Parliamentary Speeches
582 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 7 of 12
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, if the member for Winnipeg North had been paying attention to my speech, he would know that I talked about the Trudeau senior government's passage of time allocation in the part of my speech about how things are being done, not the part about the substance of the motion. We can agree on the merits of time allocation. Perhaps discussions with the parties could have resulted in an agree…
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Mr. Speaker, I will begin by letting you know that I will not be sharing my time with any of my colleagues. I therefore apologize profusely because you are going to have to listen to my voice for about 20 to 30 minutes. I will try to make it as pleasant as possible. Today we are talking about making a hybrid Parliament a permanent thing for centuries and centuries to come. As people often say, not…
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my speech, there appears to be some asymmetry in the measures that the motion sets out for the changes they want to make to the rules of procedure. The in-person attendance obligations for the government side are being watered down. In contrast, the opposition side is facing the exact same prepandemic obligations when it comes to being able to thwart certain governme…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke. I am sorry that I misquoted him. He has become a member of the big club of misquoted members. I believe we are all unwilling members of that club. On the issue of protecting interpreters, if it had not been urgent and if we had had this discussion about the substance and form, we could probably have put in place more mechanisms to pro…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent speech and his hard work. International humanitarian aid represents 0.3% of Canada's GDP, despite the government's commitment to increasing that figure to 0.7% of GDP. This bill could have been passed long ago, because lives that depend on it. My questions for my colleague are the following. Does this not give the impression that, in internationa…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the situation speaks for itself. No pro-democracy groups and no representatives of the victims of the Chinese regime support the government's initiative. None. The government would know that, had its special rapporteur taken the time to talk to them before publishing his report. They are all calling for a public inquiry led by an independent commissioner with the power to issue a summ…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, since we are on the second hour of considering Motion No. 63, it is important to remember when the first hour occurred. It was in December. It is said that six months is an eternity in politics. I think we had a clear example of that today. In that first hour of consideration of the motion, we did not yet have the revelations from The Globe and Mail and Global News on Beijing's interf…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about Chinese interference, or rather, let us talk about those who are the victims of it, those who the government refuses to talk about. Let us talk about the defenders of democracy from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Solomon Islands. Let us talk about the Uyghurs and the Tibetans. Their representatives all rallied with the Bloc Québécois to demand a public and independent inquir…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to BGRS, which is handling the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) relocation program: (a) on what date was the contract awarded to BGRS; (b) what firm was responsible for the relocation program prior to BGRS; (c) was the contract awarded to BGRS as a result of the expiry of the previous contract with that firm; (d) if the answer in (c) is negative, why was there a change in the firm responsi…
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives spoke a lot today about how they want to scrap the safer supply initiatives that have been put in place. Unfortunately, there are situations where those drugs are being resold so that the user can buy fentanyl. If we want to be able to implement support measures to help people recover from addictions, then we need to make sure that they stay alive first. What we wa…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to hear what my colleague from Winnipeg North has to say about this. Tonight, people in the House keep complaining that the Conservatives do not understand the bill. In fact, they understand it very well, but they are twisting it, saying that the government is going to ban hunters' guns. However, if the government had done the job properly from the start and consulted w…
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Madam Speaker, since the beginning of this debate, the Conservatives have been saying that Bill C-21 will either ban hunting rifles or that it will allow the Prime Minister to ban hunting rifles. It would be one or the other in the best of all possible worlds. The truth is, it is neither. I would still like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the second part. If I understand the Conservatives' argu…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Motion No. 79, moved by my colleague from Elmwood—Transcona, whom I thank, by the way, for his excellent speech. Despite the fact that I still consider myself a young politician, perhaps less so in age than in years of experience, I feel that I have learned a lot about procedural matters during my three and a half years in office. I had the pleasure of partici…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is hard to follow the Liberals when it comes to the Century Initiative and their goal of increasing the Canadian population to 100 million people. They say they reject the initiative, and yet they refuse to support our motion to reject the initiative. They say they deny the initiative's target of 500,000 people per year, and yet their own target for 2025 is 500,000 people. The Libe…
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Mr. Speaker, it is difficult to believe the Liberals when they say that they did not take a page from the Century Initiative, because their immigration targets are identical. However, we will give them the benefit of the doubt. We do not yet know the Liberal targets starting in 2026. Perhaps they will not copy the Century Initiative targets after 2025. Can they promise Quebeckers that their target…
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Madam Speaker, first things first. The fact that there are so many newcomers whose status is irregular right now only proves that the immigration system does not work, and yet the Liberals want to put more people into it. As for the regularization of undocumented workers, people who already contribute to the economy, I think that it is a path we must consider. To deal with the labour shortage, whi…
