Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions today. The first is, of course, in support of my private member's bill that I am sponsoring in this place: Bill S-223, a bill to finally combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking. Petitioners are hopeful that this Parliament will be the one that finally gets it done.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition highlights the ongoing terrible human rights situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan. It is a situation that was bad prior to the Taliban takeover and it is certainly getting much worse. This particular petition asks the House to designate September 25 as Hazara genocide memorial day to recognize a historic event of ethnic cleansing from the 19th century a…
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Madam Speaker, it has been interesting for me to observe NDP members over the last few days speaking about gas prices and wanting gas prices to be lower. I thought that Liberal and NDP politicians actually wanted gas prices to be higher. Is it not the point of their carbon tax policy to raise the cost of gas? They think that will discourage people from driving more. It is curious for me to hear, i…
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Madam Speaker, I have a simple question for my hon. friend with respect to affordability. Gas prices are top of mind for many Canadians. Does the government wish to see gas prices higher, lower or where they are right now?
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Madam Speaker, the member mentioned child care in his speech as part of this debate on affordability. He is keen that his province sign on. I will share a big challenge that I am hearing of from child care providers in my province, a province that has signed a deal with the federal government, and that is that the federal plan effectively involves deregulation and limited increases to fees, which …
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Madam Speaker, I asked a question earlier about gas prices and I did not really get a good answer from the government. I want to understand just whether the government thinks gas prices in an ideal world would be higher, lower or at the same level. I thought that one of the intentions of the government's policy around the carbon tax, around imposing a tax on things that produce carbon, was to inte…
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke about how, at the beginning of its mandate, the government raised taxes on some people. The promise it had made at the time was that the tax shifting it was doing would be revenue-neutral. However, in the end it was not. It significantly added to the deficit, and we have seen continuing measures that have added to the deficit. I think what the member glosses over in…
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Madam Speaker, objectively, what the member said was inaccurate. I would invite her to withdraw her comments, and I would be pleased to withdraw mine in the spirit of a similar withdrawal.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about concerns regarding corporate power in this country, and that is one of the reasons I put forward Bill C-257, which would add political belief and activity to the federal human rights code. I am concerned about situations where an employer might use their privileged position to discriminate against workers who engage in political activity that an employer does…
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary says that building pipelines takes too long. That has been our point for a very long time. Let us speed up that process and let us put in place these measures for the long term. Europe's reliance on Russian gas has constrained its ability to sanction Russia. Some European countries are less dependent on Russian gas, but rely heavily on coal. Europe needs en…
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Mr. Speaker, the final petition I will be tabling today is with respect to the human rights situation in Afghanistan. I previously tabled a petition regarding the Hazara community. This one highlights the human rights situation of the Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan. We know that other religious and ethnic minorities have already faced challenges prior to the Taliban takeover and face si…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is in support of Bill S-223, a Senate bill that has now passed the Senate unanimously and is here before the House. The petitioners want to see this bill passed to make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ that has been trafficked or taken without the consent of the person involved and, also, to support provisions in the b…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia. There is a great deal of concern about the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia, in particular, the situation in the Tigray Region. The petitioners call for a stronger response from Canada, a stronger international response. There are some elements that the petitioners are asking for that, at this point, are out…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is with respect to the situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan. This is a minority community that was very hard pressed even prior to the Taliban takeover, and their situation has obviously become much worse. Many Canadians are concerned about the failure of the government to move quickly in helping Hazaras, other minorities and vulnerable Afgha…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am tabling today deals with the important issue of firearms rights and firearms owners in my riding. The petitioners are objecting to the backdoor gun registry that the government was working on with respect to Bill C-71 from a previous Parliament. They are very opposed to the government's approach with respect to targeting responsible firearms owners rather than…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a clear matter of international law that prisoners of war should be released when hostilities end. Petitioners in this case are following up on the terrible 44-day war in the Nagorno-Karabakh, or the Republic of Artsakh, noting the fact that there are still, today, Armenian prisoners of war who are detained by Azeri authorities. Various reports, including by Human Rights Watch, …
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling calls on the government to finally do something that the House of Commons did a year ago, and that is to recognize that Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China have been and are being subject to an ongoing genocide. The petitioners note, in particular, the use of forced sterilization and abortion as being contraventions of the genocide convention provi…
