Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am glad I am joining the debate. I was worried that perhaps I would be one of those unfortunate members of Parliament to be cut-off before being able to speak on behalf on my constituents. I am glad to join the debate on Bill C-57, the modernization of our free trade agreement with Ukraine. Off the top, I should first begin by mentioning that I absolutely continue, as many members…
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Mr. Speaker, looking at the Standing Orders, I am raising a point of order under Standing Order 18. I believe the member for Whitby made a very serious allegation against the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. During an exchange in question period, the member for Whitby said that the member “falsely claims”. He did not say “alleged” or “made an allegation”, which means h…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition is signed by over 1,500 Canadians from all across the country. They are concerned about the self-administration of the citizenship ceremony. They are drawing the attention of the House to this being a tradition, since 1947, for new Canadians to swear an oath in person and live and that two-thirds of submissions during the time this was considered in the Canada Gaze…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to table today. The first petition comes from constituents in my riding who are drawing the attention of the House to the increasing levels of divorce rates. One of the points they raise is that Canada now has the highest rate of common-law relationships among G7 countries, with the share of co-residing common-law couples increasing from 6% in 1981 to 23% in 2021.…
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Madam Speaker, at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the Auditor General indicated that, in the context of her work, two departments had not informed her that criminal investigations by the police were under way. I would like the member to tell us what she thinks about this fact that has come to light. What does she think about the importance of this report and the vote to refer it committ…
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Madam Speaker, it has been eight long years of having the member stand up all the time for the Liberal caucus, to answer for the mistakes and the corruption in the government. I have one specific question regarding the Auditor General. When the Auditor General was conducting the audit of the 50-plus million dollars spent on the ArriveCAN app, did the ministers involved in those departments direct …
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Mr. Speaker, Iran’s terrorist regime has done it again. Another young woman, this time a 16-year-old girl, was beaten before entering Iran's subway system by Iran’s so-called morality police. Armita Geravand, a young Kurdish women from Kermanshah in Rojhelat, was beaten for not wearing a hijab and now lies in a coma in intensive care. Her story is eerily similar to the brutal beating of Zhina Mahs…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During the roll call vote, from the government benches, the member for Fredericton voted and then left the chamber before the vote was reported in the House. I would like to know whether that vote will count under the current voting rules or whether it should be stricken from the record.
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Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition on behalf of Canadians who are drawing the attention of the House to Bill C-257, which would add protections against political discrimination to the Canadian Human Rights Act. The petitioners have two points they want to raise with the House of Commons. First, they want the House to expeditiously support Bill C-257, which bans discrimination on the basis of …
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, housing costs have doubled. The average price of a house in Calgary is $548,000. That is up 20% just from 2020. The average home in Canada now costs nearly double one in the United States, even though they house 10 times as many people on less land. The average rent in Calgary for one bedroom is $1,718; for two bedrooms, it is $2,121. This …
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Madam Speaker, my second petition is on behalf of Gerry and the Hema people in my riding. The Hema civilians in the Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, are facing extreme daily violence from armed groups, forcing about 2 million people to flee their homes. Various armed groups, including Codeco-Lendu, FRPI-Ngiti, FPIC-Chini ya Kilima-Bira, and ADF Nalu terrorist groups are attacking ethnic Hema v…
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With regard to the commitment of the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in January of 2022 to eliminate backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of the 2022 calendar year: (a) why was this commitment not fulfilled; (b) what are the current backlogs, broken down by immigration stream or program; and (c) when will the backlogs be eliminated?
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With regard to the government's administration of section 42.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act: (a) how many applications have been received under this section, since 2020, broken down by year; and (b) what is the status of each application in (a), including the (i) date the application was received, (ii) date a decision was made, (iii) decision, (iv) number of days between the date …
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With regard to deportation letters sent out by the government, broken down by year since January 1, 2016: (a) how many individuals were sent deportation letters by the government; (b) of the individuals in (a), how many (i) self-deported or left the country voluntarily, (ii) were deported by officers or enforcement agents, (iii) currently remain in Canada?
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With regard to immigration applications for individuals who have been sponsored by their spouse or partner, since January 1, 2016, broken down by the year the application was received: (a) how many applications were received; (b) how many applications were (i) granted, (ii) denied, (iii) are still awaiting a decision; (c) how many applications were investigated for suspected fake or fraudulent mar…
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Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to table today. The first petition is from constituents of mine who want the Government of Canada to conduct a full, open, independent public inquiry into Beijing's foreign interference in our elections.
