Parliamentary Speeches
582 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 1 of 12
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said he was very disappointed with Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau for expressing his condolences in English only. However, he has no business being disappointed. Three years ago, his government voted against requiring leaders of companies like Air Canada to be bilingual. His government is being sued by the organization Droits collectifs Québec because it is not com…
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Mr. Speaker, instead of expressing disappointment with Michael Rousseau, the Prime Minister should lead by example. Instead, he is likely the only prime minister in half a century not to have a francophone speech writer. His government has made unilingual English appointments, starting with Governor General Mary Simon. It was under the Liberals that the federal public service became the worst econ…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Earlier, you rejected a question from my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord. The underlying intent of that question was to determine whether the government plans to veto the notwithstanding clause. I would argue that the answer to that question pertains specifically to the administration of the government, regardless of who asks the question. By your logic, I w…
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Mr. Speaker, at the risk of repeating myself, you have nonetheless prevented a member from asking a question simply because it was related to a party's mandate. I want to reiterate that, in this instance, MPs cannot be dissociated from their role as party members because, as such, they are voting at the convention and giving themselves a mandate. When viewed in that context, the question was entir…
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Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to quickly discuss a supplementary opinion to the report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs for the collaborative approach it has taken to ensure that elections run smoothly, which unfortunately has not always been the case. The Bloc Québécois supports all of the recommendations in the report except one, and that is the recommendation that seeks to limit the number of nomination papers a voter can s…
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Mr. Speaker, what is happening today at the Supreme Court is the ultimate constitutional power grab. The Government of Canada is not content to simply attack state secularism by challenging Bill 21. It wants to prevent Quebec from passing any law that Ottawa does not like by limiting the use of the notwithstanding clause. The Liberals are using the highest court to undermine Quebec and diminish th…
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Mr. Speaker, what is happening at the Supreme Court goes beyond political allegiances. Yes, secularism is being debated today in relation to Bill 21, but there is also the notwithstanding clause, and that is far more significant. That clause enabled us to require that signage be in French in Quebec. The notwithstanding clause has enabled us to pass no fewer than 41 Quebec laws throughout history, …
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Mr. Speaker, there are so few cost overruns that when asked about Cúram, the government's response is that cost overruns are “common practice”. That is the problem. There were problems with ArriveCan and there were problems with Phoenix, but that is okay. It happens all the time. In fact, as early as 2023, the Auditor General warned the government about the risks of “[taking] shortcuts...as happen…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois agrees to apply the vote and will be voting against the motion.
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Mr. Speaker, the Cúram fiasco has been costly. We were wondering where Quebeckers' money was going, and then we got our answer when we learned that the cost of the software had risen from $1.75 billion to $6.6 billion, a cost overrun of nearly $5 billion. Quebeckers' money is going into the pockets of private companies. Of the total bill of $6.6 billion, $3.4 billion, or more than half, is going t…
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Mr. Speaker, the government is not talking about the 85,000 people affected or the $5 billion in cost overruns. I would like to give the Liberals a short briefing so that they understand the extent of the problem. In Quebec, with SAAQclic, ministers resigned over cost overruns of $500 million. The Liberals have now basically reached $5 billion in cost overruns, but they are simply shrugging their …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree in principle. As I was saying, we are voting in favour of the bill. However, if we are going to have confidence in the administration of justice, then we also need to have confidence in the bill and we would have benefited from more time to review it properly. It may be a bit pretentious of the government to say that the bills it introduces are perfect from the get-go. This ma…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague on how we got to the clause-by-clause consideration of this bill. As a result of a mutual agreement between the Liberals and the Conservatives, only two sittings were held where we could hear from witnesses, followed by one sitting for a clause-by-clause study. Due to the Conservatives' filibuster, in part, of Bill C-9, it was a way forward to get to…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin my remarks by referring back to the response I received from the member for Terra Nova—The Peninsulas when I asked him how we came to be debating Bill C-14 at the report stage today. As mentioned, there has been a lot of talk about Bill C-9 in committee but, unfortunately, nothing has come of it because the Bloc Québécois proposed an amendment that sought to remo…
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, it is true that both the government side and the official opposition side sometimes tend to equate the time spent studying a bill with wasted time. In some cases, they seem to see them as one and the same. If we spend a lot of time studying a bill, that is seen as filibustering. However, the reason we spend a lot of time studying matters like Bill C-15, which is about 6…
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Mr. Speaker, according to the government, 85,000 pensioners are experiencing problems with their OAS because of the Cúram software, the same software that has incurred almost $5 billion in cost overruns. It has produced 85,000 victims and cost $5 billion more in public funds than anticipated, yet the Liberals are acting like there is nothing wrong. They are treating 85,000 people as though they ar…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague's question raises many issues, but I would like to circle back to what I said earlier. The objectives of this bill, as my colleague from La Prairie—Atateken clearly described, were to improve public confidence in the justice system and to strike a balance between various existing rights, including the public's right to feel safe and the accused's right, despite everything…
