Parliamentary Speeches

Orders Of The Day

Madam Speaker, on the state of the current emergency, the member talked about the temporary nature of it and that it is going to last for 30 days. If all of the circumstances surrounding this seem to have levelled off and we are in a state where we can get back to some normalcy, would he support the revocation of the act?

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, I think what the hon. member did today in his speech was actually to make a case for not continuing the invocation of the act. He did not provide us with any compelling reason for why it should stay. When the member talks about how we got here, the reality and the fact is, and this is not misinformation or disinformation, the Prime Minister marginalized, stigmatized, traumatized and d…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, the eyes of the nation are upon us tonight. Earlier today, the Prime Minister signalled, as did a member of his back bench, that tonight's vote is a confidence vote. Convention requires the Prime Minister to publicly declare a confidence vote of this nature as such, following convention. My question for the government House leader is this: Is the vote tonight a confidence vote? If the…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely 100% agree, as do all members on this side of the House, that the swastika does represent hate and is certainly a repugnant, abhorrent symbol. However, on Wednesday, we witnessed what I would say was one of the worst incidents of an attack on a member in my six years in the House. We saw the Prime Minister attack a Jewish member of the House, the member for Thornhill, who…

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, over the course of the last couple of days, I know my office has been receiving literally thousands of emails. I suspect that colleagues across all parties are receiving the emails, particularly as they relate to the Emergencies Act and the concern that Canadians are now waking up to as they start to better understand just the expansive overreach of the state into their lives. I just …

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. The hon. member did retract it. He said it clearly. I think if you check with the Table, you will find that.

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's passion. I have no doubt about his sincerity in representing his constituents. I have seen it over and over in my six years of being here and his 20 years of being here. The government needs to provide solutions to the issues the member brings up. What solutions does he advise the government are required in his particular situation?

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, at one point the hon. member asked how we got to this point. She then proceeded to blame everybody else, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford, but failed to place any blame on her own Prime Minister for wedging, stigmatizing and dividing people, calling them racist, misogynist and extremist, and asking whether we have to tolerate these people. What we are seeing in this country, in the…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The hon. member for Kingston and the Islands used an unparliamentary term, referring to another member as an “idiot”. I would like him to apologize.

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his speech. I am on the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics with him, and I would like to say that he is a very honourable man. I am very worried. The order issued by the government authorizes it to impose other temporary measures authorized under section 19 of the Emergencies Act, which are not yet known. The Prime Minister is basi…

Orders of the Day

On a point of order, the hon. member should know that I am not referring to the act. I am actually referring to the order in council.

Orders of the Day

Mr. Speaker, the member for the Bloc laid out perfectly why this was an expansive overreach on the part of the government. One of the things that is extremely concerning to me, and I think the Deputy Prime Minister actually confirmed this the other day, is that the government is intending to impose some of the measures in the Emergencies Act on a more permanent basis, including financial tracking …

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, the Minister of Justice revealed yesterday that the financial provisions of the Emergencies Act were aimed more at punishing political opponents than at actually fighting crime. Can members imagine living in a country like Canada where a law or an act is designed to beat down political dissent on the part of opposition parties. That could include the Bloc Québécois, for example. I a…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from the NDP rose on a point of order, and we are certainly sympathetic to the member for Yukon. However, the easiest way we can resolve the situation with interpreters is to get back to normal Parliament so that we are all here. The debate we are having in this place, whether we agree or not with the invocation of the Emergencies Act, is probably and arguably one of…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to seek your ruling concerning a key procedural aspect of the very important and historic debate the House will be having this week. On Monday, the Prime Minister announced that Canada was under a public order emergency, invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in that law's existence. That will require a debate in the House to confirm the government'…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the one thing we have found with these Liberals is that they are always a day late but they are never, ever any dollars short. They have never found a problem that they cannot throw money at. However, it does speak to the issue of scrutiny. If the member recalls, we had four hours to deal with a $57-billion bill at one time during the pandemic. Again, as I have talked about several ti…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the hon. member was listening to what I said. I have been advocating for rapid tests since April 2020, a month after the COVID pandemic started storming around the world. I actually sent letters to the Minister of Health asking for the approval of certain types of rapid tests that had been approved by other blue-chip regulatory bodies, like the U.S. FDA and CE bodies in the …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we request a recorded division.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, which he tells me is the number one riding in all of Canada. I happen to think Barrie—Innisfil is. Let me begin by noting how profoundly disappointed I am with the results of what I thought was a reasonable request on the part of the opposition, through our opposition day motion, to ask for a plan from…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by expressing profound disappointment on the part of the official opposition for what is effectively a hammer being dropped on a very important bill, limiting debate and limiting parliamentary scrutiny. Last week, we proposed what I thought was a reasonable amendment to the motion. The amendment would have allowed an expedited process of parliamentary scrutiny and would h…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we support the bill. I do not think I can be any clearer than that. However, we are saying that we cannot bring the hammer down. Our job as members of Parliament is to provide oversight and scrutiny on the money that is being spent by the government to make sure it is effective and make sure it is being spent in the best manner it can be. All we are asking for, and the only compromise…

