Parliamentary Speeches
935 speeches by Michelle Rempel Garner — Page 18 of 19
Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary said, “domestic manufacturing...has hardly been a silver bullet” in addressing the vaccine shortage. That is really shocking. Then she referenced Australia, which closed its borders early instead of suggesting that closing the border was racist or xenophobic. Does she honestly believe Canada's domestic manufacturing capacity is adequate to deal with the vac…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that; however, it does not answer the question I asked. There were reports today that an individual living in Canada experienced rare blood clotting following immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Other countries, including Australia, have announced that they are suspending use. Given this information, has the minister consulted with her officials? Does she anticipat…
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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?
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Mr. Speaker, I have a follow-up question. Is there a parliamentary secretary available?
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Mr. Speaker, that is a bit misleading, because NACI has not allowed media access into its meetings. In the last couple of weeks, we have had advice that said that AstraZeneca is safe for all age groups; then that it is only safe for those 55 to 63, but not those under 55; then the federal government said it was pausing the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and a few minutes later said it was not pau…
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Mr. Speaker, across Canada, given frequent recent changes in advice from the federal government, people are asking questions about the AstraZeneca vaccine and about vaccine dosing interval advice in Canada. Some of this might have been alleviated if the media had access to the process by which the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, or NACI, develops its advice and how that is being used …
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Mr. Speaker, it just blows my mind. We knew this was a problem two months ago, and we still have no guarantees from the Prime Minister on that issue. Let us try another country. On top of the EU restrictions, India has put a hold on major exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Has the Prime Minister contacted the Modi government yet to determine how many doses may be held back by India from our count…
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Mr. Speaker, today we learned that vaccine deliveries to Canada from Europe and India, two of the biggest sources of vaccines to our country, may be restricted. Ninety-two countries have formal written exemptions from the EU's export control regulations, but Canada does not. Today the Minister of Public Procurement declined comment to The Globe and Mail on how proposed restrictions might affect th…
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Mr. Speaker, at a time when we should all be working together to encourage Canadians with regard to vaccine uptake, the federal health minister should be starting to tell the Canadian public what she and her department are doing with regard to setting benchmarks on advice for what vaccinated Canadians can and cannot do. I will ask her again, because she did not give an answer. Is the minister plan…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked the Minister of Health if fully vaccinated seniors can hug their grandchildren. Today my colleague, the deputy leader, asked her a very similar question, and she said it was the jurisdiction of the provinces to make that determination. I am wondering if she and her department are planning on issuing any guidance on what vaccinated Canadians will or will not be able t…
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Madam Speaker, any sort of plan on how we safely and permanently lift restrictions could certainly include a variety of measures to incent people to follow public health outcomes. We also need a plan on how we are moving forward. A clear, data-driven plan to support safely, gradually and permanently lifting COVID-19 restrictions is something that we should all get behind. This is a no-brainer. I h…
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Madam Speaker, I would ask the member to avail herself to read the ask. It is not saying to lift restrictions in 20 days. It is saying to have a plan for the benchmarks that would be used to lift restrictions. The member needs to read the motion.
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Madam Speaker, the federal government has full jurisdiction on the quarantine hotel debacle that has seen sexual assaults occur, so yes, that issue is its job. Also, I want to quote the member of Parliament for Whitby, who tweeted that it was criminal negligence for provinces to not impose lockdowns. The federal government has been all over this. I ask members to think about how disgusting this is…
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moved: That, given that, (i) COVID-19 restrictions have had serious economic and mental health impacts on Canadians, (ii) COVID-19 restrictions have been advised by the federal government, including specifically by the Prime Minister on three separate occasions in November of 2020, as temporary measures to alleviate pressure on the public healthcare system, (iii) public health tools, such as rapid…
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Madam Speaker, I know my colleague from Battlefords—Lloydminster is on the call, as she just debated, and I would like to thank her for her work on the issue of seniors. She has been tireless. I have been working with her, and she has met with dozens of affected groups from across the country. I know she brings a good perspective to this issue. I would like to start my speech today by talking abou…
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With regard to the government’s contracts for COVID-19 vaccines: (a) what recourse or financial penalties were written into each contract for (i) a delayed delivery schedule, (ii) deliveries with fewer doses than stated in the delivery schedule; (b) what was the original vaccine delivery schedule written into each contract; (c) what is the current vaccine delivery schedule for each contract; and (…
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Madam Speaker, one of the things that makes Canada great is our strong and robust publicly funded health care system, which I strongly support. For profit or not, if it is government owned we need to have guidelines and best practices to ensure quality of care. I do not think a governance model, in and of itself, without those standards can guarantee anything. That said, I do think, given everythi…
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With regard to COVID-19 vaccines: (a) how many will Canada receive, broken down by week, between January 29, 2021, and the end of 2021; and (b) what is the breakdown by manufacturer with whom Canada has procurement agreements, including those manufacturers whose vaccines have not yet received Health Canada approval?
