Parliamentary Speeches

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, in the hope of receiving a more substantive answer, I will ask the minister a more direct question. What is cheaper: Using existing infrastructure that is adequate for processing refugee claimants or spending between $500 million and $1 billion and hiding how much of this money is going to Liberal Party donors? Once a Liberal, always a Liberal.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, that is the answer we hear to every question, no matter what the topic. Nothing but empty words. The Copyright Board of Canada has the ability to step in and make sure that the payments are done properly. If the government does not know how to do it, we can tell them. Two things need to be done. First, we need to ensure that artists get their fair share, one way or another, even if me…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I first want to say how happy I am to see that the Prime Minister is with us once again. I missed him. We will no longer need the NDP to tell us what the Liberals think. We can continue with our work now that the House has sung the praises of the monarchy. Speaking of singing, I would like to tell the Prime Minister about francophone singers, because as French-language creators they h…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I can proudly say that I am the only party leader in the House to have donned skates prior to 1972. That said, I was not particularly good. I clearly took a wrong turn somewhere. As we know, the Bloc Québécois has always defended Quebec's identity. Quebec and Canada are two different nations, with different values and, often, different ways of doing things. We defend the right to live…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, maybe we could get the Prime Minister's attention by suggesting that he sing his answers. He could sing us a tune about why his government is allowing human smuggling into Quebec and Canada. Is the Prime Minister intentionally letting tens of thousands of people cross at Roxham Road because he knows that Quebec cannot sustain efforts to integrate them in French? Is the Prime Minister …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, first, now that he has sat down, I want to congratulate the new leader of the official opposition. I also want to congratulate the member for Richmond—Arthabaska. I jotted down the address for the House of Commons on a piece of paper and I was thinking that maybe someone could give it to the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister wants to join us in the House, I suggest that he return …

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, its elected officials, members and staff, I would simply like to express my condolences to anyone who is grieving the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We, as nationalists and sovereignists, do this only after much deliberation amongst ourselves. Everyone's feelings should be considered through a historical lens. The history between the British Crown and th…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, it is time for a performance review. Faced with a high-risk demonstration by truckers, the government stalled and stalled before finally invoking the Emergencies Act at the request of the police, or so they said. However, that is not true. The police did not ask for it. Even government ministers, including the Deputy Prime Minister, have said it was a purely political choice. Is the m…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, this year, for our national holiday, we are going to make our language and its myriad accents heard. We are going to make it heard loud and clear, and continue making it heard, together. We are going to make each and every one of our regional dialects and accents heard to show that our national language is also a great international language and an extraordinary way of being open to t…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I would wish the Prime Minister bon voyage, but I do not really feel like it. A nice plane has been reserved for him to travel to Rwanda, his passport is in order and his visas are most certainly in order. Here at home, thousands of people are waiting. They wait until nighttime at the risk of losing their spot to a petty cheater; they wait to pay the late fees charged by an irresponsi…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the minister keeps saying that she issued directives and that no one is following them. Yesterday, all government ministers said that it was unacceptable. No one has brought forward a solution that works. Are we to understand that this will continue until the end of 2022, and that nothing else or nothing better will be done? If government ministers criticize instead of governing, who …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, next up in our performance review is the environment and the utterly nonsensical business of carbon sequestration, which experts say does not work, lies about whether the government's targets can be met, the acquisition of Trans Mountain at a loss, indirect subsidies for the oil industry and Bay du Nord. I am sure the minister was acting in good faith initially, but he ended up sellin…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, he was the only one who did not realize that there would be a surge of applications. When the Prime Minister travels, he has a chartered plane paid for by taxpayers, and someone takes care of his passport. He even has friends who invite him to the tropics, all expenses paid. When ordinary taxpayers travel, they save up to be able to go on vacation or to try to reunite with their famil…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, as we have said, it is chaos. There are people sleeping outside for three nights and paying the price for delays caused by the government. Journalists are even being removed from passport offices under police supervision. Can the Prime Minister show some courage, get a backbone, as they say, and tell the House that he is responsible for this fiasco?