Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Beauport—Limoilou. It is true that the budget does not contain sufficient effective measures to fight climate change. Instead, it includes measures that will actually undermine our efforts to protect our climate. Time is running out. It is not too late, but time is running out. We need to do more.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this is a question that probably deserves more time than we have, but we are talking about inflation, and a lot of what we are experiencing right now is not typical inflation. It is not a wage-price spiral. It is from events that are making things cost more, such as the impact of Putin's attack on Ukraine and the impact of climate events, which make various foodstuffs cost more. I won…
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Madam Speaker, I believe I clearly heard my hon. colleague from Battlefords—Lloydminster say that we needed to remove the gatekeepers who stop home building. What federal department or federal operation has anything to do with local home building? I also respect the provinces and I do think that is under provinces and municipalities. I agree that we should remove barriers to home building, but I d…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to take the floor to let my hon. friend from Calgary Shepard know that the hon. member for Vancouver East did in fact bring in a private member's bill to that effect and has been vigilant on this point. I certainly want to associate myself with her comments. Also, I have been honoured to work with Don Chapman, who has been a leading champion to resolve the in…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, we have known, since 2006, that toxic effluents around the oil sands cause an increased cancer rate in indigenous peoples. We have known for two decades that toxic contaminants within the oil sands are reaching the Athabasca River. We have known these things, and for 10 months this year, Imperial Oil knew that their tailings ponds were leaking, yet they failed to tell or warn the Atha…
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Mr. Speaker, as you can well imagine, it is always hard to hear everything from here, but it was clearly the case that the leader of the official opposition used the Prime Minister's first name in some of that tumult. Perhaps you can listen to the tape and determine if that occurred.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to present petitions on a theme that many of my constituents raise frequently, and that is the need for electoral reform. These petitioners are particularly looking for this Parliament and the government to establish a national citizens' assembly on electoral reform, requiring that the citizens' assembly complete its work within 12 months. The government sh…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise in this place, on the territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people, with the following petition. The petitioners identify that, in the effort to address the climate crisis, our built infrastructure plays a large role. Seventeen per cent of all energy used in Canada is used in various forms of energy for our homes, and the result of wasteful consumption of energy is a barrier …
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Madam Speaker, I wanted to ask about the budget in terms of adaptation to climate disasters. Earlier today, the hon. member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon put forward a petition. Of course, petitions are not our own opinions, but the petition talked about the loss in Lytton and how Lytton has not been rebuilt. We know that the regions of central Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola experienced, …
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize to the hon. member, because I know she did not touch on this in her speech, but I have been trying to get an answer to it for some time. If she does not know the answer offhand, perhaps she can help me find the answer. On page 117 of the budget, there is a reference to “Future Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Development”. I have been pursuing this and trying to find out why th…
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Madam Speaker, the people we do not want to leave behind are our own children and grandchildren, and at this point, we are running over them as we continue to support fossil fuels. This budget expands subsidies for fossil fuels by accepting the notion that we can use fossils to create hydrogen. We do that with so-called abated sources. Those are basically weasel words for saying we are going to us…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about fossil fuel profits and the fact that big business pocketed more than $38 billion this year alone. I find it very mysterious, however, that the costs associated with the Trans Mountain pipeline, which have ballooned to more than $30 billion, are nowhere to be found in the budget. There is absolutely no mention of the Trans Mountain pipeline issues in the bu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to signal the support of the Green Party of Canada for an emergency debate on the rise in hate crimes.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place to present a petition from a number of my constituents concerned about the establishment of the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act. Many veterans have suffered significant injuries over service and are not adequately compensated. The petitioners call upon the Minister of Veterans Affairs to remove any stat…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my hon. friend from Vaughan—Woodbridge for splitting his time. This is the first time in my life that I have been able to rise in this place and say to the hon. member for Abbotsford that I get to answer his rhetorical question: How could Margaret Atwood's words “creeping totalitarianism” be misconstrued? I have been in constant contact over the last little…
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Madam Speaker, I cannot tell the hon. minister how distressed I am to see the hon. Minister of Health defending closure on debate on a bill that has nothing to do with his portfolio. Everything about closure offends basic democracy within Parliament. I have said this before, and I will say it again. When I was first elected in 2011, I watched the then Conservative majority start the process of usi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my Bloc Québécois colleague. I think we have a different strategy for our arts and culture sector. Imagine if there were a movie being filmed in Quebec that generated money for the economy but that was entirely in English, with American actors and screenwriters who speak only English and write only in English. Would that support Quebec's cultural industry? I think that is why …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree that the hon. member for Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies must assume that I am about to give a rant about women's rights. When Margaret Atwood's name is invoked so often with a novel that is entirely about women losing their rights in a dystopian future, where unbelievable things have happened like the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and women having to f…
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Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, I intend to vote for Bill C-11, but I would vote for it with more enthusiasm if the government had accepted the amendment from the Senate that excluded user-developed content. I wonder if the member could explain, because so far I have not had any explanation that makes sense to me, why the government has rejected that amendment from the Senate.