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Mr. Speaker, every single Canadian has felt the impact of pandemic restrictions on their mental health. Families are saying goodbye to loved ones on FaceTime. Business owners and gig-economy workers are unsure how they will make ends meet, and we are still seeing rises in the level of domestic violence. We need hope and clear advice from the government on the circumstances under which normal life …
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Madam Speaker, we need change. Canadian seniors in any part of this country cannot be expected to live under the circumstances they have been put over the last year. Provinces have an important role to play and their autonomy needs to be underscored, but the federal government has a duty to work collaboratively with provinces on coming up with a solution. That is where our discussion should be squ…
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Madam Speaker, I have three points. Point number one, if somebody, over and over again, talks about how much money they spent and do not get results, we should not trust them to spend our money. That is the hallmark of the Liberal government, which should be ashamed for trying to say that. It has spent its way into a worse situation for seniors. Number two, on the issue of moving forward and stand…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is the Minister of Health and these organizations report to her. I know if I were in her role, I would be asking why there is conflicting advice on all these dosing decisions and vaccine delivery schedules. I think that is pretty important for Canadians to understand. Even the president of Pfizer said that the differences in these opinions could lead to vaccine hesitancy …
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Mr. Speaker, there are some people whose joyful energy announces their presence in a room before they say a word, and Clarence Palsky had that ability in spades. Clare, as his family knew him, had an abundance of faith that soaked his character so fully that when one was in his presence, one could not help but feel peace in both his joy and his conviction. The loss of his life last week has been f…
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Mr. Speaker, earlier in question period, the Prime Minister said that it was not for politicians to make decisions on vaccines, but that seems to be exactly what he is doing. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization said not to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to seniors, but his government ignored that advice. Now Pfizer, Canada's chief science officer and dozens of Canadian medical experts ar…
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Madam Speaker, today I have the honour of rising and presenting e-petition 2574, which is the largest parliamentary petition in Canadian history. Over 230,000 Canadians have signed this petition to stop firearm violence in Canada. This petition acknowledges that firearm violence in Canada is caused by firearms that are smuggled in illegally from countries such as the United States and are related …
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That is very interesting, Mr. Speaker, because Pfizer, the company that would provide input into the review process said no dice on the four-month interval, that it did not think that was good. In fact, NACI did not even contact the drug manufacturer for data on the dosing interval. I kind of think the minister perhaps is not doing her job here. There is a lot at stake. Canadians need clarity and …
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Mr. Speaker, for people who are watching, what the Prime Minister is essentially saying is this: Because he failed to get the Pfizer vaccine into Canada in December, January and February, like many other countries did, at very small amounts, now we are going to have to delay dosing to four months, which is something no other country is doing. When he says he listens to experts, he is actually list…
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Mr. Speaker, medical experts have written in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet that incomplete vaccination by delaying administration of a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine could cause vaccine-resistant variants. This is sort of analogous to taking the whole course of an antibiotic prescription to prevent antibiotic resistance. The Liberals have ignored the advice of Pfizer, Canadian medi…
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Mr. Speaker, the problem is that there is actually no science or evidence to support this decision. The parliamentary secretary's response gets to the heart of the matter. If we had more vaccine doses and if the Liberals had been on top of getting these vaccines delivered to Canadians, they would not be recommending this extreme measure that no other country in the world is taking. Is he basically…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday the president of Pfizer said that the company does not support the Liberals' decision to move the time between the doses of their COVID-19 vaccine from three weeks to four months, and Canada's chief science officer essentially said that the Liberals' decision to do so was unethical. Today, Global News is reporting that numerous Canadian medical experts have penned an open le…
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Mr. Speaker, today Pfizer told Parliament that the original contract the Liberals signed with them had no vaccines scheduled to be delivered in Canada until sometime in 2021, even though other countries were receiving them in December 2020. We also found out that it was not until late November, after the issue became a political hot potato, that the Liberals went back to Pfizer to renegotiate. It …
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Mr. Speaker, today Pfizer told Parliament that unlike what happened in other developed economies, the Liberals did not negotiate for December deliveries of vaccines in the original contracts. In fact, they did not even bother to ask Pfizer for December deliveries until late November. This cost Canadians lives and jobs and left our country more vulnerable to the spread of variants. Can the minister…
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Mr. Speaker, his attention was unwanted, but he still made his way into her room. He touches her. He took a condom out of his pocket and asked her to sleep with him. She said no; he insists. She was terrified, but no help came. He masturbated in front of her. If this is making those who are listening uncomfortable, good. Imagine how she felt. After, she was told she could go to the hospital but th…
