Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this issue has been dealt with by the Ethics Commissioner, who has cleared the member on three occasions. When it comes to his former business partner, we agree with the House. He should have been clear and answered those questions, and now he will face the consequences.
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Mr. Speaker, we agree with the Bloc Québécois. Bill C‑282, which protects supply management, is important. I am disappointed in the committee of senators who voted against this bill and made this amendment. I would ask senators to respect the will of the House. I am asking all senators to vote against this amendment and support our farmers, who feed Canadians and contribute so much to our economy.
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Mr. Speaker, I know the member to be someone who cares about Canada's standing in the world and who I thought cared about Canada's national security as well. What I find perplexing, and what I think must be difficult for him to understand, is why the leader of the official opposition is refusing to get a security clearance. Why is it that he would rather ignore the threats to Canada's national sec…
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Mr. Speaker, this government always stands up for Canadian workers and always stands up for Canadian industry. When it came to renegotiating NAFTA, we stood strong and protected Canada's economy while the Conservative Party of Canada said to capitulate. When it came to supporting our steel and aluminum workers, we stood against tariffs; we hit back hard. What did the other side say? The Conservati…
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Mr. Speaker, I know the member to be an honourable—
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the government will be tabling a response to one more petition today.
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Mr. Speaker, at $7,782 a year tax-free, the Canada child benefit has helped lift over 450,000 children out of poverty. What the member is calling gaslighting is real money that is helping real Canadians. Who is doing the gaslighting? It is the Conservative members of Parliament, who want to sell slogans instead solutions. It is they who say they can fix things while cutting the services and progra…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a really important question when it comes to protecting our national security. When Canadians send us here, they think we are going to do one thing, and that is put the national security of Canada first and put Canadians first. Every leader of a party in this place has received a security clearance except for the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. The question is why.…
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Mr. Speaker, when Canadians are facing tough times, what should a government do? It should provide programs that provide supports to them, like the Canada child benefit, like making child care more affordable and like dental care for seniors and vulnerable Canadians. What is the Conservative plan? It is to cut those programs. It is to take away the very supports that Canadians rely on when times a…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a question that is on the mind of many Canadians. Why will the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada not get his security clearance? It is interesting to note that his Conservative members of Parliament would rather put our national security, our allies, our intelligence allyships and, quite frankly, the lives of Canadians at risk rather than have their leader get his secur…
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Madam Speaker, as my colleague is well aware, we are complying with the ruling of the Speaker of the House, which indicated that this matter must be referred to committee. As the Speaker said, the Conservatives are obstructing their own obstruction. I cannot help but think that that is because they do not want to know the truth. Doing what they are asking would be an abuse of the House's power. We…
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Mr. Speaker, I expect my hon. colleague on the other side to at least be honest with the facts. What was said was that this motion was highly unusual and it should be referred to committee for study. We support that. It is only the Conservatives who are obstructing their own obstruction. This is unsurprising because they are also trying to cover up their own leader's refusal to get his security cl…
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Mr. Speaker, the member gets up every day and says things that are simply not true. What he will not answer is why his leader is refusing to get a security clearance. That is the real question on every Canadian's mind right now. While we are facing a time when we have to put the country first and stand up for Canadians, the Leader of the Opposition is hiding something from Canadians. What is it, a…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect police to follow due process. Let me be perfectly clear: The government obviously complies with anything that follows due process. Canadians also expect their leaders to act in the best interest of Canadians, not to protect their own partisan interests. Why is that member, and all members of the Conservative Party, covering up for the Leader of the Opposition, who is …
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Mr. Speaker, once again, it is disappointing that the Conservatives are not telling the truth on this issue. What is even more appalling and what Canadians are wondering is why the Leader of the Opposition is not getting his security clearance. Is it because he has something to hide? Why is he refusing to get his security clearance? He must have something to hide, because it is so easy to get it.
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Mr. Speaker, the truth is that the Speaker's ruling was to send this matter to committee for further study because it was unprecedented what the Conservatives were asking for. We agree with the Speaker's ruling. The Conservatives are obstructing their own obstruction because they do not want the truth to come out, which is that they are trying to abuse the extraordinary privileges they have in ord…
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Mr. Speaker, what my hon. colleague is saying is false. The government has handed over thousands of documents, just done in a way that protects the charter rights of Canadians. What is true is that the Conservatives are filibustering their own motion because they do not want to respect the Speaker's ruling, which asks for this unprecedented motion to go to committee. There is only one thing the Co…
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Mr. Speaker, it is typical for the Conservatives to omit the facts that are inconvenient to them. The fact of the matter is that we have provided thousands of pages of documents already; we are respecting the Speaker's ruling, which is to send this matter to committee for further study. I think all Canadians would appreciate and expect that the police follow due process. They expect that parliamen…
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Mr. Speaker, the question on Canadians' minds this week is why the Leader of the Opposition will not get his security clearance. Every Canadian is wondering what he is trying to hide and what he is trying to protect. It is an easy thing to do. All the other leaders in this place have done it. Why will the Leader of the Opposition not get his security clearance?