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Mr. Speaker, I am maybe not going to make the Liberal bench, from which the question emanated, as happy as it might have been. There are reasons that this legislation has critics, and that is a big problem. I would rather vote for this bill with the Senate amendment to refuse any regulation of user-generated content, which has now been rejected. In fact, my colleague from Kitchener Centre brought …
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Mr. Speaker, I respect my colleague enormously and I understand why he feels he will vote against the bill. I am very much informed by constituents, particularly in Saanich—Gulf Islands but across the country. I am very much in touch with the artist community, with writers and actors. They are begging for this to be passed because they need protection against these digital giants, the streaming en…
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Mr. Speaker, I wish Farley had not passed away before I got a chance to introduce the member. I would have loved for him to meet my friend from Nunavut. The concern about algorithms is a real one because algorithms are being used right now to do things on social media that are referred to as “rage farming”. This is a very murky and dangerous world, and I think we need to do much more to regulate i…
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Madam Speaker, I think the hon. member for Saskatoon—University might consider his recent remarks and reflect that he went a bit too far when he said that things that are on the Internet should never be censored and nothing should ever be withdrawn. I am going to give him that opportunity right now. We have seen moments where families have been shattered by mass attacks and slaughters. Families of…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise at this hour to bring forward a question I asked the Prime Minister on February 1 of this year. The budget was tabled yesterday, so when I referenced it in my question, it was in the drafting stage. I had thought that one might, in drafting the budget, look to the previous promises made by the governing party to see if they did not create a framework or guida…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is good to be able to recognize progress on a key commitment, the Canada water agency, but nothing is more pressing, particularly in light of the intergovernmental panel on climate change's last report, which says that we are absolutely running out of time. There is no wiggle room and there is no time for procrastination. I have to say that I was deeply shocked to find, on page 1…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to present this petition regarding insect pollinators, specifically honeybees. Honeybees are essential to our food system, to food security and to our ecosystem. It is clear that honeybees are threatened by insecticides, specifically the pesticides known as “neonicotinoids”. Global studies, including studies from the European Commission, prove that neonicot…
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Mr. Speaker, at this point we are looking at legislation that we know is urgently needed but quite flawed. It need not have been so complicated to create a carve-out for charitable organizations. Could the hon. member for Edmonton Manning comment on what they did in Australia, what they did in the U.K. and what our other allies in democratic efforts and in supporting the rights of women around the…
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Madam Speaker, this is very difficult, because we did want this legislation. We wanted to see the carve-out for humanitarian help. My question for the member is very specific. I am looking at the way the legislation is drafted and imagining that we vote for it to get to committee to think about how we might be able to improve it at committee. I am not sure we will be able to, so my question for he…
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Mr. Speaker, the fact that we are debating Bill C-11 in a political context and in terms of what my constituents see as a barrage of false information about it taking away freedoms is very distressing. However, it is also not perfect legislation. I want to tell my hon. parliamentary colleague, the parliamentary secretary, that I absolutely could not agree more that this bill does not affect freedo…
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Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more with the speech given by my dear colleague from Shefford. I just want to say a word in English. When the member for Lethbridge was speaking, she talked about “the big unions”, as if artists are represented by big unions. I think she may think that is true, but there is no collective bargaining among artists. There is a group called The Writers' Union, a voluntee…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, over the next two days, members in this place will have the great honour of meeting some of the finest Canadians they will ever know. Members of the International Association of Fire Fighters are here for their 30th legislative congress. They will be meeting with all of us with the agenda they bring forward for their safety and taking care of all of us. They demand that we get rid of …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, something pretty shocking happened in this place last week. I refer to the statement made by the hon. member for Don Valley North. I am pretty scandalized that anonymous smears from CSIS end up destroying reputations with no real opportunity to respond. It is not like CSIS ever gets anything wrong. Just ask Maher Arar. What the heck is going on here? Will an inquiry find out who in CS…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, petitioners are asking that the House consider the current ecological, social and economic crises and the way in which they are interconnected; that the importance be recognized of making decisions based on scientific evidence; and that it find ways to ensure that the environment and sustainability matter in the decisions we make. Petitioners particularly want us to focus on the cha…
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Madam Speaker, I very much welcome this legislation coming forward, although I share some of the concerns of the hon. member for Victoria. Many of our allies and other donor countries did not have the problems we have had as a country with getting aid workers into Afghanistan without tripping up into the rules against terrorism. I welcome this legislation. We need to get it through quickly. I was …
