Parliamentary Speeches
935 speeches by Michelle Rempel Garner — Page 17 of 19
Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, lockdown is a blunt tool used to stop the spread of the virus. By now, there are better tools, more durable solutions, that should have been deployed across this country. Lockdowns are a very bourgeois concept for a lot of legislators. For the frontline grocery store worker or the mom who shares custody and is working three jobs to make ends meet, who cannot do her job sitting at a de…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I do not understand why the member opposite did not support a motion to provide support and benchmarks for a clear path out of the pandemic and out of lockdown, such as what vaccinated persons can do or deploying more rapid tests. This is what we need. I fully and deeply support ensuring that front-line workers have the resources they need to ensure that they can isolate. Often they d…
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Mr. Speaker, I had technical difficulties and I would like my vote to be recorded as yea.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this motion. I also acknowledge the contributions of my colleague from Vancouver Kingsway on this issue. I serve admirably with him on the health committee. As I have said before in debate on similar issues, income and ability to pay should not stop people from having access to needed treatments and care. This is a principle that every Canadian supports.…
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Mr. Speaker, nothing will change as long as the men who have perpetrated this type of abuse and the people who have stood idly by and watched it, knowing full well what was happening, are allowed to have continued employment. The government needs to clean house across every place where this has happened, everybody who knew about it, and there needs to be no quarter.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I said it before and I will say it again: clean house, no quarter.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the answer is this: clean house, no quarter.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, let the record show that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health holds the biggest parliamentary record for missing the point, missing the boat and lack of courage.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, systemic misogyny persists when silence gives cover to the sins of powerful men. I have heard a lot of sanctimony here today, so let us start with the facts. Every political party that has participated in debate today has members who have been silent and given cover for the sins of powerful men, so let us not kid ourselves about that. We do not need another report to provide justice f…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, when the minister patronizes me, she patronizes every Canadian who has the same question. The concept of vaccine mixing will be confusing to some Canadians, and the chief public health officer opened this front this morning. Therefore, I will ask her again. For Canadians who have already received one dose of AstraZeneca, should they wait for another dose of AstraZeneca no matter what …
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Mr. Speaker, at a press conference today, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada said that further advice would be forthcoming regarding second doses for people who had received one dose of AstraZeneca. Will this new advice mean that Canadians who have received one dose of AstraZeneca may have to obtain one or more doses of Pfizer or Moderna to achieve full immunity?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in a press conference given moments ago, NACI recommended mRNA vaccines over the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, saying that, given reports of blood clotting, individuals should be able to make an informed choice on whether they should wait to take an mRNA vaccine. A representative from NACI actually said they do not know how common the incidents of blood clotting are with…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that is going to leave a lot of Canadians even more confused than the press conference that just happened, so I will ask again because the minister is responsible for Health Canada. NACI is saying that individuals should be able to make an informed choice on whether they should take AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson or wait for an mRNA vaccine, but the minister has been saying to take …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, systemic misogyny grows when people with power use their privilege to protect those who perpetuate it. The member for Pickering—Uxbridge was silent when the Prime Minister's groping allegations came to light and she was silent when the Prime Minister expelled the member for Vancouver Granville from cabinet and caucus for speaking truth to power. She was silent on revelations that the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the situation is dire. I agree with my colleague. We need to look at every innovative solution on the table to address this crisis, and we do need to look at vaccine equity. The Prime Minister is going to some sort of charity rock star concert. Of course he is. He is going to get his photo op while he is raiding the COVAX fund. I hope the organizers of that concert, if they are listen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the way out of this pandemic is the amazing tools that have been developed by the world in a very short period of time, tools such as vaccines, rapid testing, therapeutics and data around transmission rates. On the blunt instrument of restrictions, of course, we need to abide by them now, but why? Because we do not have those tools deployed across the country. That is just the reality…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that many Canadians are asking when are they getting their second dose or when they are getting their first dose to begin with. I am disappointed that front-line ICU workers are facing a third wave and shortage of staff because we did not have vaccines in January and February. I am disappointed that small businesses, that employees across the country have no line of …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am looking at the calendar. It is April 29 today. It has been over a year since the start of the pandemic, and we are watching countries around the world have benchmarks and advice for reopening. We are watching them emerge from the pandemic. On April 29, 2021 in Canada, no Canadian has a line of sight on when restrictions will be safely and permanently lifted. Not a single person i…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC): (a) how many doctors and other designated medical professionals have been employed by the agency, broken down by year since 2015; and (b) what percentage of PHAC employees do each of the numbers in (a) represent?