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Madam Speaker, first I want to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague from Mirabel, who seems to enthusiastically agree, which is good, because it means that I will not have to give a 20-minute speech when I have prepared a 10-minute speech. As I have often stated before when rising in the House, I would like to be able to say that I am pleased to rise today. Un…
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Madam Speaker, there are two things. One of the problems with mass immigration is that when we try to look for top-notch people, we drain their countries of origin of the brains they need as much as we do. The other thing is that we are talking about francophone immigration. That is great. We can welcome francophone immigrants. As I mentioned in my speech, however, the resources are not available.…
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Madam Speaker, if it is so simple to bring in French teachers, why has Ontario not already done so? One has to wonder, but there is clearly no acceptable answer because there are no francophone teachers. Even if those who settle here are francophone and do not need to be francized, the government is still losing sight of the problem of anglicization and language transfer toward English. That probl…
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague’s premise, except perhaps that I believe the Bloc Québécois was the first to point out the importance of an independent public inquiry. There are several things that can be done and put in place, including the creation of a foreign agent registry, which has been called for since November 2020. We have been told that consultations to set up such a registry a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, a new development has surfaced. The Prime Minister claims that CSIS made the decision not to inform the opposition member that he was the target of threats from China. Richard Fadden, a former CSIS director, demolished this excuse in The Globe and Mail. Mr. Fadden explained that not only would the memo that the media found have been sent to the Prime Minister's office, but it would al…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is blaming CSIS, but he has been ignoring their warnings for years. Even before the 2019 election, CSIS warned him that a Liberal candidate was possibly being supported by China. He ignored that. CSIS later warned him that the same Liberal member was discussing the two Michaels with Beijing. He ignored that. In 2021, CSIS warned him that China was threatening an opp…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to start by saying that I will be splitting my time with my colleague, the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot. I will not keep the members on tenterhooks any longer: The Bloc Québécois will be supporting today's motion from the Conservatives. As we know, when things drag, they tend to pick up dirt, and right now everything is turning into a crisis. The longer this dr…
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Madam Speaker, I do not claim to be inside the government's head, nor do I wish to be. That said, I—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as I said, I do not claim to be inside the government's head, nor do I wish to be. That said, I will reiterate what I said at the beginning of my speech: The longer this drags on, the dirtier it gets and the more it becomes a partisan issue, when that is not what democracy should be. The longer the House continues to refuse to hold an independent public inquiry, the longer we will b…
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Madam Speaker, the answer is no but, in any case, I do not think the question is that relevant given the debate today. The questions I am hearing from all sides concerning specific members just lead me to reiterate that this debate is becoming far too partisan, which serves no one, and certainly not democracy. That is why I urge all members to vote for the motion, because the main thing it is call…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, when the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, informed the Prime Minister in 2019 that a prospective Liberal MP was receiving support from China, he kept it secret and did nothing. When CSIS informed him in 2021 that an opposition MP and his family were being threatened by China, he kept it secret and did nothing. The Prime Minister keeps things secret when it serves the L…
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Madam Speaker, I do not need lessons from anyone when it comes to being open-minded. We heard a real gem from the Minister of Official Languages yesterday. She said her action plan does not provide funding for English, it provides funding for the vitality of Quebec's English-speaking community. That changes everything. Nearly 30% of people mainly use English at work in Montreal. Meanwhile, the use…
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Madam Speaker, in Quebec, French is declining as the language spoken at work. French is declining as the language spoken at home. The proportion of people whose first official language learned is French is declining. In short, French is declining across Quebec. However, the Liberals' official languages action plan invests hundreds of millions of dollars in promoting English in Quebec. The entire p…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Winnipeg North for his speech. My colleague from Joliette mentioned, in a question posed a little earlier, that Revenu Québec had done a much better job than the CRA on tax evasion by recouping significant amounts, which was one of the arguments used by the Bloc Québécois to justify giving Quebec full taxation powers by implementing a single tax return. I w…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to a man who is bigger than life, Mr. Alain Gingras. Alain has been involved with the cadet corps since 1990 and distinguished himself as a volunteer during the 1998 ice storm. In 2009, he joined Council 3206 of the Knights of Columbus, which would elect him Grand Knight in 2013. His work since then has been nothing short of extraordinary. He works hundreds…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise this last Friday before the break to speak to Bill S‑202, which would create the position of visual artist laureate for the House. I want to draw some parallels to something similar that we are already familiar with and that my colleagues mentioned, the position of poet laureate. I will even refer to some speeches that were made at the time. We will go back to 2…
