Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, freedom of expression and freedom of religion are fundamental rights. However, we have collectively agreed that freedom of expression cannot extend to the offence of promoting hatred. These are not trivial matters, differences of opinion or insults. Promoting hatred is no trivial matter. The issue here is eliminating the religious exemption in the Criminal Code for this offence. That …
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Mr. Speaker, we are currently witnessing a spike in hateful acts and hate speech. Promoting hate is a criminal offence. The first groups targeted by hate speech and hateful acts are members of the Jewish faith followed by members of the Muslim faith. In October 2024, preacher Adil Charkaoui called for the death of Jews in a prayer he gave at a protest. Under the Criminal Code, this constitutes the…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the House that the offence of promoting hatred involves publicly communicating with the wilful intent to target a group. I would like to hear my honourable colleague's thoughts on that.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my friend from Repentigny. Today's debate makes me think of Back to the Future, a movie that was popular when I was a kid. The characters used a car to go back to the 1960s. A few years later, Hollywood came out with Back to the Future Part II. The movie was no good, but at least they thought of using a car to propel themselves into the future. That is n…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec no longer has any automobile manufacturing. There was a plant that made Camaros in Laval's north end a few decades ago. When that closed, Jean Chrétien decided to abandon that industry on the pretext that auto manufacturing belonged to Ontario. The Liberal legacy lives on. I recognize that these are very important jobs and that this is a very important industry for Ontario. I w…
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Mr. Speaker, what we need to do is seize this crisis as an opportunity to modernize by adopting the next-generation economic model adopted by Europe and most of the rest of the world, with the exception of Donald Trump's United States and, unfortunately, our own country under our government's excessively timid measures. We must accelerate transportation electrification. One of the most promising w…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague for his remarks. I could not agree with him more. The entire transportation electrification industry brings into focus one fundamental principle, which is predictability. While the transition to the electrification of transportation is under way in Europe, China, and everywhere else in the world other than the United States and Canada under this governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague on his speech. Times of crisis are known to bring about rapid change and opportunities for growth. We saw this during the first oil shock in 1973, which led to the rise of more fuel-efficient vehicles, such as the Japanese cars that are still on the roads today. In 1979, the second oil shock left Chrysler and American Motors bankrupt. We are probably going throu…
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Mr. Speaker, why do they want to put an end to transportation electrification when every country in the world, except the United States, is working toward that? Also, as another member just said, would we not just be playing into Donald Trump's hands by reinstating the 1960s auto pact?
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Mr. Speaker, I have two questions for my hon. colleague. First, does she agree that the main problem with regard to asylum claims is the processing time, which is currently more than 40 months? Let us look at Europe, for example, which is dealing with waves of migration and where officials have made a significant effort to reduce processing times. In France, the processing time is six months, and …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her compassionate speech. My question has to do with a point that she raised in her speech and in her response to the government, and that is the atrocious processing times for claims. We are currently talking about roughly 40 months, whereas some European countries that are also facing waves of migration have implemented measures to speed up the process. In F…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his insightful comments. The government's intention is to create a new structure to reduce red tape and bureaucracy and to consolidate services that were scattered across various departments and agencies. Like my colleague, I am cautious. Will the government really succeed in simplifying the process and reducing bureaucracy? That remains to be seen. Given th…
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Madam Speaker, it is not complicated. We have been in a housing crisis for several years now. Housing prices have skyrocketed, and people no longer have access to home ownership. There are not enough condos, apartments or houses. More importantly, there is a huge shortage of social housing. The most vulnerable people are making immense sacrifices to find housing, often in unacceptable conditions. …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comment and question. In the most recent budget, the government committed to keep the deficit at just $78 billion this year. That is double Justin Trudeau's deficits and makes him look positively frugal. The government is saying that it is going to make cuts to the public service, that it is going to cut 40,000 jobs, which is huge. We are still waiting a…
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Madam Speaker, the need is great. There is a crisis, so yes, urgent action is needed. We are asking the federal government and the Quebec government to come to an agreement. They signed an MOU. They seem to be in agreement. I want to make sure that the areas of jurisdiction are respected. Why? It is because we want the federal government to do a good job in its own areas of jurisdiction, which it …
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Madam Speaker, today, we are discussing Bill C-20, which seeks to establish Build Canada Homes as a Crown corporation to build affordable housing. Obviously, the Bloc Québécois is in favour of that. The budget, which is currently being debated as part of Bill C-15, provides for $13 billion over the next four years, until 2030, and gives the government and the Crown corporation the power to build s…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for her question. This is an ongoing issue. We have seen it. In this case, we are talking about Build Canada Homes. What will the delays be? The government must take quick action, in collaboration with Quebec through a memorandum of understanding, so that every dollar voted in the budget gets out the door as quickly as possible. We know that the cost …
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Mr. Speaker, I am increasingly concerned about the parliamentary secretary's growing anger. I have had the honour of serving with him for just over a decade. Instead of talking about the motion, he is saying that the government is unable to move its legislative agenda forward as it would like. He is talking as though the government has a majority, when, as we know, this is a minority government. T…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for his speech that revolved around social justice and responsibility. In his speech, he spoke about the Canadian federal government's backtracking in recent years in terms of protecting human rights. In his response to the parliamentary secretary, he provided the example of Jimmy Lai. Can my colleague provide us with other examples of this backtracki…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. colleague whether he thinks that political refugees who have been convicted in their country should be excluded from the motion.
