Government Orders
Mr. Chair, 130 highly qualified Palestinian postgrad students have waited for two years for their study visa with no decision or timeline. Many face requirements that are impossible to meet under the war conditions, including biometrics and extended security screening. France, Ireland, Belgium and Germany successfully evacuated students who received university scholarships without pre-departure bi…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition I am tabling is signed by Canadians from communities including Vancouver, Surrey, Toronto, Ottawa and Gatineau. Petitioners are concerned that Trump's military is bombarding small boats and their crews in the Caribbean and in the Pacific Ocean, claiming without evidence that they are narco-terrorists. Such actions are illegal, they have noted, yet Canadian-made e…
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Mr. Chair, will the minister offer biometric solutions and alternatives for this program?
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Mr. Chair, it is a yes-or-no question.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a petition from constituents of the riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, because the constituents tell me their MP would not table it. The petitioners note that Canada acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty in 2019, committing to prevent the transfer of arms where there is a substantial risk that they could be used in human rights abuses, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, the fossil fuel lobby had at least 17 direct meetings with the Prime Minister and environmental groups had zero. The Prime Minister axed the carbon tax, abandoned the emissions cap, killed the EV mandate, signed a deal to build a new pipeline, stepped up on greenwashing, took a sledgehammer to regulatory reviews, created a $25-billion wealth fund that will no doubt benefit the oil and…
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP agrees to apply the vote, and we are voting yes.
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Mr. Speaker, of course the NDP supports workers. We are not the party that will legislate them back to work. We are not the party that will run roughshod over workers. We are not the party that is pretending to engage in a consultative process about major changes to the Canada Labour Code without the meaningful participation from labour. This is what the Liberals are doing.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told Canadians, “we don’t want to hear what people are against; we want to hear what they’re for”. He has abandoned the environment. He is gaslighting environmental groups that have been calling for renewable energy for decades. No wonder the former environment minister resigned and Liberal MPs feel they can raise their concerns only anonymously. This is an authorit…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no question that the affordability crisis is hitting everybody. In my riding of Vancouver East as well, people are struggling to get by. What the NDP cannot accept is an economy where wealth continues to concentrate at the top, where opportunity narrows for too many and where public policy moves in ways that risk reinforcing that divide. This is not inevitable. It is the resu…
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP agrees to apply the vote, and we are voting no.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by over 13,000 people about prolonged security screening delays for PR applicants. Internal IRCC projections reveal that PR applications referred for comprehensive security screening are projected to take nearly 65 months, which is over five years, to complete. I have so many constituents who are faced with this problem. The petitioners point out th…
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Mr. Speaker, I am sharing my time with the member for Trois-Rivières. Let me start with a quote that says, for all my life, I have been a Liberal who believed in rights, equity and an independent foreign policy. Since 1982, the charter gave us something that transcended party...courts that could check governments, refugee protection as obligation, reconciliation as shared responsibility. “The stor…
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Mr. Speaker, I will tell you what the NDP stands for. The NDP stands for calling on the government to actually impose an excessive profit tax on the oil and gas companies, which are poised to make over $90 billion just this year alone in profits. That money should go into the sovereign wealth fund. That money should go into green energy initiatives. That money should be going into supporting Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no question that I am deeply disappointed and deeply concerned that the Prime Minister has abandoned the indigenous community. He is riding roughshod over and sidelining their indigenous rights, as have been enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. On the housing side, the government, in the economic update, actually ensured that the private sector…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, there is nothing in the spring economic update on surveillance pricing. There is nothing on excessive tax profits, as oil companies are set to make some $90 billion in excess profits. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the $140 billion for housing is actually for developers in lost revenues. The government does not, in the economic budget, have the wherewithal to ensure that the Right Fit progr…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing, the Liberals are quietly slashing $5 billion from promised transit funding to local governments, all part of the Prime Minister's cuts, funding that cities rely on to keep people moving and to fight climate change. That means fewer buses, delayed projects and higher costs for commuters. Why is the government abandoning working people and mun…
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Mr. Speaker, the high cost of living is fuelled by greedflation, and the Liberals know it. The top 1% now holds nearly a quarter of all wealth, while the bottom 40% scrape by with just over 3%. Oil companies are on track to make $90 billion in windfall profits from Trump's illegal war. Half measures, like a temporary federal gas tax suspension, will not stop this growth inequality. Will the Prime …
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Mr. Speaker, of course I am very concerned that there could be overreach. That is an alarm bell that civil liberties organizations and privacy advocates have actually rung, saying that this is an overreach. They are very worried that instead of targeting a specific act or a specific investigation, this applies to all Canadians across the board as a generalized collection of metadata, of retention …
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Mr. Speaker, on the issue around surveillance, indigenous people bear the brunt of it. We just recently learned that there was secret surveillance of indigenous leaders and indigenous community members. This is happening right now, and we are just learning about it. As we talk about expanding surveillance activities and capabilities, we absolutely need to make sure all the checks and balances are …
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Mr. Speaker, I think everyone agrees that the modernization of investigative powers in the digital age is required. The question is about getting the right balance. In the interests of getting the right balance and protecting privacy and civil rights, why did the government not consult with the Privacy Commissioner or ensure that their input was incorporated in the drafting of Bill C-22?
