Evan Solomon

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his advocacy and his great work. Our AI for all strategy is based on three pillars: trust, opportunity and sovereign control. To trust, young Canadians need to know how to use AI, and they need to create the opportunities to use it safely. That is why I am so happy to announce that we have launched Canada's AI essentials national literacy program for students and educators, a free bilingual program for students across the country. I urge students and teachers to use it. We are building strong, building right and building Canadian.

Mr. Speaker, in the middle of this very difficult trade war, we are supporting Canadians and we are fighting for affordability. That is why we cut taxes for 22 million Canadians. That is why we have the groceries and essentials benefit: to make sure that families in my riding and in the member's riding have an affordable way to feed their families. That is why we are building affordable homes. What we are doing is making sure that Canadians have an affordable way to live in a difficult time. We will always support Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, it is confusing to us on this side how, every day, the members of the opposition party vote against every support for Canadians, yet they raise the issue. This month, Canadians will get the groceries and essentials benefit. The Conservatives voted against it. We are taking action against surveillance pricing to stop price gouging. How could they help people do that? They could support the bill. What are they doing? They are not doing it. For a change, I suggest they try supporting some of the measures to help Canadians instead of just talking down the economy.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for her hard work representing her riding. Our AI strategy for all is about trust, opportunity and sovereign control. The first pillar is all about trust: a promise to protect our kids, to protect privacy and to protect our citizens' personal information. The protecting privacy and consumer data act would do just that. We would give citizens the rights to deletion and to take down harmful deepfakes. We would act against surveillance pricing to stop price gouging. We would treat children's information as sensitive. It is common sense. Canadians want it. The Privacy Commissioner supports—

Mr. Speaker, we are very proud to have tabled legislation that would protect children, privacy and personal information and give us the opportunity to finally act against surveillance pricing and price gouging, making sure that Canadians have an affordable life. We are doing that with a regulator that will enforce that. This practice has been praised by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which said it is very pleased that this represents “a pivotal step for privacy in Canada” and “I welcome the proposals to recognize privacy as a fundamental right, an explicit recognition of the best interests of children, requirements to conduct—

Mr. Speaker, I would really like to thank the member for Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas for his incredible advocacy on behalf of his community. Our new national AI strategy, AI for all, is building trust, creating opportunity and keeping sovereign control. We are creating a national AI literacy program so all Canadians can build a literate and educated workforce. We are creating 90,000 job placements for young Canadians so they can get the job experience they need. We are also investing in Canadian innovators, small and medium-sized businesses, to keep the jobs, the innovation and the business—

Mr. Speaker, instead of tearing down this country, which the Conservatives do, or counting airline miles, they should help build it up. The May jobs report showed that Canada created 88,000 new net jobs. Do they mention that? No. Our trade surplus is up 55%. Do they mention it? No. Our total exports are at a record high. Do they mention it? No. When we have a groceries and essentials benefit to help Canadians, do they vote for it? No. Why do they not get on board and help build up Canada?

