Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, that was not the question my colleague was asking. Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. President Zelenskyy is pleading for help as Putin commits war crimes against the Ukrainian people. Zelenskyy has said that governments have been too slow in implementing all possible sanctions to stop the Russian invasion. We still do not know if the sanctions are being en…
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Madam Speaker, the horrific images of the war in Ukraine have been brutal to watch, yet at the same time, the war in Yemen has raged for seven years. Over 10,000 children have been killed, the country's economy has collapsed and millions are facing hunger. Canada continues to export weapons to Saudi Arabia despite those weapons being used in Yemen. In fact, the United Nations Human Rights Council …
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-260, An Act relating to cash contributions by Canada and to criteria and conditions in respect of post-secondary education. Mr. Speaker, it is my great privilege to table this bill on behalf of residents of Edmonton Strathcona and on behalf of all Canadians who recognize the value and importance of quality, accessible post-secondary education in this country. I …
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Mr. Speaker, so far, the BA.2 subvariant has led to a significant increase in cases in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and other countries around the world. Hong Kong has the highest mortality rate in the world. South Korea is seeing a record number of cases. My question is as follows: Does the hon. member believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is over?
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time today with the member for Vancouver Kingsway. It is my great honour, as always, to stand in this place and address my colleagues, and I want to start by acknowledging something that I know we all know. We all know how difficult COVID-19 has been on us. We all know how hard it has been on children and we all know how hard it has been on parents and families. I…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for the question. We often see eye to eye as neighbours and members of Parliament for the wonderful city of Edmonton, but I have to say that my perception of where my constituents are on this is very different from what the member brought forward. I am getting many emails from people who are deeply worried about those who cannot receive a vaccination…
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Mr. Speaker, like my colleague, I also feel that we have, as a Parliament, tried to work together for the betterment of Canada and for Canadians. It is not always easy decisions that parliamentarians are asked to make. Our constituents did not send us here to have the honour of representing them in this place to do cheerleading for them or to do the popular things. We are here to make the difficul…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that a plan is very important. Canadians deserve to have answers and they deserve to get information, but in my mind what that might look like is a plan to actually review the mandates: to look at them and see which ones can be lifted and at what point. To have that research into that piece is really important. However, it cannot be a decision that is based on what the member …
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Mr. Speaker, the member for St. Albert—Edmonton today spoke a lot during his speech about the obligations we have to Canadians and the freedoms that Canadians are entitled to. I want to read to him what Dr. Katharine Smart, who is the CMA president, had to say. She said, “While governments and Canadians are hoping to move past the pandemic, an exhausted, depleted health workforce is struggling to …
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Mr. Speaker, Ukrainians are fleeing horrific attacks in their country and they are vulnerable. They are seniors. They are mothers with children. The open work permit will not help these people because they may not be able to work. Mothers will need access to day care, and they will need money to pay for it. In many cases, they may not want to leave their children, who have been deeply traumatized.…
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Mr. Speaker, over three million people have now fled the violence in Ukraine. Civilians are being bombed in their homes and even in hospitals. They are desperate for support. Economic sanctions are a strong tool we have to force Putin to stop committing war crimes. However, the sanctions announced by the government will not have the desired effect if they are not properly enforced. Will the minist…
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Mr. Speaker, what happened in Coutts, Alberta, is unprecedented. The Conservatives are downplaying the severity of what is happening and are pretending that the threat is over. There was a plot to murder RCMP officers by dangerous extremists. Millions of dollars are still coming in from foreign sources to fund these hate groups—
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Mr. Speaker, what happened in Coutts, Alberta, is unprecedented. The Conservatives in the House are downplaying the severity of what is happening and are pretending that the threat is over. There was a plot to murder RCMP officers by dangerous extremists. Millions of dollars are still coming in from foreign sources to fund these hate groups. When will the government bring forward legislation to ha…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a deep honour to stand in this place and represent the people of Edmonton Strathcona. Today we gather to debate the enactment and bringing forward of the Emergencies Act. It is the enactment of legislation that has never been used before. I deeply feel the gravity and the responsibility of the work that we are doing in this place. I recognize the serious situation tha…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to talk from the perspective of being an Albertan and what has been happening in Alberta. I am the daughter of a truck driver, and the truck drivers that sat around my kitchen table while I was growing up, they got vaccinated. They care about their community. They care about the people they work with, and they want to get to work. They want to be able to make a living. Truc…