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Mr. Speaker, by the government's own estimates, 85,000 pensioners are affected by problems with the Cúram software, and yet the ministers keep telling us just to give them the names if we know of people who are having problems. According to the government's own data, there are 85,000 people having problems. As if that were not enough, the cost of the software jumped from $1.75 billion to $6.6 bill…
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Mr. Speaker, by the government's own estimates, the Cúram software is causing 85,000 retirees problems with their old age pensions. The government has been aware of the problem since June, but it is still refusing to do anything about it. At the same time, the cost of Cúram has skyrocketed from the initial budget of $1.75 billion to $6.6 billion as of last June. These 85,000 seniors are victims of…
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Mr. Speaker, there was a time when the Liberals told Quebeckers to stay in Canada or lose their pension. Now, they are telling Quebeckers to stay in Canada even if they are no longer receiving their pension. What is more, they will pay a fortune for this fiasco, because the Cúram software has already incurred nearly $5 billion in cost overruns. Denying pensioners their OAS is expensive. How come e…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister revealed that 85,000 pensioners have been having issues with their OAS benefits because of the Cúram software, in some cases for nine months. The government was warned by its own public servants as early as this summer. However, the government today seems content to say that, if people have indeed been affected, we should give them their names. When there are 85,000 names…
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Mr. Speaker, some pensioners have not received their OAS payments for nine months because of the Cúram software, and the government is ignoring them. However, today we learned that the pensioners are not the only ones being ignored. The government is also ignoring the opinions of its own officials. In an internal survey, more than half of them gave that software a score of one out of 10. Some 89% …
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Mr. Speaker, we have been sounding the alarm for months. In a document provided to La Presse, the union said that Cúram is causing problems similar to the ones people experienced during the Phoenix fiasco, but on a broader scale. That is not all. According to the union report, a procedure clearly indicates that agents must not tell clients that payment delays or errors are related to Cúram. Did th…
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Mr. Speaker, there are pensioners who applied for their old age security benefits nine months ago and have yet to receive a penny. That is because the government refuses to deal with the glitches in its new Cúram software. It has been aware of the problems since June, and yet as recently as Thursday, the government House leader told us that mistakes would be fixed “if there are any”. There are ind…
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Mr. Speaker, the infamous Cúram software, which is depriving retirees of their OAS benefits, is costing a lot more than its market value. The cost overrun has reached almost $5 billion. To give members some idea, that is roughly 10 times the cost of the SAAQclic scandal, for poorly performing software. At that price, when problems prevent seniors from receiving their pension benefits and enjoying …
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Mr. Speaker, for days now, we have been warning the government that problems with the new Cúram software are preventing retirees from receiving their old age security benefits. At first, the Liberals told us that we were fearmongering. However, yesterday, they admitted that the problem does exist, but that it is affecting only 30 people or so. Well, according to journalist Marie-Ève Fournier, ther…
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Mr. Speaker, we can confirm that, in addition to the cost, there are indeed mistakes. Once again, Ottawa is driving people crazy. On the one hand, there are people aged 65 and over who deferred their pensions and have been deprived of cheques for nine months once they finally asked for them. On the other hand, there are people who are receiving too many cheques, returning them and still being sent…
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Mr. Speaker, judging by what the Prime Minister said, the purpose of the ban on French language instruction in the Maritimes, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario was not to erase us but to bring us together. When Quebeckers were removed from power and business, it was for their own good. When the founder of Canada said that Louis Riel should be hanged even if every dog in Quebec barked in …
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers and French Canadians learned a lot last Thursday. According to the Prime Minister, the battle of the Plains of Abraham was not an English conquest, but the beginning of a great partnership. In his mind, the ancestors of Quebeckers and English Canadians rose from the battlefield that morning and decided that they had to stop fighting, celebrate their differences and build Ca…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a little historical reminder: There is a reason why these questions are being asked in a Parliament in Ottawa. It is because English speakers chose to burn down the Parliament in Montreal rather than compensate French Canadians who had their farms burned down during the revolts of 1837 and 1838. That is quite the partnership. The Liberal Quebec Lieutenant defended the Prime Min…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals do not have a prime minister, they have a CEO. He does not listen to social priorities like health care or seniors. He does not listen to the ministers who are resigning just to be heard. He does not listen to voters, given his Conservative budget. He does not listen to Quebeckers who voted for him because they were afraid of Donald Trump, given that all he has to say abo…
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Mr. Speaker, this year we will be presenting a shareholders' report instead of our usual session review, because Canada has essentially become a business. Under this Prime Minister, the Liberals are not even pretending anymore. The fight against climate change is over. The environment is a roadblock to trade. Bill C-5, Bill C-15 and Bill S-4 throw compliance with the law out the window because it …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is considering appointing Mark Wiseman as ambassador to Washington. Mark Wiseman is one of the co-founders of the Century Initiative, a policy that aims to increase Canada's population to 100 million people and is at the root of Quebec exceeding its intake capacity. He said that 100 million Canadians by 2100 should become federal policy “even if it makes Quebec howl…
