Parliamentary Speeches

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, I tried in my speech to really emphasize that the only place McCrae's foe does not thrive is in democratic nations where people have enshrined rights to equality of opportunity and fundamental freedoms that are protected by democratic institutions and the rule of law. There are many people who feel disillusioned at this juncture in Canadian history about their democracy because we h…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, if future generations of people in this place, our successors, read this debate, I want them to look on this exchange with great gravity because the foe does try to make us think that we should be ceding our power and the privileges that we have in this place, which we are imbued with on their behalf. We should never do that. What my colleague opposite suggested was that we should c…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, this place has to work, and for it to work, the government must respect the will of Parliament. The way for the government to end this issue is to hand over the documents and respect the will of Parliament. We have to start taking these principles seriously if Canadians are to believe that their democracy works. It is as simple as that. There are so many Canadians who feel disillusi…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, over the last several weeks, all of us have had the opportunity to think about why this place needs to function. This debate has been precipitated because the government has refused to respect the will of this place. This place needs to function as it was designed to function under the Standing Orders and under all the rules and privileges that we are afforded here in this place bec…

Mr. Speaker, on the same point of order, with regard to the interventions that were made in the House on this, you were asked to equate a watermelon pin with the poppy, the remembrance poppy. I would hope that no one in this place meant that. I would ask that, in your deliberations, you do not equate the two, Mr. Speaker. The poppy stands as a symbol of the Canadian Armed Forces' contributions to …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering why the government is so eager to move on from debate on this issue. Certainly, it is an important motion that has been put forward on behalf of my colleagues. I do not understand why the government is so eager to move on. What does it have to hide?

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, today, Cree lawyer Leah Ballantyne, who is a survivor of the sixties scoop, was quoted as saying: Identity fraud is fraud.... I think that somebody who has taken an oath of office to represent people in a level of government has an ethical duty to be honest to all constituents and all people in Canada, which in this case, [the Minister of Employment] has not done.... She is right. The…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I was quoting an indigenous person as it pertained to identity fraud by the minister—

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, I was quoting a Cree lawyer who called the minister a fraud. He is a fraud, and I do not withdraw.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Earlier you issued an admonishment stemming from a quote in the National Post from a Cree lawyer who noted that the Minister of Employment committed identity fraud when he falsely claimed indigenous heritage. The minister's company falsely claimed indigenous ownership and subsequently received government contracts. What word would you suggest indigenous per…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, as recorded in Hansard on February 9, 2023, the member for Mirabel referred to the Prime Minister as a fraud. No admonishment was issued. Why are you admonishing me today?

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I move that the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, presented on Friday, November 1, be concurred in. The reason why I am proposing this motion today is in response to an interim report on a committee study that the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology is undertaking right now. The motion that precipitated this within the committee read, “Followi…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, first, I need to clarify that in the deal the government came up with for Visa and Mastercard, there was no requirement for payment processors like Stripe to pass the savings along to small businesses. Advocacy groups have pointed out that these payment processors are actually hoarding these fees. Therefore, the government probably should have some sort of formal regulation to ensure …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, much to the chagrin of my colleague, I have to point out that the way government pays for social programs is through taxes, and taxes are only created by the private sector and by Canadians who work and create revenue for the government. Money does not grow on trees. The socialist rhetoric that ignores that fact is magical fantasyland. The government has put regulations in place that …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, last year, a report from an international tax watchdog accused Brookfield of dodging taxes around the world, stating, “there is an apparent pattern of aggressive tax avoidance consistent across its global operations.” It is no coincidence that last week, Brookfield, a megacorporation chaired by senior Liberal economic adviser Mark “carbon tax” Carney, announced it is moving its headqu…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague talked about being the son of a veteran. I think, at this time of year, we should reflect upon a line in a poem written over 100 years ago by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae: Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. I often think about that line. I think the foe lives in people who seek to subjugate or…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that Mark “carbon tax” Carney is moving Brookfield's headquarters to Wall Street to avoid paying Canadian tax. The reality is that Mark “carbon tax” Carney gets paid more if Brookfield pays less tax. The reality is that while he is helping his company pay less corporate tax, he wants every Canadian to pay more carbon tax. Why are the Liberals letting Canada's economy ag…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, news is breaking today that Brookfield Asset Management, a multitentacled everything corporation chaired by Mark “carbon tax” Carney, will be moving its head office out of Canada. This news comes after reports that for several years, Brookfield's effective tax rate will be well below the new global minimum tax rate of 15%. Carney is the Liberals' senior economic adviser. Why are the L…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I wish members a happy Friday. I would just ask that we could perhaps have peace and unity in this place and carry on with debate.