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Mr. Speaker, the member's question is very thoughtful. It is something that I have spent, and I hope everybody has spent, an awful lot of time on. I have deep concerns about using the Emergencies Act because of the precedent it might set. Like I said in my speech, there are steps that we need to take as parliamentarians to ensure that some of the things that are happening in our country will not b…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I have worked very closely on the ALS caucus. I know her to be an extremely strong member of Parliament. What I would say, in terms of the policing, is that it was brought forward. It was made very clear by the Ottawa Police Service that they required that additional support from the Emergencies Act. They have told parliamentarians that it was necessary for them to do…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to give a shout-out to Wyatt Sharpe. He is an incredible young man and an incredible journalist, who is part of the independent media that shares his voice. To be so accomplished so young is quite remarkable. In terms of this being a minority government and having those additional powers that a minority Parliament gives us, it is true, but it also brings up the concerns t…
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Mr. Speaker, as the NDP, we are very excited to see the Civil Liberties Association bring this forward because we want there to be as much oversight as possible. This is an excellent way for us to get some answers to that question. However, we are in a moment in time when we have some very dangerous things happening in our country that we need to act upon. Do I like that we are in this situation? …
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Madam Speaker, I do not always agree with members of the Liberal Party, but I am quite shocked with some of the comments we heard in the member's speech. It brought something to mind, and I looked it up. I read an article by Andrew Coyne yesterday in The Globe and Mail, in which he said, “Conservatives have of late devolved into political magpies, snatching up whatever shiny object crosses their p…
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Madam Speaker, one of the things the Liberal government has said is that it would bring forward legislation to deal with online hate. We know that many of the people who have been radicalized have been radicalized on social media, and I am just wondering if the government is planning on bringing this legislation forward. If so, when and why not yet?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his intervention today. He spoke about knowing when it would be appropriate for the powers that are part of the Emergencies Act to stop. How will he know that? How will the Liberal Party give information to parliamentarians that it is in fact time for us to end the Emergencies Act powers?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his speech. I consider him to be a fair and thoughtful member of the House of Commons. I would like to ask him if he believes that the government could bring in legislation to combat money laundering quickly enough to deal with the current situation.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his intervention in the House. I have worked closely with him on the direction and control bill that he brought forward, and I am quite pleased with some of the work he has done in the House. As we look for solutions to the crisis facing Canadians, one of my questions is how we deal with foreign funding or illegal funding of domestic terrorist gr…
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Madam Speaker, one of the things I am very concerned about, which we are seeing across the country right now, is attacks on the media. I was just reading an article about attacks that have been happening in British Columbia against media. Obviously, we have seen some horrific assaults happen in Ottawa against members of the media. I am just wondering what the government's plans are. What steps wil…
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Madam Speaker, it is a very odd day in the House of Commons when the Conservatives are choosing to negatively attack the premier of Ontario and the Liberals are standing for him. It is a unique moment in time for us today. My question has to do with Conservative premiers in this country. On February 4, the premier of my province, Premier Kenney, asked the federal government for help: There was a n…
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Madam Speaker, we have heard about the Coutts blockade many times in the House. The member speaking before me asked about the legal implications, the people who have been charged with attempted murder, the violence and the white racism there, but in addition to those, there is an economic impact. Those 18 days the blockade was in place cost $864 million to the Alberta economy. What do we do when t…
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Mr. Speaker, we are looking at a situation that is completely out of control. In my province of Alberta, 13 armed insurgents have blockaded our infrastructure. We can look outside of the House of Commons. Where we are is very, very upsetting, and we never should have been in this situation. How are we going to make sure that we have put things in place so this cannot happen again? What is the gove…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Calgary Forest Lawn for his interventions today. I have worked very closely with him on getting supports for the people of Afghanistan. He talked about this as if it is a trucker protest in Ottawa. It is an occupation in Ottawa, but as an Albertan, surely he recognizes that an armed militia was discovered in Alberta that threatened the RCMP an…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member spoke about being in South Korea. He told a personal story about meeting someone who was happy he was Canadian and not American. I cannot help but reflect on the fact that we are seeing misinformation and disinformation happening all around the world, much of it generated by Russian bots. People cannot be online for two minutes without being attacked by Russian bots.…
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Madam Speaker, I want to read a quote. Freedom of expression and the right to peacefully protest do not give any Canadian the licence to break the law. I call on [the Prime Minister] to enforce the law and direct the RCMP to shut down these illegal blockades. Members may think this was a quote having to do with the illegal blockade in Ottawa, but this is actually from a member of the Conservative …
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Mr. Speaker, like many people in the House, I am deeply concerned about enacting the Emergencies Act. It is why we are here. It is the debate we are participating in. I, like many others in this room, wonder how we got to this place and about the failures, at all levels of government, that got us to this place. I would like a guarantee from the government, and this member, for a fully transparent,…
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Mr. Speaker, I know the hon. member as somebody who has worked very hard for his constituents. I just want to tell him that I have been thinking very much about the deep pain his constituents are going through as they recover from the floods. He quoted previous members of Parliament. I wanted to quote one back to him, if I could, from former Conservative MP Peter MacKay and Senator Vern White: Wha…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his intervention today. I always find his interventions witty, as well as informative. When we think about what is happening here, and we look at what is happening on the streets of Ottawa, across the country and in Alberta, what I am thinking about is how we come out of this. How do we go forward? I have called for an independent, transparent, p…
