Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the human rights abuses targeting Uighurs and calls for a stronger response from Parliament and government. The petitioners note a past Associated Press article reporting information on forced sterilization and abortion, coordinated campaigns of birth suppression, and mounting evidence that Uighurs are being subjected to political and anti-r…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, we are in the House tonight talking about probably one of the most critical issues that we are going be confronting in this Parliament. We are talking about a global food crisis and we need to talk about it more. We are talking about a global food crisis in which hundreds of millions of people's lives and well-being are at stake. We know already that 181 million people are expected to…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, it is a pleasure to work with my friend across the way. We agree on many issues. We disagree on some as well. I would say, respectfully, that I think inflation is caused by a number of factors. We had a significant issue of inflation prior to the invasion of Ukraine. A significant part of that is the government's approach to spending. We have run up more debt in the past seven years t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, unfortunately, I only had five minutes. I can speak for hours on almost any subject, but on this subject I had a lot more to say. The member raised some important points. I would say, at the same time, that some of the polices of the government that supposedly are about responding to climate change are also having a negative effect. Agriculture polices around limiting the use of ferti…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister is desperate to blame someone else, but there is only one person who is under investigation and that is the Minister of Public Safety. The state of his credibility is grievous and irremediable. It is completely untenable to have a Minister of Public Safety who misleads the public about advice he is receiving from the police. Respectfully, so that his important office can …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I wanted to ask the hon. member a fairly specific question about the content of his speech. He spoke about charter statements and the importance the government attaches to charter statements. We have seen multiple cases in which the government has table-dropped amendments to its own legislation and it has not offered a revised charter statement to line up with that change in policy.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, clearly, judicial discretion and parameters set by legislators both have a role. The question of what is the appropriate sentence for a particular category of crime is a philosophical question. It is a moral question. It is something that in a democratic society the legislature, in general terms, should pronounce on. The question to what extent those broad parameters apply to the pa…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is interesting listening to the debate. The government claims that this bill is about systemic racism and in particular about the overrepresentation of Black and indigenous people in our prison population. If we read the bill, the bill makes no mention of racism and no mention of Black or indigenous communities. There is nothing in there about programs or processes to address the…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Communist Party continues to commit horrific acts of violence against Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims: acts that this House has rightly recognized constitute genocide. Actions by Parliament and the government continue to be vitally needed to more effectively block products made with Uighur forced labour, halt complicity in organ harvesting and prevent Canadian imports fro…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I wonder if you could clarify the process. Is it your ruling going forward that if a member is saying “no”, you will stop the reading of the motion? I think we have had cases where some members were saying “no” and yet the member continued with the unanimous consent motion.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today to Bill C-5, a piece of government legislation aimed at reducing sentences for crimes, including very serious crimes such as sexual assault, kidnapping and weapons trafficking. Many of my colleagues on this side have ably spoken to the core issues in this bill, in particular the question of whether lower sentences and conditional sentences a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, if I could speak to the same point of order. In this case, I provided my notes in advance to the interpreters. I have a great deal of respect for what they do. It is a bit of a challenge when members want to deliver a certain amount of content in a limited time frame, and we are under time allocation of course as well, but I think it is a question of the ability of members to need t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I hope the interpreters are able to deliver the content, but I am entitled to give my speech as a member, and I hope that, given I have provided the notes in advance, this issue will be addressed. I was speaking about under-representation in post-secondary institutions. I imagine if I were to propose that the way to reduce under-representation of Black and indigenous peoples in univ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member identified a number of stakeholders who have a particular point of view, and I do not doubt that the committee heard from a broad range of stakeholders with different points of view on the bill. My point was fairly specific. It was simply to say that when we broaden the range of discretion for decision-making in a situation where the decision-maker may, or likely does, ha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we need to be very clear that there are no mandatory minimums for personal possession-related offences for drugs. Our party does not support mandatory minimums for personal possession for personal use offences. We do believe that it should be against the law to possess drugs for personal use, but we do not support mandatory minimums in those cases. I am concerned about the fact that…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, respectfully, the member shared general values but did not respond to important specific questions. Our allies have taken stronger responses to ensure that the rubber meets the road here, for instance, by withdrawing funds to the WHO in the DRC. Expressing these aspirations and concerns is not lining up with the strong measures being taken by our allies. I also asked the member a sp…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s policy on Somaliland and reaction to requests for support to rebuild the Hargeisa market: (a) what is the government's position with respect to Somaliland’s claim to independence; (b) have ministers or officials met with representatives or employees of the Government of