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Mr. Speaker, it needs to be all of the above and Canada needs to get in the energy export game to Europe. Many Ukrainian Canadian organizations are doing incredible work confronting the humanitarian crisis in the Ukraine. The government's matching program only applies to the Red Cross. We have seen previously how, such as in the case of Lebanon, the government's matching program excludes Canadian …
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Madam Speaker, a week before the war we of course thought pipelines were necessary, and a week before that, because we were right then and we are right now. This is a critical issue of security. I am sorry, but I just cannot accept the implication of the member that we should put out nice words of solidarity but not actually talk about practical solutions. He is free to disagree with our proposals…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-257, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (protecting against discrimination based on political belief). Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Haldimand—Norfolk for her collaboration and assistance on this important project. I am tabling a bill that would expand human rights protection in Canada by making political belief and activity prohib…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Ken Epp, the MP for my area from 1993-2008. Ken passed away on February 20 at the age of 82. It is always sad for those of us left behind to have to say goodbye to a great leader and a great friend, but that sadness is tempered by Ken's confidence that death was a doorway and not an end. Ken's hope of an eternity with Jesus and with his dear wife Betty, who pr…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the parliamentary secretary, for responding and for being transparent about the fact that the government is still studying this. I would submit that we do have a little bit of a process problem on private member's bills, where it seems they are considered and ultimately maybe they are going to cabinet at too late a stage. It would nice if private member's bills coul…
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Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the House this afternoon about the horrific situation unfolding in Ukraine and also about the Conservative motion that seeks further action in response. At the beginning of last week, my family had the pleasure of welcoming another child, Augustine Anthony Genuis, born in safe and approaching ideal circumstances, surrounded by family in …
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Madam Speaker, as a small correction, it is my fifth child, but I lose track as well, so it is fine, and I thank the member for her congratulations. What is a motion? This is not legislation. We have limited tools as the opposition. This is an expression of the opinion and the will of the House. Then hopefully it is up to the government to respond to the will of the House. This motion is a tool we…
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Madam Speaker, I think my view is well known in the House. It is that I do not think it should take 10 years to move these kinds of projects forward. We need a process in this country that allows us to build critical infrastructure more quickly, and we have presented proposals along those lines. I have to disagree with the implication of the member's question that energy security is not a problem.…
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Mr. Speaker, direction and control regulations are a problem for the charitable sector in Canada. Direction and control regulations require that when charities are involved in activities, those activities are to be under the full direction and control of those charitable organizations. It is right that there be rules and restrictions around charitable organizations, that they be accountable for th…
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Madam Chair, it is a pleasure to work with my colleague on the foreign affairs committee, and it was a pleasure, in the previous Parliament, to work with him on the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations. There has been a lot of discussion about the role of misinformation, and in particular there are concerns about RT. It is important to note some of the content we heard in the last Parliamen…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for giving the calibre of speech that members of the House have come to expect from him, with many trumped-up comments. As a Conservative, I am not at all ashamed or embarrassed about the fact that our party champions freedom, freedom of speech and the freedom of individuals to make their own choices. I want to ask the member a specific question about misi…
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Madam Chair, I am hearing overwhelmingly from people in my riding, those of Ukrainian origin and those who are not, about how much they want to help with the situation on the ground. There are three issues they have raised with me that I want to put to the parliamentary secretary. The first is that they want it to be easier for them to send money to friends and relatives in Ukraine. Sometimes it c…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for sharing aspects of her own experience and the experience of her communities. I think it is a powerful reminder of the injustices that have been committed by federal governments toward indigenous peoples and also about, really, the abuses we have seen from overreaching federal governments. I think it underlines the importance of freedom, the freedom of peo…
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Madam Speaker, I have heard many things from Liberal members throughout this debate that I disagree with. However, I want to start with one thing that I agree with, which the member said. He said that he supported the right to peaceful protest prior to blockades and he did not agree with blockading critical infrastructure. These are sentiments that I fundamentally agree with. The provisions of the…
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Madam Speaker, it should be underlined that, while the Government of Alberta clearly had been engaged with the federal government, at no point did it asked for the imposition of the Emergencies Act. As my colleague pointed out, a majority of premiers, including the Premier of Alberta and the Premier of Quebec, opposed the use of the Emergencies Act. We have a situation where a bare majority of par…
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Madam Speaker, I am very concerned about the phenomenon of discrimination on the basis of political views that we increasingly hear from the government. The justice minister is talking about people's bank accounts being frozen on the basis of being part of an allegedly pro-Trump movement. In this country, as long as one is not involved in violence, one is able to hold whatever views one wants, and…