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, earlier this year, the Prime Minister appointed Mr. Carney to be his senior economic adviser, and in that role, Mr. Carney would have unfettered access, in theory, to confidential and sensitive economic information, and he would also have unfettered access to people who make policy decisions on economic policy. The finance minister has on multiple occasions said that Mr. Carney is a…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition put a great piece of policy forward this week. I am so glad my colleague mentioned it, and I hope he will support it. The policy is to axe the GST on homebuilding, and it was developed by anti-poverty advocates. These are people who are trying to fight for Canadians to have a break; in contrast, Mr. Carney is advising the Liberal Party in order to get ri…

Concurrence in Committee Reports

Madam Speaker, the federal Liberal Party was actually called in front of the Privacy Commissioner for facial recognition technology that was being used in nomination contests. The need to put boundaries on its use has only become more and more acute, particularly in government, over the last several years. The government has failed to act. It did not really address the issue at all in any of its l…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the housing accelerator fund does not actually directly build homes. Who said that? The Minister of Housing. This is the same man who juiced temporary visas knowing that students were sleeping under bridges and were performing sex acts because they could not afford rent. That minister has been allowed to fail upward. Even his caucus members know that. When will the Prime Minister stop…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I was dismayed that earlier in question period, in response to the Leader of the Opposition's questions on housing, the Minister of Housing treated those questions like they were a joke. Today, Scotiabank has said that nearly 25% fewer Canadians can own a home now than when the minister took office. This is on top of the fact that housing has doubled under the government. Housing shou…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, our debate today is happening because the executive branch of government has defied the will of Parliament. Members in this place, some months ago, passed a motion to compel the government to release documents related to $400 million of funds that were misappropriated. It is entirely within Parliament's purview to ask for documents, particularly if they are documents produced by the g…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, my colleague, after 20 years or so in this place, should understand that tu quoque is one of the worst logical fallacies in debate. For years, the member, who has power given to him by his constituents, has ceded it to stand here and waste countless words and hours spewing the talking points of a government that sued the Speaker of the House of Commons instead of respecting privilege.…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, is that a responsible approach to immigration? The former immigration minister bragged about increasing international student permits from about 400,000 to 500,000 knowing that shady universities were abusing these students and that they were living under bridges in Toronto. That is the record of the government. The government, with the responsible approach the member talked about, al…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, first, here are a few facts. What we are doing is defending the privileges of every member of Parliament and saying that the government must immediately release the documents, as passed by a rule of Parliament. This is part of our parliamentary procedure. Second, the Bloc Québécois, three weeks ago, voted to keep the scandal-prone, corrupt government alive. Every time the Bloc Québéco…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that it was the Liberals who fought tooth and nail for an extension of the Rainbow Railroad refugee program that was started under the former Harper Conservative government, and all the while, they allowed countless people in upstate New York to illegally cross the border. That is the record of the government's broken immigration system. If the minister wants to talk ab…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my speech, partisanship is important. It allows us to develop cohesive policy positions and then come together under a leader and team to enact political change in Canada. However, we also have to remember that while we are partisans, our first title is not “insert party here”; our first title is “member of Parliament for”. I learned that from Jody Wilson-Raybould, who I …

