Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I must return to what I was trying to do a few minutes ago through a point of order concerning the speech by my colleague from Terrebonne. I think there is a connection there with today's debate. I found that my colleague from Mount Royal took umbrage at my colleague's remarks. When she and I discussed it, we immediately agreed that this colleague was in no way targeted by the remar…
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Madam Speaker, I am not going to get into a discussion about the wording of amendments and subamendments, because I already take great issue with the political manoeuvring that goes on when we address this issue. For example, yesterday, the member for Mégantic—L'Érable made a post on X in which he says, “The Bloc Québécois just voted with the Liberals to hand out bonuses, including one for the CBC…
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Madam Speaker, I cannot think of a better critic for this type of debate than our colleague, the member for La Pointe-de-l'Île. He has been researching this for years now. He has documented the subject exceptionally well, demonstrating that, indeed, the vast majority of the funding allocated by the federal government to protect official languages is used to defend the anglophone minority in Quebec…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague raises a really important point. Not many news outlets have the resources to do in-depth reporting, because it involves research teams and it often takes weeks and months of work to develop these stories. I am thinking of shows like Enquête in Quebec and The Fifth Estate on CBC. These are major programs that do in-depth research, which is expensive. Defunding the CBC me…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I think everyone in the House recognizes that members' statements are an important opportunity for members to pay tribute to people in their ridings, constituents and organizations, but also to highlight events or situations of concern. This week, on several occasions, some extremely sensitive subjects were presented during members' statements. At times, it…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, as Jacques Brel sang, we never forget anything, we just get used to it. After 1,000 days, it unfortunately seems that people are getting too used to the horrific war that is decimating Ukraine. No one can forget the massacres in Bucha. No one can forget the bodies of civilians lying in the streets. No one can forget the bombing of the children's hospital in Mariupol. We will never for…
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Madam Speaker, I think the member probably knows that there are interpreters who need to be able to do their jobs. When someone tries to beat an Olympic record for speed talking, it makes it a little harder for them to work. If the member could slow down, it would allow the interpreters to carry out their work.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Quebec culture shone brightly last night, as its stars dressed up for the biggest event of the year in the music and entertainment industry, the ADISQ Gala. It was so nice to see and hear Quebec artists of every generation who continue to enrich our culture, playing everything from trad and pop to rap and hip hop. It was magical to see Les Trois Accords, Karkwa, Elisapie, Souldia, Rox…
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Madam Speaker, there are subtleties in the French language. The word “ignorant” can be considered an insult, but it can also be considered a state, a state of ignorance, a state of not knowing. In the current context, I think that my colleague from Montcalm wanted to make it clear that the member for Winnipeg North was not aware of the issue, did not know the file. It was not an insult; it was a d…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her advice on the Bloc Québécois's strategy. She has the right to criticize, but when I look at the most recent polls, I see that the Bloc Québécois has the support of 43% of voters in Quebec, while the Conservatives have the support of only 22%. I am going to rely on the strategy that my leader has put in place because I think it is working better for now. …
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Madam Speaker, I have here the amendment proposed by my colleague. Personally, I have nothing against conducting an inquiry into the consequences of defunding CBC/Radio-Canada. I think that could be a very interesting and relevant study in committee. As to whether I will support the amendment, right now I can only say that I will think about it. If we are going to go back to committee to study tha…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague was talking about regional coverage. I did not really address this in my remarks, but I think that Radio-Canada has a difficult mission to fulfill these days. That mission is to provide news coverage in all the regions of Quebec and Canada. Here again, improvements are in order. As for the bonuses, I have said time and again that a review of CBC/Radio‑Canada's compensat…
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Madam Speaker, what my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue is proposing is very interesting. As part of the discussions we could have about our public broadcaster, we could indeed consider getting CBC/Radio-Canada to establish collaborations, for example, between the public broadcaster and small regional media outlets that are essential for regional coverage, which is often an afterthought but is…
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Madam Speaker, yes, we did some great work on Bill C‑10, the first version of Bill C‑11, which would later become the Broadcasting Act. The reason is that the Conservatives do not want anything that could possibly improve CBC/Radio-Canada. They are constantly looking for the little irritant, the little blip, something they can blow out of proportion to ensure that people do not to see the positive…
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Madam Speaker, it is true that my colleague and I work well together on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. We disagree on a lot of things, but we agree on many others. We both have fondness for the media industry and for quality journalism. That I know. Regarding the announced cuts, I said in my speech that we found it unacceptable that the cuts were divided equally between CBC and Radio…
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Madam Speaker, I know that the Conservatives are prone to vilify the CBC. It is the story of their life. Ever since I arrived here in 2019, that is all we have heard them do. If that is their position, they are welcome to it. That said, not everything is necessarily false in our Conservative friends' sea of disinformation about CBC/Radio-Canada. There are some things that actually deserve consider…