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Madam Speaker, it has been a very interesting debate on Bill C-11. I quite seriously think there is a deeply held belief that this bill is going to hurt freedom of expression that is entirely on the part of members and the Conservative caucus. I am so grateful, and I am not going to claim that law school makes a person understand everything, but statutory interpretation is one of those things that…
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Madam Speaker, first of all, I want to tell my hon. colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie that I totally agree with what he said in his speech. It is so hard to be here and have a debate when some parties are saying that this is not true and that Bill C-11 is regressive and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Why does he think the Conservatives have become so successful on social media…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Yorkton—Melville is a friend of mine, and I understand that she believes what she is saying. I cannot see it in this bill. I see nothing in this bill where faceless bureaucrats are going to tell Canadians what they can watch. That is not the case. This bill is about ensuring that our creators in this country would have work up against what is a monolithic, multin…
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Madam Speaker, The Handmaid's Tale has come up a great deal in this debate, and there is time to actually dig into why. The Handmaid's Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, once adapted to the screen, did not count as Canadian. It is fairly easy to look it up. It is described on Wikipedia as “an American dystopian television series created by Bruce Miller”, an American. For the film, the screenwriter …
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Madam Speaker, there are a number of things about this legislation that I wish were different. I do not think I have ever seen a bill in this place, even the ones I would be persuaded to vote for, that I thought was perfect. However, the difficulty I have in this debate are the exaggerations, and I am pleading with colleagues on the Conservative side. Comparing Canada with the People's Republic of…
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Madam Speaker, as the hon. member for Oshawa was speaking, all I could think is that somewhere there is a Liberal war room clipping all of that to use in ads to make sure no one votes Conservative.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it is good to have a right of reply when I started the speech by saying I was quite sure I would forget someone if I tried to thank all the people who have helped the bill. I also want to make sure to thank the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Louis, who was the seconder on the day this bill came forward for first reading, back in February 2022. I also want to thank my colleague and friend, …
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Madam Speaker, this is an area where I appreciate the member's expertise in identifying where the actors are that attack our cybersecurity. Does the member think, from what he knows, that there is any level of response from the Canadian government that would not always be playing catch-up with cybercriminals who are ahead of us?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, constituents in my riding have submitted this petition on an extremely important issue relating to genetically modified organisms and genetically modified foods. The petitioners point out that these food products are not labelled as genetically modified. Consumers do want to know. Over 80% of Canadians have said that they would like mandatory labelling of genetically modified foods so…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, there has been a lot of commentary particularly, from both sides of the House, on Canada's climate record. As a Green, I can also say in a non-partisan way that no government in this country has ever met a single climate target to which we have signed on in legally binding agreements. Neither Stephen Harper nor any Liberal prime minister has done so. Not only have we never hit a tar…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary has opened up a personal reflection on his deep commitment to climate action. I saw that in his face when we debated here in the emergency debate in October 2018 when the IPCC said the future of humanity is at stake and that we have very little time. I put it to the hon. member that we are in no better position now than we were in October 2018 because …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my dear colleague, the member for Joliette, who is also the Bloc Québécois finance critic. I have a question about next week's budget. What does he think about the money being wasted on the fossil fuel industry? For example, the Government of Canada owns the Trans Mountain pipeline. The cost of the project has ballooned to $30 billion of public money. What does he think abou…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
,seconded by the member for York Centre, moved that Bill C-226, An Act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice, be read the third time and passed. She said: Mr. Speaker, there are not really words to describe the joy, pleasure and deep sense of gratitude when a private member's bill gets to third rea…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to take the floor to agree with the important points being made here today by the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby. The Greens are also calling for a public inquiry that is expanded rather than being limited to foreign interference from the People's Republic of China. As the member was just pointing out, there is abundant and very clear evidence of Russian int…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the IPCC report of this week is sobering reading. It requires of all of us that we be prepared to do more, be braver and be bolder, because nothing less than our children's future is at stake. It is a ticking time bomb, as it has been described. The report finds that deep emissions reductions are required in the near term, before 2025 at the latest. For Canada, that means banning frac…
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Mr. Speaker, as I rise to present a petition today, I am struck by how timely it is. We would not have known, when I pulled this petition for today, what we would be debating in a concurrence debate. The petitioners from my riding are calling on Canada to pay attention to the fact that companies within Canada, Canadian-based companies, are responsible for human rights abuses around the world, such…
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