Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have to say I was a bit nervous there for a minute after the Conservatives made it so I was unable to give my remarks last week. I was worried that was going to happen again. I am quite happy they are just cold at the moment. As always, it is my great delight to stand in this House and represent the people of Edmonton Strathcona. Today, we are talking about something that is very …
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Madam Speaker, I very much enjoy working with the hon. member for Edmonton Manning on many of these files. Honestly, I want to think that it was a lack of speed. I want to think it was the thoroughness, but the resulting product does not make me think that this was the case. In fact, I actually believe the government was hoping that this would go away and that Canadians would change the channel an…
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Madam Speaker, I have a couple of things to say. First of all, my colleague referred to Ukrainian refugees, but I am not sure if he perhaps failed to understand that the government does not list them as refugees, so they are not given the protection that refugees should have in our community. The other thing he talked about is Afghan refugees. I have to tell him that I was in my office during the …
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Madam Speaker, this is the ultimate challenge we are facing. People are dying, and this legislation would help some organizations get there and provide some assistance at some point. It has taken 18 months to get this flawed piece of legislation, so we have put the international development and humanitarian sector in this terrible position of deciding whether to take flawed legislation that could …
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Madam Speaker, I would say that this is very similar to the last question I just answered. I am open to working with all parties to see if there is a way to improve this legislation. The scope will be something we will have to certainly press toward the very edges of. Again, it is a situation that the government could fix very quickly by bringing forward better legislation.
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Madam Speaker, a fundamental part of humanitarian law is that humanitarian assistance is protected and not a target. This is part of international humanitarian law for a very important reason: Even in the worst human situations, we need to ensure that humanitarian aid can be delivered. Even with the worst state actors, we need to make sure humanitarian aid can be delivered. When this legislation g…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, I think you will find unanimous consent for the following. I move: That, notwithstanding any standing order, special order or usual practice of the House, on the day the House begins debate on the motion for second reading of Bill C-41, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, no later than the ordinary hour of daily adjourn…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in Alberta, toxic water with poisonous levels of arsenic, dissolved metals and hydrocarbons leaked from tailings ponds into Treaty No. 8 land and water for nine months. Neither the provincial nor the federal government bothered to inform the people who live there. The Liberal government says it cares about the environment and indigenous people, but it blocked tailings ponds' oversight…
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Madam Speaker, this is my first time standing in the House this week, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge the two fallen police officers who lost their lives last week in Edmonton: Constable Ryan and Constable Jordan. I want to acknowledge the service they gave and the ultimate price they paid, as well as give my deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of both of these constables.…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, as always, it is an honour to stand in this place and represent the constituents of Edmonton Strathcona. Today, we are talking about Bill S-209, an act respecting pandemic observance day, which is a bill to make every March 11 a day to remember the COVID–19 pandemic. I know all of us in this House remember the day that we were here in 2020 and it was announced that the House was ris…
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Mr. Speaker, the motion today talks a lot about expenses and what the government is spending money on. I know the member and I disagree quite a bit on what the government should be spending money on, but there is another side of that: revenue. The Liberal government has spent lots of money in Alberta to clean up oil and gas wells. The New Democrats asked for strings to be attached and they were no…
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Mr. Speaker, with everything from illegal police stations to election fraud and attempts to spy in our airspace, Canadians are rightly concerned about foreign interference by the Chinese government and others. It is up to the government to defend Canadians from threats to our democracy. Right now, they are letting Canadians down by not following the lead of other nations. We need better contact po…
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Madam Speaker, I am quite shocked that the member could speak for 20 minutes about how effective the sanctions regime when he knows very well that we have 1,600 people on our sanctions regime. We have no transparency and have no enforcement. We have seized $121 million over six months. The entire Russian Federation could be put on the sanctions list, but if they are not going to enforce them they …
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Madam Speaker, I wrote to the then minister of foreign affairs in February of 2021 to demand he take action so that we would not have been in a situation where people were not able to get out of Afghanistan when Kabul fell. Of course, nothing was done. An election was called instead. However, I wonder if the member agrees we should have the current Minister of Public Safety, the current Minister o…
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Madam Speaker, Afghan women and girls cannot go to school. They cannot see a doctor. They are prisoners in their own country. For 18 months, these women and girls should have been getting help from Canadian organizations. Instead, Canada's so-called “feminist government” continues to fail Afghans by delaying a humanitarian carve-out. How much longer will the Minister of Public Safety make women an…
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Madam Speaker, like the minister, I am very worried about the increasing use of the notwithstanding clause, and my focus will be on human rights. In 2000, in Alberta, Ralph Klein tried to use the notwithstanding clause to take away the rights of the SOGI community to same-sex marriage. He was not successful because the Supreme Court was able to speak to that. I wonder if the minister could talk a …