Madam Speaker, I will be moving a unanimous consent motion, but on the business of the day, let me say that I am extremely disappointed, as I mentioned yesterday in the Thursday question, that the government is effectively using a hammer to propose and fast-track two pieces of legislation that are important but that come at a significant cost in the multi-billions of dollars. Effectively, the Libe…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, it is not based on science. It is based on political science. Yesterday at the ethics committee, Ann Cavoukian said she found it disturbing that the government collected phone data without informing the public first or, worse, without their consent. Serious questions remain about whether the privacy rights of Canadians have been protected. The Privacy Commissioner has received so ma…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, Canadians need and want a clear plan to end the mandates and restrictions. This week, four Liberal MPs came out against their own government and are demanding that the mandates be removed. I agree with them, and I also completely agree with the Liberal member for Louis-Hébert, who said that the Prime Minister has intentionally stigmatized and divided Canadians for political gain. Th…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, is it time for the Thursday question?

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am really pleased to rise and speak to a very important and critical debate in this place. I would suggest it is somewhat historical in the sense that we are trying to move forward from an incredibly tough couple of years for Canadians. I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton. I have been a member of Parliament now for six years. In my 57 years, I do n…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I think the Leader of the Opposition was quite clear in her statement this morning. In fact, I was quite clear in my statement just now that these protests do have to end. Canadians have been heard, and it is up to the government. We are not the government. We are members of the opposition. The Liberals are the government, and they have all of the tools and all of the levers of power …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I was involved in the crafting of the motion. The initial crafting of the motion was somewhat prescriptive in the sense that maybe it was a bridge too far to start, and this is why we brought it back a little bit to talk about the government developing a plan by February 28. We are not naive. We do not think that things are just going to all of a sudden stop. There has to be some peri…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, there is no question about it that there has to be a vaccine plan globally, because there are risks associated with other types of variants that are going to develop in these nations. It is up to the global community to come together and make sure that, for those countries that are vulnerable and susceptible to these types of variants manifesting themselves, we come together and reall…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I apologize. Like my colleague from Lévis—Lotbinière, I kind of jumped the gun. Let me begin by stating that I am really looking forward to working with you and the government House leader. Despite any preconceived or misplaced characterizations he may have about me or my leadership team colleagues, which he so willingly shared with his caucus and publicly, he should not mistake our p…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, why was this vote so important yesterday? It was because the Liberals, with their “no” vote, have signalled that they will continue collecting this data without the consent of Canadians. If we connect the dots, we see a pattern of the Liberals using the distraction of a pandemic as an opportunity for massive expansion and overreach to abuse the rights and freedoms of Canadians, includ…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago the ethics committee, including all Liberal committee members, unanimously agreed that a tender should be postponed in order to stop the Liberals from secretly collecting the mobility data of Canadians until MPs could be sure that the privacy rights of Canadians were not being violated. However, in an unbelievable move yesterday, the entire Liberal caucus, including the …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for her kind words. Everybody was saying that this new position as opposition House leader is like drinking water from a fire hose, and as a former firefighter, I never drank water out of a firehose in the way I am today. It has been quite a day. It is an important question, because what we want to be focusing on is not just how the data was collect…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, it certainly is unbelievable. They informed him, but they did not utilize his expertise in guiding them on how to properly do this. On the issue of the parliamentary secretary, he is full of bluster. He stands up and he criticizes us, and we accept that. We know where it is coming from.