Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of concerns for the residents of northern Manitoba. They face many issues, and we should certainly pay attention to the Port of Churchill. There are many things that need to be done, but no one needs to open our mail to protect us from fentanyl. I have talked to the Minister of Justice about this. Many accommodations could be made. Mail, unlike many other objects that may…
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Mr. Speaker, yes, we certainly support the CBSA. We have felt for some time that to the extent that our border was in any way porous, it was not because of the risk of fentanyl coming from Canada into the U.S., as Mr. Trump seems to believe, but rather the opposite. In particular, it is because of other drugs, precursors of other drugs and illegal weapons coming from the U.S. into Canada. CBSA off…
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Madam Speaker, I echo some of the questions the minister has heard from members on the opposite benches about similarities with Bill C-2 and whether Bill C-2 remains as it does on the order of precedence. My question is about RCMP training. It is really critical. I want to know if the Minister of Public Safety has read the report of the Mass Casualty Commission that was compelled after the deaths …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in Adjournment Proceedings this evening. I am pursuing a question that I initially asked on September 26, not that long ago. I raised in the House in question period a really extraordinary experience I had earlier in the week while meeting with very brave Guatemalan indigenous women who had come to Canada to ask for our help in dealing with a Canadian mining co…
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Mr. Speaker, I am hoping no one in the government benches is surprised that I am very disappointed by this. To point to modern legislation and to say we are against slavery, forced labour and child labour is hardly to say that Canada is in the lead. Yes, the same member of Parliament I mentioned before, John McKay, was very involved in bringing forward the legislation against forced labour. So was…
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Mr. Speaker, I would love to dive into some of the refugee questions, but I know the member's knowledge of this place, and I wonder whether she would agree with me that the change from Bill C-2 to Bill C-12 still leaves us with an omnibus bill. The member has chosen to focus on the refugee portions, which I appreciate. I am very concerned about the refugee portions of Bill C-2 and now Bill C-12. T…
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Mr. Speaker, probing the problem that this is an omnibus bill, most of the debate this afternoon on Bill C-12 was related to its immigration and refugee parts, but there are multiple parts on different acts. I am hoping my hon. colleague from Saskatoon West would agree with me that it would be far preferable, given the complexity of immigration and refugee issues, if the bill were to be split apar…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is a honour to rise to raise an issue of deep concern to constituents. Petitioners are writing about the threat to our pollinators. It is a global threat that is here in Canada. The petitioners note that our government is not taking the steps that have been taken in the European Union, which is following the precautionary principle. Those governments and the European Commission hav…
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize to the hon. member that I am going to ask a question that was not raised in her speech, but earlier by members of her party who put things before the House that I would like to challenge a bit. The Darlington project is being touted as proof that the government is bringing economic benefit to Canada, but that project, to build an SMR, a so-called small modular reactor, if …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the proof will be in the pudding on November 4. Will the budget include serious increases to our overseas development assistance? It is not going to be enough to say we are holding steady, because we have been laggards for too long. It is not enough to say we will hold steady on what we do on peacekeeping, because we have not done enough for a very long time, even though peacekeeping …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to pursue a question that I first asked on June 17 of this year. Looking at the reality that we have not had a budget yet, but will see soon, we have been told that we are going to see massive increases in military spending. The point of my question was to ask if we were not aware that geopolitical security does not necessarily come from arming ourselves to the teeth but to pre…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this weekend, eminent Arctic expert Professor Franklyn Griffiths wrote that Canada needs to consider the possibility that the U.S. President will without our permission send American warships through the Northwest Passage as a show of force. He asked a very pertinent question: What will Canada do? He asked whether the Prime Minister would be prepared to start by thanking the Inuit peo…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today is Bike Day on the Hill. In a non-partisan spirit, I will give a shout-out to the former MP in this place who always led bike day, John Weston, who used to represent West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country. I want to pay tribute to the wonderful volunteers in Saanich—Gulf Islands who have worked so hard to make sure we have paths for safe cycling. To Island Pathways on …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today with a petition from the residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands who express concern about the electoral system. They cite a number of statistics on the level of public support across Canada in response to the distorted electoral results that have occurred due to the first-past-the-post voting system. The petitioners favour a form of national citizens' assembly…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am not commenting on the presence or absence of anyone, but, given the numbers of us here, it seems we could listen to a speech without the heckling.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise this afternoon to speak to Bill C‑10. It is also an honour to stop, especially given the content of the legislation, to recognize that we are all on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation. To them, we say meegwetch. We recognize in this country, and it is quite a stunning thing when one starts diving into it, how many nations and l…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for sharing his time. I am honoured to rise today to present a petition. Many parliamentarians here will know that Coalition Canada Basic Income is meeting with many of us today. It is my honour to present on behalf of my constituents a petition that points out the need for a guaranteed livable monthly income so…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, we have some bad habits here. No particular party is to blame. There are five parties here. We are at our best when we work together. What we all need to do right now is ignore campaign sign colours. We just need to consider what is best for everyone. Members should forget their party colours and do what is right.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Mirabel, a member of the Bloc Québécois, is right. There are other problems in his riding, like environmental justice or environmental and toxic threats. I know them well. Bill C‑10 is not the answer to every problem facing indigenous peoples, but it is certainly a vital step in that direction and I would ask all of my colleagues to vote for it.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think my friend from Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes and I have had an across-the-aisle exchange yet. I congratulate him on his re-election. I would ask the member to please reconsider. There are a lot of reasons that those nations in this country, the indigenous nations that form the 26 modern treaties that have been signed and negotiated, have waited too long. The bill before us …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for a very fair question. What I put my belief in is what the people who asked for this think, those who have co-created this proposal, this creation of a commissioner with audit and reporting powers and the ability to push and report to Parliament. It might not be what I would come up with, but who cares? I am a settler member of Parliament, and I wo…
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Mr. Speaker, all I can say is that it is not for me to imagine the attributes. I asked the leaders of the Land Claims Agreements Coalition whether they had been thinking about what attributes the commissioner would have, what kind of person it would be. Yes, they are confident they will be consulted. Yes, they are confident this person will have the kind of wisdom and the attributes that come from…
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Mr. Speaker, I would, again, ask colleagues to consider what we have before us as an opportunity in this country to reimagine ourselves. Canada is the best country in the world, there is no question, but could we not, as the Order of Canada's slogan says, desire a better country? This does not mean somewhere else; this means here. Becoming a better country means facing a legacy of abuse and recogn…
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Mr. Speaker, again, this is a very fair question. No one in the opposition parties is going to say it is a good idea because it belongs to one party or another. If the Conservatives had formed government, I would say the same thing: It could just be something they say they are going to do. With the Liberals there is also a track record. I do not want to make this partisan. All I know is this: I am…
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Mr. Speaker, like my colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, I want to thank the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles for serving our country. I just have one question. Does the Conservative Party currently support passing Bill C-11?
Read full speech →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…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
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 …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
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…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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…
Read full speech →Government Orders
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, 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, 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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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.
Read full speech →Government Orders
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 …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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, 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 …
Read full speech →Government Orders
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…
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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 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 …
Read full speech →Government Orders
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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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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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.
Read full speech →Government Orders
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…
Read full speech →Government Orders
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 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, …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
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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