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Madam Speaker, I am an Albertan and the use of the notwithstanding clause has been threatened and used in Alberta in the past under Ralph Klein. As somebody who I expect recognizes that climate change is real and how important it is, does the member really want Danielle Smith to have the power to undermine our environmental protections, to do coal mining in the Rocky Mountains, to release water fr…
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Mr. Speaker, relief efforts in Turkey and Syria will need far more support in the coming weeks. Canadian partners are stepping up to help, but they need more support. So far, the government has only announced a matching fund for the Red Cross, not for the Humanitarian Coalition. The Humanitarian Coalition is a group of 12 Canadian leading international aid agencies that have vast experience in the…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to stand today and address this place. I am here because I have tried multiple times, through multiple channels, to get information about the sanction regime that is being imposed by the Canadian government. I have asked questions through Order Paper questions. I have asked questions during question period, and I have raised it during debate, and yet it is impossible…
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Madam Speaker, earlier, my colleague mentioned that he did not want to talk about Ontario politics, certainly not with the member from Manitoba. Perhaps he would like to talk with an Alberta politician about politics in Alberta. He thought this particular debate was painful because we were not talking about things that were so important to his constituents, my constituents and Canadians across the…
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Madam Speaker, I think all of us in this place recognize that Canadians are struggling on a number of fronts right now. There is a health care crisis in this country. There is an affordability crisis in this country. There is a climate crisis in this country. I am wondering if the member thought this was the most important thing the Bloc could bring forward to represent the wishes of his constitue…
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Madam Speaker, a lot of my colleague's discussion today focused on human rights, which, of course, is very important to me. I do wonder why the government has not taken the opportunity to push for human rights for people around the world. The people of Afghanistan have been waiting for a very long time for the government to do a humanitarian carve-out. It has been promising this for 18 months. If …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, putting more people on the sanctions list if there is no enforcement of the sanctions is simply meaningless political theatre. The government should be ashamed of its actions on the sanctions regime.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I want to take an opportunity to thank Canada's international development sector for its fantastic work, particularly its efforts to build a better world for women and girls. As we know, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to humanitarian crises, climate change and conflict, and while Canadian organizations continue to play a vital role around the world, the federal government…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the devastation we have seen in Turkey and Syria is horrific. This earthquake comes after nearly 12 years of war and total suffering in Syria. Children are still being pulled from the rubble; it is heartbreaking. Survivors will require an incredible amount of assistance urgently. The government's announcement this morning is a good start, but the scale of this crisis will require more…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight because I am deeply concerned about the state of our immigration system in this country. I am overwhelmed by the horrific stories of people's lives being ruined because the government has failed to provide a service it is required to provide for people who are trying to come to Canada or who are trying to bring their loved ones to Canada. I do not think anyone in thi…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, universities in Canada are losing millions of dollars because study permits are not being processed in time. Iranians trying to escape from their murderous terrorist regime are waiting years for news on whether loved ones can come and when they can come. In Afghanistan, there are nine female members of Parliament. The current government could get them out today. It could get them to s…
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Mr. Speaker, the people of Ukraine, Iran, Haiti and Myanmar deserve our support. The government constantly pats itself on the back for adding individuals to the sanctions list, but yesterday we learned that the government had only seized one asset in six months. The Liberals claim sanctions are a key piece of our foreign response, but there is no enforcement, there is no investigation and there is…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a great pleasure to stand in this place to represent the constituents of Edmonton Strathcona. It is my first time standing this session, so I want to wish everyone a late happy new and welcome them back to the House of Commons. I am quite delighted that I get an opportunity to stand today to contribute to this debate. It is one of the most fundamental pieces of legislatio…
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Mr. Speaker, this is difficult for me because I understand why the member from Quebec does not like everything about this bill. However, I am a member from Alberta, where we have a Conservative government. That is very important. I would like the member for Lac-Saint-Jean to understand why I want conditions imposed on the Government of Alberta, particularly when it comes to language.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like the member to think about just how far social programs could have gone in this country if an NDP government had been in place. Of course, this government has been in place for seven and a half years and so one would think it would be able to put that in place. I would also like to raise the thought that when I have spoken with folks like Cindy Blackstock, they mentioned t…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, I am not at the committee. As the committee works through that, I know that our critics will be working very hard to make this a stronger piece of legislation. I think that one of the things that every one of us in the House is looking for is a way to make sure that every family, every parent, particularly every woman across this country has access to good, quality, univers…
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Mr. Speaker, that question was something that I tried to ask one of her colleagues in my very clunky French, so I understand why maybe it was not understood adequately. I actually do believe that there is a role for the federal government to have strings attached to ensure that there is equitable quality of care across the country. Something she might be particularly interested in is that I think …