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I would like to acknowledge the last speech by the member for Portage—Lisgar in her capacity as the interim leader of the Conservative Party. We know that being the interim leader of a political party in the midst of a leadership race is a challenging and sometimes thankless role. It is an exercise that definitely requires tact, balance, and the abilit…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the joint committee that is required under the act received the Deputy Prime Minister and the former public safety minister, who is now the Minister of Emergency Preparedness. They testified that it was a purely political decision and was not made at the request of police. Who is not telling the truth? Which minister is not telling the truth? What is the Prime Minister sayin…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow marks the end of an era. Tomorrow, Pierre Bruneau will host his last newscast, after 46 years as anchor at TVA. Since 1976, Pierre Bruneau has been the face of the news, delivering the information essential to public life with his trademark soothing tone and rigour. He has also been the embodiment of compassion for 32 years as a spokesperson for the Charles Bruneau Foundation…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of the year, the Prime Minister invoked the Emergencies Act during the civil, yet obviously illegal, occupation of Parliament Hill. The Minister of Public Safety said he did that at the request of police forces, but there was no such request from law enforcement, the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, or the Ottawa police. Does the minister acknowledge that for the …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House: (a) salute the extraordinary work of Mr. Pierre Bruneau as anchor of the TVA network for 46 years, as he will host his last newscast this Thursday evening; (b) underline the remarkable contribution of Mr. Pierre Bruneau to information in Quebec thanks to his rigour, his dedication and his immense…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, that is some climate humour right there. His very own experts, the ones he quotes when it suits him, say that the only way we just might be able to meet the targets is, one, forget about this sequestration nonsense and, two, cut production. Will the Prime Minister at the very least cut all oil industry subsidies?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I read The Globe and Mail every day, and I learned from this morning's edition that the government's own experts told it that its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions targets were not feasible before they were unveiled. That means that the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Prime Minister knowingly made bogus announcements. Can the Prime Minister at least do what he often doe…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, the word “dignity” is central to René Lévesque's legacy. It is a dignity that is not always clear, but it takes on its full significance, even 35 years after his death and 100 years after his birth, when we take an inspiring look back at a time when Quebec values were solidified. Yesterday, in Montreal, the Fondation René-Lévesque launched its commemoration of the centenary of his bir…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, seniors have been left to deal with the surging cost of living on their own. The Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed it yesterday. A total of 1.7 million seniors have seen their purchasing power slashed because the indexed increase in their old age security benefit is below the rate of inflation. If the federal government does not fix this, it will be keeping a third of Quebec seni…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, on May 23, the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec launched a big campaign to promote the French language and to emphasize that working in French is a right. With online, television and street furniture ads, this campaign uses funny translations of Quebec expressions as a reminder that people understand one another better when they speak our common language. The Fre…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister's response raises two questions. How big is that increase in relation to current inflation, which is having a devastating impact on seniors' purchasing power? Also, we want assurances, which would certainly be a welcome change, that there will not be any discrimination based on the age of the recipients, so that people 75 to 80 do not get more than people 65 …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am being told that I refuse to address the root causes of injustice, whereas I am suggesting that we take a positive approach, not a negative one. I am suggesting that we take an approach that will rally people around this diversity. I am suggesting that there be a set of incentives, including financial ones, to help ensure this extraordinary diversity is better represented. Discr…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, over the past few days, I had the privilege of meeting Catalonia's minister of foreign action, who came to meet with a significant number of Quebec institutions, including the Government of Quebec. We discussed the extraordinary economic advantages of developing partnerships between such prosperous and innovative territories as Catalonia and Quebec, which share some comparable charact…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I would respectfully submit that ideology does not compete with research and science, but rather it comes from research and science. An opinion must be based on some minimal knowledge. Science, research, education and the sharing of these ideas and these possibilities all contribute to the shaping of minds and forming of opinions. As those opinions expand, deepen and develop, they o…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, his idea of contributing to the debate is giving money and perpetuating a blatant lie. Enough with this business about not practising or not being able to practise a profession. It reeks of partisanship. Quebec has been so often maligned across Canada that attacks on language and secularism in Quebec are gaining traction among Conservative Party leadership candidates. That was the ver…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, you have clearly exhausted my colleague from Joliette, but I am still extremely happy that you have returned. Welcome back. The Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister have stated that they definitely intend to appeal Bill 21 and Bill 96, an extension of Bill 101, to the Supreme Court. In other words, they are taking the issue to friendly territory with predictable results. Why is …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I fully support the notion that institutions of all kinds should be representative of and reflect the extraordinary diversity of the societies in which we live. Today's debate is not about inclusion. It is about the need to resist the temptation to exclude people, the need to avoid discriminating, even with the best possible intentions, against people who can make a significant cont…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this is a wonderful opportunity to say hello to my constituents in Beloeil—Chambly and to inform you that I will be pleased to split my time with the very distinguished member for Drummond. We are starting a debate. I am not only talking about here, today. I am talking more generally about society, after a number of years that have been quite turbulent in this regard. We are startin…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister managed to praise