Parliamentary Speeches
151 speeches by Anthony Housefather — Page 2 of 4
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am a Canadian. I am a Jew. I am a Zionist. I am proud to have been born in this country. I am proud that my family came here in the 19th century and helped to build this country. My family members fought in World War I and World War II. We are part of Canada and lucky to be so. I have represented Canada in swimming internationally. I have represented Canada as a parliamentarian. The…
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Mr. Speaker, any death of a human being is a tragedy. We are getting statistics, and the hon. member mentioned the figure of 30,000 from the Hamas ministry of health, but I do not know how accurate that is. I do know that many of those people are Hamas fighters. Of course, there are innocent civilians killed in wars, and we feel horrible for the fact that they are innocent civilians. We have to ca…
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Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely not. Again, I think this motion would bring pain to one of two communities in Canada because one strongly wants it to pass and one strongly wants it to fail. Certainly, foreign policy written this way is not a good thing when we would be saying that we are suddenly going to recognize the state of Palestine unilaterally, when for 50 years, under successive Liberal and …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to echo the point of view of the hon. member for Eglinton—Lawrence. This was tabled after the entire debate had concluded. How can there be such substantive amendments that nobody has had the chance to see or debate at all? It offends my privileges and the privileges of the people of Mount Royal.
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I made a technical error in my vote on PMB Motion No. 86 on the seventh vote today, and I would very much appreciate the House's unanimous consent to allow me to change my vote to no.
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Mr. Speaker, the increase in anti-Jewish hate over the last two months is a danger to our country and its values, our democracy and our national security. One of the most hostile places for Jews is on campus. Last week, a U.S. House committee heard from the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn State. All three were asked whether a call for the genocide of Jews would violate their code of conduct. N…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I think you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That the House unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks against Israel by terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, and demands that Hamas unconditionally and immediately release all hostages, regardless of nationality…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada's Jewish community has been here since 1760. We have had high and low points in our history, but never in my lifetime has the 400,000 strong Jewish community in Canada felt so vulnerable. The dramatic rise in anti-Semitism over the last decade has been compounded by Hamas terrorists brutally attacking our friend and ally Israel. This week, hundreds of Jewish community leaders f…
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Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg South Centre. Let us start by asking ourselves why we are here tonight. We are here tonight because a terrorist organization that has in its charter the destruction of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people launched the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. It crossed the border into Israel. It slaughtered babies. It …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for Calgary Heritage on his excellent speech. Like many Jewish Canadians, I have taken great comfort from the debate tonight and general unanimity in the House that Israel has the right to defend itself within international law because it was attacked by a terrorist entity and we are all better off if that terrorist entity is destroyed. There tend to …
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Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague, a good friend who delivered an excellent speech. At the United Nations and at international organizations there is frequently something that happens, which is Israel being treated differently from everyone else in the community of nations. At the UN Human Rights Council, Israel is the only regular item on their agenda. Israel is disproportionately singled out …
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Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent speech. Unfortunately, the hon. member may not have heard that the bodies of two of the three Canadians we thought might have been taken hostage were found today. That means the Canadian dead now number seven. Does my hon. colleague agree with me that it was an attack not only on Israel but on Canada, on the United States and on humanity?
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Mr. Chair, I also know my hon. colleague to be a very nice and well-reasoned person, and I consider her a friend. We disagree on this. I do not believe that anybody is saying any of the things she just said. Israel will do its best, as always, to make sure to make civilian casualties as low as possible. The difference between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas attacks civilians; that is its goal. Hama…
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Mr. Chair, I always enjoy getting questions from my hon. colleague, who is very intelligent. He always asks good questions. In my opinion, we are in a situation where a western democratic country was attacked by a third party, a terrorist group, whose stated purpose is to eradicate that country. The terrorist group's goal is not to create two states but to eradicate the State of Israel. Israel has…
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Mr. Chair, that is a very important question. Iran is definitely responsible for Hamas having the resources it had to carry out these terrorist attacks. Whether or not Iran was actually involved in plotting these attacks, we do not know yet; I imagine we will at some future date. However, what we do know is that Iran is actively involved with Hezbollah and may well try to get it to create a second…