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Madam Speaker, the minister was really pushing it when he told the media that this was an opportunity, that this was good news for Quebeckers. I think we can all agree that no one here is in favour of any type of billing, but we need to remember that Quebec needed $6 billion in new investments just to begin repairing our health care system. The federal government gave Quebec just $1 billion, one-s…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights examined the issue of coercive and controlling behaviour in intimate relationships to explore the possibility of considering such behaviour to be a criminal offence. This was done in connection with Bill C‑247, which was introduced in 2020. Members will recall that that bill died on the Order Paper when the government called an elec…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for tabling the report. I would like him to address the issue of help and rehabilitation. Should we not try to find a better balance between criminalizing coercive behaviour, helping victims and potentially rehabilitating people who committed acts of coercion?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the federal government has just announced $82 million in cuts to health care, half of which will affect Quebec. We are losing out on $41 million because of the minister, and that money was earmarked for our health care system. Has the minister been to a hospital lately? Has he turned on his television or read a newspaper? Health care centres everywhere are in crisis. It is extremely…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, like my colleagues, I am pleased to rise to speak to Bill C-289. I think my colleagues beat me to the punch, but I will say again that the Bloc Québécois will support Bill C‑289 at second reading. For one thing, we want to be able to suggest amendments and improvements when it goes to committee and perhaps cast the net a little wider, so to speak, in terms of the bill's scope. I wil…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not strictly the NDP's duty to protect our electoral system. It is not the Bloc Québécois's duty to do that either. It is not the Conservatives' duty, and it is clearly not the Liberals' duty. It is the duty of all of us, collectively. What the Prime Minister does not seem to understand is that the integrity of our democracy is under threat. We should all be concerned, and we mu…
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Mr. Speaker, whether the Prime Minister likes it or not, elections are not the exclusive responsibility of the Prime Minister or his party. They are everyone's responsibility. What is at issue here is democracy, not the Liberals. There must be no doubt in anyone's mind that every person sitting in the House of Commons was elected legitimately, without trickery and without interference. This means …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, my riding is home to the love capital of North America and, even though the municipality of Saint‑Valentin has a population of less than 500, people around the world know about it. Lovers, but also collectors from around the globe, send their letters there to get a one-of-a-kind postmark. Saint‑Valentin has also made a name for itself by hosting a festival featuring artists, entertain…
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Madam Speaker, let us talk about the human cost. There is a labour shortage in our classrooms. We cannot just ask our teachers to take in even more children who do not speak French and who are more likely to have special needs. The elastic is stretched thin and stretching it further would cut the quality of education offered to all children. Quebec does not have the resources to take care of all t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Abitibi‑Témiscamingue for his speech. He talked about critical minerals. Obviously, when China tried to get its hands on critical minerals, the answer was a categorical “no” for national security reasons. However, my colleague talked about the United States, and the U.S. army is also after critical minerals. Yes, the United States is an ally, but should we still…
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Madam Speaker, Quebec schools are feeling the full effects of what is happening at Roxham Road. Since the beginning of the school year last September, the Quebec government has had to create 224 new classes just to accommodate the children of asylum seekers. That is 224 new classes, while we are in the midst of a shortage of teachers and specialists. That is 224 new classes, the vast majority in t…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a few seconds to wish you a happy new year, good health, happiness, love and anything else your heart desires. I want to also send that message to my constituents in Saint-Jean, as this is the first time I have spoken in the House this year. I am not going to put the Conservatives on trial for their motion today. I would like to believe that this idea stems from a…
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Mr. Speaker, the real question is, should judges be told what to do more than they already are? Generally speaking, when judges are told what they must do, such as with mandatory minimum sentences, those rulings often blocked by the courts because they do not comply with the Charter. That is a real risk, so it seems to me that may not be the best way to make sure potentially dangerous people are n…
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Mr. Speaker, to hear my Conservative colleagues tell it, as soon as someone commits a crime, even as minor as simple drug possession, they should automatically be detained so as to prevent any subsequent crimes. However, there are solutions that would be much more appropriate for this kind of problem. For instance, measures could be taken to ensure that conditions are respected and that, when ther…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that is obvious. My colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia demonstrated that as well. It is the topic of many discussions. When we talk about bail, we have to remember that a crime was committed. What we want to avoid is the commission of an offence in the first place, before we even begin to talk about bail. Can we address the root of the problem, which is currently…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, this is my third time speaking to this bill or the previous version, which was practically identical. I took the time to reread my speeches to make sure I was being as consistent with myself as possible, because sometimes I am not consistent with others. While rereading my speeches, I realized that, when the previous version was before us, I was already fretting about election rumou…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and for the work that he did in committee that he mentioned in his speech. It is always interesting to see what arguments were presented there. First, for the record, I want to confirm to my colleague that I am not suggesting that there are judges who are impartial because of the appointment process, but rather that we must ensure that the appoint…
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