Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to present a petition on something of concern to many of my constituents, which is the rather stale issue, still not solved, of equal pay for work of equal value, and gender parity as required under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Women in Canada are still not paid equal pay for work of equal value. Women receive 21¢ less than men for every dollar earne…
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Madam Speaker, welcome to Adjournment Proceedings, where I will be taking up a question I asked on June 4 of this year. As members will recall, Parliament had only recently resumed. I had intended to ask a different question, but someone had called my office and caught my wonderful chief of staff on the phone. As the caller was explaining that she was living with disabilities and could not figure …
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Madam Speaker, I am desperately trying to find out what happened to the position of minister for disabilities. It was Carla Qualtrough, who no longer serves in this place. She was, herself, a woman with disabilities and quite inspiring. It was then Kamal Khera, who did not win her seat in Brampton. Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment explain how he is here tonight to def…
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Mr. Speaker, I am following up with the hon. minister. The story has made a lot of waves in media. It does not seem at all clear that there is evidence that the band Kneecap was deemed ineligible by the department. Since the minister cannot discuss any individual case, can she please confirm whether any authorized entity within the Canadian government refused entry to the Irish band Kneecap or whe…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present a petition that relates to a private member's bill that I was honoured to sponsor through this place, which has received royal assent. Bill S-203 bans the keeping of whales, dolphins and cetaceans of all kinds in captivity. I know I should not update a petition that is being presented, but we know the Minister of Fisheries has done the right th…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the paper version of this petition, but there is an e-petition to this effect, for clarity, that is open for signature until January. It currently has 2,725 names, and the paper petition has 40 names. The petitioners are concerned constituents and Canadians who are asking for the House of Commons assembled to call on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to brin…
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Madam Speaker, no one knew what was in those vehicles. I was told by the RCMP that I needed an escort to get in and out of the building because my face was too well known and that I would not be safe trying to get into the building. The buses were not running. The taxis were not running. It was not safe to walk through a crowd. Does the hon. member really think that was an acceptable situation for…
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Madam Speaker, as I look at this legislation, I have to agree with the Conservative MP who earlier asked the hon. member if we did not agree that the Criminal Code already covers the offences that are described in this bill relating to symbols. As we are looking at the question of limiting free speech or accidental inferences that there is a hate crime being committed, I would ask the hon. member …
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Madam Speaker, I would say this to my hon. colleague: We are trying to combat hate, and this is prompted by a question that was asked earlier, but why do we not go after rage farming and the algorithms, bring back the digital services tax and really deal with the threat that promotes hatred?
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Madam Speaker, I know my hon. colleague was not yet a member of this place or living in Ottawa during the convoy, but I do not think he fully recognizes how awful it was for local businesses and local residents to not be able to sleep and to have horns blowing all the time. We sat in this chamber not knowing if the trucks outside were loaded with explosives.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to present this petition. I know that, because of the petition rules, I cannot speak to how much this petition means to me, so I will stay neutral. Many petitioners from my community are calling for the Minister of Immigration to revisit decisions that deny a Canadian couple the ability to live together. The wife, Sophia Papp, is Canadian. Her spouse, Zain Haq, has b…
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Madam Speaker, I heard my friend's comment earlier on Bill C-2, and I want to pursue it a bit. I know we are talking about Bill C-8. I would like the member's thoughts on this as a lawyer. Why would we not consider something else instead of thinking we can open people's mail? It has the addressee's name right on it. If we think a package or a letter is suspicious, does the hon. member think there …
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Madam Speaker, earlier this week, in Ottawa, I was honoured to meet with brave indigenous women from Guatemala, representing the Xinca people, who are fighting a Canadian silver mine in Escobal that is violating their rights. I thought, right away, that I would go to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, to see if they could investigate. They do not have good investigative tools. T…
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Madam Speaker, certainly Bill C-8 has a number of improvements based on the debates we had in this place before Bill C-26 died on the Order Paper and, as my hon. friend from Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong just mentioned, on work done in the Senate as well. However, these persist. As the minister knows, under part 2, proposed section 35, there remain very serious privacy concerns that this would open a …
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Madam Speaker, to my hon. colleague, I know his intentions are good, but I am with the hon. member for Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations. I do not think the Liberals have lowered in this bill the definition of hatred; they have just made it impenetrable. I do not understand why, when we already have so many strong pieces of legislation within the Criminal Code and against hate crimes elsewhere, th…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise for the first time today to take part in this important debate. I agree that the notwithstanding clause should be used only sparingly. I think it should go to the Supreme Court, but I also have deep respect for my colleagues in the Bloc Québécois. I have deep respect, and I felt that, at one point in the member's speech, he dismissed the concerns of Bloc Québécois members, beca…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am pursuing a question that I asked the Minister of Environment in question period on May 30, when we were in the midst of unprecedented wildfires throughout the Prairies and the state of emergency as it existed in several prairie provinces. I pointed out that we were, at last count, only 7% below 2005 levels, with a due date for our emissions reductions to 40% to 45% by 2030. The…
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Madam Speaker, I have another opportunity to welcome a new member to this place, the member for Vancouver Quadra. In the language of Musqueam people, I think it is Hul'q'umi'num', hych'ka siam. Unfortunately, there was not an answer there for when we would see the new programs that would replace eliminating the consumer carbon price. There is not an answer there for what we are going to do if ther…
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Madam Speaker, the consequences would be dire. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, issued a clear and unanimous warning. Human civilization is at risk of extinction if all of humanity and all of the planet's economies continue to ignore the threat. We must act. We are running out of time, but it is not too late.
