Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will start by taking note of the recent news that Her Majesty the Queen has contracted COVID. Reports tell us she is well and continues to perform light duties, but, of course, Her Majesty is 95 years old and this places her in a high-risk group, even for the relatively mild omicron variant. It goes without saying that every Canadian wishes her a prompt and complete recovery. Let me…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I do not think we should engage in an exercise of comparative victimhood credentials. I will observe that I too have Jewish ancestors. My grandmother was born in Bialystok. Fortunately, she came here before the Holocaust occurred, but of the 10,000 Jewish residents of Bialystok when she left, only 500 survived World War II. It is not for the member opposite, although I know she spoke …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the agreements entered into by the government signatories for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, or vaccine candidates, that were provided to the Standing Committee on Health in June 2021: (a) did the government delay or defer its provision of the agreements to the committee for the purpose of providing a copy of each agreement to the committee simultaneously; (b) why were the provis…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have to follow my own rule about being succinct, and so I will just say that I am presenting the same petition that was presented by the members for North Island—Powell River and Edmonton Strathcona earlier, which were dealing with the climate emergency. The petitioners are requesting that the government engage in seven actions, which were listed in the petition. I think the most im…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I thought my colleague from Kingston and the Islands had an interesting point, although I did not agree with him entirely. He said that we ought to be succinct when introducing private members' bills, and he then cited something he thought was inappropriate in a succinct comment. I do think it is reasonable for members to give an explanation of the content …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, 'Twas the week before Christmas, from the House floor, MPs rewriting the verses of Clement Moore, whose Night Before Christmas we all know so well, yet spoofing it just right can be hard as hell. When writing my version last year at this time, it was hard to make AstraZeneca rhyme. The task poets now face on the path we are on is finding a word that rhymes with omicron. In the year wh…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. If you seek it again, you will find unanimous consent. I am sure the member for Winnipeg North spoke out of turn and meant to agree with the motion. He is the only one who said no.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to subsection 49.8(5) of the Parliament of Canada Act, I rise to discharge my obligations as chair of the Conservative caucus and to inform you of the recorded votes of the first Conservative caucus meeting. Whether sections 49.2 and 49.3 of the Parliament of Canada Act are to apply in respect of the caucus, the caucus voted yes. Whether section 49.4 is to apply in respect of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is good to see my next-door neighbour back in the House of Commons. My next-door neighbour gave a long list of ways in which my party and all the people on the Conservative side of the House have not been taking the pandemic seriously. I will not go through his long list again, but he mentioned mask wearing. Back when the Prime Minister refused to wear a mask, back when we were bei…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I think my hon. colleague from Kingston and the Islands was in the middle of drawing attention to the absence of a member from the House—
Read full speech →Government Orders
—and now this member, who claims that Conservatives are disrespectful and will not follow the rules of decorum, is heckling in the middle of my comments. I just wonder if he could find a way to follow the rules and show the class that I know he can show, because I have seen it in the past, although not today.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, practice makes perfect. The motion that is before us today has two parts. The first part says this, and I quote: That the House agree that section 45 of the Constitution Act, 1982, grants Quebec and the provinces exclusive jurisdiction to amend their respective constitutions... The second part says, and I quote: [That the House] acknowledge the will of Quebec to enshrine in its cons…
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Madam Speaker, the only way to get past the problem of remembering my riding name is for me to be appointed to some senior position, perhaps such as House leader. I hope my leader is listening right now. I would like to say to my colleague, the hon. member who just spoke, that I agree with every one of the comments he made in the first part of his commentary referring to the narrow and symbolic sc…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I always write very long speeches, which could not possibly be given in the time allowed. My self-editing cut out a considerable amount of material. With regard to the issue of dealing with this within the framework of the Constitution. if we look at Canada's constitutional history, some of the leading figures, some of the most distinguished and thoughtful figures, were francophone …
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Madam Speaker, I actually do not have a large population of francophones in my riding. It is a perpetual problem trying to keep up my French because I do not get the chance to speak it daily. Lately, I have taken to listening only to music with French lyrics as a way of helping myself not lose too much, which is a very enjoyable way of maintaining one's language. With regard to maintaining academi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will start by finishing the last sentence of my speech, which was the only sentence I did not manage to get in. On these questions, it seems to me the answer is yes and therefore that is how I will be voting. To answer my colleague's question, it is not up to us as members from ridings outside Quebec to determine what measures are required to make Quebeckers happy and to make them…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am just very worried that the way this is working out, the member for Lac-Saint-Louis will have his list of enumerated questions and there will be no time for the member to respond. That would be unfair, so I ask you to exercise a bit of discretion.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands has said, somewhat disingenuously, that there is a sunset clause in the bill, in section 11. What section 11(2) actually says is that when the Chief Electoral Officer consults with the Chief Public Health Officer, currently Dr. Tam, and the Chief Electoral Officer as a result “Is of the opinion that the temporary rules in Part 22 of the Canada…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to start by offering congratulations to my colleague, my hon. friend the deputy House leader, for putting forward Motion No. 38. She occupies the post of deputy House leader, which I occupied for the nine-year period between 2006 and 2015. Today, I will be drawing a little upon that experience in my comments. My hon. colleague's long history of scientific research is well doc…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I will be very brief. I support Motion No. 38, and my commitment remains intact to the emerging convention of all-party consensus with regard to any changes that could have the potential to affect power relations between the government party and other parties.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition on the situation in Tigray. Since some of that material has been covered before, I will just mention a few relevant facts. The war crimes that are purported to have occurred in that region include indiscriminate shelling of civilian towns and villages, extrajudicial killings, at least one large-scale massacre, looting and sexual violence. All of these are dr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, through you, I want to say how good it is to see the minister looking as robust as he does. It is a real pleasure to have him back in full fighting form. Parliament as a whole, and the government, can certainly use his services as I believe he is the longest-serving parliamentarian in cabinet. I want to ask a question on the issue of non-traditional voting locations and accessible v…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, yesterday’s anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is iconic in the struggle against anti-Semitism. Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the shooting at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, equally iconic of our opposition to Islamophobia. The two hatreds are two sides of the same coin. Therefore, yesterday it was appropriate to say “never again” on behalf of all victims of a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I want to inform the discussion you are going to have. I am very glad you are doing this, because you are right. The rule, the convention or the practice really has been fuzzy in the past. We are dealing with a situation regarding the Bloc Québécois masks in particular, but also the mask of my colleague from Alberta. Nobody would know this was a problem if the member had not raised it…
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