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Mr. Speaker, Alexandre Look, Ben Mizrachi, Adi Vital-Kaploun, Shir Hana Georgy, Netta Epstein and Judith Haggai are six Canadians who were brutally murdered in the war launched by the terrorist group Hamas against our friend and ally, Israel. There are over 1,400 dead, scenes of sickening brutality, infants slaughtered and elderly survivors of the Holocaust butchered. Innocent civilians, Israelis,…
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Mr. Chair, I was very concerned by what I heard before. The Jewish people were the victims of the greatest genocide in human history, the Holocaust. Israel is the only majority Jewish state in the world. It sounded to me very much like he accused the state of Israel of being on the verge of committing a genocide. I would like to ask, yes or no, do you believe that Israel is committing or is about …
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Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate the speeches from my hon. colleague. It is a pleasure to join him in the justice committee. I have a question related to his articulation of the argument for automatic registration for all sexual offenders. While I think we might agree with that proposition, did the court not strike down exactly that requirement in a recent case? How does the member propose to acco…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his contributions on justice issues. I think we all share the perspective that we want to make Canada safer and make sure that the rights of victims are protected, and I think the legislation goes a long way toward doing that. I wonder whether my hon. friend would be willing to share his reflections on the amendments that were made by the Senate and whether…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to hear from my friend from Calgary Nose Hill, who I have to applaud for founding the emerging technology caucus, which I am proud to co-chair with her. She calls herself Cassandra. I do not think that anybody believes that nobody understands or believes the prophecies she tells. I think she has a lot more credibility than that. Can the hon. member give us an e…
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Mr. Speaker, in April, members of Parliament observed commemorations of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and the genocide in Rwanda. Remembering is vital, but education is equally important, if not more so. Racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate are proliferating today at an alarming rate, especially online. We need our children to know about the history of genocide and wh…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to spar with the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, who is definitely one of my favourite members to talk to in the House. Let me start by referencing one of the things that the hon. member said in questioning our minister. He said, “The Prime Minister is a very close personal friend of Dominic Barton, who is the managing partner of McKinsey.” As …
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Mr. Speaker, I would disagree with my hon. friend about whether working out is a way to bond or not. I invite him to come run with me; if you want to join, Mr. Speaker, I would be delighted to have you and the hon. member for Winnipeg North as well. In the end result, the committee should be focused on the big picture questions of whether we should outsource as much as we do and whether the integr…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the current total projected cost of the Centre Block rehabilitation project is $4.5 billion to $5 billion, which remains the same as the baseline established in June 2021. Given the complexity and scale of work involved, the cost range was independently evaluated by Turner & Townsend, a third party cost, time and risk advisory consultant. The established schedule forecasts an estimate…
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Mr. Speaker, it is very difficult to hear a politician talk about division and then use it to attack his opponents. We should all, as members of Parliament, in all political parties, aim to unify. We should all work together and recognize that we each have different positions, but we can work together. That is the government's position. We all want to work together.
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Madam Speaker, the answer to that question is generally zero because there are no insider friends who got any money.
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Madam Speaker, on Tuesday at the government operations committee, OGGO, this member and her colleagues came to try to prove two things. One was that Dominic Barton was a close personal friend of the Prime Minister. Number two was that Dominic Barton was involved in McKinsey getting contracts from the government. They failed abjectly. Dominic Barton said he was not even a friend of the Prime Minist…
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Madam Speaker, as the hon. member heard, Dominic Barton has been gone from McKinsey for years and is no longer a shareholder at McKinsey, so Dominic Barton's name should not be part of that. Public Services and Procurement Canada is responsible for $104 million of contracts with McKinsey since 2015. There are other smaller contracts that have been given by other departments.
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Madam Speaker, I am proud to be a friend of that hon. member because we can, across party lines, still agree on a lot of things, and I think that is important here. A lot of times we yell and scream at each other, and it is important to say that people are able to work together despite their differences. With respect to the global question of that, we do need to look at our integrity regime to see…
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Madam Speaker, I took note of Australia's decision. It is definitely time to consider the future of the monarchy in Canada. People have very different opinions about this. The monarchy has served Canada very well to date. That said, it is always interesting to hear my colleague's position.