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Mr. Speaker, the real question is, why does the opposition leader keep obstructing the work of the House? I think it is because he is afraid to lose another confidence vote in the House. We have won two confidence votes. The Conservatives are the only ones who do not want another confidence vote because they will lose again. The House does not have confidence in the Leader of the Opposition.
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Mr. Speaker, again, when there are Canadians who oppose their policies, all the Conservatives know how to do is attack them. Instead of respecting people and their differences of opinions, the Conservatives go after them personally. That is not how leaders in this country should act.
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Mr. Speaker, again, there the Conservatives go attacking private citizens. It just goes to show that anytime a Canadian citizen beats up against them, what do they do? They go on the personal attack. I have a question for the Conservative leader. Why will he not get his security clearance? It is a question Canadians across this country are asking because they want to know what and whom he is tryin…
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Mr. Speaker, in the real world, the police have to request warrants. They have to go through due process to get information. It is not up to parliamentarians and politicians to direct police because they have a political vendetta. Canadians expect due process, and they expect that politicians are here to protect their rights, not to get rid of their rights.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, the government has handed over thousands of pages of documents. However, the big issue here that I think Canadians are concerned about is that they know politicians should not be directing police. What is at issue here is the fact that the House has decided that it should be the judge and jury and the police should investigate something. We have no problem with police inves…
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Mr. Speaker, I have some grave concerns with what the member opposite said, beginning with the fact that I assume he has actually not seen those documents. I am not sure what he is talking about, because the documents have been handed over. What is of greater concern, and it was the RCMP that said it, is that the way the Conservatives are acting would actually compromise any police investigation b…
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Mr. Speaker, here we are again. We will remember, at this time last week, I stood in this place and listed the following business for the upcoming week: Bill C-71, on citizenship; Bill C-66, on military justice; Bill C-63, on online harms; and the ways and means motion related to capital gains. I am sorry to say that all we saw this week was more Conservative procedural games. I can only imagine t…
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Mr. Speaker, what the member is saying is wrong. The government has already handed over thousands of pages of documents in response to this motion. Your ruling was clear, Mr. Speaker. Because it was unprecedented, you said that it was an abuse of the House's power and that we must send this motion to committee for study. Mr. Speaker, we respect police independence. We would like to know why the Co…
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Mr. Speaker, in the interest of clarity, I think Canadians would like to understand what the Conservatives plan to cut. The member talks about families in Ontario. The Conservatives refuse to talk about the Canada child benefit, which puts thousands of dollars in the pockets of Canadian families every single year. They refuse to talk about child care, which saves Canadian families thousands of dol…
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Mr. Speaker, in case my hon. colleague did not hear my previous answer, as I stated, the Ethics Commissioner has looked into this matter three times and each time has confirmed he has no concerns.
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Mr. Speaker, if and when the police request that information, it will obviously be handed over because that is proper judicial process. However, when Parliament is doing that, Canadians should be concerned because, when the leader of the Conservative Party is going after the rights of other Canadians, it is only a matter of time before his political vendetta comes after the rights of all Canadians…
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Mr. Speaker, that was some incredible doublespeak from my colleague across the way. The RCMP has said this: ...the RCMP's ability to receive and use information obtained through this production order and under the compulsory powers afforded by the Auditor General Act in the course of a criminal investigation could give rise to concerns under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.... There is…
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Mr. Speaker, this is a typical witch hunt from the Leader of the Opposition to go after people who have nothing to do with this. These are files, such as personnel files, that contain private information of individuals who have nothing to do with what is going on. The RCMP and the Auditor General themselves raised concerns with this motion. It is the government's view that we should send this to c…
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Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite is saying is absolutely false. It is the Conservatives who are filibustering their own motion in the House because the RCMP and the Auditor General have both raised their extreme discomfort with the motion the Conservatives put forward. If the Conservatives want to get back to work, we are ready to send this to committee to make sure we can talk about the issu…
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Mr. Speaker, again, the Conservatives are saying things that are false. The only party that has been putting up speakers for the past week is the Conservative Party, so it is the one filibustering its own motion. Let us talk about why the Conservatives might be filibustering that motion. Rob Walsh, the former law clerk, said, “[In my humble opinion] it is an abuse of its powers for the House to us…
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Mr. Speaker, as I just said, the Ethics Commissioner has looked into this matter three times and each time has confirmed he has no concerns.
