Parliamentary Speeches
708 speeches by Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe — Page 6 of 15
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the provinces that are refusing to help Quebeckers in welcoming asylum seekers: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta. What do these provinces have in common? They have Conservative premiers. Those Conservatives are telling Quebeckers to deal with it themselves, to take care of the asylum seekers for them, while they continue to mock them. To be clear, th…
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Mr. Speaker, the asylum seeker issue is going nowhere. The Liberals promised that Quebec would finally stop being the only one making a superhuman effort to welcome asylum seekers with dignity. They promised a fair resettlement strategy by this fall. Fall is here, but there is still no plan. Quebec is still taking on an utterly disproportionate share of responsibility for welcoming asylum seekers,…
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Madam Speaker, some might find it strange for a Bloc Québécois member to speak on a Canadian citizenship bill, but it will be easier for these “lost Canadians” interested in reclaiming their Canadian citizenship to acquire their Quebec citizenship once Quebec becomes a country. I am therefore pleased to speak on this question. A few months ago, I stood in the House to speak to Bill S‑245, which so…
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Madam Speaker, that rarely happens. I get the impression that my colleague took my speech and summed it up as a question. He is repeating the question back to me as if it was a short, one-page summary of my speech. That is exactly what I said. The Bloc Québécois supports the principle of Bill C-71, just as it supported the principle of Bill S-245. We are working hand in hand with the NDP and the L…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Calgary Shepard. We get along very well, he and I. We are able to work together. I think we are both able to set aside partisanship and work on improving bills sent to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, on which we sit. I agree with some of the points my colleague made in his remarks, particularly when he said that the situ…
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With regard to the approval rate for French-speaking international students: how many study permit applications, other than extension applications, did Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada process in (i) 2023, (ii) 2024 to date, in total and broken down by country of residence?
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Madam Speaker, I will discuss it with my team, as they say. I would be happy to study such an amendment, but in order to propose such an amendment, we must vote in favour of the principle of the bill and send it to committee. I therefore humbly suggest that my Conservative friends vote along with everyone else in favour of the principle of the bill so that it can be sent to committee. Then we will…
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Madam Speaker, Bill C‑71 is a good start for correcting a flagrant and absurd injustice. It is a good start and it can also give us a guideline we can follow should there ever be a complete reform of citizenship status, in terms of what it means, what it represents and what being a citizen of a country entails. It is indeed a good idea that we should all be working on. Bill C‑71 is a step in the r…
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Madam Speaker, yes, I tend to agree with what the member opposite just suggested.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the policy on pathways to permanent residency for Hong Kong residents (hereinafter the policy), which falls under humanitarian and compassionate considerations: (a) how many applicants under the policy were approved in 2023, broken down by month; (b) how many applicants under the policy have been approved since the beginning of 2024, broken down by month; (c) what is the policy’s sp…
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Madam Speaker, the notwithstanding clause is back on the table. As I was saying, there is a strange atmosphere in Parliament at the moment. I just gave a speech, but I am not sure whether my colleague was listening. When he asked his first question, however, he seemed to have understood my remarks to the House. Earlier on, I said that when it comes to a bill like Bill C‑71, there should not be any…
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Mr. Speaker, the real question being asked today is this: What was the government's reason for pushing back the election date from October 20, 2025, to October 27, 2025? The reason it gave had nothing to do with municipal elections. It was about the Indian community's festival of lights. In my colleague's opinion, how could anyone draw a connection between a religious celebration and the date of a…
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Mr. Speaker, I am anxious for Quebec to become a country so that we do not have to listen to the bickering of these three federalist parties. It will happen one day; I guarantee it. I listened to my colleague's speech. Something we have agreed on since the beginning is that it is offensive to have wanted to change the date of the election, especially for a completely unreal reason, namely that tha…
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Mr. Speaker, there are people talking. If people want to talk, they should do so in the lobbies.
