the heinous crimes committed against the Uighur people.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation in Afghanistan. This petition was certified prior to the fall to the Taliban, and obviously these human rights circumstances have become even worse. It particularly highlights the horrific abuse faced by the Sikh and Hindu minority community in Afghanistan. It calls on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to crea…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation in Ethiopia. It calls on the Canadian government to increase its engagement in the defence of fundamental human rights in Ethiopia. It highlights particular concern related to events in the Tigray region.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition draws attention to the ongoing residual negative impact associated with the national energy program and the scars that program, put forward by then prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, left on our part of the country. It therefore calls on the Prime Minister to issue an official apology for the national energy program and affirm the rights of provinces to develop, …
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Mr. Speaker, the final petition I am tabling today is with respect to Bill S-223. The bill has had a number of different names and numbers. It is the bill that seeks to make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without consent. The bill has been in the works for over 15 years, trying to address forced organ harvesting and trafficking. It has been put forward i…
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Mr. Speaker, if I understood the government House leader's argument yesterday, it was that in spite of rules around vaccination, around masking, around social distancing, as well as the possibility of testing, we still could not have an in-person Parliament because of the possibility that some members were immunocompromised. I wonder if the government House leader or another government minister is…
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Madam Speaker, the government House leader just suggested that the rules of the House are being broken, in terms of members accessing the chamber in violation of the rules. If he has information about that, the chair—
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Oh, oh!
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke about hybrid sittings having been done in the past and being done at other levels. It is important to underline that there are two things about the context that are particularly different now. One aspect of the context is that we have multiple strategies now that we were not aware of at the beginning for keeping ourselves safe. We have vaccination, but we also have …
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Mr. Speaker, the member tried to dress this up as a temporary measure, but the last three speakers, two NDP and one Liberal, really tipped the hand of the agenda of this new coalition. They want a permanent hybrid Parliament. They see it as a tool for advancing what they see as family-friendly to permanently replace Parliament with a Zoom call. I speak as a member with four young children. I have …
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Mr. Speaker, this is my first speech in the 44th Parliament, so I want to start by briefly thanking my constituents and my family, and recognizing that the riding I represent is on Treaty 6 territory. I will share more about the rich history, present vitality and bright future of my riding very soon. Today, we are addressing a very striking matter of parliamentary business. The fact that the first…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a bit ironic that in the midst of a speech about declining respect for Parliament we would have such flagrant disregard for the authority of the Chair from NDP members. As I was saying, we are also in a different position today from where we were a year and a half ago. Large public events are taking place now. People are travelling. Most workplaces are up and running. A year and…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate you on your election, and it is great to be back. I am presenting a petition regarding the dire situation of minority communities in Afghanistan. The petitioners call on the government to note the situation of the Sikh, Hindu, Hazara, Christian and other minority communities whose position was precarious prior to the Taliban takeover and is much worse now. This petition…
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Madam Speaker, the government House leader during his speech spoke about the possible risk to people who are immunocompromised, but in the last Parliament, for multiple question periods we had zero Liberal ministers ever showing up. It seems to me that it is statistically improbable that 100% of Liberal ministers are immunocompromised. Does the member agree that it is statistically improbable that…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your position. As a member from Alberta, I want to share the strong sense of solidarity that people in Alberta feel with British Columbians. We obviously have a close and special relationship with B.C. Many families cross that provincial boundary and there are a lot of people who travel back and forth on a regular basis. Since many members have spoken about the issu…
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the third report of the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations, presented to the House on Wednesday, May 26, be concurred in.
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