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Madam Speaker, I will begin by welcoming my hon. friend from the neighbouring riding of Victoria to this place as a new member of Parliament. I am going to start, actually, by answering a question that was directed to the hon. member for Victoria just moments ago, and that is to clear up some misconceptions. As a matter of fact, having been in the House all day through the debates, I would like to…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present this petition on the issue of the transition to clean, green, renewable energy. Petitioners are calling on the House, in looking at the Paris Agreement and the need to transition our economy, to not forget the skills and the needs of oil and gas workers, to ensure there is a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel sector, and to ensure, …
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Madam Speaker, I am very aware of my carbon footprint. That is why I buy carbon offsets, and I have not flown on a vacation or travelled on an airplane for any personal reason for the last 15 years. It is grievous to me, but I find that I am able to be more effective as an MP here and not by staying at home on Zoom, but I thank the member for raising the point.
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Mr. Speaker, it is really hard to know where to begin, with the number of narratives and fantasies that were included in the member's speech. It does seem to me, as a parenthetical comment, and I will put a question to my friend, that there is a desperate attempt here from the Liberal Party to try to steal votes from the Conservatives and abandon all the people who thought Liberals were once part …
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Mr. Speaker, in this place, the notion is that there are projects in the national interest. To describe LNG Canada as a Canadian project is to have failed to look at the investors. They are almost entirely Asian: PetroChina, a Korean company and a Japanese company. There is a significant alliance with the Haisla Nation. This project has been heavily subsidized by the Government of British Columbia…
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Mr. Speaker, I will add my words of welcome to the hon. member for Carleton. One area that is very difficult is when people who generally should agree, like people who want climate action, end up repeating things that are not the case. In the case of liquefied natural gas coming from British Columbia, the liquefied natural gas comes from fracking. Fracking threatens our water supplies. Fracking ca…
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Madam Speaker, I am not certain of the question, but I will say this: We know we are facing something that is not easy. It is time to stop sugarcoating it. Whenever I hear someone say the economy and the environment go together, and over the years I have heard many Liberals say this, I always picture Thelma and Louise, with their hands clasped, going over the edge of the cliff. The decisions we ne…
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Madam Speaker, I do not think I said a single thing that represented misinformation, but the position of the Green Party is that we should not import any foreign oil. We should use only Canadian oil and Canadian fossil fuels as we conduct a phase-out and a phase-down. That only makes sense. By the way, for dictator oil, people point to Saudi Arabia. The only refinery in Canada that uses Saudi oil …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to present e-petition 6636, which has been signed by about 2,500 Canadians. I will summarize it, but the presentation deals with a slightly complicated transaction, in which Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a former Atomic Energy of Canada Limited subsidiary that is currently managed and controlled by what used to be called SNC-Lavalin, now AtkinsRéalis, has ente…
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Mr. Speaker, within my community of Saanich—Gulf Islands, concerns run deep for the fate of wild Pacific salmon. The petitioners are calling for the Government of Canada to remove the conflict of interest within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Act, which makes it a requirement for the department to both promote aquaculture and regulate aquaculture. The petitioners are also calling for the g…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to have a chance to add my words to those of my colleagues on the passing of a remarkable Canadian whom I was very, very lucky to know. Obviously I did not get to know him because I play hockey. I did not get to know him in courtrooms, although I was a practising lawyer. I got to know him before I was involved in partisan politics, while I was working with other w…
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Mr. Speaker, I too am honoured to rise this afternoon to pay tribute to our colleague and dear friend, John McCallum. He was an extraordinary man, a genius. He was a lawyer, I believe, and a professor. He was an academic and a scholar. He was not just someone who had a few degrees here and there; he was the dean of arts at a university. He was a chief economist at the Royal Bank. He did all of thi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank all the previous speakers. I knew Gail Shea. Of the people we have paid tribute to today, though I knew them all, it was only with Gail Shea that I served at the same time in an overlapping period. She was always a great person to visit with, to have fun with and to chat with. She was certainly formidable. It has already been noted that she was a trailblazer. I want to mention…
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Mr. Speaker, it is in the context of the petition from the hon. member for Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke. I would love some guidance from you. I do not think our parliamentary petition process allows a petition itself to accuse UN officials of all being corrupt. I think when presenting a petition, as I understand the rules, we are merely to summarize. I found that distressing, but perhaps it was with…
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Mr. Speaker, I never intended to direct you in what to do. I merely thought that unparliamentary language was raised in the context of a petition and was seeking guidance on that.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I mentioned in my speech that it is unprecedented to take away a Canadian's right to the privacy of mail delivery. The amendments to the Canada Post Corporation Act, which the member mentioned are in part 4, are warrantless, and the threshold is lower. It should be a source of concern to all Canadians that we are creating a law that says we can open mail if we have reason to suspect. …