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Mr. Speaker, I notice the volume goes up when Conservatives do not want to hear the truth, so let us go back to that. The only members of Parliament who have been debating this motion are Conservative members of Parliament. They are filibustering their own motion, and I can say why. It might have something to do with Rob Walsh, the former law clerk, who stated, “it is an abuse of its powers for th…
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Mr. Speaker, what the members opposite are saying is not true. Your ruling was very clear: because of the unprecedented nature of that motion, it should go to the procedure and House affairs committee for study. The RCMP and the Auditor General raised their extreme discomfort with the Conservative motion. Canadians should be concerned because the Conservatives are going after whoever they hold a p…
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Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner has looked into this matter three times and each time has confirmed he has no concerns.
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Mr. Speaker, what the Leader of the Opposition is saying is absolutely false. Here is what the RCMP said about this motion: “There is significant risk that the motion could be interpreted as a circumvention of normal investigative processes and Charter protections.” Let us follow your directive, refer this motion to committee and get back to the important work of the House.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is not being truthful with Canadians. The RCMP commissioner himself said: ...the RCMP's ability to receive and use information obtained through this production order and under the compulsory powers afforded by the Auditor General Act in the course of a criminal investigation could give rise to concerns under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It …
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Mr. Speaker, as I have stated many times, if a witness goes to committee, we expect that they provide the information that the committee asks of them.
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Mr. Speaker, all of us come to this place because we want to serve Canadians. The Liberals on this side of the House want to be able to deliver important measures for them, but we know that we need to earn their trust every single day. What we see from Conservative members of Parliament is that they think they have already won the next election, but that is not how elections work. We all have to h…
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that I read the Speaker's ruling into the record because the Conservatives did not hear it the first time: ...the Chair is of the view that it would be valuable to afford an opportunity for the concerns expressed by the RCMP, as well as by the Auditor General, to be addressed fully and, I would hope, for a mutually satisfactory solution to be arrived at. I beli…
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Mr. Speaker, we are ready for this matter to move on to the procedure and House affairs committee, just as the Speaker ruled. The only party that does not want that to happen is the Conservative Party. They are trying to spin out their own obstruction because they do not want this to go to committee. What they will hear is expert after expert talking about the egregious abuse of power the Conserva…
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Mr. Speaker, if we are going to be mansplained to, they can at least try to get it right. The fact of the matter is you ruled very clearly that this matter should go to the House committee. If the members opposite would like to read the full ruling, they can go do that, or I can table it in the House for them to read. I would encourage them to not just cherry-pick parts of the ruling, but to actua…
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That is false, Mr. Speaker. That member sat in your chair at one point, and I think he would have an interesting perspective if the opposition was not following his ruling as he is doing. I quote, and I repeat what you said, Mr. Speaker: I believe the best way for this to be achieved would be to follow the usual course for a prima facie question of privilege, that is, a referral to the Standing Co…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure the opposition House leader believes his own spin. He could scroll down a little and see what you, Mr. Speaker, asked of him, which was to prepare a motion that you said you would accept to send it to committee to be studied. We welcome that. We will get this studied. Let us get this out of the House. There is only one group of MPs that does not want that to happen, beca…
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Mr. Speaker, your ruling was very clear: send this to committee. There is only one group of MPs that is afraid of that going to committee. We are prepared to vote on that. Let us send it to committee. Let us have that debate. The only group of MPs that is obstructing its own obstruction, the Conservatives, do not actually want to help Canadians. All they want to do is serve themselves and their ow…
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Mr. Speaker, your ruling was clear to send this matter to committee for further study. The Conservatives do not like that because they will hear from experts like the former law clerk, who says, “[In my humble opinion] it is an abuse of its powers for the House to use it's power to demand and get documents from the Government in order to transfer them to a third party...that wouldn't otherwise rec…
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Mr. Speaker, as I stated, if a witness goes to committee and the committee asks them for information, we believe that the witness should provide the information as requested of them, and we expect as much.
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