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and Health Canada respectively: (a) what scientific evidence, expert opinions, and other factors went into the decision to extend the dosing schedule up to four months between doses of the COVID-19 vaccines; and (b) what is the summary of the minutes of each meeting the NACI had in which dosing timelines were discussed?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this may come as a surprise to the member, but the United States has 10 times the population of Canada, and I believe the figures that have come out of the United States recently have shown that on a per capita basis—because that is how we measure things when there is not an equal amount, we have something called a common denominator—Canada's cases are actually outpacing the United …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley. Today, we are debating the federal budget, which outlines how much money the federal government is going to spend in a period of time. We have not had a document like this, an outline, in over two years. During that period of time, the federal government has spent an enormous amounts of money.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, gig economy workers and workers in grocery stores are the real heroes of the pandemic, but they have also been treated the most abysmally by the federal government. Of course, we need support for them to be able to isolate when they need to. We also need a plan to get them vaccinated and to make working conditions safer. The fact that the federal government has not done more on rapi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, certainly the Conservatives understand that the federal government's delay in getting vaccines during that crucial period in January and February, when only 5% of Canadians even got their first shot, put an enormous pressure on provincial ICU capacity, for example. Of course the federal government should be helping provinces in every way possible, including increased transfer paymen…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of Canadians who want to travel to go to funerals, to visit ailing loved ones, but they are not having any of that, and that is because the Prime Minister only delivered enough for 5% of Canadians to get their first dose of vaccine within the first two months of the year, that critical time when we could have stopped the third wave. He spent last summer covering up the…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister can mock his international travel against people who need to travel to see ailing loved ones who are separated from their families, but that is not going to cut it. He cites statistics, but one statistic is fact: only 2% of Canadians have been fully vaccinated. That is abysmal. That is not going to stop the third wave. There is not enough supply. We are having to ad…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is just ridiculous. It is off-label. No other country is separating doses by four months, only Canada because he did not get us enough vaccines. Fact, only 2% of Canadians are fully vaccinated. Fact, only 5% were fully vaccinated by the end of January. That is his partisan fault. Enough with the partisan games. He did not get us these vaccines and now we are in the third wave. Now …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I cannot get over this. The Prime Minister is standing in question period today while millions of Ontarians are under lockdown again. The third wave is raging and he is speculating about his own international travel. It is not the time for international travel unless it is FOMO for the Prime Minister missing out on a cocktail party or some sort of photo op. The reality is that by the …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, that is code for, “We are not going to lift it. We are going to perpetuate homophobia by not doing what we said we were going to do.” The member could just come up with a date. The reality is these studies have been going on forever, across different political stripes. However, the member refuses to say when. Frankly, that is homophobia. Also, the government could put together a str…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, many of us know that there is often an urgent appeal for blood, and the Canadian Blood Services always needs more blood donations. There are a few people in my life, very good friends, who would love to donate blood but they cannot, because they are gay. This government has promised for many years to lift the ban on gay blood donations but has not, and I find that really disappointi…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the fact is that Canada has not produced a single dose of vaccine domestically. By now, we should be producing enough vaccine to supply our own population, as the Americans and Brits are. Instead, the federal Liberals have failed and put countries, such as India, that are facing a third wave in the impossible situation of sending a G7 country vaccines despite needing to vaccinate thei…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I am sure the minister will remember that the federal Liberals did not attempt to partner with India but they did partner with the Government of China. Last year, the federal Liberals negotiated vaccine development with a company owned by the Chinese government, with whom Canada has many high-profile, ongoing concerns, which then unsurprisingly cancelled the deal after stringing the f…
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Mr. Speaker, I offer congratulations to India for announcing that all its adults will be eligible for a vaccine as of May 1. While Canada's government has not domestically produced a single dose of COVID vaccine, India has been vaccinating its population with its own vaccines, produced within its borders, while also manufacturing vaccines for Canada. Why did the Minister of Public Services and Pro…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I will remind the minister that the original contract she signed with Pfizer and AstraZeneca only had vaccines arriving in late February and March respectively. Political pressure from the opposition made a difference. Shortages in January and February cost approximately 2.8 million Ontarians their chance to get a COVID vaccine during these months. That is the equivalent of the entire…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, unlike what the minister says, Canada is different. Unlike in the U.S. and the U.K., on January 15 federal Liberals announced major problems with vaccine delivery, and acute shortage persisted until February 18. That meant that from January 15 to February 18, only 320,000 people in Ontario were vaccinated. However, with enough vaccines, 100,000 people per day, or 2.8 million, could ha…