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Mr. Speaker, if I was not clear, I do not want to get the bill to committee. Let it die here at the end of first reading and fail at second reading. The bill attracts a number of concerns, and there was never any campaign discussion that it was important to deny people the rights that they would ordinarily have to ask for refugee protection in this country. They would be denied those rights withou…
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps it is because I have represented refugees in the past in my work in the private practice of law that I know the laws around the international status of refugee protection. Someone in Canada could have a reasonable expectation that they can stay in this country but then find out they have to leave. Until Bill C-2 passes, the door is open for them to make a claim if they have le…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise here as we resume Parliament to talk to a bill tabled June 3; it is the first time I have had an opportunity to address it in this place. I will not forget this, as I used to practise law myself and practised law on behalf of refugees. I was reading a bill that I understood to be called “the strong borders act” and wondered what all these sections were about changes to the Immi…
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Mr. Speaker, it seems that “elbows up” has been replaced with “chequebooks out”. The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories partnership is primarily U.S. corporations, the private sector, and is involved with the nuclear weapons industry. It has now done a deal with our old friend at SNC-Lavalin, now called AtkinsRéalis, which operates Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Canada is giving them the biggest federa…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to take the floor on an issue of concern. In every one of the community meetings I held since we last met in this place in June, I heard from constituents desperately concerned about the lack of primary health care providers and family doctors, and I know that while this is of particular concern in Saanich—Gulf Islands, it is a concern everywhere. The petitioners call …
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Mr. Speaker, it is my first opportunity to address the new member for North Island—Powell River. The Conservatives, who backed the Liberal measures through May and June, seem to have decided that now is the time to draw the line. I am glad it is on Bill C-2, because Bill C-2 should be completely withdrawn and rethought. I would like to ask the hon. member if he thinks the Conservative Party would …
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Bill C-2 is an omnibus bill that would change multiple pieces of legislation, and it really would not address the issue of strong borders. When we are addressing as many different bills as this bill does, to repeat what I mentioned earlier, we attract the attention of 300 different non-governmental organizations across Canada in a coalition. Groups with very different…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will have a perfect opportunity to hear from experts who have looked at citizenship law. That hypothetical was a little too much like “three people get on the empty bus, five get off, and then three more get on, so my question is, how old is the bus driver?” To answer the hon. member's question, I would like to have sensible, thoughtful discussions in committee. If the…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin my remarks by thanking the hon. member who preceded me. It is one thing for a member to say they have championed the bill, Bill C-3, and repairing the rights for lost Canadians, but as a leader of a different party, I want to say that the hon. member for Vancouver East is absolutely right. She has championed this and championed this and not stepped back for one minute.…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague on her position in this place, representing the government as deputy House leader. It is wonderful to see a member who represents such an important part of Canada, young women, in Parliament. I think it would be very, very wise for all members to reflect on our words. As members of Parliament, I urge them, all of them, regardless of party, to not liste…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend, the member for Rivière-du-Nord. He is right. We definitely have bigger issues to contend with when it comes to immigration. That being said, we still have to deal with Bill C-3. He is also right to say that if former prime minister Justin Trudeau had not decided to prorogue the House, this bill would already be law in Canada. It has been almost a year.…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to welcome back an old friend, and now I just have to learn how to say Ponoka—Didsbury. It also seems to me that the hon. member has brushed with greatness, within his own caucus perhaps, with the change of the riding name, though I do not think the map changed, as he is right next to Battle River—Crowfoot. I would like to return to the question of whether this extend…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, thank you, and to my hon. colleague from Courtenay—Alberni who just preceded me. I am rising, and having travelled through my communities in Saanich—Gulf Islands, I have the great honour to represent the wonderful community of Pender Island and to present this petition while thinking of my friend and constituent Leslie McBain, one of the founders of Moms Stop the Harm. Petitioners fro…
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Mr. Speaker, welcome to the hon. member for Brandon—Souris. There is one thing I probably should have mentioned in my speech, and it hit me as the member was speaking. In this conversation, we are leaving out what will happen if we do not pass Bill C-3 expeditiously. If it is not passed by November 20, the bar on first generation citizenship that was brought in in 2009, which has been found to be …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Madawaska—Restigouche, with its large Acadian community, which also speaks French, as do Quebeckers. I support reforming the Citizenship Act in order to protect the rights of people who have lost their citizenship. However, I would like to propose some amendments. I have a question for my Liberal colleague. Can it be that the Prime Minister ha…
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