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Mr. Speaker, to that point, if the government was so sure that it got the balance right, why did it not ensure the Privacy Commissioner could provide their views and recommendations on Bill C-22? The government was sent packing on Bill C-2 because of overreach, because of the omnibus bill and because Canadian public civil society organizations, civil liberties organizations and privacy advocates a…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear about what is happening in this country right now. Canadian families are making impossible choices at grocery stores. Parents are skipping meals so their children can eat. Seniors on fixed income are choosing between food and medication. Food banks usage has reached historic highs, and people using them are not just unemployed Canadians. They are working people, people…
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Mr. Speaker, the government omitted to properly consult the Privacy Commissioner. It is a curious thing, why they did that. Would the member support an amendment to the bill to, prior to it receiving full authority, have the bill brought before the Privacy Commissioner for consultation and recommendations?
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Mr. Speaker, as I have noted before, the government keeps saying that it got the balance right. If it is so certain about that, why did the government not ensure that the Privacy Commissioner is incorporated in the consultation process with the development of Bill C-22? Why did the government deliberately exclude an independent officer who would give Canadians the assurance that it has got the bal…
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Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree with the member that the government screwed up the tabling of Bill C-2 in trying to force through an omnibus bill that was resoundingly, as a result, rejected by the Canadian public. Here we are now with Bill C-22. The government says it has consulted widely and has learned from its lesson, yet it has deliberately excluded the privacy commissioner in that consultati…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-22, the so-called lawful access act, is being presented as a necessary modernization of investigative powers in the digital age. To be clear, there is some truth in that framing. We do need to modernize. Law enforcement and national security agencies are operating in a rapidly evolving technology-driven environment. Serious crimes, from human trafficking to foreign interference…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-274, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce an act that would amend the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. I thank the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre for seconding the bill. In the previous Parliament, now retired senator Mobina Jaffer brought a bill…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the NDP moved a unanimous consent motion in this House to ban surveillance pricing, and every party agreed except the Liberals, who blocked it. Meanwhile, Canadians are struggling with the cost of living and corporations are using algorithms to figure out how much more they can squeeze out of family budgets and seniors living on fixed incomes. Why did the government block t…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are being squeezed at the checkout counter like never before. Families are cutting back on essentials, skipping meals and struggling to afford groceries, while a handful of grocery giants continue to post massive profits. This is not a free market working for people. It is a system tilted in favour of corporate power, where Canadians pay more and get less. The cost of grocer…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is patting himself on the back about reaching NATO's 2% defence spending target. Budget 2025 saw the Liberals impose a 5% target, $81 billion, and now the government is promoting its defence procurement strategy as a way to turn Canada into a major arms exporter. This exposes Canada to further undermining international arms trade commitments through existing loophol…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank members of the House for their grace in allowing me to speak to this important bill today. I rise today with ongoing and deep concerns about Bill C-12. Behind the language of “efficiency”, “integrity” and “streamlining”, the bill would do something very real and very harmful. It would take rights away from people who are seeking protection, handing more unchecked power to the …
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Mr. Speaker, I am not quite sure which clause the member is talking about. If he is referring to the one-year bar issue, I have already cited the issues related to it. There are many other components within the bill that I and the New Democrats cannot stand behind, and we are not alone. The UN Committee has made comments about the bill and its measures that should be changed. Civil societies have …
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Mr. Speaker, yes, the Auditor General has come out with a report that highlights the government's inability to ensure that the immigration system is operating efficiently and fairly. There is no question that there are people who take advantage of international students, who are faced with exploitation and abuse, but the government has turned a blind eye to that. Instead of fixing the problem, it …
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Mr. Speaker, it is funny that the member cited the United States because, believe it or not, the United States actually has a slightly better system, although not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Its one-year bar actually applies to the last date of entry. Canada has chosen to apply it retroactively. This is what the government is doing. It is racing to the bottom instead of respecting i…