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Mr. Speaker, Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC, has identified the following properties for disposal in Fort Simpson: 9829-102 Street, 10110-99 Avenue and 9817-101 Street. As per the Treasury Board directive on the management of real property, a property identified for disposal is circulated through a formal process, granting priority to stakeholders to determine if they have an inte…
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Mr. Speaker, 'Tis the last sitting week before Christmas And one thing unites the nation.We all heartily dislike the scourge of inflation.It has been quite the year.Who ever thought we would seeOur very own Prime Minister Singing “Bohemian Rhapsody”?A different Queen passed away,Leading to great lamentationBut her death was quickly followedBy [the opposition leader's] coronation.The previous leade…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend from South Okanagan—West Kootenay for his sponsorship of the bill, for his advocacy and for his hard work on this. I really appreciate it. I think he has done a yeoman's job on this file, including through his meetings with firefighters and others. I thank him. I think this is a very good bill, and I am pleased to speak about how we can make our government …
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Thank you, Madam Speaker. In addition, during the rehabilitation of West Block and the Senate of Canada building, more than 90% of construction waste was diverted from landfills, and a number of environmentally innovative measures were incorporated to save energy and reduce water use. We are also committing that starting in 2030, 75% of new lease and lease renewal floor space will be in net-zero c…
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Mr. Speaker, in response to part (a) of the question, on October 21, 2021, PSPC learned from media reports that the United States Customs and Border Protection had issued an order that prohibits imports from Supermax based on reasonable information that indicated the use of forced labour in the company's manufacturing operations in Malaysia. In response to part (b), all active contracts for Superm…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising to mark the accomplishment of my constituent, Morris Goodman, who has received his welcome into the Order of Canada. Morris is being recognized for his incredible achievements in business throughout his career, as well as his dedication to transformative philanthropy. Morris has been a pioneer of the Canadian generic pharmaceutical business for decades, including co-foundi…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his speech. He is a good friend, and I find that he always has relevant things to say. I completely agree that we should not block the motion by saying that it is not an important issue. We can indeed chew gum and walk at the same time. For me, this is a constitutional issue, which makes it very complicated. Even if I agree that we should be ask…
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Madam Speaker, the government has already announced that the app is now not mandatory and it is voluntary. The app was put in place at the beginning of the pandemic to save lives. The app was used appropriately for the last two years and now the government has allowed the app to be voluntary in order to expedite people moving forward at the border more quickly.
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Madam Speaker, I will make no apology for an app that saved the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians. This was part of a global health strategy to protect Canadians, and this app was put in place in April of 2020 one month after a global—
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Madam Speaker, this app was put in place one month after a global pandemic was declared. To return to answering that question, where the hon. member insinuated the price was entirely related to developing the app, that price is related to development, accessibility, support, maintenance and multiple different contracts. It was not related just to the development of the app.
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Madam Speaker, we will not apologize for an app that saved lives. The app was put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect the health of Canadians. Thousands of lives were saved as a result of actions taken by the government to protect the health of Canadians.
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Mr. Speaker, workers absolutely deserve to be paid properly and on time. We have hired more people. Our team has been working on Phoenix 24/7. I am well aware that we have to fix this. We also have a plan to implement the NextGen system, which will definitely improve the system. At this point, all I can say is that we are aware of the issues and we are working on them.
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Mr. Speaker, we all understand that Canada's public servants deserve to be paid properly and on time for the important work they do. We recognize that these pay problems create stress and hardship for employees and their families, and we are committed to fixing it. We are prioritizing cases that could have a significant impact on an employee's pay. We will continue to work to improve the system.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), the NCC contracts the services of a property management company to take care of the O’Brien House property. Measures taken to maintain the property include, but are not limited to, exterior maintenance such as landscaping and snow removal; cleaning; general repairs; and building security. With regard to part (b), the building was vacant during this time frame.…
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Mr. Speaker, SSC invests in technology that supports a whole-of-government or “enterprise” approach by enabling organizations to shift toward the use of common information technology systems. SSC’s contract with BMC reflects this approach to IT transformation, in that it provides for a modern information technology service management, or ITSM, tool available for use across the Government of Canada…
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Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question from my friend from La Pointe-de-l'Île. We made some great changes to the process following the 2015 election. We created regional committees made up of Canadian Bar Association members and people who know the community and can tell the Department of Justice whether or not a person is qualified before their name is put on the judicial appointment list. I …
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Mr. Speaker, as the first female engineer elected to Parliament, my hon. colleague comes from private industry, as I do. Therefore, she knows that it would be ludicrous for the human resources department to be limited to firing an employee for any type of misconduct they happen to engage in at work. There is a whole gradation of potential sanctions ranging from a verbal warning to a written warnin…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to support Bill C-9, an act to amend the Judges Act. This bill proposes to overhaul a process that is essential to maintaining public confidence in our justice system, namely the mechanisms used for examining allegations of judicial misconduct. If there is one class of legislation that everyone in the House should be able to agree on unanimously, it is …
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Mr. Speaker, I cannot provide any information as to when the position will be filled, as I am not involved in that process. I can say that I share the view of my colleague that it is very important to protect the rights of victims of crime, and I am certainly hoping the position will be filled at the nearest possible opportunity.
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Mr. Speaker, I would certainly support a unanimous consent motion. Right now, it is up to all of us to speak to our House leaders and make sure they can agree to that. Maybe after question period, we will all be delighted to see one. Again, we should all go and speak with our respective House leaders in the next few hours.
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