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Mr. Speaker, the motion calls on the government to “bar non-citizens convicted of serious crimes from making refugee claims”. However, it seems to overlook the existence of political refugees, people falsely accused of committing criminal acts by corrupt authoritarian regimes. If adopted as is, the motion would prevent someone like Raif Badawi from joining his family in Canada. That is why the Imm…
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Mr. Speaker, my question is this: When the government implements measures like this one to reduce the tax burden, does my colleague prefer measures that target people with lower incomes, meaning those who need it most, or does he prefer measures that help everyone, such as the tax cut that was announced in Bill C-5 and included in the budget? Speaking of which, what does my colleague think about t…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Mirabel for his eloquent speech. He addressed a number of topics related to the bill. I would like to hear his thoughts on a few things. First, he pointed out that we are in a kind of oligopoly when it comes to food retailers. He noted that their numbers have declined over the past few decades. How is that putting pressure on people's grocery bills? Second, t…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two questions for the member. The government is proposing a measure that we welcome and support because it will really help people, but it is going to cost a lot of money. Why did the government not include that measure in the budget that was tabled just a few months ago so that we could see the overall fiscal plan? We were already talking about a $78-billion deficit. This meas…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I would also like to thank him for sponsoring this bill. As we know, people who work in health services and as first responders do essential work. As we see in the media, they are increasingly facing acts of violence. I have a lot of family members who are paramedics, and they have talked to me about this. My friend Louis-Olivier Roussin, the ope…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, we support this measure, which targets the people who need it most. However, I have two questions. First, why not make the payment monthly? Receiving the payment every three months could cause some people to accumulate credit card debt for three months, and they would have to pay interest on that. If they received a cheque every month, that could reduce the interest they pa…
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Mr. Speaker, obviously, the Bloc Québécois strongly supports this measure. It will help those who need it. I have two questions for my colleague. First, this measure will cost nearly $12 billion over six years, and the first payment will cost $3.1 billion. Why did the government not think to include this in the budget it tabled just three months ago? We want to have a clear picture of public finan…
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Mr. Speaker, I am quite surprised by the response that was just given. Rather than competing to see who is the best cheerleader for the oil industry, we should be considering the wide variety of measures that can be implemented to reduce inflation. My Liberal colleague shared a few of them, and I will share some others. What does my hon. colleague have to say about the labour shortage in the food …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague a question about food production costs and the labour shortage in the agri-food sector. What is his government proposing to address this shortage? There is also the issue of climate change, which is causing floods, droughts and wildfires, all of which have a direct impact on food production in this country. The government recently backtracked on many o…
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Mr. Speaker, going by the calendar on the Table, I see that it is February 3, but it sure feels like February 2, Groundhog Day, because this is yet another Conservative opposition day dedicated to talking about the carbon tax, even though the government eliminated the consumer portion. The motion also deals with groceries, so I would like to ask my colleague about two things. The government introd…
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Mr. Speaker, a few decades ago, we had 13 grocery chains and now we are down to three. That number goes up to five if we include Walmart and Costco. In other words, we are dealing with an oligopoly. In the last Parliament, the government enhanced the powers of the Competition Bureau, not necessarily to bring more players into the sector, but to prevent future mergers or acquisitions. The Governor …
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to reiterate how sensitive my party and I are to violence against women and their children. We must work tirelessly to ensure that all women and children can thrive in a safe environment at all times. A woman was killed in the north of my riding recently and I am quite shaken up by it. This has to stop. The bill under consideration seeks to remove parental alienat…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague and friend on his very interesting speech. He always shares such insightful thoughts with us in the House. We are in favour in principle of having an agreement with Indonesia. We must continue to diversify markets, but, as he said, the United States is still our main partner, so we will have to continue to negotiate and trade with it. I want to ask my colle…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank and congratulate my colleague and friend for his speech. He is truly an expert on matters of international trade. He has depth and a strong, confident philosophy. A few hours ago, the Liberals and a majority of the Conservatives voted against a Bloc Québécois bill on the prior review of treaties by Parliament. He touched on this in his speech, but I would like to ask him the f…
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Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that, if a company gets a grant to develop an innovation and then sells that innovation to foreign interests, the company has to pay back a portion of the grant. I would like my colleague to elaborate on that. To his knowledge, which countries already apply the kind of measure he referred to in his speech?