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-36, An Act to enact the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act, to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and to make amendments to other Acts. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time tonight. I am pleased to rise today to speak to the message from the Senate concerning Bill C-9, the combatting hate act. At the outset, I would like to thank all who have contributed to the development and the study of the legislation: the Minister of Justice, the members of the House and Senate from all parties who participated in the debate, witnesses who appeared before committee, community organizations, faith leaders, legal experts, advocates and Canadians who shared their experiences and perspectives throughout this process. Today we are considering a message from the Senate that includes an amendment to Bill C-9. Our government supports this amendment. I will speak to that shortly. I think we should remember first why the legislation was introduced in the first place. At its core, Bill C-9 is about basic things: protecting all Canadians from hate and making sure that every Canadian has the right to worship in safety, to gather at their community centre in safety, to go to a summer camp that is a religious camp in safety, and to be who they want to be and to worship whom they want in safety. This is a diverse country. In my riding of Toronto Centre, there are people of every different faith and people of different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, identities and beliefs, just as there are living together in communities across our nation, and that diversity is to be celebrated. That diversity is our great strength. It strengthens our communities, our economies, our values and our openness. That inclusion is part of who we are, but we have to be candid about what is happening. We have seen a startling crisis of hate, specifically a disproportionate and vicious rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the last two years, specifically targeting the Jewish community, but also all forms of hate. We should name them, and one does not diminish the pain of the other by naming anti-Semitism, by naming Islamophobia, by naming homophobia or by naming anti-Black racism. This does not diminish one or the other or group them together. What it does is identify groups, individuals and families who are experiencing disproportionate hate. Across the country, Canadians are witnessing these attacks against places of worship, threats directed at religious and cultural communities, acts of intimidation, hateful demonstrations and targeted harassment against individuals. The synagogue where I was raised, where I was bar mitzvahed and where I was confirmed, Temple Emanu-el, was shot with 20 bullets through the glass front doors, where I entered and so many families to this day enter in peace. There were people inside. Thank God no one was hurt. In so many synagogues across the country, this is happening. We know this, and it is one of the key reasons for Bill C-9. It is so sad that it is necessary for us to do this in Canada, but it is, and it is for the people who are directly affected. I have spoken to them. I know them. They are members of my own family. These incidents are not simply statistics. People are fearful. They have anxiety. They ask us, as a government, what we are going to do to protect them. They feel vulnerable. They want legislation to protect their community centres, their schools and their places of worship, and we need to make sure not just that they are heard but also that we act on that. That is what the bill is about, because no Canadian needs to live in fear. No Canadian should be intimidated when they are attending a synagogue, a mosque, a church, a temple, a community centre or a cultural gathering where people practice their faith or celebrate their heritage. I was recently in Quebec City with colleagues, and we went to the mosque that was shot up. We met two survivors. They had bullets still in their bodies. They remember that tragic act of Islamophobia, and they live with those wounds. Today it is anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, and that time it was Islamophobic attacks. Sometimes there have been attacks on the 2SLGBTQ community. Just recently it was the moment to mark the anniversary of what happened in the club where so many members of that community were massacred. Bill C-9 responds to these tragic realities. The legislation would create new, important tools within the Criminal Code to address hate-motivated conduct and better protect communities and better protect people, families and kids who are being targeted when they just want to live their life in this great country of ours. Among the measures, the bill would create new offences aimed at preventing the obstruction of access to places primarily used by an identifiable group and preventing intimidation of individuals seeking to access those spaces. If we go to a synagogue today, there are police cars around it.

Mr. Speaker, members of the opposition are chirping about that, but they can come to the synagogue where I was and try chirping, because we are there, there is fear and this bill would stop it. This is not a slogan and this is not something to be divided on and try to score points about. This is about supporting a bill that would protect people and prevent this kind of fear and intimidation. The bill would create new hate-motivated offences that could be applied when a criminal offence is committed that is motivated by hate towards an identifiable group. This reflects the sad reality that hate-motivated crimes do not only harm individual victims; they send a message to the entire community. They create fear, they create intimidation and they create communities that feel targeted. When someone commits a crime motivated by hatred towards a religious group, an ethnic community or another identifiable group, the impact extends beyond the single victim. Bill C-9 recognizes that reality and would ensure that our criminal law reflects the broader harm that hate-motivated crimes can cause. This legislation also addresses the public display of hate symbols used to promote hate, such as the symbols of listed terrorist organizations. These symbols have long been associated with terror and intimidation, persecution and discrimination, and they have been used throughout history to threaten, terrorize and dehumanize. On the purpose of the legislation, let us be clear, and let us not twist it to score a political point. I know that my hon. colleagues in the opposition, in good faith, want to protect Canadians like everyone else. This is not about regulating legitimate debate or limiting legitimate debate. This is not about limiting political disagreement. In fact, we protect that every single day. This is not about limiting academic discussion or religious expression. That is protected. Religious freedom is protected under section 2 of the charter. Canadians remain free to express those views, to disagree with one another and to engage in public discourse. Rather, this legislation is focused on conduct that promotes hatred and seeks to intimidate or target communities, and these are important. The Senate has proposed an amendment to include the noose among the hate symbols captured by legislation. We support this amendment, because at the heart of this, it is not about limiting religious freedoms. We have a protected charter right to practise sincere religious beliefs, but not to invoke hate or incite violence, and the right to be protected in any forum where one is inciting hatred or promoting violence against another identifiable group. Bill C-9 is necessary. Bill C-9 is urgent to protect our citizens, to protect our communities and to protect our schools, and to do it in a very specific manner and a very targeted way so that it does not limit freedom of expression or religious expression, but rather protects communities that are feeling threatened. My hon. colleagues from the opposition say they want to protect all communities. This is their chance to act on it in an expeditious way.