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Mr. Speaker, upon entry into Canada, a woman's passport was seized and she was forced into a taxi without knowing where she would be taken. She was forced into a federally run facility, under a federal duty of care by the Liberal government, and she was sexually assaulted. This is misogyny and a gross violation of her rights. The Deputy Prime Minister and the health minister have implied that the …
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Mr. Speaker, I watched Theresa Tam's press conference on Friday and it had a violently high hockey stick projection of what the third wave could look like because the Prime Minister has not produced vaccines for Canadians. Virtually no one can get one, but, again, the health officials said that even with mass vaccination, the government might not recommend opening up the country. People are losing…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have put Canada months behind the rest of the world in getting vaccines. It is troubling that yesterday the government said that even with mass vaccination, COVID restrictions may continue. More public sacrifice and lockdowns were the response to the second wave, and the government's projections say that this clearly did not work. If the government is now saying vaccines …
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Mr. Speaker, just to correct the minister, Canada is one of the last countries in the developed world to have our population vaccinated. That is what matters. This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci was saying that COVID might be moving from pandemic to endemic status and that we need to be managing it from a chronic perspective. Boosters for variants are going to be a key part of this over time to make sure…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a great segue. While countries around the world are projecting a drop of COVID cases even with the variants, the Liberals are projecting a spike and calling for deeper lockdowns. This is because the Liberals' failure to get vaccines over the last three months has left Canadians vulnerable. Officials have admitted that the Liberals do not have contracts secured for boosters tha…
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Mr. Speaker, that word salad will not restore lost jobs and it will not reunite families. Enough. The United Kingdom is delivering a plan to reopen its economy as we speak. Not everyone will agree with every element, but it is doing what leaders should be doing: making choices, explaining them and providing a clear, certain, safe path forward. We have not seen this type of political courage from t…
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Mr. Speaker, a national rapid testing program; clear timelines on vaccine delivery; understanding how many vaccinated people need to be in place before restrictions are lifted; clear data that is being used to make decisions; choices around how we are moving forward: These are things the health minister should be doing, not just blaming the provincial government and saying that it is not her job. …
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Mr. Speaker, a Liberal member of Parliament recently tweeted that provincial governments would be criminally negligent if they considered easing COVID restrictions. However, the reality is that we are three months behind the rest of the developed world in getting vaccines. The public is tiring of restrictions, and compliance may become an issue. We know COVID restrictions have caused increased dom…
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Madam Speaker, I think the member has just said that he is proud of the fact that modelling shows that our country is going to have an extreme spread of the variants, that we are going to have to be facing more lockdowns and that the head of the Public Health Agency has just said, ”For the next few months we're not going to have a lot of people vaccinated. That's a fact....” A portfolio does not m…
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Madam Speaker, this morning the government released new modelling with regard to the spread of variants in Canada. The government has suggested that more lockdowns are needed, but there is something that could fix this problem, and it is a vaccine. The CBC's John Paul Tasker just tweeted that Dr. Theresa Tam said this morning, “For the next few months we're not going to have a lot of people vaccin…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not what I asked. The vaccine task force said today that it expressly advised against proceeding with CanSino, and we know that deal had a huge impact on the delays we are seeing in vaccine delivery today. Those delays have cost Canadian lives, jobs, hopes and more. The vaccine task force, the science-delivered approach from the government, said “no-go” with CanSino, yet the g…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the questions asked by my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue. Today at the industry committee, the vaccine task force said that the deal with CanSino, which fell through, for vaccines was struck before the task force was formed. However, after the task force was formed, it reviewed the deal and recommended against going with it. If the vaccine task force said …
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Mr. Speaker, the best way to protect Canadians against the variant is with a vaccine that we do not have right now. Other countries around the world have slowed and stopped their vaccination programs using the AstraZeneca vaccine because of its reported ineffectiveness against variants. As well, Novavax, one of the candidates the government has signed contracts with to be produced here in Canada, …
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Mr. Speaker, my specialty is not a filibuster. That would be my Liberal colleagues in the health committee, but I digress. I come to you asking for a resolution to this issue so that the committee can continue unimpeded.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious matter, so I want to present a little more detail about what happened at the Standing Committee on Health on Friday and then provide some additional arguments in support of the arguments that my colleague just put forward. On Friday the Standing Committee on Health was meeting to discuss a variety of matters that had originally been triggered under Standing Orde…
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Mr. Speaker, countries around the world are ramping up their vaccination pace because of the spread of the U.K. and South African variants. These variants are highly contagious, and it is very concerning to see what they could do. We have seen the results of what the U.K. variant did in a long-term care facility in Barrie, and the South African variant has been discovered in other places in the co…
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