democracy and the monarchy in the same sentence. Unbelievable. This is the same monarchy whose quick little vacation I am paying for, and the same monarchy that he is maintaining by appointing a Governor General and a Lieutenant Governor who do not speak a word of French. Will the Prime Minister try to explain to the Prince of Wales that the Domini…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, as they say in mass, and then there was light. I truly understand why the Prime Minister was so hostile to our motion on the separation of church and state. He was planning to spend a week with the heir apparent to the British throne, who, incidentally, is the future head of the Church of England. We see and understand his priorities. Now that we know that we must pray for the royals …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, for the Prime Minister, $2.2‑million vacations are hardly extraordinary. There are islands that welcome him. In real life, the vast majority of Quebeckers and a majority of Canadians do not support the British monarchy. It is costing us more than $2 million this week and more than $65 million a year. Tourism usually generates revenues, not expenses. Who is footing the bill?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, he needs the Prince of Wales around in order to meet with business people and indigenous people? Okay then. Meanwhile, he appoints people to represent the monarchy who do not speak French. He supports the Liberal MPs who are challenging Camille Laurin's and René Lévesque's Bill 101. He refuses to allow the Charter of the French Language to apply to federally regulated businesses. In l…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I am so desperate to pick a fight that I, too, am on the verge of tears. In the meantime, I have a very simple question that should give the Prime Minister pause. If state secularism is so unimportant, why is he spending Canada's resources to challenge a legitimate Quebec law that all Quebeckers agree with? That must mean it is in fact important. Why not just let Quebec do what it wil…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Bloc Québécois moved a motion to change the rules of the House so that the prayer of support for the British monarchy would be replaced by a moment of reflection, allowing everyone to have a moment to themselves. Everyone here had all sorts of preposterous arguments for why it was not important. However, everyone here will have to stand up and vote under the watchful eye…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, anyone can be attached to the prayer and the monarchy. That is totally legitimate. However, given the context, I would like to make a religious reference: whitewashed tombs. Those parties are afraid of having to say one thing to Quebec and another to Canada. Here and now, they cannot do that. They will have to stand and vote, and the outcome could change the Standing Orders of the Hou…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said himself that he of course wants to stand up for all religions. However, every day, he asks parliamentarians to pray to the western Christian God. That must bug more than a few people here. Why not simply deal with this? We could vote to change the Standing Orders, and every religion would be equal during a moment of reflection.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That, in order to create a lasting solution to the irregular migrant crossings at Roxham Road, this House call on the government to suspend the Canada-U.S. safe third country agreement; that it call for migrants to enter through regular channels across Canada and, cons…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, last week, with the Prime Minister of Canada present, journalists asked Quebec's premier if he was still standing firm on his immigration demands, essentially for the sake of consistency, whether with respect to social services, education, francization or the labour shortage, and thus ensure that Quebec manages everything, except for security matters. The Premier of Quebec said yes. W…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, last week, with the Prime Minister present, journalists asked Quebec's premier if he was still going to demand—

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I cannot continue so could you take care of this first?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, will they be there if Quebec wants it, or only if Quebec wants it? The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship made it clear that the federal government does not think Quebec is taking in enough immigrants. However, the federal system has been backlogged for so many years that there have been files waiting to be processed since 2009. This gover…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister used the word “flabbergasted”. He was upset and I am glad to hear it. Canadian National has its headquarters in Montreal and so does Air Canada, and he is upset that no one at CN speaks French. He should be upset that none of the board members can speak French because they are in Quebec. On June 16, 2021, 281 elected members here in the House voted to recognize that…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's indignation is a little selective. Air Canada's CEO does not care about French, and a vice-president from CN spoke to the Standing Committee on Official Languages in English only, even though both of these companies have French roots. That is a little worrisome. How can the Prime Minister say he is flabbergasted? Does he not realize that by appointing a governor g…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, we will get there yet. On the Prime Minister's little cheat sheet, it says that it is not a question of speaking French, but rather of possibly learning to speak French in the future, or “at some point”. At some point, though, could the Prime Minister not simply say that he will allow Quebec to apply the Charter of the French Language to businesses under federal jurisdiction, end of s…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, it is not clear. He is not doing that. That is the problem. He is not doing it. I want to make it clear that I am not criticizing Ms. Simon or Ms. Murphy. I am criticizing him. He is the one who appointed these women. Honourable though they may be, they do not speak French. How can he be flabbergasted and indignant about people not speaking French when he himself appoints people who a…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, after 62 days of war, he has the gall to use the word “quickly”. This government is unable to explain to these people how to give their biometrics and unable to collect these people's biometrics. It is telling them, “Here are some Aeroplan points”. That is not costing the government a cent. The government is not chartering flights. This is not costing Air Canada a cent, so Air Canada …