Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I cannot get over the fact that she said that with a big smile. The reality is that Canadians need reassurance. As far as I know, the minister is an MP duly elected by the people, and she must comply with the rules of the House of Commons. This is an order of the House, and the government must support it. The Prime Minister refused three times. Monday is the moment of truth. Does th…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There are three elements to consider when you make your decision on the question of privilege. First, the member for Carleton respected the rules we have in this House of Commons when he raised his question of privilege two days ago and when he raised it again today, and he will conclude it today. Second, the decision belongs to you and no one else. I know …
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Mr. Speaker, as I ask today's Thursday question, we are entering the final sprint before the summer break. I say “break” because in politics, there are never any real holidays. It is a summer parliamentary break. Here is my question for my counterpart on the government side, the hon. member for Honoré‑Mercier. Can the minister inform Canadians and this House of the parliamentary business we can ex…
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Mr. Speaker, we shall listen to the member who has raised the question of privilege. It is the basis of the House of Commons to respect the will and thinking of each and every member. We could disagree with what the member is saying, but at least we shall listen to him, especially on a privilege question, which is not easy to address; we recognize that. It is so important for the Canadian taxpayer…
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Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise on a question of privilege. I move: That this House find the Public Health Agency of Canada to be in contempt for its failure to obey the Order of the House, adopted on June 2, 2021, as well as the orders of the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations, adopted on March 31 and May 10, 2021, and, accordingly, orders its President to attend at the Bar of the House, at …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to take part in the debate tonight. This is a very important debate that we have to address. We are talking about transparency. We are talking confidence of Canadians in their institutions. We are also talking about the role of the House of Commons and the role of each and every member of this Parliament. We are here because we have received a mandate from our const…
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Mr. Speaker, I pay all my respect to my colleague from Winnipeg North. He has served in his provincial legislature and in the House of Commons for the last 30 years. As a member from Winnipeg, I am sure he was very concerned with what happened a few kilometres away in his riding. I want to address the two points in the question from my colleague. First, the member talked about the committee, but h…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from British Columbia. Again, I am very pleased to commend him on his exceptional French. It is truly impressive and it inspires us all to learn the other official language so that we can speak both official languages. My colleague raises a very good question. Personally, no, I have never seen a situation where national security was the key issue in a decision we …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Shefford. I appreciate the effort she puts into her work here in the House and in her parliamentary duties. She used the phrase, “for all the tea in China”. I, for one, am not going to make offensive parallels, as the government did in referring to xenophobia, for example. Being transparent is important, especially for a government that got elected in 2015 by…
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Madam Speaker, I want to pay all my respects to my colleague from Barrie—Innisfil. I deeply appreciate his work as a member of Parliament for his constituents and for what he believes in and fights for. I can assure him that he is a very important key player in each and every decision we have to make in caucus. This is why we want to address the issue of transparency. Yes, it is important to know …
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Madam Speaker, the answer is in the hands of the clerk. The clerk is the one who will review documents and will realize if there are some lives in danger. However, let me remind members that in 2010, we were talking about a war zone. I do not think Winnipeg is in a war zone, and I hope the army of a foreign country is not there. If it is, for sure we want to go deep into this situation, but I real…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, indeed, I am rising on a question of privilege. I would like to briefly respond to yesterday's intervention by the member for Kingston and the Islands. His intervention was in response to the question of privilege I raised in the House on June 7, which made reference to the fact that the Public Health Agency of Canada did not comply with the order of the House of June 2 to turn over c…
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Mr. Speaker, without getting into the finer details, I will say that I preferred to use up my time rather than that of other parliamentarians. Indeed, the debate we were invited to take part in today on the motion moved by the Bloc Québécois deserves to be appreciated in all its splendour and all its legitimacy. That is why, as a Quebec member and as a Canadian member in the House of Commons, I am…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, unfortunately, for the second time in only a few days, the government will shut down debate to keep parliamentarians, the elected representatives of the people, from doing their job and participating in a fair and balanced debate where every point of view can be properly heard. Once again, as it did with Bill C‑10, the government is shutting down debate on Bill C‑30, an act to imple…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party created the “Liberalist”. What is the “Liberalist”? It is the list of Liberal Party members, supporters, volunteers and donors. I have no problem with that, but there is a difference between the Liberal Party of Canada and the Government of Canada. I have a simple question for the Minister of Justice: Did he or anyone from his office or anyone from the Department of …