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I believe the information and the data that are collected do have to be destroyed, but I need assurance and members of the committee need assurance—and this is why we are here today—that the data is being collected in an appropriate manner, a secure manner, with proper security protocols in place, but more importantly, that the information is protected. I would not go so far as to s…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, January job numbers came out and they were really bad. They show 200,000 Canadian jobs gone, higher unemployment and an inflation rate that is out of control. This has turned into a disaster, and Canadians are paying the price. Will the minister finally admit that her plan is not working and come up with a plan that includes dealing with the costs of gas, home heating, groceries and l…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, it is cold comfort for Canadians who are losing their jobs and seeing the prices of everything go up. Prices are skyrocketing, yet the Liberals keep pretending that everything is fine. Let us be clear: Things are not fine. Canadians are struggling and it is getting almost impossible for many families to put gas in their cars, to put food on their tables or to heat their homes. Will th…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, there are a couple of issues we are dealing with here today, not the least of which is the request to put off the RFP. However, the real challenge is in this de-identified data being collected by telecom companies and the transfer of that information. It may be that when the Public Health Agency of Canada gets that information, it is aggregated and de-identified, but the challenge e…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I seek guidance from you on whether accusing a member of Parliament of being a conspiracy theorist is unparliamentary language.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, before I begin, I would like to thank my colleague from Trois‑Rivières for moving this motion in the House today. Before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics did its study, I texted my colleague to say I was looking forward to hearing what he had to say about this because he had a lot of experience and knew the subject matter well. I would like to than…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I cannot speak to that because we are simply not at the point of understanding how this data was collected, whether it was properly de-identified, what the risks of reidentification are, and why the Privacy Commissioner was not involved in the process and providing guidance to PHAC. The Privacy Commissioner would have provided guidance to Telus as well. I have trouble understanding …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, my colleague posed a very important question. We heard members at committee say that the Prime Minister made people aware this was going on and that the government was transparent about it, but it really boils down to the issue of consent. It can be as transparent as it wants, but the bottom line is that if users and Telus customers did not provide their consent for this information…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, this is a false narrative. Barrie house prices in December have averaged $855,000, which is a year-over-year increase of 30%, putting more and more young people out of the housing market. The price of gas this morning at Costco in Barrie was $1.488. A year ago, it was $1.068. This is not a false narrative. Families and seniors are anxious about …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, in December we found out that the Liberals were secretly tracking the mobility data of 33 million Canadians during the pandemic. The only reason Canadians found out is that a request for proposal was issued to continue tracking the mobility data for another five years. Serious concerns have been raised by security and surveillance experts on what security measures and protocols were p…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I wish the Prime Minister felt that way about the Winnipeg lab documents. Security and privacy experts are concerned about the security protocols and measures that were put in place to protect the privacy of Canadians in this data scoop. Why was it done in secret without the users' consent? Why was the Privacy Commissioner not consulted? Where a Canadian eats, where they get gas, what…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, instead of being focused on normalizing lockdowns, maybe the Liberals should have been focused on keeping our economy open. If someone were to connect the dots, they would see a pattern of massive overreach by the Liberals. They tried to seize control of Parliament at the beginning of the pandemic to completely control spending and taxing. They got caught secretly collecting banking d…

Speech from the Throne

Mr. Speaker, last night the Afghanistan committee started really digging deep into the situation in Afghanistan. We are hearing horrific stories of desperation, despair and an economy that is collapsing, and that there was lack of preparation on the part of the Canadian government to really be prepared for that crisis developing. Based on what we are hearing so far and what the member has heard fr…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Rob Warman who passed away on January 15. Originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Rob joined the RCMP in 1951 out of high school and was posted to Newfoundland. Later, he would fondly share stories of chasing rum runners from St-Pierre and Miquelon. In 1954, Rob joined the RCAF service police, later the MP, beginning an association that would last ov…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, 33 million Canadians had their mobility data secretly tracked by the Public Health Agency of Canada without their consent. This unprecedented level of surveillance on our citizens came to light when the Liberals admitted not only that they did it, but also that they planned to continue spying on Canadians for another five years. Protecting the privacy of Canadians is the foundation of…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the statement in the Chamber on December 9, 2021, by the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Disability Inclusion that "my office and my department follow up on every allegation of fraud, and this would be no exception": what specific actions did the (i) minister's office, (ii) department take to follow up on the allegation made on a Calgary radio station about the me…