Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I wish we could have had a full RCMP investigation on the SNC-Lavalin scandal. One reason I will just throw into the mix for his consideration is that I do not think we actually have evidence that the Prime Minister pressured our former and honourable minister of justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould. The only person we know pressured her was our former clerk of the Privy Council Office, wh…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present a petition on a subject that is of concern to constituents and others: the Northvolt battery plant. This is a Swedish company that intends to build a battery plant in Quebec, but there are many concerns about the nature of the site, which is contaminated because of an explosives plant that was formerly on the location. There are concerns about …
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Bloc Québécois leader about the major gap between the well-being of seniors and that of young people. Of course, the climate crisis springs to mind. Only the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party remain deeply committed to the issue of climate emergency. We are the only ones who do not flip-flop depending on the political situation. Has my esteemed colleague, th…
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Mr. Speaker, I sometimes feel that I am the only one left with a good memory. I am so glad that the hon. member for Windsor West also recalls that the SDTC has done lots of good work. There were a lot of good firms associated with it. I want to give credit to the Hon. Gary Lunn, the former member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. That is unusual, I suppose. I have not mentioned his name here in a long tim…
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Mr. Speaker, to my hon. friend from Timmins—James Bay, I am very grateful for his participation in this House, and I know I am not the only one who is going to miss him because he has chosen not to run for re-election. His speech started to really try to drill down on why it is that the official opposition wants an election now. As a British Columbian, I sent out an email far and wide asking const…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to briefly say that I deeply appreciate the thoughtful response to my last point of order. However, when referring to Standing Order 11(2), I was cut off by heckling and not able to direct the Speaker to the section that I thought might be relevant in the future, which is on avoiding irrelevant and repetitious speech. That seemed to be the case in the attack…
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Mr. Speaker, if only there was a way I could tell the parliamentary secretary, in one minute, of the 40 years of work I have put into environmental assessment; how casually it was trashed when Stephen Harper came in; how clearly the mandate letter to former environment minister Catherine McKenna said, “Fix this”; how she did not fix it but instead kept the Harper model; and how, because of that, t…
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Madam Speaker, it is my first opportunity to address the new member of this place, the member for Toronto—St. Paul's, so congratulations and welcome. I can see we have a new orator in this place who loves history, as do I. I am particularly pleased that he identified Arthur Currie as one of our great Canadians. The town where I live, Sidney, British Columbia, is where Arthur Currie used to teach s…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising today at the hour of adjournment to pursue a question I asked May 2, the day the Minister of Finance tabled Bill C-69. This is what is called, in the vernacular, an omnibus budget bill. Liberals will remember those words because it was in the platform of the Liberals that they would not introduce such things as omnibus budget bills. Liberals also promised that they would m…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we are allies of Israel, but Israel's prime minister is unpopular. He has put his personal ego and political career ahead of rescuing Israeli hostages, and he seems to care nothing about innocent civilians, whether in—
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Mr. Speaker, on the same point, it is clear that world leaders have been calling out over the last year, since the horrific attacks of October 7, for restraint and to control the conflict so that it does not spread, just as it is spreading into Lebanon. We know who the enemy of peace is; unfortunately, he has a name. He is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has put his political career and his—
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Madam Speaker, I know it is extremely unusual that I would rise to support a point made by my friend from Battle River—Crowfoot, but I do think we should try for some relevance.
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Madam Speaker, I find it odd to see this motion before the House today. Here is my question for my Conservative colleague: What does he think is the role of members in the House? Does he not think that it is to represent our constituents? Does the official opposition not see that two provincial elections have already been called? All of the people in my riding are saying that the Conservative moti…
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Madam Speaker, we focus a lot on the carbon tax in this place but without looking at the climate crisis and the real impact it has on Canadian farmers. We really want to support the family farm. We know that people living on farms are experiencing suicides. It is an extremely difficult life right now. Removing carbon pricing on things such as drying grains is one thing. However, if we ignore the b…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I was trying to rise to ask a question of the hon. member for Regina—Lewvan, but then I heard the shot toward the hon. member for Burnaby South. It is unparliamentary to suggest that the member sold out the country for his pension. I know that in this House we cannot be charged with slander, but that certainly is unparliamentary.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for Langley—Aldergrove. Obviously, he knows whereof he speaks. There are quite a lot of impediments to the efficient loading of grain, even when we get the grain to port, even when there is actually a freighter there with holds ready to take it away. I do support the longshoremen's union. I know that it has negotiated in its collective agreements a number of restri…
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Madame Speaker, I would like to say a big thank you to my dear colleague, the member for Pierre‑Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, one of the opposition members who has made a very big effort to improve this bill to protect the environment. It is absolutely essential that we take quick action long before the 2030 target. We must stop exporting coal via our ports. This increases delays for other prod…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question, and he is right. We have exchanged conversations that, I would say, border on rants about how it feels to be in a community where a harbour authority really seems to lack accountability or caring concern, which affects the economy as well as the communities. As a modern industrialized country with a significant value added to our economy f…
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,seconded by the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, moved: That Bill C-33, in Clause 120, be amended (a) by replacing lines 24 and 25 on page 80 with the following: “(1.1) Regulations made under paragraph (1)(a) must provide for the prohibition of the loading and unloading of” b) by replacing line 6 on page 81 with the following: “December 31, 2025.” (c) by deleting lines 7 to 14 on page 81.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I know that as a mayor, the hon. member suffered significant impacts in his community from climate events. I wonder whether he can give us a glimmer of hope that there will be a Conservative plan for what we do about the threat of the climate crisis.
