Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague's speech and I think it is important to underline where the fault line actually is in this debate. I think there would be agreement throughout the House that a young person who makes a mistake should have a second chance. Of course, there are many cases where it is legitimate for a person to have bail. We have highlighted these cases of repeat …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Special Economic Measures Regulations and pursuing the forfeiture of assets of sanctioned Russians: (a) what is the total number of individuals sanctioned to date; (b) among the sanctioned individuals, how many (i) have known assets in Canada, (ii) do not have any known assets in Canada; (c) of those with known assets in Canada, how many have had their assets seized; (d) what is…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s flagging of social media accounts or pages: (a) since 2016, have any specific social media accounts or pages been flagged by either Canadian Heritage or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as examples of potential “harmful content” or “misinformation”; (b) how many accounts or pages in (a) were hosted on (i) YouTube, (ii) Facebook, (iii) …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the special measures program for Afghanistan announced by the government: (a) what is the number of visible minorities that have been evacuated thus far, in total; (b) how many of the evacuees in (a) were (i) Afghan Hindus, (ii) Sikhs, (iii) Christians; (c) are there currently Afghan allied interpreters still in Afghanistan awaiting evacuation, and, if so, how many; and (d) what is …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s response to the Hong Kong Pathway lifeboat scheme and intimidation of the Hong Kong Canadian community: (a) will the government consider improving the policies of the Hong Kong Pathway Stream B to (i) expand and extend its scope, (ii) waive the requirement for a police certificate; (b) what is the timeline for the government to make changes related to (a); (c) what …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-350, An Act to amend the State Immunity Act, the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Madam Speaker, since the House voted five years ago to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity and shut down its operations in Canada, Conservatives have been pushing the Liberal government to actually list the IRGC, but it has not acted. It is time to brin…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to join colleagues from other parties in presenting a petition regarding the horrific situation in Burma. The petition is an effort by various Burmese communities and contains a number of asks, including strengthening sanctions, calling on insurance companies to stop providing insurance covering deliveries of aviation fuel to Burma, oil and gas sanctions, support for th…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, my question, originally, was on the foundation Trudeau And a meeting that took place in the PMO. Apparently there was a wall with the Trudeau Foundation, And PMO was just a convenient downtown location. That is obvious nonsense and we will drill for the truth, Even with committee tactics that have been called uncouth. But it is late in the night and the session is near done, So I will…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, Just as I conclude this late show, I will remind the member that the meeting was in PMO. The PS thinks that his response is a zing, That those at the meeting don't remember a thing. On a serious subject we can be a bit funny, It's clear the government's ways are anything but sunny.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I suspect, given that it is the last day of this session, you will find unanimous consent to extend Petitions by two minutes to allow additional members to present. There has been an all-party agreement on a petition on Burma. I suspect that for two additional minutes, there would be agreement.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have a point of order. A member of the NDP just made some verifiably false claims about me. In the interest of preserving reality in this House, it is important to note that I think he refers to a case in which a female opposition legislator was invited by the foreign affairs committee, not by me, to appear and provide testimony on a different study, and during the course of the dis…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canada's horrific and devastating opioid crisis is not an accident. The opioid crisis is happening because Purdue Pharma, Liberal-friendly McKinsey and other bad corporate actors aggressively marketed prescription opioids to those suffering from pain or addiction. These companies did everything possible to increase sales and left a trail of human misery in their wake. Today we learned…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order arising out of question period. There were a number of important questions about McKinsey's offering a proposal to Purdue Pharma to help boost opioid sales here in Canada. I do wonder if there would be unanimous consent to table the important story from The Globe and Mail, which highlights these issues from the 2014-15 period.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The hon. member was using a prop. He was holding an image up to the screen. The minister is maybe a relatively new member in this place, but I think he knows the rules relating to the use of props.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my concern around this legislation is not so much with the text of the bill as with the way that the government uses the sanctions tools that are available to it. Parliament gives the government sanctions tools, and then it is up to the government to determine how to use them. The government has been relatively limited and ineffective in its use of sanctions tools. There are also, I t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I may be having a technical problem with my microphone, just to—