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Mr. Speaker, Johns Hopkins estimates that to achieve herd immunity for COVID-19 at least 70% of a population needs immunity, and 70% of Ontario's population is 9.8 million people. Ontario has the capacity to vaccinate 100,000 people per day. At this rate, the province could have already vaccinated 10 million people, enough to reach herd immunity. The federal Liberals did not send anywhere close to…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, if the minister is saying that the measures put in place prior to the additional screening being put in place were sufficient, would she say that the government put in place additional screening that had no additional public health outcome and, if so, why?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, is the minister saying that the reason there is no specific COVID-19 screening for travellers from Brazil is because she feels that the other measures the government has in place are adequate, and that there is no additional public health benefit to having the additional screening measures in place?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, The Globe and Mail reported that the government dropped specific COVID-19 screening for travellers from Brazil, even while the P1 variant spreads throughout British Columbia. It also reported that the health minister's office declined to explain why the extra screening was scrubbed. Her spokesperson directed The Globe and Mail to the federal Public Health Agency, which did …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, British magazine The Spectator wrote this about our Prime Minister: “The premier best known for ethics scandals and blackface pictures...claims that the U.K. is facing a 'very serious third wave'...despite figures showing that the U.K. has currently the lowest case rates in Europe.” This is not the only misinformation the Prime Minister has spread. His government said borde…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, again, that is a question for a broader conversation about the retention of intellectual property in Canada. It ties into our trade agreements and macroeconomic conditions around taxation, labour, etc. Research-intensive universities are important for the provision of basic research, but we also have to figure out how we retain intellectual property in Canada. That cannot happen wit…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, unfortunately I have not read Laurentian University's audited financial statements from the past several years, but I will say this. I think many universities across Canada are going through a fundamental shift in their “business models”. They are asking themselves questions: Are we providing research? Are we providing teaching, and to what level? How are we providing online learnin…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I love that. I wish we had more time to have this conversation. The answer is yes. When I was in ministries in previous Parliaments, one thing that I got really excited about was the ability to bring, for example, augmented reality or virtual reality training trailers for trades to northern Manitoba communities. Yes, we should be looking at every way possible to allow people to get …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, we are switching to the mountain time zone shift, and with that I will be sharing my time with the member for Edmonton Strathcona. This is a really great debate, and I want to congratulate the NDP for putting this forward, because it is something we actually have not really talked about in Parliament. We are debating the specific issue with the specific university and its insolvency…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would ask you to call Motion No. P-2. Motion No. P-2 That an order of the House do issue for a copy of all unredacted contracts, or purchase agreements, between the government and Pfizer regarding the procurement of the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer for immunization against the SARS-CoV2 virus, commonly known as COVID-19.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, CNN's Jake Tapper just called that type of spin, “Tru-Anon”. I really hope that sticks. Canadians deserve better. There are zoo animals being vaccinated in the United States while Quebec is reporting a wave of femicides because women are locked down with their abusers. The variants are spreading across the country. If we had had vaccines in January and February while the rest of the w…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that misinformation is really tough. It was the Liberal health minister, under the Prime Minister, who said that people should not wear masks and who was photographed without a mask in an airport. While other countries were planning a massive vaccination campaign, the Prime Minister spent last summer in a cloud of scandal after giving $900 million to an outfit that paid his mother for…
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Mr. Speaker, moments ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed that an individual living in Canada experienced rare blood clotting following immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Yesterday, Australia announced that it is suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following new guidance from European regulators. Will the advice on AstraZeneca usage be changed in Canada? Why or why not?
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I was watching a CTV panel of journalists, I believe it was in February, and the host asked one of the journalists if they thought it was a strategic error that the government did not do more to ramp up domestic manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 vaccines on either the mRNA or viral vector-based platforms. The answer from the journalist was very simple. They said, “Yes, absolutely.” …
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