Mr. Speaker, we should use common sense here. The bill is not just words; it would be a law. This is the most important thing that a government can do, which is to very seriously look at the law and change it to secure citizens where they worship and go to school. On the display of hate symbols, there is a new category as well. This would give police guidance when there is obstruction and intimidation in front of schools, universities, community centres and places of worship. The hon. member knows these are not just mere words. This would be the law.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his work bringing communities together and keeping them safe. This is an extremely important time for us to have a thorough and fair debate about how we are protecting communities, but it is not the time to invoke more division. It is not the time to stand in the way of the protection laws that the leaders of these communities and the opposition are purporting they want to protect. Bill C-9 is the very thing that communities are asking for, which is laws that protect them and their places of worship and that give police guidelines on how they should protect these communities. This is not the time for more division or to divide one Canadian against another with false ideas of what the bill would do. The bill is clear. It would protect not only freedom of religion but also communities. It is time to vote to protect communities and listen to the community leaders.

Mr. Speaker, it is always good to hear from my hon. friend in the opposition, who I know has spent a lot of time thinking about the line between security and civil liberties, and the very reason for this chamber is so we can have robust debates about finding exactly where that line is. Sadly, for communities today, for Jews in synagogues, for Muslims in mosques, for the 2SLGBTQ community, too often they are not being protected. We need new laws to do that, laws that are well crafted to protect liberties and protect people.

Mr. Speaker, every single day the opposition plays the same song, gleefully running down our economy instead of building it up, instead of pointing out the 88,000 new jobs created in the May report, that the trade surplus is up 55%, the highest in 15 months, and that total exports reached a record high. That is not leadership. We are building this country. We are investing in this country. We are supporting our workers. The Conservatives should give it a try.

Mr. Speaker, it would be a little more plausible that the opposition party cared about workers and cared about investment if it did not oppose every investment and every support for workers and for families. The Conservatives oppose dental care. They oppose affordable housing. They oppose investment in their own communities. We invest in Laval Tool and Mould, and they oppose. We invest in Jahn Engineering, and they oppose. We invest in Post Packaging, and they oppose. Instead of opposing support, boosts and investment, they should get on board and start building.

Mr. Speaker, instead of gleefully running down the economy, which the opposition does every day, those members should help us build it up. They do not like to point out that 88,000 new jobs were created, as said in the May report. They do not like to point out that wages have grown faster than inflation every month since we took office. They do not like to point out that rents are down 9%. In Windsor, when we invest in Central Stampings and when we invest in Unique Tool & Gauge, which we have done, the Conservatives oppose investing in their own communities. They should get with the program and build this country up together.

Mr. Speaker, there is a dangerous and serious crisis of anti-Semitism, and all the opposition can do is drive more division in the country when we do not need it most. The very synagogue where I was bar-mitzvahed was shot with 20 bullets. We do not need lessons from the opposition as to the seriousness. That is why it is a shame that the opposition opposed our anti-hate bill to protect campuses, places of worship and community centres from this scourge of anti-Semitism. They should stop the divisive rhetoric, join us and protect all Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, like all Canadians, I was proud to stand with the Prime Minister yesterday as he named the dangerous scourge of anti-Semitism. He took action, and not with divisive rhetoric. We have an anti-hate bill that will protect our places of worship, campuses and community centres. We have put money into protecting synagogues and camps. Instead of stoking division, and instead of the hollow rhetoric, the opposition should stand with us, protect Jews who are facing unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism and take some action.

Mr. Speaker, I respect the hon. member, but I am surprised that the opposition continues to run down auto workers and this sector in the midst of a trade war. We just put forward $1.5 billion to support the sector with steel, aluminum and copper, as well as auto workers. The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters said this is “a constructive step to help manufacturers and exporters manage through a period of significant economic uncertainty.” The Canadian Steel Producers Association said it is “essential to help pivot and realign our businesses to ensure our long-term competitiveness as we navigate this...trade war.”

Mr. Speaker, speaking of credit, we have the best credit rating in the world. Wages have grown twice as fast as inflation. What would the opposition cut? For example, would they cut support for our workers? Just today, we have invested $1 billion to support the steel, aluminum and copper industries hit by a trade war that the Conservatives deny, with another $500 million for good jobs, like at Beau-Roc, where they are building with steel. Would these guys cut support for those industries? You can ask them, Mr. Speaker.