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would just put two follow-up points to the parliamentary secretary. The first is that it took far too long for the government to respond at all. Those who were involved and were victims of this had been meeting and were trying to engage with local Liberal MPs in the greater Toronto area for a long time to get a resolution. It should not have taken questions in question period to g…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in reference to the child care workforce, the member said we have to have the best people in place to raise our children. Does she want to elaborate on what she meant by that?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak again to Bill C-35. As I said in my previous speech about this bill, no parent is perfect. I can attest to that first-hand; I make lots and lots of parenting mistakes. However, parents are the best proxy decision-makers for their children because parents have a deep and natural love for their children. This love that parents have for their kids …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this program is not about choice. It gives money to certain people in certain situations who are not necessarily those who need the support the most. The minister cherry-picked quotes that she had received. I would like to share and put on the record a quote from a child care operator in my riding, and I would like the minister's response to it. This person wrote to the HUMA committ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to pick up on the point about certainty for the long term. The Liberal government has run up more debt in its period of office than the country has in its entire history up to that point, and is continuing to fund these and other promised expansions of social spending through deficit spending. The fiscal context actually leaves a lot of Canadians uncertain that any of these k…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight about a grave problem involving our immigration system and an injustice done to a number of well-meaning students who came to this country with the best of intentions. They were victims of fraud, and they are now being revictimized by the Liberal government. I want to start tonight by recognizing the leadership of the Ontario Gurdwaras C…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am concerned about this conspiracy theory among Green and New Democrat politicians that carbon capture and storage does not exist. Therefore, I would like to seek the unanimous consent of the House to table the addresses of a number of hotels in my riding to help these members come and see for themselves how carbon capture and storage works.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his speech. I will say that, as a father of a young family and as someone representing a riding in western Canada, I see personally, from a lifestyle perspective, the advantages of the current provisions, although I have concerns about their impact on this institution. I do support the voting app, because I do not think voting is the same as giving a speech. I w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think my colleague is referring to AUKUS and the fact that Five Eyes is supposed to be, and is, this critical vehicle for collaboration among five Anglo-sphere nations for sharing of intelligence, yet the U.S., Australia and the U.K., three of the Five Eyes, are creating a separate alliance that covers many of the areas that are supposed to be covered by the Five Eyes. Recently th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his reflections on this issue. I think an important distinction should be made between whether the rules are being used and whether the rules are good for the institution. I can say that for me personally, these hybrid rules have made my life a lot more comfortable. They have been convenient for me personally, and I have used them from time to t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would encourage members who are so eager to debate the new rules to learn the old rules first, about how questions and comments work. I have a serious question to the parliamentary secretary. How does he get around this significant problem, in terms of resources, and the fact that it makes committees, which are supposed to be masters of their own domains, now subject to resource dec…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the final petition that I am presenting today deals with recommendations of the Minister of National Defence's advisory panel on systemic racism. In its final report in 2022, this panel paradoxically recommended discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation in determinations about chaplaincy and discrimination against religious communities holding views that are not consisten…
Read full speech →Government Orders
moved: That Bill S‑8 be amended by deleting the long title. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address Bill S-8 today. This is important legislation that Conservatives have been supportive of. It is also an opportunity to discuss the significant problems with the sanctions regime that we have seen under the government, including the failure to move quickly enough to sanction perpetrato…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think I have been very clear about that already, but I do want to pick up on the first comment he made about the Harper government and sanctions. What he said is obviously nonsense. In fact, under the Conservative government, Canada led the world following the invasion of Ukraine and we were able to drive a consensus in the G7 that led to a tough response. It was likely not tough …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, next I am tabling a petition that deals with the situation of Hong Kongers who are seeking immigration to Canada. The petitioners note that the judicial system in Hong Kong has been compromised through various measures, including through the passage of the national security law. They note that peaceful protesters charged in Hong Kong have not received fair or impartial treatment and…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the next petition deals with a proposal in the Liberal Party's platform in the last election to effectively politicize charitable status determinations, which is again dealing with an issue of political discrimination and discrimination on the basis of political views. The petitioners are opposed to the government applying values tests or political position-based determinations for …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to table a number of petitions in the House today. The first petition is from Canadians who are concerned about the increasing phenomenon of people being bullied in corporate environments over their political views and having pressure put on them to express or not express political opinions that may go against their conscience. The petitioners are in sup…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, everything that I said in my previous response is on the public record and is easily verifiable as accurate. The member asked if there are instances of other countries that have imposed sanctions that Canada should have imposed. Yes, absolutely, and I