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Madam Speaker, six years ago, the Liberal government had plenty of praise for the Asian infrastructure bank. The Prime Minister said joining was “good sense for Canadian know-how and for [Canadians abroad].” His former finance minister was quoted saying that he was pleased with Canada's gift of tax dollars and added that the bank was “independent of any government”. Now, six years and $200 million…
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Madam Speaker, I just want to clarify, because I do not think the member quite understood what I was getting at. What I am saying is that, in the future, what will happen is that constituency weeks will simply disappear. This may be two, three, four, five or six years from now. There will be an expectation that we do sessional weeks half of the year or more, and members will pick which weeks they …
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Madam Speaker, the member for Berthier—Maskinongé is right. The amendments to the rules proposed in government Motion No. 26 will do away with the need for members to get along with one another. It is easy for cabinet members to meet and talk to one another. They often meet during the week. These meetings are usually held in person, since they sometimes have to talk about confidential matters. How…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his question, but that is not the issue we are examining in the House right now. The question before us is whether we should have a hybrid Parliament that operates in the way set out by the government in Motion No. 26. During the pandemic, two of my three children, the two oldest, were attending school online. I was also the caucus chair. As s…
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Madam Speaker, I am going to share my time with the member for Chatham-Kent—Leamington. Members have heard me say before that I participated in the Standing Orders debates in the past. I think back to 2020, when Parliament resumed in a hybrid format. I think the Conservative caucus was one of the first to resume having full meetings. We were one of the first ones, if not the first, on Zoom. We had…
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Madam Speaker, the member is now heckling me from across—
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Madam Speaker, I invite the member to look at the questions I submit, because I am always looking for data, content and information. That reminds me. With the member's interruption, I do have a Yiddish proverb. I hope that everything I have spoken about tonight are things I have seen. “Let you not say things that you have not seen” is a Yiddish proverb. I hope I have done that. I have stayed consi…
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Mr. Speaker, the member talked about family issues that may arise for members who sit in the House. I was listening attentively to that portion. However, the member must realize that in a hybrid Parliament, should this continue on, and I hoping that every single backbencher in all parties is aware of this, that eventually we will have no constituency weeks. We have constituency weeks so that we ca…
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition is from petitioners from the riding of Calgary Shepard, my constituents. They are drawing the attention of the House to the fact that there are over 53,000 internationally trained nurses, doctors and physicians in Canada. They say that we should copy what we do for skilled trades in the Red Seal program and create a blue seal program that would make the processes si…
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Mr. Speaker, my second petition is from Hong Kongers and those with heritage from Hong Kong. The petitioners are drawing the attention of the House to the following: On February 6, 2023, Canada announced that it would extend and expand the Hong Kong pathway open work permit program for eligible Hong Kongers by extending the open work permit scheme for an additional two years and making additional …
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Mr. Speaker, my final petition comes from Venezuelans both in my riding and all across Canada who are calling the attention of the House to the disaster that is the Maduro Communist regime in Venezuela. I have very little affection for the regime, but I have a lot of affection for the people of Venezuela. Petitioners are drawing the attention of the House to some important numbers. As per the Unit…
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Mr. Speaker, I have four petitions to table today on behalf of my constituents. The first one is on foreign interference. Specifically, petitioners are drawing attention of the House and the government to the fact that, so far, there has not been a public inquiry called. The petitioners are very concerned about the special rapporteur's conflict of interest with the Prime Minister and those who hav…
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Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. There used to be a legion hall in my riding, not too far from my constituency office. Unfortunately, it closed down many years ago. For the longest time, although I have the second-largest riding by population size in Canada and the largest riding in Calgary, it did not even have a high school in it. It just so happens that I represent a very large area of many suburb…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urgently raise the case of the persecution of journalist Niloofar Hamedi. Hamedi is the 22-year-old Iranian journalist who broke the story of the now famous Kurdish woman, Zhina Mahsa Amini, her beating and murder at the hands of the morality police in Tehran. For her professionalism and journalistic ethics, she has been charged with “colluding with hostile powers”, a …
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Mr. Speaker, Conservatives MPs on the immigration committee called four times for action to help international students who were victims of a fake college admission letter scam, and four times the Liberal and NDP MPs on the committee voted against it. Malicious consultants profited by tens of thousands of dollars from each and every student, promising them a new life in Canada and then sticking th…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I believe, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That, Whereas Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza is facing political persecution in the Russian Federation including a show trial with high treason charges following his public condemnation of the unjustified and illegal war by Russia against Ukraine; Whe…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my colleague a question. He is from the opposite side of Calgary on the diagonal, and his riding is very similar to my own. Like me, he knocks on a lot of doors during election time. I have never heard a constituent of mine tell me that they wanted to see a bill passed that created a commission or a national council, where people would be paid to talk about an issue as o…