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Mr. Speaker, according to the World Bank's data, there are 73 carbon pricing mechanisms in 53 countries. Out of all these mechanisms and countries, only one has been walked back, and it was done by the current government. We also see that the current Prime Minister and the new government have scrapped almost all of the environmental protection measures that Justin Trudeau's government had adopted …
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleague that the European Union adopted a carbon border adjustment mechanism in 2023, which took effect on January 1 of this year. The United Kingdom has passed similar legislation that will apply as of January 1, 2027. The concern here is that, if Canada were to eliminate its carbon pricing, Canadian exports to Europe would be subject to tariffs to compensate for …
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Madam Speaker, first, I wish to inform the House that I am going to be splitting my time with my colleague and friend, the member from Repentigny. Were it not for the calendar on the clerks' table, I would have thought that today was February 2, Groundhog Day. Why? Because today is a Conservative opposition day and, as they have done a hundred times before, they are proposing cutting environmental…
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Madam Speaker, obviously, that aspect is appalling and unacceptable. These are just more examples of backsliding in environmental action. What I find even more appalling is the current government's backtracking on all the measures that Justin Trudeau's government had put in place over the past 10 years to protect the environment. Why is this government backtracking so much? Also, why did my hon. c…
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Madam Speaker, this is the kind of measure that I feel is very effective in helping to combat poverty and address inflation among those who need it most. It is a very effective, direct measure that will truly help people. It proves that we are capable of agreeing with the government on some issues. However, I am disappointed that the minority government is not seeking support from another party in…
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Madam Speaker, first, I would like to congratulate my colleague and friend for his incredible demonstration of how the Liberal Party's backtracking on environmental measures shows that we have two parties that are two sides of the same coin. Almost everything that today's motion calls for has already been done by the current Liberal government or is in the process of being done. I would like to as…
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Madam Speaker, it is very disturbing indeed. What this shows is that we are in a petro-state. I spoke of a cheerleading competition. It offends me to hear talk of Canadian sovereignty when the oil sands industry is owned by foreign interests, most of them American. Are these really sovereignty-enhancing policies? As for the environment, I would like to remind the House that the current member for …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very detailed speech. I would like him to elaborate on one point he raised. If an innovation—
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her very interesting speech. She spoke at length about the importance of working with first nations. She also acknowledged that we are on unceded territory. The Assembly of First Nations is calling on the government to withdraw from its memorandum of understanding with Alberta to build a pipeline. However, the government has said that it will consult with firs…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to sincerely thank my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé, who is also my whip and my friend, for his speech. In his speech, he spoke candidly, frankly and with an open heart about how we, as parliamentarians, could work better together in the House and in committee. He concluded his speech by saying that we could create a virtuous circle by showing more respect for one another …
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Mr. Speaker, I believe the document the parliamentary secretary is referring to is House of Commons Procedure and Practice, the fourth edition of which was just published. On a more serious note, I am no longer a permanent member of the Standing Committee on Finance, but I stood in for my colleague from Mirabel today. I witnessed over two hours of filibustering, including an hour and a half from t…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to pick up where my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord left off. He said that we proposed an amendment to Bill C-9 so that the religious exemption could no longer be invoked for hate speech. The Liberal Party was in favour of that amendment at one point, but that no longer seems to be the case. My colleague therefore asked the government representative a question, and she rep…
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Mr. Speaker, my question is for the gentleman who seems upset. The Liberals chose to fly solo. The people elected a minority government. The government tabled a budget without seeking the support of another party to get a majority of votes in the House. The same thing goes for Bill C-15. The other opposition parties chose to let the budget move on to the next step so as not to trigger an election,…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from Mirabel for his remarks. This is obviously troubling and very worrisome for the health of democracy. Earlier, I pointed out that this is a minority government. Normally, a minority government tries to talk to the other parties in order to build a majority in the House and to move bills and the legislative agenda forward. What we have here is a gove…
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Mr. Speaker, what I take away from the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report is that this will not meet the needs in housing. I acknowledge that the parliamentary secretary is talking about affordable housing. I would like us to talk more about social housing or non-market housing. In the past few years, we have seen that when the government introduces programs for affordable housing, the funding …
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