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Mr. Speaker, let me reassure my colleague that the Bloc Québécois will be voting against this budget. One of the reasons we will be voting against this budget has to do with the government's commitments toward the oil and gas industry. The budget commits up to $83 billion by 2035 to an industry that is raking in record-breaking profits while contributing to global warming. I would simply like to k…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That the House recognize that: (a) China is carrying out a policy of systemic cultural assimilation against Tibetans; (b) Tibetans, as a people and a nation, can claim the right to self-determination; (c) as such, they are empowered to freely choos…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona so much. We work together on several files involving international injustices and human rights. We work together amazingly well. Now, however, we may have a disagreement over Bill C‑40. As we have mentioned throughout this debate this evening, we were very disappointed with the way the NDP members voted on a Bloc Québécois amendment…
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Madam Speaker, as usual, I was impressed by my colleague's speech. That is to be expected, since he is a Bloc Québécois MP, after all. I want to make one thing clear. We hear the same argument every time: If a unilingual francophone were to apply for the job, would we not want them to have the job because the incumbent should be proficient in both official languages? They make the same argument ev…
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Madam Speaker, I think we will disagree. Our parties are unlikely to vote the same way. However, I found one thing rather fascinating when the bill was being studied in committee. Do members realize that the commissioners who will sit on the new miscarriage of justice review commission will not be required to be able to speak and understand both French and English? Why is that? It is because, when…
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Mr. Speaker, “Quebec is no longer able to welcome asylum seekers with dignity”. This quote from a support centre for immigrant communities appears on the front page of a newspaper. The director talks about families with children living in cars and families crammed into bachelor apartments. The director says that “these people deserve some measure of dignity, and right now, especially with the hous…
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Mr. Speaker, here is another quote from the director of the Centre d'appui aux communautés immigrantes de Montréal, who said, “Maybe we need a more balanced distribution of asylum seekers among all Canadian provinces.” She is right. It is deeply unfair that she and community organizations in Quebec end up shouldering this burden. It is unfair that people like her are forced to say no to families w…
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Mr. Speaker, there are meetings, but no action. While the minister does nothing, community organizations on the ground are unable to find housing for families. They are forced to put people on wait lists for food hampers. How does one begin to explain a wait list to a hungry child? The premiers are meeting on Monday. Quebec is calling for an even distribution of asylum seekers and the reimbursemen…
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Mr. Speaker, I did not speak right away because I was waiting for the light to go on. Likewise, it would be nice to see a light to go on in the brains of some members of the House, especially those making comparisons between squirrels and the CBC. Let us get back to the matter at hand. We know that the Canada Border Services Agency, the CBSA, has serious governance problems. The ArriveCAN file exp…
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I am speechless, Mr. Speaker. If the federal government thinks that $1 billion is a lot, then all it had to do was take care of asylum seekers sooner, rather than sit back and watch the bill get bigger and bigger. The government could have also kept the bill lower by doing its job, especially when it comes to work permits. According to Quebec, asylum seekers represent nearly 20% of social assistan…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is finally going to meet with François Legault on Monday to talk about immigration. It is about time, after leaving Quebec to deal with a record influx of newcomers. Monday should be the deadline for the federal government to stop offloading its responsibility. Quebec is calling for a temporary reduction in immigration and for French requirements in federal programs…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a cost related to asylum seekers. There is also a responsibility. We have to house them, care for them, educate them and provide them with French classes. We have to allow them to work, something that Ottawa is incapable of doing. Asylum seekers currently represent 20% of social assistance recipients in Quebec. The Prime Minister says, “come to Canada, oh downtrodden of the e…
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Mr. Speaker, these are troubled times. There are troubling situations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Mexico and just about everywhere on the planet. Add to that global warming, institutionalized violence and war, and these are troubled times indeed. It is easy to understand why people from around the world are seeking refuge. That means we find ourselves with record numbers of asylum seekers,…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals themselves do not respect Bill 101. Quebec's French language commissioner is clear. There are currently 20,000 people coming to Quebec every month who need French classes. Only 8,000 of them register with Francisation Québec, which cannot keep up. We simply cannot maintain our current immigration levels without weakening the French language in Quebec. In fact, that is the…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec's French language commissioner is sounding the alarm. Quebec is unable to ensure that such a high number of immigrants learn French. It is well and good to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, but there are currently 642,000 people in Quebec who do not speak French. Only 70,000 of them have been able to join French language classes, which is a record, but that is nowhere nea…
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Mr. Speaker, financial resources are a key aspect of our integration capacity. However, it is hard to ask people to learn French when they cannot even manage to feed themselves. In Drummondville alone, the food bank has seen a 97% increase in use this year. It has to turn people away. That increase includes asylum seekers and foreign workers. A disappointed immigrant told the organization, “I didn…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am grateful to my colleague. We work together on the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and I enjoy working with him a lot. I prepared a short speech tonight. I hope people are ready. It is probably one of the best speeches I will ever give in the House. When it comes to international relations, it is hard to look away, especially considering all the headlines that …