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Mr. Speaker, that still speaks to his policy. Wise men say only fools rush in. The Prime Minister already made an appointment last week that turned all of Quebec against him. We are just trying to give him a chance not to make the same mistake twice. When Mark Wiseman talks about imposing immigration policies on Quebec, even if it makes them howl, he is showing his contempt not only for Quebec, bu…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to someone with a remarkable professional career. She has been a colleague for six years, but she is now also a friend: Diane Godin, has been a pillar of my office and has played a key role in political life since 1994. Over the years, she has served five members with remarkable professionalism: Louise Beaudoin, Yves Lessard, Bertrand Saint‑Arnaud, Dave Tur…
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Mr. Speaker, for weeks, the Conservatives have been trying to sabotage Bill C-9 and the Bloc Québécois's amendment to put an end to the religious exemption for hate speech in the Criminal Code. We have learned that the Prime Minister's Office has also been been quietly sabotaging the work of the Bloc Québécois and the Minister of Justice. If we want to know where the Prime Minister stands on any i…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has been promising a bill to combat hate speech for six years. That is six years of making promises to groups that feel threatened and six years of saying that it is important to take action against hate. Their bill actually had a chance of passing for once, provided that the religious exemption was abolished, as unanimously called for by the Quebec National Ass…
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Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, you clearly established your right to cut short questions before they were even finished if, in your opinion, they were not related to government business. In two days, not once, not twice, but three times, the government's response not only had nothing to do with the question but had even less to do with the business of Parliament. This goes beyond the issue of adj…
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Mr. Speaker, religion should never serve as an excuse to commit crimes, including incitement of hatred. The National Assembly is demanding an end to the religious exemption that allows this abuse. However, the Liberals are still ignoring the will of Quebeckers and bowing to the will of a handful of dogmatic religious leaders. Tolerating this kind of discourse is not respecting freedom of religion …
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Mr. Speaker, we thought that the Liberals had finally agreed to repeal the exemption in the Criminal Code that allows people to incite hatred under the guise of religion, but today we are learning that nothing could be further from the truth. Just as we began debating the Bloc Québécois's amendment to repeal the religious exemption, the Liberals said that they wanted to cancel all meetings of the …
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Mr. Speaker, the oil deal between the Liberals and Alberta is climate betrayal. Canada is walking away from the global fight for the environment. The Liberal member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie confirmed this yesterday on Tout le monde en parle. He said, “If we are being honest with Canadians, we can no longer meet our 2030 targets. With the recent announcements, it's not possible”. Will the Liberals …
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Mr. Speaker, it pains me to see the Liberals compromising their values like this. The oil deal with Alberta will position Canada as one of the world's worst environmental offenders for decades to come. It confirms that the Liberals have sold out all of their principles to the same oil companies that are the majority shareholders of the Conservative Party. Ultimately, it is not surprising that memb…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are cheaters. We knew it in 1995, and now we have proof. The then immigration minister has confirmed that Jean Chrétien asked him to fast-track citizenship applications for as many people as possible so that they could vote in the referendum. The Liberals are admitting that they used immigration to rig the vote. Last month, Jean Chrétien also admitted to all the dirty tri…
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Mr. Speaker, again, the Liberals rigged the referendum. The “yes” side acted democratically. The proof is in the noble way Quebeckers accepted the results in 1995, believing that democracy had spoken, even though that democracy was tainted by the Liberals. The Liberals rigged the results and Jean Chrétien would have gone even further if the “yes” side had won to prevent Quebeckers' votes from bein…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister had two choices this week. He could go to Brazil, to COP30, to show that he has not completely capitulated in the fight against climate change, or he could go to the Middle East to make deals with oil monarchies. He chose the oil monarchies, just as he put oil companies first in the budget by offering them billions of dollars in tax credits and exempting them from a…
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Mr. Speaker, while the Prime Minister was ignoring COP to meet with sultans in Abu Dhabi, Canada was receiving a barrage of criticism. Two thousand organizations from around the world gave Canada the fossil of the day award for backtracking in the fight against climate change. Canada is a world champion of pollution. Oddly enough, the last time Canada received the fossil award was in 2014. The Can…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the question of privilege raised by the member for Edmonton West on November 17 brings up what we believe is an important issue. The Parliamentary Budget Officer's assertion that the government has unjustifiably delayed or refused to provide essential information is very troubling and shows that his ability to fully exercise his mandate under the Parliament of Canada Act has been impe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I understand my colleague's question. However, he may be conflating different issues. The issue of extortion, as addressed in Bill C-14, is important. However, from what I read, the Conservatives' request for an emergency debate does not specifically target extortion itself; rather, it focuses on the fact that the government is letting people with a known criminal past into the countr…
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