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Mr. Speaker, first I would like to give my congratulations to my colleague for the addition to his family. What a joyous occasion. I would also like to tell him that I will likely be singing Dolly Parton for the rest of the day. I am not sure if that is a blessing or a curse. My colleague spoke at the beginning about whether we needed this piece of legislation. The leader of the Conservative Party…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to funding for Official Development Assistance, since 2019: (a) what is the total amount going to Canadian civil society partners, broken down within Canada by organization and by their province of registry; (b) what is the total amount going to U.S. partners; (c) what is the overall total amount, broken down by organizational size; and (d) what category does the recipient organization…
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With regard to the number of Albertans, residing in Alberta, and Canadian or Permanent Residents from other provinces and territories living temporarily in Alberta, who received COVID-related financial support, specifically the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Employment Insurance Emergency Response Benefit (ERB) (payments issued by both the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and by Servi…
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With regard to the number of funding applications through international development projects processed by Global Affairs Canada: what percentage of successful and complete applications received by the department were processed within the department's stated delivery standards?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I believe, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That, given reports of human rights abuses and attacks on civilians in Ukraine and other parts of the world by the Russian-supported Wagner Group, the House call upon the government to immediately designate the Wagner Group as a terrorist entity.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to sanctions imposed by Canada under the United Nations Act, the Special Economic Measures Act and the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, broken down by dollar value: (a) how many individuals have had their assets seized who are associated with sanctions targeting (i) Russia, (ii) Belarus, (iii) Russian-influenced Ukrainians; (b) how many more assets are there in Can…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I sit on three committees. The third is the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. It would be an excellent place for us to look at the rights of the Tibetan people. I also sit on the Canada-China committee, which is another opportunity for us to look at this issue. Of course, there is the foreign affair…
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Madam Speaker, before I start today I would also like to express my deep condolences to the friends and family members of our colleague, Jim Carr. As members can see, I sit very close to where the member sat. I know he was a strong parliamentarian, and I thank his family for sharing him with us. I am very happy we were able to pass his private member's bill before he passed. I would also like to e…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, there were discussions among the parties around our not being interested in doing this debate at this time, that it was not appropriate. However, that does not seem to have stopped the Conservative Party. Certainly, when I raised the issue of Tibet at the beginning of my speech, I know that some members were not in the House at that time. I would never dare name who was not in the H…
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Madam Speaker, there have been some really incredible leaders in the House of Commons who have fought for human rights. I as a New Democrat often think of Paul Dewar and Hélène Laverdière and the work they did on human rights. I have to be honest, though. I stand in this place knowing that many of the members of my caucus have fought for human rights. The member for Winnipeg Centre, for example, h…
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Madam Speaker, that is a very good question and a difficult one. I do not pretend there are easy answers to this, because we do have the need to work with China. We need to work with China on issues around climate change. We need to work with China on issues around trade and health care, those sorts of things. However, there is an opportunity for us to raise our voice and identify when human right…
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Madam Speaker, one the biggest questions I have with regard to this is that if members of the Conservative Party are so staunchly against providing reproductive health care to women around the world, one would think they would have the bravery or the moral fortitude to stand and defend that position. If this is something they truly believe, one would expect they would want to have a study on it so…
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Madam Speaker, I worked very closely with my colleague at the heritage committee in the last Parliament. I know the member. I know he believes strongly in Canadian media. I know he fights for Canadian media. However, I do have concerns with some of the messaging that we are seeing from the Conservative Party. During debate on Bill C-10, as an example, I heard one of his colleagues say that every s…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said in my comments today, we got appalling news from Iran just this morning that more protesters are being killed by the horrific IRGC regime. Everything must be done. Every possible thing must be done to hold those committing these human rights atrocities accountable. Everything also must be done to ensure that no innocent person is harmed, that innocent people are not being pu…
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I was not a member in 2017, so I was not part of the foreign affairs committee at that time. I was not elected until 2019. However, my colleague Hélène Laverdière, who sat on the committee at the time, was an extremely vocal advocate for the sanction regime. She did an awful lot of work bringing forward the recommendations. While I am happy that debate happened in the H…
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Mr. Speaker, I will repeat myself, as I have said it many times already, but it is very important that the members of the IRGC who are responsible for the human rights abuses against their citizens be held accountable and that they be sanctioned. It is also important that we do everything we can to ensure they cannot come to Canada, that their assets are seized and that they be expelled from Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, the member perhaps did not listen to my speech and does not know that we were debating Bill S-8 today, which is about sanctions, our sanction regime and how to strengthen our sanction regime. It is not really about my Christmas wish list, although I will say that dental care, pharmacare and sick days for workers are super important to me, and I am glad that she brought them up.
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