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Mr. Speaker, with those sorts of comments, we can more easily see why Ottawa has been asleep at the switch for months when it comes to asylum seekers. If the minister still thinks that this problem has to do with a willingness to welcome asylum seekers rather than the capacity to do so, then he is really missing the point. Meanwhile, there are people lining up at food banks. There are people who h…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday we asked the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship about the distribution of asylum seekers. He replied that we were confusing capacity and willingness. I would like to remind him that, this year alone, Quebec has opened the equivalent of more than 50 schools to provide introductory classes for the children of asylum seekers. Now that is willingness. Meanwhile, O…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, we know a thing or two about helping and supporting one another in Lac-Saint-Jean. More than five years ago, the municipality of Saint-François-de-Sales, in my riding, became a true food desert with the closure of the only grocery store in the community. It was nearly impossible for many seniors to travel to the major centres so the community rolled up its sleeves and came up with a s…
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Mr. Speaker, the bill is 550 pages long and my colleague zeroed in on something very specific. I thank my colleague for asking that question, but I will come back to what he said. Am I in the wrong Parliament? No, I am not. If he wants to fight for a united Canada, I strongly suggest that he run for the National Assembly. Now, since Quebeckers voted 32 members of the Bloc Québécois into the House …
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Mr. Speaker, what I have to say is that it is great if an announcement was made with my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît, who I always refer to as my treasured whip. When I am told that the federal government is working hand in hand with the Government of Quebec, then I want to know why the federal government is funding the court challenge against a law that was passed by the Quebec National Assemb…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be here this evening to finally give this speech, which I have been looking forward to doing for quite some time. I would like to start by saying that there are some good measures in Bill C‑59. As everyone knows, this is an omnibus bill. It would have been terrible to not have anything to sink our teeth into. Of these good measures, I have identified a few that I thi…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Immigration has finally met with his counterparts from Quebec, the provinces and the territories. They have finally started talking about integration capacity. What solution did they come up with? They are going to put a working group together to examine the distribution of asylum seekers. I thought this was not a problem for the minister. I thought that, when we asked…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals tell us that they are very green and very environmentally minded. We have looked at the budget and analyzed it carefully because we are thorough. If something is good for Quebec, then we will vote for it. If it is bad for Quebec, then we will vote against it, of course. There is no partisanship in that. It is based purely on facts. The Liberals tell us that there are no m…
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Mr. Speaker, he should have invited me. Next time, I will go. Quebec is asking to be reimbursed $1 billion for the cost of welcoming refugee claimants. Quebec is asking that the cost of welcoming refugee claimants be shared with provinces that are not carrying their fair share of the load. Quebec is asking for a temporary reduction in immigration as well as the power to approve all applicants. Que…
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Mr. Speaker, after the meeting, the Minister of Immigration stated that the status quo was no longer acceptable. However, as we speak, it is still the status quo. Nothing has changed on the ground. As of now, the federal government has not paid back a penny, and Quebec is still taking in more than half of all of Canada's asylum seekers. His committee must not become a gimmick that will sit around …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. We work very well together at the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. I really enjoy working with him. He is very thorough. The Conservatives say they are going to form the next government. We, as well as the Conservatives, are going to vote against this budget; there is no doubt about that. Now, what would the Conser…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague said something interesting. He said that, ever since the Harper government lost power nine years ago, the Liberals have not stood up to do what is right and fair. In other words, he just admitted that the Liberals have not been getting the job done for the past nine years and that they are not doing things fairly. If there is one thing the NDP and the Bloc Québécois are…
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed my colleague's speech. There were a lot of numbers in his speech, which is great. He shared one number that I liked. He talked about the polls and said that the Liberal Party was 20 points behind the Conservative Party in the polls. What he may have forgotten to mention is that there is a place in Canada called Quebec, where the Conservative Party is not first or se…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Immigration is meeting with his counterparts tomorrow and there is no shortage of demands. Quebec is calling for the integration of asylum seekers to be shared with the provinces, a cut to temporary immigration, the approval by Quebec of its candidates, French-language training requirements in federal programs, not to mention a $1-billion reimbursement for welcoming as…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec will not achieve its French integration targets if the number of people needing to learn French breaks records every year. Quebec cannot continue to take in 54% of all of Canada's asylum seekers. This is a matter of social justice for the people we can no longer house, educate or even feed. Yes, Quebec society is also about integration, because we have a duty to provide these p…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec just announced $603 million to stop the decline of French. Most of that amount will be used to teach French to temporary foreign workers. This is good news for the vitality of the French language, but it will not be enough, because the majority of foreign workers are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government through the international mobility program, and the f…
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Mr. Speaker, the willingness to take in asylum seekers is real. Quebec will be unable to reverse the decline of French if the federal government rows in the opposite direction. Ottawa is responsible for two-thirds of Quebec's temporary immigration through the international mobility program and asylum seekers. The federal government is not fulfilling its responsibilities, whether it is in terms of …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciated my colleague's speech. Of course we do not agree on many things, but we were told that the Conservative Party would be a decentralizing party. Yesterday, when it had the chance to prove it, the Conservative Party unfortunately voted against an amendment proposed by the Bloc Québécois that simply called on the House to respect the Canadian Constitution and the jurisdictio…
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed my colleague's speech. It is clear that this budget is mostly about interfering in the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces. Now, let us talk about something that strictly concerns the federal government. I am talking about tax evasion. We are often told that the government will seek to collect as much revenue as possible, yet tens of billions of dollars are be…
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