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Mr. Speaker, 1.5 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes since Russia invaded in 2014. Now, as Russia amasses troops and armaments and threatens further invasion, the Ukrainian people need Canada more than ever. There is a looming humanitarian disaster in Ukraine, and thousands of Ukrainians are seeking refuge in Canada. We saw this government fail to protect Afghans. We cannot let…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague spoke about giving seniors the opportunity to age with dignity. I have met with many seniors in Edmonton Strathcona who speak about that very thing. They speak about wanting to age in place and wanting to ensure that the care they get when they do transition into long-term care is adequate. However, what we have seen in Alberta is a real problem with for-profit centres, w…
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Mr. Speaker, what about Alberta? Yesterday the RCMP arrested 13 extremists blockading the border at Coutts. They seized guns, ammunition and body armour, including assault weapons with thousands of rounds. This comes after convoy leaders raised millions of dollars from foreign donors, with a stated goal of overthrowing the government. While I am happy to see that the blockade appears to be ending …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member on her speech today. It was thoughtful, smart and extremely well done. I want to follow up on some of the things that she mentioned and ask her a quick question. Earlier in February, I was talking about seniors' issues and the GIS clawback and raised that issue with the government. One of the members from the government stood up and said he wa…
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Madam Speaker, I am in Alberta right now, my colleague's home province, so it is a bit earlier for me. I am a little lucky for that. I would also like to thank him for his words on Ukraine. It is something that all of us are seized with at the moment. I agree with the member when he talks about the cruel delays the Liberals have put our most vulnerable seniors through. As we go forward, I think ev…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, today I am honoured to rise to present a petition on behalf of many Canadians, in particular, many Afghan Canadians, who are deeply concerned that the Government of Canada has failed to meet its obligations to the people of Afghanistan. Today marks six months since Kabul fell. This is six months that Afghans have struggled under a brutal Taliban regime. The signatories to this petitio…
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Madam Speaker, I just have to ask this, and it is very similar to other questions that have been asked in the House today: Why did it take the government so long? What do I say to the seniors in my riding who raised this with us in August? I know the NDP brought this to the minister in August. In August, the government knew that it had made a mistake and that there were serious problems. My staff …
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Mr. Speaker, like my colleague, I am deeply frustrated that we are in a situation that has taken us so long to get to. I do not want to go back to seniors in my riding of Edmonton Strathcona and say that we delayed this any longer than we had to. Of course the Liberals took too long to fix this mistake. Of course seniors are in such desperate straits right now that we have to act as fast as we pos…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent speech. It was very interesting. Why does the member think the Liberals feel as though they can make seniors wait until May to fix their mistake? Why do the Liberals think they can make the poorest and most vulnerable of our seniors wait?
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Madam Speaker, that was an interesting intervention today. The hon. member spoke a lot about rapid tests and testing. I agree it is an excellent tool to help us get through this pandemic and move into the next stage and go forward. Certainly my family has used many of the rapid tests. I have school-aged children, so that is something that we have been able to do. There has been some discrepancy in…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. There have been discussions, and I hope that, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion that, in the opinion of the House, the government should do more to address global vaccine equity by sharing resources, doses and knowledge, by taking the following actions: (a) announcing its full support for a temporary waiver of the…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague's intervention was very interesting. One of the concerns that I have, though, is that we know the protective measures put in place across the country have saved lives. It is always difficult to know how many lives have saved because, of course, prevention is prevention. We do know that those measures that have been in place have protected Canadians and saved Canadians' li…
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Madam Speaker, as the Leader of the Opposition knows, I am from Alberta, and Alberta has chosen to lift, or will be lifting, almost all of the restrictions. I just want to share something from a University of Alberta Hospital—
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Madam Speaker, I am glad that my colleagues in the Conservative Party find my comments so enthralling. Dr. Stephanie Smith, a University of Alberta Hospital physician and infectious disease specialist, has said: All those poor Albertans, there are many still waiting for their elective surgeries and to have all these restrictions removed with the possibility of having some increased transmission an…
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Madam Speaker, I was going to ask a different question, but listening to the minister's response to my colleague from the Bloc, I feel compelled to ask more and push him a bit further on global vaccine equity. We know that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, the three major developers of vaccines, make about $65,000 a minute. We also know that they developed those COVID vaccines with $8 billion of publi…
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Madam Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to address my colleagues in the House of Commons today to talk about the opposition motion. I will be splitting my time with the very articulate and intelligent member for Vancouver Kingsway. I want to start off by saying what I know we all are aware of: The actual enemy, the enemy we are all trying to fight, is COVID-19. It is not each other; it is not con…
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