Somaliland in the last seven years, and if so, what are the details of all such meetings, includi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in my riding, carbon capture and storage is very important. It is a technology that is working, that is being supported by the private sector. The NDP has constantly attacked carbon capture and storage, claiming that it is not working, when we know that, in fact, it already is working. It is an important way of working with industry to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissio…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it does appear that the parliamentary secretary was barking up the wrong tree here. The problem for the Prime Minister is that he appears to think that trees will plant themselves. The parliamentary secretary knows that trees can plant themselves under certain circumstances, so they are unlike budgets, which cannot balance themselves, as we have demonstrated. I know that other membe…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Minister of International Development assumed his role after significant concerns were raised about the approach he took while he was defence minister to respond to sexual harassment and assault allegations within Canada's military. It is important that he be willing to take a different approach in his new portfolio and raise the bar in calling international organizations to acc…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my question is on the point the member was just speaking about, the issue of dental care. People pay taxes to the government and then the government decides how to fund dental care. Presumably that is the policy objective of the government. Why does the government not simply cut taxes or provide additional financing directly to low-income individuals who are identified as vulnerable…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, although I am actually supportive of the idea behind this, I do want to have clarified if the member's inaccurately characterizing events at the foreign affairs committee is consistent with what is supposed to happen under the rubric of requests for emergency debate. The member made a number of comments that are just wholly inaccurate. Conservatives have sought to adjourn the existing…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the human rights abuses targeting Falun Gong practitioners in China. In particular, petitioners want to see the government apply sanctions to those involved in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, today we have on the Hill with us Mr. Enes Kanter Freedom, who is an NBA player and a well-known human rights activist. In the process of welcoming him, I am pleased to present this first petition, which is calling on the House to formally recognize that Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China have been and are being subjected to an ongoing genocide. Petitioners note the various for…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the last petition I will table is in support of the bill currently before the House on forced organ harvesting and trafficking. This bill has been adopted unanimously at second reading and is now before a committee of Parliament. Petitioners hope that this is the Parliament that finally successfully passes legislation to prohibit Canadian complicity in forced organ harvesting and traf…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the third petition that I am tabling is on an important domestic economic matter. It highlights how the government's system of carbon taxation and the GST being applied amounts to double taxation on essential goods and services and additional costs for consumers. Particularly at this time when so many Canadians are struggling with affordability challenges as a result of high gas price…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Stockholm is the global authority on evaluating the performance of democracies. It provides objective analysis on the health of democracies. In the key category of checks on government, Canada’s score has dropped precipitously since 2015. We are now lower than the United States and every single country in western Eu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have no choice but to find myself in violent agreement with the member that there should be proper consultations. I would just emphasize that those consultations should be with members of the House, not just with House leaders of recognized parties. When there is a unanimous consent motion, the idea is that the House as a whole is expressing itself. There needs to be a mechanism f…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, with respect to these issues of representation, the Conservatives supported the bill saying that no province's number of seats should drop, and I think I have been clear about that. I also think the principle of representation by population is an important principle in our democracy. We need to recognize that Quebec's identity is important, Alberta's identity is important and Britis…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the hon. member did not listen or he did not want to listen. IDEA, the organization I referred to that ranks global democracies across a series of metrics, draws on various metrics, and Freedom House is part of the input data that IDEA uses. IDEA ranks democratic performance across a range of metrics including civil liberties, checks on government, pluralism and other metrics. What …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Bloc members point out we are into a debate on a different motion than what was scheduled for today, which was the one day when we were supposed to be talking about the rules of the House and the impact on our democracy. I will endeavour to make the link. The Standing Orders and the Speaker, I believe, should work to preserve and protect the rights of members and the health of o…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time. This really is quite incredible. There is one day in the entire life of Parliament set aside for debate about the state of our democracy, and in particular the rules of order that govern this place. Unfortunately, we see other parties that want to debate a different motion and therefore overwhelm the time set aside for this important debate on the health o…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
It is in Hansard.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
This is not a joke, Mr. Speaker. We have a distinct culture, different festivals. We use the same language as some other parts of the country, just like Quebec uses the same language as some other parts of the world. Does the member agree with me that Alberta is a nation and has the right to be recognized as such? This is not a joke. It is very serious.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk a little bit about the Alberta nation.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, why does the hon. member want to prevent this House from debating the Standing Orders on the one day per Parliament set aside for doing precisely that?