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Mr. Speaker, really, how sad to see the Minister of Justice, a man with a distinguished judicial career, play partisan games and unfortunately be unable to respond to a clear question. Did he, yes or no, consult the Liberalist? The answer is clear, and it is “yes”. However, he lacks the courage, the honour and the dignity to say so. The Liberal Party has two lists, the list of their cronies and th…
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Mr. Speaker, every day for weeks now we have been asking the government about the unfortunate events at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. The government's response is always the same. Unfortunately, the Liberals call us racist, and yesterday they accused us of being conspiracy theorists. This only confirms that insult is the weapon of the weak. On CBC yesterday, two experts acknowl…
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Mr. Speaker, the fact is that this Liberal government committee is a secret committee where no one can say anything. More than anyone, the Prime Minister seems to have the final say. It is not a parliamentary committee, it is a committee of parliamentarians created by the Liberal government. We actually voted against it when it was first created, precisely because it lacks transparency. The best w…
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Mr. Speaker, these are the facts. What happened in Winnipeg? First, two researchers were removed and escorted by the RCMP. Security clearance was given to a researcher with direct ties to the Chinese military. Two senior laboratory managers suddenly quit their jobs. In addition, two viruses were shipped from Winnipeg to Wuhan. These are important issues and we need to get the whole truth, not from…
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Mr. Speaker, could my ministerial counterpart, the hon. minister and member for Honoré-Mercier, inform the House what business lies ahead in the coming days?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, what happened between the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and the Chinese laboratory in Wuhan is an extremely serious matter. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister is doing whatever he wants. The House of Commons adopted an order last week calling on the government to table relevant documents. It is not a wish or a desire; it is an order. Once again, the Prime Minister thinks…
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Mr. Speaker, no, an order of the House of Commons is not nonsense. What happened in Winnipeg and Wuhan is not nonsense. That is why we must get to the bottom of the matter. The Prime Minister talks about his committee of parliamentarians, but his committee of parliamentarians is in his hands. It is the Prime Minister himself who gets to decide whether or not certain aspects will be made public. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of ignorance, the Prime Minister does not even realize that the members of his committee cannot talk. He is telling us to talk to our parliamentary colleagues on this committee, but we cannot. The Prime Minister himself does not even know that. He does not know what he is talking about. We are serious about this, and Canadians are too. They want to know the truth. Why is the …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the chief whip of the official opposition in the House of Commons. Let us be clear from the start. We have no problem with extending work hours at this time of the year, as in fact our standing orders provide. However, we are extremely concerned about the motion introduced by the government and voted on a few momen…
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Madam Speaker, let me go back to Friday morning. There was talk of time allocation for a bill that is attacking the free speech of the people. It is very concerning to see that the government is attacking free speech with Bill C-10 and also using the tool of time allocation on that bill. It was a big surprise, because the Conservative member who sits at that committee tabled an amendment to get ba…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I completely agree with what the whip of the second opposition party just pointed out, and rightly so. What we are seeing right now is that they are going to significantly extend our work time in the House. Again, we are not against increasing the amount of time that we work, speak and debate in the House of Commons, but we need to strike a balance with the other committees. My coll…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my New Democrat friend from B.C. for his excellent French. I agree with the member that, unfortunately, the government is in charge of managing parliamentary business and has failed miserably at the task.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I would simply like to clarify something for my colleague, who was wondering if we would be tabling the documents. Obviously, we are in the 21st century. We can table some documents with the virtual process.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, what happened a few months ago and a few years ago at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is very important and very serious for our national security. That is why, last week, the House voted for an order to be issued to the government for the essential documents, so that we can find out exactly what happened. Unfortunately, the government refused once again and instead s…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister knows full well that this committee, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, is not a parliamentary committee per se. It is the Prime Minister's own committee, because at the end of the day, the Prime Minister is the one who will decide whether it suits him to release the documents. At the end of the day, he is the one who will decide whether…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, since coming to power, the government keeps saying over and over again that committees are independent and the government can never interfere with a committee. This government motion means that it recognizes the existence of the standing order that has been used on three occasions. The government is using its power to interfere directly in the work of committees, although it keeps say…
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Mr. Speaker, the best way to restart the economy is to get Canadians back to work. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening. Last Friday, we found out that 68,000 people did not have the job they hoped to have. That is 68,000 jobs lost. That is three times more than projected. What is the government's plan to get Canadians back to work?