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South on his new position. I know he is a passionate supporter of Via Rail and passenger rail improvement in this country. We hope to work together on that. However, I support Bill C-33. I would ask the member to consider that the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is massively inefficient, that the anchorages that it sends to s…
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Madam Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise this morning to speak to Bill C-33. I would like to begin by thanking my dear colleague, the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, for supporting my amendments this morning. I am very pleased to finally be standing at report stage of the bill. I will recount Bill C-33's history briefly, but it has not been brief. The bill came forward for first reading …
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today and present a petition from constituents concerned about the question of how people who are dealing with addiction, in need of rehabilitation and treatment, are handled by society. The petitioners note that there is a policy of treating those who suffer from drug abuse as criminals. That policy has proven ineffective in alleviating the burden of drug ab…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for London—Fanshawe and add my words to those of the members thanking her for her work. I also worked with her mother, and I would like to thank Irene Mathyssen for consistent leadership on the issue of justice for women who suffered sexual violence in the course of their military service. Having studied the bill, does the member believe it is possible to m…
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Mr. Speaker, this petition that I am presenting has attracted the signatures of over 1,236 Canadians who are very concerned about an issue relating to the culture of South India, Sri Lanka and the Tamil diaspora here in Canada. They are finding that, due to the monopolistic behaviour of movie chains, South Indian movies are not available and that some movie theatres have been subjected to recurrin…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order with some trepidation based on comments made in question period. I have been diving through the Standing Orders to see what order I find has been offended. You might find it in Standing Order 11(2) under “order and decorum”. Of course, Standing Order 16 protects members of Parliament, the royal family and other parts of the Government of Canada from disrespe…
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Madam Speaker, this is a really critical issue. I will support the motion. I want to make it very clear, though, that I do not think there is evidence for one of the comments, which was about Kristian Firth. I think Kristian Firth should be ashamed, but I did not hear any evidence that he was wining and dining Liberal insiders. He was wining and dining whatever person was within the bureaucratic c…
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Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for all the tributes that have already been made. Your own words were profoundly moving. It is in this place, in moments like these, that we are united with exactly the same sense of shared humanity in paying tribute to someone we universally loved and admired. I know Chuck Strahl to have been, throughout his life, an honest man, doing an honest day's work every single d…
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Madam Speaker, I think what the Canadian public is screaming about is the sense that there is never any accountability, that millions of dollars can be wasted and that we can have someone like Kristian Firth sit here and say he is not ashamed, that he just took millions of dollars from Canadians and he is walking away with it. I think the hon. member for Windsor West is absolutely right. We have t…
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Madam Speaker, I completely agree with the comments made by my colleague from Windsor West, and those from my colleague from the Bloc Québécois. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate my Bloc Québécois colleagues. It is clear that the public service had eroded. Work was contracted out to big companies, sometimes foreign ones. Billions of dollars were paid to companies such as Deloitte, KP…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Nunavut for always being a shining example in this place of how to lead with love. I want to recognize that it is not one or two examples. As she was speaking, I was thinking of Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, who was attacked by the RCMP in a parking lot. What we can do is remember the first calls for justice of the Nati…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague, the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue. I am deeply moved by his words about our friend, my old friend Jonathan Pedneault, who has now stepped down as my deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada. As my colleague put it so well, Jonathan always makes decisions with human rights issues front of mind. I think my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue is rig…
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Ben Perrin.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Edmonton Manning says he wants Canadians who believe in Canadian values. Certainly one of those is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; this is why the courts ruled that the cut-off rule for second-generation Canadians was unconstitutional. How does the hon. member imagine that Canadians of convenience so cleverly plan ahead to choose their parents so that they ca…
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Madam Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for splitting her time with me. Second, I did not want to interrupt. I think it is the first time I have ever yelled anything out in the House, but I remembered the name Benjamin Perrin. He is doing fantastic work in looking at the evidence and realizing things about the policies he used to espouse when he was in Stephen…
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Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The Northvolt plant is going to be built on the contaminated land of the Canadian Industries Limited former explosives plant and could end up polluting the Richelieu river. There are impacts on areas of federal jurisdiction and 4,000 people have signed a petition calling for a federal assessment. The mayors of Saint-Ba…
