Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is too bad. I would love to have heard him talk about pensions. It is really too bad. I feel really let down about his not talking about pensions, but members need not worry, because I will take it up. At the end of the day, I am looking directly at the member, and if he wants to tell me how roughly $700, $800, $900 or $1,000 a month goes just to pensions, I am all ears, because …
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Mr. Speaker, I heard the member speak recently, after the whole Michael Geist thing, so it is really good to have him here, intervening on a really dubious point of order. In any event, we have a government that is prepared to forsake a number of Canadian jobs. Those Canadian jobs, when it comes to LNG, could have gone to Canada. Instead, they went to Qatar. When we talk about trust, we talk about…
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we did not preside over the doubling of house prices in Canada. We did not preside over the doubling of the national debt after saying we would not do that. We are the party that lowered the GST. Millennials, and other people, could actually afford a house under Conservatives. They cannot afford a house now under the Liberal government, which is propped up b…
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Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to, if he would like. I would be happy to table the letter. If the hon. parliamentary secretary wants to doubt that seniors are writing to me saying they cannot afford things, shame on him.
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Mr. Speaker, well, how much Liberal spending preceded that GST? If we want to go back to 1988 or 1993, that is absolutely fine. With all due respect, obviously, I was not here in that period of time but I am happy to answer the question. The reality is this: I am very proud that we lowered the GST—
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Mr. Speaker, I would love the answer the hon. member's question if he would just stop shouting over me. I really would. I believe in prudent financial spending. If I had my way, we would not be spending such astronomical figures that we actually need the GST. The reality is that the government must have the GST because it is spending so much, and that is being spent on the backs on our children, o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, recent statistics tell us that the Liberal soft-on-crime approach has failed. People in my community are tired of being victimized. They are afraid to walk alone at night. They are afraid for their children. They should be worried. Gang-related homicides are up 92%, and the Liberal government's reaction is house arrest for violent gun criminals. When will the Liberal government realiz…
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Mr. Speaker, is there “no threat to public safety” from people who do drive-by shootings, who can now serve their sentences on house arrest? I do not think so. The Liberals have taken a sledgehammer to 20 years of reductions in violent crime. Homicides are up and violent crime is up, but one thing, if the Liberal government has a say, will be down, and that is sentencing for gun crimes. When will …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, in only seven years, the Liberal government has broken our justice system. Nearly 20 years of decreases in violent crime have evaporated under the government. Canada's homicide rate is now worse than at any time since the mid-2000s. There has been a 92% increase in gang-related homicides since 2015, yet the government continues to relax punishments against violent offenders. As we all…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound raises a point that really should be prominent and is salient in this discussion. The efficiency of the justice system should be sacrosanct, because, in my view, we should have been making the mandatory minimums that have been struck down constitutionally compliant. On the one hand, we may have people who say that we need a lot more mandatory mi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague in the House, and on the justice committee, from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke for his question. I do not know if it is set provincially or nationally, but I think it is two figures that a juror gets paid for the day. In my experience, the desire to serve on a jury is directly related to an occupation, and that is why we see so many people who are retired on juries. Let…
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that I really noticed when we spoke about access to justice is video conferencing. The fact is that there are provisions for a child who has been victimized to appear by video. There is this idea, and it is propagated and in my view has no merit, that a trial judge cannot evaluate credibility when a person is appearing by video. It is often said that a person cannot appear b…
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Mr. Speaker, this is an important question. With all candour, disclosure needs to be started from the bottom up. This bill is very discrete in what it would deal with, whether it be video appearances or things like that, but let us just take the impaired driving end of things. There is so much paperwork that could be generated on just an impaired driving charge. It would almost be inappropriate fo…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec has some good lawyers as well. There are good lawyers everywhere. We will just leave that aside for now. The importance of fingerprinting is not actually that well known, but it is very important. This is something that must be modernized. Moving to the substance of the act, judicial systems have massive backlogs. I believe a few years ago the maximum time to lay a summary conv…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people in Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I am mindful of the fact that I cannot point out people in the gallery, even if three of them 11 and under bear a striking resemblance to me. Today we are discussing Bill S-4. Bill S-4 is an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Identification of Criminals Act and to make related amendments to other…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary spoke about efficiency. Where we probably see the greatest inefficiency is when it comes to bail. In my province of British Columbia, people have termed it “catch and release”. These are people who are not necessarily going to be law, order and justice types of people, but business owners and constituents are repeatedly telling me that this has become …