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Madam Speaker, last week in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister made deplorable comments, accusing the member for Thornhill of standing with those with swastikas. Those comments were rightfully called out by the member's predecessor, Michael Levitt, a well respected member of the House of Commons who never resorted to the kind of partisan approach that we have seen from the Prime Minister or …
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Madam Speaker, in any other situation, the member would understand how problematic it is to cast such broad generalizations about groups of people, as if the protesters had all assaulted journalists and as if the protesters had all engaged in border blockades. This is utter nonsense. The member should know that tens of thousands of people have gone out across this country to engage in protests abo…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her remarks. She made a number of very important points. The first is that there are other legal tools in place. The government does not need to bring in the Emergencies Act every time there is a need for law enforcement action. The Emergencies Act has not been used since 1988. Obviously this country has faced blockades, standoffs and occupations as well as …
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Madam Speaker, I have been clear that I do not agree with the emergency measures being used in the first place. I think law enforcement already had the tools they needed and that has been clear. Certainly, it should be all the more evident now, even to those who were maybe on the fence before, that the border blockades had either already ended or were well on their way to ending at the time the em…
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Madam Speaker, I guess the political left does not want to defund the police anymore. This summer, I was at a friend's party and met a young couple who were in the process of making dramatic last-minute changes to their wedding plans. They had been planning to get married in the beautiful century-old Catholic church that was the heart and soul of the community of Morinville, Alberta. It was the ch…
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Madam Speaker, frankly, even from this member I expect better. My position has been clear: yes to peaceful protests, yes to those calling for an end to mandates and no to illegal blockading of critical infrastructure. I would say this consistently across the board, regardless of who is doing the blockading. I would also say no to the arbitrary abuse of power by the government to target people who …
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Madam Speaker, I am grateful to the interpreters for the important work they do. Mr. Dhaliwal donated $13,000 to the “freedom convoy”. After the fact, according to an NDP source, Mr. Dhaliwal asked for his money back. This NDP source conveniently claims that there had been a misunderstanding about the true nature of the organization, which sounds like the sort of thing an NDP source would say. Reg…
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Madam Speaker, I want to ask the member a question about civil liberties. There are many Canadians who will have donated to the convoy before recent developments, certainly without any criminal intent. They maybe donated as an expression of their concerns about mandates, before any of the blockades had started. Based on the justice minister's comments to Evan Solomon, it appears that the governmen…
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Madam Speaker, I have been entirely consistent on this, as have many of my colleagues. Having a bill like this, or any other bill, pass at all stages without study does not make sense. We need to be studying bills to understand their provisions, understand the application and make sure that whatever is intended by the bill is actually being done by the bill. That is where, critically, the role of …
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Madam Speaker, I would encourage the member across the way to not be so dismissive of the role and functioning of Parliament. The rules of Parliament do not exist to protect just members of the opposition but also members of the government, who will one day be in opposition. The member did not at all address the actual issue we are debating right now, which is the Conservative amendment to the gov…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to join the debate on Government Motion No. 7, particularly the amendment from my colleague for Cumberland—Colchester. Toward the end of my speech, I will make some comments on Bill C-12, a bill with respect to seniors. It is a bill that Conservatives support. It is a bill that would address long-standing gaps in government support for seniors: perverse outco…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from the Bloc makes some good points. The Liberals will consistently attack and criticize anyone who disagrees with them. The fact is that this is a problem of their own making, but it is also a problem that is more likely to happen when they are not carefully going through the legislative process and ensuring that everything is carefully analyzed along the way. What we…
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Mr. Speaker, I do, but the member for the NDP, who I assume is going to, sadly, vote with her party on this issue, is also making the case for why it is important to study these issues at committee, to consider gendered impacts and other issues that the government may not have fully considered in the context of drafting. Committees have the expertise to understand these issues, to identify them an…
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to understand what was particular about that moment in March and April of 2020. We did not have many of the tools that we now have. Our view as a party is that we should be moving beyond a virtual Parliament and having these debates in person. Nonetheless, we have these tools available to us. These tools were not even available at the beginning of the pandemic. We had …
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague makes excellent points. I think what the government is trying to do here is simply widen the precedent that it thinks has already been established. It wants to do more and more of this legislating by programming motion, instead of having bills properly studied as they should be. Initially, maybe the government is looking at legislation that people generally agree is requi…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for her commitment, her sincerity and her passion. She presented us with a wish list for a world without scarcity, which I would say, quite honestly, is not the world we live in. That is a function of the reality of the human condition, not of anything else. She and I both hope for a world in which scarcity does not exist. In the world we live in, we have to face t…
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