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Mr. Speaker, the rules and laws are there, and the judges will make those decisions. The problem with Bill C-9, of course, is that it is so subjective and vague that it allows for law enforcement to interpret it however they want to interpret it. There rests the problem. If we want to bring in precise law, let us do so. Let us not rush this through. Instead of whamming it through and bringing in t…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to affirm a central New Democrat principle, which is that we must take real, meaningful action to confront hate in Canada without undermining the fundamental freedoms that define our democracy. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and more than 40 civil society organizations raised a red flag with respect to the language in Bill C-9. It said that the bill: ...could be…
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Mr. Speaker, the reality, of course, is that we already have laws in place. The Criminal Code already targets hate and the incitement of hate. What is needed is the government investing in the enforcement of those kinds of activities. What we have seen is the Liberal government cutting budgets for measures that make sure enforcement is in place. We need to make sure that what goes to the courts re…
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Mr. Speaker, as a New Democrat, my principles do not change. People change their political colours. We have seen it in the House quite regularly, both Conservatives and an NDP member crossing over to the Liberals. The question that remains for them is this: Do their principles remain intact? Are they true to what they believe in? I believe the comments by the member for Nunavut that I cited in the…
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Mr. Speaker, in the middle of a national housing crisis, the Liberals have quietly pulled funding for the Right Fit program, a program that directly connects wheelchair users with accessible housing. With just days' notice, funding is being cut as of April 1, leaving some of the most vulnerable Canadians, people with disabilities, without support, without housing options and without answers. At a …
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Mr. Speaker, after the last atmospheric river and flooding in the Sumas Prairie, the Liberals promised support, but those were just empty words. Last week, there were two atmospheric rivers, but the Liberal government continues to delay action on flood protection in this nationally significant corridor for food production. Ottawa has yet to deliver the millions needed for flood mitigation plans, l…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told a story about living within a lie in Davos and said, “The power of the less power starts with honesty.” Former Liberal cabinet ministers Allan Rock and Lloyd Axworthy, who have been honest about Canada's complicity in the killing of civilians, have come out publicly in support of Bill C-233. They said that Parliament now faces a clear choice to maintain an outd…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the NDP strongly condemns the U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Iran and the devastating impacts on civilians, including the deaths of children at school. This marks a dangerous and reckless escalation that risks plunging the entire region into catastrophic conflict, which will have global consequences, and there is no end game. Make no mistake, the oppressive regime in Iran, with its h…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a petition from the residents of Victoria. They asked me to table this petition because the MP for Victoria would not do so. The petitioners note that Canada acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty in 2019 and that the promise was made to Canadians that Canadian arms, components and weaponry would not be used in human rights violations and against humanity. However, they note…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, let me begin by addressing the central claim we have heard repeatedly, which is that Bill C-233 would somehow decimate Canada's defence industry and disrupt integrated supply chains. That assertion is simply incorrect. Bill C-233 would not prohibit exports. It would not restrict production. It would not alter the list of controlled goods. It would standardize permit requirements for…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table an e-petition signed by more than 3,300 Canadians who have joined the call to support Bill C-233. The petitioners say that whereas Canada acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty in 2019, committing to prevent the transfer of arms where there is a substantial risk they could be used in human rights abuses, war crimes or crimes against humanity, a significant loophole in …
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Madam Speaker, with respect to the comments the parliamentary secretary made earlier, he is absolutely correct that the Conservative approach is divisive and penalizes the people who are most vulnerable in our community. To the point on interim federal health policy, the Liberal government brought forward a copayment system in the budget. For those who are suffering mental health challenges with t…
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Madam Speaker, the member is absolutely correct, in that part of the issue around escalating the cost of the system is the Liberal government's inadequacy in providing the necessary resources to get the applications processed. In the case of the IRB, for example, it needs the actual resources and the capacity to be able to process the applications so applicants are not just jammed up in the system…
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Mr. Speaker, I am splitting my time with the member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin. I rise today to speak in strong opposition to the Conservative motion targeting the interim federal health program, and this is after the Liberals have already rolled it back. Let us be clear about what the motion does. It scapegoats newcomers and refugees. It suggests that denying preventative care, prescription medicatio…
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Mr. Speaker, the member knows very well, in terms of refugee status, what the requirements and eligibility rules are. Those would apply to the individuals who are applying. That determination should be made independently and not by politicians. It is made at the IRB. The government should be properly funding the IRB so it can process the claims accordingly, instead of creating a huge backlog like …
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