Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to present. The first petition is on behalf of Canadians who are very concerned about the dire situation facing minority communities in Afghanistan, specifically the Sikhs and Hindus, and other minority communities that were at risk prior to the Taliban takeover but since the Taliban has taken over are at even greater risk. The petitioners call upon the governme…
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Madam Speaker, I have all the trust in our judiciary. I just do not think that taking this tool away or taking mandatory minimums away is the best way to address any concerns there.
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Madam Speaker, I fully respect my hon. colleague. He is much more researched on this topic than I am and I appreciate his advice to our caucus. The member is absolutely correct. This is not about simple possession. I talked about this in my speech. This is about the hardened criminals, the drug traffickers, the people who are producing these drugs, especially the drugs nowadays. This is not simple…
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Madam Speaker, that is absolutely right. There is a cost to putting people in jail. Ultimately, though, if people have committed serious crimes like the ones that have been listed, on which the government is proposing to reduce the mandatory minimums, the cost should not matter. We are not going to let people out of jail because we cannot afford it. There are lots of ways we can find the additiona…
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Madam Speaker, I have not given a lot of speeches as I have been here only two years, but as some of my colleagues will know, I try to be as non-partisan as possible. I find it to be getting more and more difficult, the longer I am here. One of the things I like to do with every piece of legislation that is put forward is to try to find what I can support or what I think is good in that bill or pi…
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Madam Speaker, police have the option of what charges to lay. I do not disagree that the prosecution and judges have lots of discretion as well. Ultimately, I do not think we should interfere with the independence of any of those systems, especially our judiciary and the prosecution system, unlike the current Prime Minister who seems to think it is okay to interfere with the independence of the ju…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition is very similar to those from some of my colleagues with respect to Bill S-223. The petitioners are increasingly concerned about the international trafficking in human organs that are being removed from victims without their consent. This has not yet led to any legal prohibition on Canadians travelling abroad to acquire or receive such organs. Therefore, the peti…
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Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today on behalf of Canadians calling for the prevention of international organ harvesting. In particular, they call upon the Parliament of Canada to speedily pass Bill S-223, which would prohibit Canadians from travelling abroad to acquire human organs removed either without consent or as a result of a financial transaction. The bill would also render inadmi…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. The short answer is yes. It was already brought up by previous speakers. Our Globemasters have the capacity to bring out hundreds of people per flight. I think the record was almost 800 on one flight alone, so the capacity exists to get these Afghans to Canada in a much more expedited fashion. This is all about risk assessment. We are not getti…
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Madam Speaker, as I mentioned, this committee would be there not only for the urgency and to make sure we identify key ways to move it forward, these are measures that have been suggested to the government already, but are not getting traction. By us shining a light on the problem through the committee process, we are going to attract that. As I mentioned, another issue is about learning for the f…
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Madam Speaker, considering this is my first speech here in the House in this new Parliament, I want to thank the constituents of Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound for giving me the privilege and honour of representing them here once again. I thank my family, all my volunteers and everybody who helped get me back here to the House of Commons. It truly is a privilege. Before getting into the details of this mot…
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Mr. Speaker, I will first make a quick correction to something the member on the government side said: 158 Canadians died in Afghanistan, not 159. The member talked throughout his speech about partisanship and that whole angle, yet he spent more time talking about the official opposition and history than the actual motion at hand, which is the importance of the urgency in taking care of these Afgh…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his dedication and service to our country, in particular in preparing our service members to help out in Afghanistan and help Afghans. He highlighted the risk that Afghans face on a daily basis from the Taliban. I know first-hand the torture and abuse and how vicious the Taliban can be when they take revenge on those they feel do not support their cause. …
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Madam Speaker, again, I have one slight correction for the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean. In 2014, things were different. At the time, a lot of Afghans did take the opportunity to seek immigration here to Canada, but the majority of Afghans wanted to stay in their home country, because they felt that they had a future there. They felt that the path was on the right direction. Unfortunately, thing…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague that there is always room for improvement through amendments. I am looking forward to seeing those and hopefully coming to some sort of consensus, if her party wants to put forward amendments. I would also agree with her that this committee is not just about identifying what went wrong. It is about figuring out what we need to do better for the future. Havi…
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Madam Speaker, I think the member will find it easier to respond to my comments if he actually listens to them. He talked about time and that nobody could have predicted this. He sort of corrected that in his last response, but this was predicted. His own backbencher, the MP for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, raised a concern with the Liberal government two years ago that this was going to come down the…
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Madam Speaker, I have a couple of comments rather than a question, and some corrections to make to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. First off, the mission did not end a decade ago. The combat mission ended a decade ago, but we did not leave Afghanistan until 2014. I would like to correct a few members who keep referring to “Afghanis”. That is the currency in Afghanis…
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Madam Speaker, I cannot help myself, based on the comments by the member, to interject and give a little of a different perspective. I agree the mission unfortunately failed. We are seeing the repercussions. However, I am still optimistic about those girls and women who had an opportunity for the better part of two decades to get educated and to live in some semblance of peace and prosperity, whic…
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Madam Speaker, that is a great question, but unfortunately I do not have the right answer. However, it is definitely something we should be looking at and comparing ourselves to. It is truly important and the member asks a valid question that we should be focused on. It is another issue that this committee could focus on. Ultimately, as some of the previous speakers have stated, the U.S. has some …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it was 100 years ago today that the first woman, Agnes Macphail, was elected here to the House of Commons. Born in Grey County, Agnes was first elected to represent the riding of Grey South East and later represented the riding of Grey—Bruce. She worked hard to represent farmers and rural interests here in Ottawa. She knew what mattered to rural communities and was instrumental in the…
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Madam Speaker, I am interested to know if the leader of the NDP shares my disappointment that the speech fails to mention agriculture at all, considering the important role farmers and the agricultural industry play in this pandemic and our recovery. It also fails to mention our military, and to recognize the incredible work our Canadian Armed Forces have been doing in support of Canadians in need…
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Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition on behalf of my constituents, who are calling on the Government of Canada to recognize that the country of Barbados has suffered from COVID-19 like the rest of the world, but unlike most developed countries has limited access to vaccines and has a shortfall. At the time of the signing of this petition, less than 50% of the country of Barbados had been vaccin…
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Madam Speaker, as this is the first time I am speaking in the House, I want to thank my constituents for putting me back here for the second time. I have a couple of really quick yes-or-no questions for the member opposite that I am confident he will actually answer, unlike maybe his colleague from Winnipeg North. First, would he say that it would be preferable for the rhetoric in the House to be …
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Mr. Speaker, I present a petition today on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about the past and present atrocities suffered by the Hazara community within Afghanistan. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to recognize the genocide of the Hazara people, to designate September 25 as a Hazara genocide memorial day, to ensure that all Canadian aid to Afghanistan continues to contribute…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the life of Robert Alexander, a Canadian hero and a lifelong Owen Sound resident who recently passed away at 91 years of age. Bob loved his community and country. In 1949, he joined the Canadian Army. In 1950, he deployed for a year-long deployment to Korea with the 25th Infantry Brigade, where he served with the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineer…
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