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, respectfully, it was not a trick question. I asked the member about the arbitrary detention of a religious leader and in another case the arbitrary detention of a Canadian citizen. The member talked on and on, reading a response about how the government has allegedly never shied away from talking about human rights, yet he failed to address the specific cases that I asked about. We …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is quite out of touch for the minister to suggest that people should just wait in line in these overnight lines to get their passports. I spoke to Janna in my riding, who has two children under five. She cannot bring them with her to wait overnight in line. She applied in March, and her credit card was charged on April 20. She had to cancel a trip that was supposed to take place on…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, these are such important issues we are discussing in the debate today. I often reflect on the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who said the ideal that we seek as a society is one in which people are judged not based on the colour of their skin, but on the content of their character. We have to recognize that there are historical and ongoing instances of injustice and discrimination …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise today to speak to a very sensitive subject, but it is a very important subject. I want to note that I will be splitting my time. Different members of the House have different experiences with the issue of racism. Quite obviously it is not something that I experience myself, but I think that for those of us who have close personal relationships or…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think my hon. friend is maybe dancing around Quebec's Bill 21 a bit, so if that is the question, I have been on the record repeatedly saying that I strongly disagree with Bill 21. My own province of Alberta has certainly been blessed by francophone immigration. We see many people coming to Alberta from all over the world, and I think our province has been well served not only by a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, respectfully, the point I would make on this is a bit more subtle. It is to say that there are barriers that people face that are not necessarily the result of the intention of somebody to discriminate. There may be issues of unconscious bias or there may be structural issues that lead to an effect of discrimination without there being an intent to discriminate, but my point is also…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think meritocracy is an ideal. We want to live in a society where everybody is judged based on merit, but we have to also acknowledge that we are inevitably going to be imperfect in living out that ideal of meritocracy. That is why we need to try to understand and respond to various issues. It is not that meritocracy is not desirable. Of course it is, but we should not presume tha…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, last Tuesday, May 24, was the global day of prayer for China. It was also Cardinal Joseph Zen's day in court in Hong Kong on charges of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” for his work with a fund established to provide legal aid to democracy protesters facing prosecution. These charges are arbitrary and political. Cardinal Bo, the Myanmar president of the Federation of Asia…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, going back to Supermax, the British and American governments both discontinued purchases from Supermax long before the Canadian government did. The government claims that it only became aware of concerns about forced labour at Supermax after the Americans and the British had already discontinued purchases from Supermax. Why was the government not following the policies of our allies i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, if the U.S. and the British governments had discontinued purchases, and the minister says the Government of Canada was not even aware that there were allegations, how is it that we are so far behind our allies in terms of being aware of these concerns?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, it seems that the government should be listening to what our allies are doing and actually paying attention better to what is going on around the world. An independent analysis completed for the government last year by the University of Nottingham Rights Lab found that only five of 48 vendors had appropriate policies in place to mitigate risks around human trafficking and forced labou…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, the minister notes promises in mandate letters to bring forward future legislation. We do not have a timeline around that legislation, when it comes in, but meanwhile we are purchasing products from companies where our allies have already noticed and said that there is a problem with forced labour in their supply chain. Minister, that simply is not good enough. Does the government pur…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, there are provisions in contracts that allow the termination of contracts, and contracts are simply not being terminated. My last question was this: Does the government purchase any products that are produced in Xinjiang?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, again, that is not an answer, but on another question, does the government purchase any products produced by Nuctech, and has the government purchased any surveillance cameras or other security equipment made in China?
Read full speech →