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Madam Speaker, I have to admit, I would have liked to keep listening to the answers of the member for Winnipeg North, because he is one of the public broadcaster's defenders. I also support a healthy, neutral, and reliable public broadcaster, but one that can take criticism, because I think that the broadcaster we have right now has shown us that it deserves a healthy dose of criticism. Before get…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Before we move on to questions and comments, I would like to see the French version of the amendment.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to make sure that the French version of the amendment will be sent out shortly.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, when we talk to the Prime Minister about religious intransigence, he responds by telling us that the Liberals are always there to defend freedom of expression. First off, let us be clear: There are better examples of freedom of expression than religion. When an adult imposes his religious beliefs in class on children, there is no room for freedom in any of that. Religion must remain i…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am sorely tempted to answer my NDP colleague's question myself, since I sit on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and there were many good reasons not to support the motion in the form in which it was presented. However, I will let my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue handle it, because he did such a great job on the issue of safe sport at the Standing Committee on Canad…
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Madam Speaker, since this morning, this NDP member has been harping on the fact that earlier this week, her motion was defeated at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. The motion called for a study into the Canada Soccer drone spying scandal at the summer Olympics. Let me put things into perspective and provide some context. It is not that the Bloc Québécois does not support the motion. On…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in response to a question from the Bloc Québécois leader, the Prime Minister said that what is happening at Bedford school is justified by the teachers' freedom of expression. Imposing religion in the classroom is not freedom of expression. That is precisely why we need secularism. Secularism allows everyone to believe, or not believe, in what they want, according to their …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois stands in full solidarity with Marwah Rizqy, the Quebec MNA for Saint-Laurent. Ms. Rizqy has had to seek police protection for her family. She has been receiving threats ever since she called out the Islamist abuse and the mistreatment of children at Bedford elementary school. One of the people targeting her is Adil Charkaoui, an imam who would already be facing cha…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister used his appearance on the Stephen Colbert show to state, and I quote: “we try to [make sure] people keep their culture and keep their languages”. Come on, that is not how integration works in Quebec. In Quebec, we agree on a common set of values: equality, religious neutrality and French as the common language. Learning French and adopting common values is part of …
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the new Quebec lieutenant told us that secularism in Quebec falls under Quebec's jurisdiction, not Ottawa's. He is quite right. Ottawa has no business interfering in secularism. Ottawa has no business interfering in how Quebec operates as a society. I thank the hon. minister for that reminder. Is it fair to say that Ottawa has no intention of challenging a Quebec law that d…
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa wants to challenge Bill 21 in court and weaken secularism in Quebec. Ottawa continues to uphold a religious exemption in the Criminal Code. Ottawa refuses to exempt Quebec from the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. The Prime Minister is telling the Americans that everyone who comes to Canada can keep their language, that there is no common language and that there are no problems. …
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Mr. Speaker, one day we will get there. I would remind members that prayers are still said every day before the House begins its work. I would remind members that the government continues to uphold a religious exemption in the Criminal Code that permits calls for violence or even murder. That happened just a few weeks ago. That is serious. I would also remind members that the Prime Minister appoin…
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Mr. Speaker, I usually have a lot of respect for my colleague, but today he refuses to listen to the questions and his answers are nonsense. Quebec chose an integration model based on common values such as gender equality, separation of church and state, and French as our common language and historical heritage. Ottawa chose a very different model. It chose multiculturalism, which basically means …
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Mr. Speaker, recent events at the Bedford school in Montreal remind us that it would be a serious mistake to think that we have achieved secularism. On the contrary, we need to do even more. In Quebec, we are witnessing the return of religion to our schools, after decades of fighting to keep it out. Gender equality and the separation of church and state are at the heart of Quebec's integration mod…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I do not want to disappoint my Conservative colleague, but our support for this motion is simply a matter of integrity and transparency. Frankly, when I am in my riding of Drummond, I never hear anything about this. Rather, I am asked the following two questions. Why do the Conservatives continue to obstruct Parliament? Why is the government so incompetent? In short, they do not ask m…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have a question that ties in with the question my colleague from Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères asked. When checking for quorum, should the count not be based on the number of people who are present in the House at the time the question is asked? I find it a bit odd to see people rushing into the House of Commons when they hear a quorum call, when quorum refers to the people…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I heard the beginning of the speech given by my colleague from Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères in which he put enormous pressure on me to deliver a quality speech. I will do my best not to disappoint him. Honestly, there are several reasons why I am happy to speak on this subject today. First, it affords me the opportunity to comment on the question of transparency, accountabil…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, my position in this matter is very simple. All House of Commons requests should be honoured by the government. The request in question here is that the government provide the documents and that the matter be referred to the committee. The amendment requires that the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs call a series of witnesses. The request was made by the House of Commo…