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Madam Speaker, I want to begin by thanking members in other parties, and in particular the Minister of Immigration for bringing Bill C-71 forward. The hon. member for Vancouver East has been tireless, as have many citizen champions, including, as mentioned by the minister, Don Chapman. The work to restore the rights to lost Canadians is urgent. With all due respect to the minister, I would like to…
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Madam Speaker, yes, indeed, and I recall attempts by the hon. member for Vancouver East to put this through by unanimous consent before we adjourned for the summer. One would have thought that reflection over the summer might have changed the automatic chorus of nays from across the aisle, because this is a matter of restoring rights to Canadians, not inventing new rights and not expanding a class…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today with a petition of great concern to many of my constituents. I heard about this issue all summer, the need for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to have removed from its statutory mandate the promotion of aquaculture in order to put the priority for DFO to be on the protection of coastal ecosystems. The petitioners note that for British Columbians, t…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleagues who are here tonight. First, I would like to sincerely thank the member for Nunavut. I want to thank my friend, the member of Parliament for Nunavut, for bringing this forward for an emergency debate. It has been an emergency for some time. That is why I was relieved when the Speaker decided that it met the definition of an emergency for debate. Howeve…
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Mr. Speaker, I would also like to add a few words to say a big thank you to all the teams at the House of Commons. I would like to thank the Speaker, the clerks and the pages, who have done great work while also studying. These young people from across Canada continue to inspire me. They work so hard. When we work long hours, we sometimes forget that our pages are here working hard too. They then …
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentarians who serve on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians have done an amazing job and deserve the thanks of all Canadians. In the face of foreign interference, we need to put Canada first and commit to working together. My question for the Prime Minister is this: Is the Prime Minister open to working over the summer with all members of Par…
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,seconded by the member for Willowdale, moved for leave to introduce Bill C-408, An Act to amend the Referendum Act. She said: Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to put forward this private member's bill. This private member's bill seeks to amend the Referendum Act. We rarely use referenda in Canada. One reason a referendum is so difficult to use, which my private member's bill attempts to remedy, is th…
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Mr. Speaker, please forgive me. Before my petition, I just have to say, “Go Oilers”. Now I will turn to my petition. The petitioners are very concerned for the habitat of the threatened marbled murrelets. These are birds that are covered by the Migratory Birds Convention Act. To summarize the petition, the petitioners call on the government to immediately protect all the critical old-growth habita…
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Madam Speaker, I also want to add a few comments and thank our colleague from Vancouver East. The matters raised, as we all know, are of critical importance. I have listened carefully to the member for Vancouver East. I want to read her question of privilege. It is clearly pressing and urgent that Parliament come together. At this point, I would like to reserve further comments, as other represent…
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Madam Speaker, it is important to be able to have periodic reviews, but I will not forget what we did in the Harper era, when we gave CSIS kinetic powers that it had not had before. That was a mistake, but we have left it that way. The RCMP was supposed to act on intelligence; intelligence-gathering was the exclusive job of CSIS. We still have silos in this country between intelligence-gathering a…
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Madam Speaker, I am rising to present a petition from concerned residents of Nova Scotia, so not my riding, but they have reached out to me concerning a land-based testing facility being built by the Department of National Defence. It threatens a forested area where there is a bird observation site, which is the nesting and feeding ground for thousands of migratory birds. The public consultation w…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place to speak to Bill C-70. A foreign influence registry is something we have wanted to have, but we also recognize that there are concerns that overbroad application of such a registry could in itself inadvertently result in stigmatization of diaspora communities within Canada. The bill needs to be carefully administered, and much of what remains of…
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Madam Speaker, whenever we have a CSIS report that makes earth-shattering accusations, and parliamentarians assume CSIS is right, I always remember that CSIS is sometimes wrong. The accusations and information provided to members of cabinet in one era in this country told them that Maher Arar was a bad actor and that it was okay to allow extraordinary rendition, where he would be tortured in anoth…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise this evening in Adjournment Proceedings to pursue a question I initially asked the Prime Minister on February 28. Although the topic of the rubric announced earlier today was climate change, I was really asking about a series of related issues in terms of Canada's preparedness to respond to extreme weather events, such as extreme wildfires and flooding, as well…
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