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. From what I can see, the bill addresses a number of outdated inquiries. It obviously would have been best if some of these matters could have been addressed, as my colleague from the NDP mentioned, somewhat earlier. One question I have, which I may touch on a little later, relates to preliminary inqu…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if “more” is being picked up in Hansard, but I do appreciate that exhortation to speak more about this. We, as Conservatives, will always fight for a just and appropriate system, not a legal system but a justice system. I hope every single person in the House wants a system that is just and appropriate. I am mindful of the fact that we may disagree on some points, but th…
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Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the member for Winnipeg North and the member for Kingston and the Islands would love to hear me speak more about this.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. One of the things my hon. colleague laid out quite well is the difficulty peace officers go through and the current climate that RCMP, CBSA and all peace officers are operating within. This is a time when there have likely never been as many illegal guns on the streets of Canada as there are today,…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Today, we are here debating Bill C-20, an act that would establish the public complaints and review commission and amend certain acts and statutory instruments. First, I want to recognize a first-year law student at Thompson Rivers University where I used to teach. I want to thank Najib Rahall, who i…
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Mr. Speaker, that was a very thoughtful question. When I was a very young man with a beautiful full head of hair, and it is true that it was there, I was actually a peace officer myself. I remember the pressure as a frontline peace officer at that time. My hon. colleague's question was about the message we are sending. I certainly cannot speak to what message will be received. I can only speak to …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of something we have in my riding. It is called Car 40. I am not sure if it is unique to the Kamloops RCMP or not. Car 40 pairs a police officer with a mental health nurse, and they respond to mental health-related calls. I said earlier that police are expected to do more with fewer resources. I do not think I am speaking out of turn here by saying that we have seen a …
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague on her new role within her party. I am indebted to all forms of law enforcement. Some are obviously closer to us physically than others. The Parliamentary Protective Service officers are close to us. We walk by them literally every day, sometimes without giving a second thought to the protection, security and oversight they provide us not only so we ca…
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Mr. Speaker, obviously I cannot get into the heads of the government members. If I could, this place would maybe run a bit more efficiently, from our perspective. The reality is that I am not sure why the government took as long as it did. To me, when we are looking at legislation and how much time it takes, and also when it is tabled, it speaks to governmental priorities. In this case, with this …
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We all heard it. I would just ask that this member apologize.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I am just going to relate my question to the previous comment from the NDP, where he talked about people who are gang members poisoning our people with drugs. I wonder if my hon. colleague would comment on the fact that the NDP is similarly, at the same time, lowering sentences for people who are d…
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, and I will take the member up on this opportunity. The reality is that I would not want to be a police officer today given the proliferation of illegal firearms on the streets. I would be worried about that, yet the government has done nothing to protect peace officers in that situation. Can he com…
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. To my hon. colleague, as I understand it, this bill was first proposed in the 42nd Parliament and reintroduced in the 43rd Parliament. Here we are about 14 or 15 months after the last election. I wonder if the lag in the amount of time the government has had to put this bill forward, which was prev…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to stand on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Standing here, for me, is a bit of a dream. As my colleague for North Okanagan—Shuswap mentioned, this is a bill that I drafted. As I stood behind him when he was speaking, I was moved because two years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be sitting behind him in the House of Commons or standing…
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Madam Speaker, democracy, for the Liberal government, is proving just too inconvenient. That is what we are debating here today. Why can we not have committees? Why can we not do things during the normal allotted sitting hours in a constitutionally compliant manner? It is the Liberals who are the first to complain about the use of section 33 of the charter, yet here they are now, taking these acti…
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Madam Speaker, I am listening. It is true. That is exactly what they are saying—
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a question of relevance. What does Doug Ford's use of the Constitution Act have to do with anything?