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Madam Speaker, I found my colleague's speech entertaining. I appreciated his quote from Patch Adams, an excellent movie starring Robin Williams. I also liked hearing about his vision for Canada. The Bloc Québécois has a wonderful vision for Canada's future, too. We envision a Canada that lives in accordance with its values and its vision of multiculturalism. We envision a wonderful country with ni…
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Mr. Speaker, what matters now is that everything is referred to committee. I agree. With respect to the other matter, of course, we can hear the Auditor General of Canada's and the RCMP's concerns. I totally agree. However, that does not mean that they take precedence over the House of Commons and Parliament. We make the rules and the requests. It is not up to the government to decide whether it s…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I can only agree 100% with what my colleague from Shefford just said. A duty of accountability and transparency comes with the job. If they are not prepared to honour that duty, they should step aside. It is unacceptable that the government can shirk its responsibility and duty to render transparent and honest accounts to the public. With everything that has happened in the past five …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, large parts of our history have been scrubbed from the history books and erased, left to fade into oblivion. History cannot be fully explained without these pivotal moments that are far too often forgotten. Fortunately, we have documentary filmmakers in Quebec who provide a unique perspective on our society and go beyond the official canon to help us rediscover ourselves. We owe so mu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I usually do not need to speak so loudly for my colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith to hear me, but she changed seats so now I have to talk a bit louder. I am happy we are taking this up today because it is an important subject. It affects a huge number of people in communities across Quebec and Canada, including my riding of Drummond. I have had conversations recently about the care the…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Quebec lost a free man. Daniel Pinard passed away, and Quebec is greatly indebted to him. He changed the relationship that Quebeckers have with food through his now legendary cooking show, Ciel! mon Pinard. With his deft touch, a tomato, some salt and a slice of bread became a gourmet meal. He did not worry about following an exact recipe, and he encouraged his thousands of…
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Mr. Speaker, we are not learning much from the minister's answers. We are not going to learn much from Mrs. Elghawaby's emails either. We do not understand why the Liberals refuse to disclose them to the public. At best, we will find out what she wrote and to whom. We might find out what group she consults, but that is not likely. We might find out what she really thinks, unfiltered, about a few o…
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Mr. Speaker, I wonder if my colleagues can guess whose emails and documents the Liberals are trying to hide from Quebeckers. It is Amira Elghawaby. Yes, her again. The Information Commissioner had to issue an order forcing the department that she works for to respond to an access-to-information request for 3,000 pages of emails and documents. Ms. Elghawaby is not a minister, though. She has no con…
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Mr. Speaker, I must admit that when the new Quebec lieutenant outdoes himself with such hollow responses, it is hard to restrain oneself. I would bet that many of them think the same way as their former Quebec lieutenant. They keep quiet, much like he did before he stepped down. That is what the Quebec members of governing parties do. They have no qualms about keeping their opinions to themselves …
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Madam Speaker, the report's first recommendation addresses the temporary foreign worker program in the agriculture and agri-food sector. This program, which is essential for the regions of Quebec, is extremely important to us. The government has just announced a review of the program, but this review jeopardizes jobs in the agri-food sector in Quebec, particularly in regions where the program is n…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the Liberals' former Quebec lieutenant, who made an appearance on Quebec's most-watched Sunday program, Tout le monde en parle, yesterday. Last Thursday, when he announced that he was leaving to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he was questioned about Amira Elghawaby, whose resignation the Quebec National Assembly has unanimously called for. He …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the Copyright Act. It might seem perfectly reasonable to everyone that an act of such importance to artists, authors, writers, musicians and so many others should be modernized, but no. The industry has been lobbying the government for years with simple proposals, yet nothing has budged. Modernization, however, would inject $10 million more a mont…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on this point of order. First, the question from the member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis was completely off topic. Her question was not relevant at all. Second, I can confirm that we clearly heard the comments made following the member for Thérèse-De Blainville's response, or lack thereof. This is also a matter of honour in the House. If the member has any honour at all,…
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to remind my colleague that interpreters have devices in their ears that enable them to interpret speeches, and when members knock on the desk in the middle of their speech, it can cause problems that are best avoided.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be back here this fall to take part in the dynamics of the House of Commons. It is going to be a very exciting season. Earlier, my colleague from Montcalm asked an excellent question to which he did not get an answer. I would like our colleague from Winnipeg North to tell us more about it. The member for Montcalm gave the example of a Canadian couple whose child mo…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Quebec recently lost one of its most brilliant film directors, Érik Canuel, to cancer at the age of 63. Érik Canuel got his start in the business producing ads and music videos for the likes of Sylvain Cossette, Sass Jordan and Vilain Pingouin. He quickly rose through the ranks to become an icon in the industry. He worked on the popular television series Fortier, but it was in film th…
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