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, it has been a hot minute since someone has asked me if I were chicken. My husband is here today, and I do not think he ever would say that I have shied away from a debate. In fact, I think I once told him that he was never going to win a debate with me and to not try. I would just say this: As a former Winnipegger, I learned how to scrap on the streets of North Winnipeg, and giddy up.…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. His privileges have been violated. His privileges have been violated by a government that refused the will of Parliament to submit documents, and the way for his privileges to be restored are for the government to hand the documents over. Should the constituents of Longueuil not be so happy that the Conservative Party of Canada is fighting to ensure tha…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, it is the dying days of a corrupt government that does not even have the capacity to put out a caucus revolt right now. That is the real problem that this country is facing. There is such little political will or courage in the Liberal Party, such little talent and such little focus, that everything is falling apart. It is a shame. It is a scandal. Canadians deserve better. It is time…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw the member's attention to a name that is going to be seared upon his heart over the next year. The name is Rachel Punzalan. She is a strong, feisty Filipino woman who is committed to bringing truth and speaking truth to power. I have sat in this place with the member for years, and I will just tell him this: Every moment that he continues to carry the water of the…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, members in this place have been extremely frustrated and embarrassed by the lack of accountability of the Liberal government to comply with basic orders of Parliament over the last year. Then the Liberals go out into the public and say, “Oh, you know, Parliament has been ground to a halt because of...,” and we can insert any reason other than the government's complete unwillingness to…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup. What we are doing here today is something called a concurrence debate. It relates to a report that was actually submitted to the House in October 2022, two years ago, on the topic of facial recognition software. This might seem like a very niche topic, but it is really not. Facial recognition…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I wish I had five hours. I will just say this: Bill C-18 is one small example of what the government has done. Bill C-18 has resulted in the complete decimation of Canada's media ecosystem. There is virtually no local reporting. There is a ban on sharing news on social media platforms. The government wants an ill-informed, censored population so that it cannot be held to account.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, it was former prime minister Harper's government that introduced legislation to stop revenge porn. That was the first law that passed in the House of Commons in response to many terrible incidents. That was a Conservative bill that was passed. Bill C-63 does not do that. The bill that would do what the member opposite was talking about is a bill that I wrote, Bill C-412. My bill, Bi…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the government has failed on the fronts that my colleague mentioned in two ways: action and omission. On action, the government has censored Canadians through Bill C-11, which has had a massive effect on YouTube creators, censoring who gets seen and who does not. Bill C-18 has resulted in a news ban for online media platforms, so Canadians cannot get the news. It has also put many n…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, one year ago today, Hamas committed the greatest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The attack should have woken all of us up to the fact that the terror regime in Tehran and its proxy groups seek the destruction not only of the Jewish people but of democratic values around the world. These groups care nothing for the lives of the people subjugated under their rule, an…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to put on the record that I am very comfortable with calling a cop killer a dirtbag.

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, it is said that Canadians will only support our democratic system if they know in their hearts that the rules of our democracy are followed in this place and that we can all represent them. It is a little wild to think that some of us represent over 120,000 people. We are one vote for 120,000 people, and the only way that carries any weight is if the rules of this place are followed. …

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, my colleague just underlined the importance of this place and the importance of respecting the rules of this place. In that, I wholeheartedly agree. She and I may vehemently disagree on approaches to public policy, but the reality is that we each have the duly elected right bestowed upon us by all of our constituents to raise our voice on the issues we may disagree with in order to co…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, some of my constituents have written to me asking, “Why is the Liberal government grinding the business of Parliament to a halt?” They have seen reports of the Liberal government doing this. I will break down what is happening here today, why it is so crazy that the Liberal government is allowing this and then what Parliament should be doing in response. What is happening here? We are…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, I hear grumbles on the other side, but it has to be said. We either respect the rules of this place, the privileges of parliamentarians and the will of Parliament, or we live in a state that is not a democracy. Again, the Liberal government has repeatedly done this. It has repeatedly refused the will of Parliament. Also, frankly, we have had people called to the bar of this place to b…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, first, I offer my condolences for having to serve under one of the worst prime ministers in Canadian history. Second, I think I will deal with the question obliquely, by saying that the whole goal of SDTC, the Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund, was to promote technologies that were homegrown so that the intellectual property could stay in Canada. What else was its goal? I…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, I did hold a cabinet position. It was an economic position that was responsible for various grants and contributions, and every step of the way, I changed terms of funding. I called for proposal models so everything would be as fair and as just as possible so no one could ever accuse our government of not spending money wisely or of enriching our friends. It is corporate fiduciary res…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, there absolutely is something that prevents the RCMP from getting the documents. It is the Liberal Party of Canada, and that is why we moved the motion in this place to compel the documents. The member's party has completely blocked justice in this sense, and that is why we are doing this today. It was actually the member opposite, who just raised the question, whom I was referring to…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, let me do something that I do not do on a regular basis, which is to quote the leader of the Green Party, who said the same thing that many other people have said in the House of Commons today, which is that she did not find any intellectual basis for the constitutional argument. That is because there is none. It is such as stretch to argue that it is truth because the government that…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, this is another typical Liberal scandal. The Conflict of Interest Act prohibits ministers from furthering interests of their friends, which is why the act requires ministers to declare close friendships with people who lobby. The finance minister has frequently mentioned her close personal friendship with the chair of Brookfield, who now holds a senior Liberal economic advisory positi…