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I am astounded at what I am hearing here. Committees are integral to what we do here. What I am hearing from the government House leader is that democracy is just too inconvenient right now for them.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I listened to my colleague's speech in which he spoke about climate change. What he did not speak about is affordability. I understand that we certainly do need to recognize climate change, and I look forward to my party leader's plan, which I know will inspire confidence among all Conservatives and …
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With regard to the light armoured vehicles (LAV) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF): (a) what is the total number of LAV3 Kodiak that the CAF has which are (i) operational or in service, (ii) decommissioned, (iii) other, broken down by status; (b) what is the breakdown of where the LAV3 Kodiak are located; and (c) for each of the LAV3 Kodiak that have been decommissioned, (i) when was it decommis…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition calls on the government to immediately revoke the permit to return the sanctioned Nord Stream 1 turbines to Russia via Germany, and to enact further economic sanctions on Russia as deemed feasible and desirable.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I have two petitions to table before the House today. The first concerns a situation that is close to my heart. It relates to street crime. The people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, particularly people who are residents in downtown Kamloops, call for this chamber to legislatively respond to recent dec…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Mr. Manny Jules, a community member and incredibly distinguished leader. He has dedicated his life to public service and the economic and social advancement of indigenous peoples across Canada. Mr. Jules served as Kukpi7, or chief, of Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc for 16 years, and in 1988 led the amendment to the Indian Act so that first nations could levy taxes on …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the remarkable career of outgoing mayor Ken Christian on his last day as mayor of Kamloops. Mayor Christian’s public life began 29 years ago. Back then, Kamloops was preparing to host the Canada Summer Games, the population was much lower, and this face had not yet seen a razor. Ken began his career on the Kamloops-Thompson school board. After serving for 18 year…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Here we are today talking about accountability. I wonder if my hon. colleague could comment on the lack of accountability we have seen when it comes to a hotel room that cost somewhere between $6,000 and $7,200. We are having a discussion on the $54 million that was spent, and that is a big sum of m…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I want to pick up on what my colleague from Fundy Royal asked the hon. Minister of Justice and Attorney General. He was talking about the decision with respect to parole ineligibility and whether that should be consecutive or concurrent at 25 years. The Minister of Justice, from what I could surmise,…
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Mr. Speaker, these serious consequences would be to serve house arrest while playing video games for discharging a firearm illegally. That is not a serious consequence. The Minister of Justice has permitted a catch-and-release justice system. Businesses are closing down, and people in my riding of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo are afraid to walk downtown in certain pockets, even in the daytime. We eve…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, our system of bail in Canada is broken. It is just not working. This government's failure to address Supreme Court of Canada decisions has created a catch-and-release system. This complaint is heard throughout Canada and in my home riding of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. Random attacks have become a prominent issue in cities like Vancouver and Toronto. Shockingly, the violent crime sever…
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I have grave concerns. The government cannot deliver a $57 passport. How is it going to deliver a $10-billion dental care program? I want to put that aside, though, and build on the question from my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable and my colleague from Regina—Lewvan because we have not heard an an…
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I want to thank my colleague for the passion with which he conveys his points in the House. He spoke about transparency, and that is very important because, on the one hand, the Minister of Health was asked a question three times about whether the provinces asked for it. He did not answer it. On t…
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How is the NDP in B.C. doing it, then?
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Mr. Speaker, now the member for Kingston and the Islands is justifying what he is doing. That is not relevant to the bill at hand. He should be sticking to what is relevant.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. My colleague made a point about leadership and people listening to leaders. A motion was put forward in this very House yesterday, on which we should all have shown leadership, with respect to declaring an organization as a criminal or terrorist organization. That was shot down and given a nay by the…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-299, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (life imprisonment). Madam Speaker, it an honour to stand here on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo—
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