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Mr. Speaker, at the committee there were amendments moved by the Conservative members of Parliament to try to improve the bill and make it better. In my riding, there are many shift workers and people who work off-hours who will not be covered by the agreement that would be entrenched into legislation through this bill. I wonder if the member could explain why the Liberal members on that committee…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to the very beginning of when the member started speaking, whenever that was. The member for Winnipeg North, I believe, made a novel argument that I have not heard in the House before when he spoke about the previous bill debated. We were providing critiques of the bill, and he said that we were prolonging debate unnecessarily. Since we agreed with the substance of t…
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be able to join the debate at such a late hour and to contribute my thoughts on Bill C-33 for my constituents back home. Again, I always want to thank them for sending me here to represent them, and I know they expect us to provide good work and feedback to the government. As I said earlier in the debate, if it were up to the member for Winnipeg North, none of us would ev…
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Mr. Speaker, let us go over some of those detriments inside this bill and try not to go into too many on ports, but there are quite a few issues with the ports that will be affected. There are additional ministerial powers that will limit local decision-making. That is not a good idea. Additional regulatory requirements will add cost to stakeholders, which, again, will be passed on, like I said, t…
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Mr. Speaker, the member brought up a good point. Again, I think we should prefer local decision-making that is informed by a national body to have wider information such as a national security list. It gets intelligence from our foreign allies, our international allies, who might provide or tip us off about events or activities that are being planned. That could then help local decision-makers adj…
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Madam Speaker, that is a good question, because we have seen the cost of living explode in this country, and the cost of groceries is way higher now. I have not yet had residents in my riding come to me with direct stories about their grocery costs, but the Cardus Institute has done a lot of work looking at the different agreements, the quality of the agreements and the likely outcomes of them. I …
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be joining the debate. I am glad I caught your eye and was able to rise before my colleague from a different part of Quebec who wanted to speak as well. Just to continue on something the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands said, I hope I will not be accused of using notes. I have not used notes in many years in this place. I am sure that if we ever moved to benches, that…
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Madam Speaker, to go back, the person who deserves great credit for negotiating the deal was the minister at the time in Alberta, Rebecca Schulz, who was re-elected in this past election. She deserves an incredible amount of credit for holding out until Alberta got a better deal. The problem with what the member just laid out as the deal for affordable care operators, who basically run a dual syst…
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Madam Speaker, procedurally it was necessary in order to have this debate tonight, which is one of the things in Westminster parliaments. We sometimes have to put forward these types of motions in order to have a debate like this. That is my understanding of why it is on the Order Paper.
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Madam Speaker, no there is not, but it has given us an opportunity to talk about the principle of the bill and to share thoughts that constituents have shared with us. I think it is an accepted principle that we do what we must on behalf of our constituents, and in this case, it has given us an opportunity to talk about the content of the bill at any level of detail a member chooses.
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Madam Speaker, to respond to that ridiculous question, the only lobbyists I care about are my constituents who are lobbying me to vote against Bill C-21. So let us continue. George wrote, “I am tired of being lied to about licensed gun owners being the cause of firearm-related violence.... I am losing my firearms based on this new law and its amendments. I will never vote for them or their party i…
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Madam Speaker, I am a little worried in the way the member just described my constituents who are emailing me on this issue. They deserve to be heard, not to be name-called. They are concerned not because of what we are saying on this side of the House; they are concerned because the contents of the legislation are bad news for them. I do not need to go around in my constituency raising up fears. …
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Madam Speaker, alas, I do not have any constituents who wrote to me in French so that I could read what they think of this bill. I do want to remind him that the member for Rivière-du-Nord said, when Bill C-21 came out, that they could not have done better. It is therefore completely ridiculous to hear some members now brag about having worked hard when they agreed with the Liberals' bill.
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Madam Speaker, I am glad to be joining this debate at this late hour. I have been sitting through many hours of debate on this particular subject of Bill C-21. I will begin by thanking constituents again for returning me to Parliament. It has been a few years now since the election, but I am thankful every single day that I can represent them in this House. Part of my thanks for them will be that …
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Madam Speaker, perhaps many members do not know this, but that particular member is a long-serving member of the RCMP, specifically from the Special I division. If anybody here is speaking from a place of authority, it actually would be this particular member who just spoke. I wonder if he could expand on his personal experiences as a police officer and give his opinion on whether Bill C-21 would …
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Mr. Speaker, with apologies for prolonging this debate, again, members have been given wide latitude in the House to refer to past votes that have been taken in the House. Member after member has been in the House and has done so year after year. It has never been an issue until right now, when that particular member has a disagreement with the contents of a speech that another member is trying to…
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Mr. Speaker, you have made a ruling, and members have been given wide latitude by Chair occupants in the past to go back into their speech that they have prewritten, where they have made annotations for themselves. The member is referring, obviously, to a court case. He has a point that he is trying to make. If that other member would just let him finish his point, I am sure he will carry on to th…
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