will pick one present topical example. Five years ago, the House listed the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, as a…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the next petition draws attention to the ongoing detention of Huseyin Celil. The petitioners note that although Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were released after 1,000 days of unjust detention, there are other Canadians detained in China, including Mr. Celil, who has been detained for well over 5,000 days. Mr. Celil is a Canadian citizen and a Uyghur human rights activist who ha…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights concerns about the dramatic expansion of euthanasia under the government, and in particular a recommendation to allow euthanasia for infants. The proposal to legalize the euthanasia of infants is a matter of grave concern for these petitioners, and they call on the Government of Canada to block any attempt to legalize the killing of children…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, at the same time as the committee adopted this bill, we adopted a motion that my Conservative colleague had put forward, which was a clear denunciation of the Taliban. It included identifying the system of gender discrimination it has built and is building and called for the continued listing of the Taliban as a terrorist organization. It is very important that we work closely with wo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, as I said, I certainly agree that this bill has been improved through the committee process. I think it improves on the absence of a bill in this context, although there is still a lot of work to be done. This is why Conservatives proposed a very tight timeline for review, so that we will be able to revisit the subject a year from now. Our government has moved far too late on this, bu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I do have many concerns about this legislation, although I do think the member gilds the lily a bit. The irony, in relation to her comments, is that the development sector has overwhelmingly said that it would like us to pass this bill, though it has also been critical of various aspects of it. I know the member worked in the sector previously, but I do not think sh…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I regret to advise the member that she has not kept up on the unfolding of events at the foreign affairs committee at all. We had a dispute at the committee about aspects of the committee's agenda. Our view was that the committee should prioritize work on the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and other studies the committee had already agreed to. Nonetheless, despite that dispute, we eventu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I do not think it is quite correct that the Conservatives, when in government, never accepted opposition party amendments. It was very good to be able to work constructively with members of all parties, including the governing party. Of course, the context we have right now is a minority Parliament. There was the opportunity for the opposition to come together and make changes to the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to address the House today concerning this important piece of legislation, Bill C-41, the trigger of which is the crisis in Afghanistan, but which, more broadly, seeks to establish a framework for allowing vitally needed short- and long-term development assistance to get into areas controlled by terrorist organizations. I want to start my remarks toda…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with the points the member made about the timing. This has been raised multiple times by multiple committees. I think there were two different motions adopted at the foreign affairs committee. Prior to that, there was a recommendation in the report from the Special Committee on Afghanistan. If we had been on top of it timing-wise, we would probably already be at that o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, Conservatives have many questions about how this regime would work in practice, but we also recognize the urgency of having some kind of legislative framework that would allow urgently needed assistance to be delivered in Afghanistan. This reflects what the Afghan Canadian community and development stakeholders are looking for. Sadly, we are a little behind the eight ball in Canada. M…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am immensely enjoying the remarks of the leader, but the members in the front row this evening are repeatedly interrupting with regular points of order. I actually had another point of order I wanted to raise briefly while I am on my feet, regarding—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate your taking it under advisement and returning to the House at the appropriate time. The question is Question No. 1398, and the response was tabled on April 13.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, earlier we had a situation where members of Parliament were using props in this House. They were not speaking, but they were very clearly holding up props and making comments about them. It seemed to make a total mockery of the rules around props, and people it seems had brought in items that were supposed to represent certain things that were in relation to past comments the speake…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to briefly, while I have chance, raise concerns about the response I received to Order Paper Question No. 1398. I think that I did not receive a response to this question, so I wonder if the Chair could review the matter and return to the House about it. It was a question regarding gender parity among staff. The question identifies a number of specific areas where I am lookin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would ask that the Speaker call in particular the parliamentary secretary across the way, who should be listening to this point, because in the midst of heckling this point, the parliamentary secretary was in fact one of the offenders in the course of these events. The members opposite should take seriously their obligations to follow the rules in this place. Instead of heckling, …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would just again commend to this hon. member the reading of the annual report of the Trudeau Foundation, which will testify to all the points I have made with respect to the organization's structure and the continuing membership of the Prime Minister on the foundation. I would put to the member, as well, that, yes, the Prime Minister's Office is a four-storey building. We are not …
Read full speech →