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about work and returning to work. Canadians want to earn a paycheque, but that is not what is happening. In the United States, 500,000 new jobs have been created, but almost 300,000 jobs were lost in Canada during roughly the same period. The employment rate is 3% lower than before the pandemic because of government measures forcing thousands of Canadians to stay home r…
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Madam Speaker, this is a question of privilege. Following my one-hour notice under Standing Order 48 concerning the report that you gave the House earlier today, the government has not complied with the order of the House adopted last Wednesday, June 2. This is a disappointing and troubling state of affairs that undermines our Parliament: one of the world's oldest continuously functioning democrat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, you are absolutely right. I thank my hard-working colleague from Kingston and the Islands, and I must say how impressed I am by his outstanding participation these past few months. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the interpreters, who work under such difficult conditions. Earlier, my colleague from Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup poi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I remind my colleagues that I was sharing a quote from Bosc and Gagnon. I will continue with my quote: These types of situations have absolutely no bearing on the power of committees to order the production of papers and records. No statute or practice diminishes the fullness of that power rooted in House privileges unless there is an explicit legal provision to that effect, or unle…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the leader of the NDP for his speech and for proposing, on behalf of his party, that a day of debate be held regarding the residential schools tragedy. Like many members of the House, my riding is home to an indigenous community that I am very proud to represent here in the House, the Wendake community. Beyond that, this is an issue that affects all Canadians. Al…
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Mr. Speaker, all of us on this side of the House acknowledge that asking questions about Communist China and the pandemic is very unpleasant but absolutely essential. Last week, when we asked the Prime Minister questions about this issue, he called us racist. It is disgraceful for a prime minister to act that way. The very next day, the President of the United States decided to launch an investiga…
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Mr. Speaker, it would be nice if the Prime Minister could answer some difficult but necessary questions concerning what happened at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. A researcher with ties to the Chinese People's Liberation Army was given a Canadian security clearance and worked at this laboratory. Two deadly viruses were shipped from Winnipeg to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in …
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Mr. Speaker, it is curious to hear the Prime Minister say that he cannot talk about this case because the two people lost their jobs at the lab in Winnipeg, when that is exactly why we are asking questions. We want to know why those people were expelled and escorted out by the RCMP. These are sensitive issues, but they are essential. I will ask my question again. Could the Prime Minister at least …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this debate today and to share my time with the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, who just demonstrated the importance of today's debate. We are also here today to talk about national security and access to information, access to evidence and documents that are very relevant to today's public debate. We are also going to talk about our work as MPs an…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie for his very pertinent question. Yes, we want access to the documents, but we do not want to jeopardize national security or the lives of people involved in this matter. That is why my colleague, who moved the motion, mentioned earlier that Speaker Milliken ruled in 2010 to allow the committee and parliamentarians to have access to…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to answer the question from my colleague, who was elected a year and a half ago in a British Columbia riding. I very much appreciate her hard work. I can assure members that she is doing a great job and working very hard on behalf of her constituents. What we have seen since 2015 is a government that is saying one thing and doing different things, especially when w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, again, I want to say that I respect my colleague from Manitoba, who was elected a year and a half ago. He is doing a tremendously good job in the House of Commons, in his riding and, I can say, in our caucus. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister is so naive. However, we also have to remind everybody that the Prime Minister, when he was the opposition party leader, said that he had grea…
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Mr. Speaker, you were right to call me to order. I will be more careful next time. You mentioned earlier in response to our colleague from Kingston and the Islands that we were having connection problems and that the connection was not good. Technically, the connection is working fine here in the House of Commons.
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Mr. Speaker, I also rise on a point of order. I would like to start by pointing out that the current Prime Minister was exactly six months old at the time the member for Châteauguay—Lacolle was referring to when she talked about his father. We all recognize that we are at the beginning of June and in the last stretch of this session. We all recognize there are some serious and concerning issues fo…
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Mr. Speaker, all Canadians are shocked by the tragedy that occurred in Kamloops, where the bodies of 215 indigenous children were found in a mass grave near the residential school they attended. This shocking discovery will not soon be forgotten. The horror is indescribable. The children were not even given a proper burial. British Columbia indigenous leaders want the children to be identified and…
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Mr. Speaker, it has been six years since Canada and the United States had an actual softwood lumber agreement. For the past four years under the previous U.S. administration, relations were somewhat difficult, to say the least. That is understandable. When President Biden was elected, the Prime Minister was all happy and enthusiastic that Canada now had an ally. Nonetheless, what did the Canadian …
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Madam Speaker, we understand very well that sometimes there are technical problems. We respect that but would remind members that there are never any technical problems in the House. The government was free to choose another person to answer the question and had the time to do so. Sometimes, a member asks a question directly to a minister and someone else answers. We may not like that, but the gov…
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Mr. Speaker, today is Thursday, and as per tradition, I invite my ministerial counterpart, the hon. minister and member for Honoré-Mercier, to share with us what Parliament can expect to be working on in the coming days.
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