Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I know the member to be an honourable—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is okay, I understand this response makes them uncomfortable because they know it is true. When it comes to Canadians who do not share their vision of Canada, what do Conservative members of Parliament do? They talk them down. They try to bring them down. They do not like having people push against their agenda. They do not like it when they are asked tough questions. When intellig…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Again, Mr. Speaker, what we see from the Conservatives is when Canadians do not share their vision of Canada, they talk them down. They try—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is another week and another tired line from the Conservatives. When it comes to Canadians who disagree with their vision of the country, instead of allowing for that disagreement to happen, the Conservatives attack them personally and try to bring them down. We have seen this time and time again from Conservatives, whether it is the news media like CBC or CTV or whether it is emine…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, again what we see from the Conservative members of Parliament is that they just cannot handle being criticized. It is the same way Conservatives treat the media. When the media asks them tough questions about what they are putting forward in terms of their agenda for Canadians, what do they do? They attack them. This is what they do with the media. This is what they do with eminent Ca…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the only people who are desperate for an election are the Conservative members of Parliament. Everybody else in the House wants to get to work. We look forward to doing that next week.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I think the question is why the Conservatives are so desperate for an election right now. It is because they want to get in before Canadians understand that they have a hidden agenda. However, Canadians are much smarter than that. When the Conservatives say one thing and do another, Canadians know. We trust Canadians. When will the Conservatives start trusting them?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, yesterday what we saw was that the House voted non-confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there is a very simple answer to his question as to who is opposed to that motion, Canadians.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is a little sad that the Leader of the Opposition, having just lost a vote of non-confidence in the government yesterday, is putting forward the exact same motion today. I think it shows his desperation.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the only people who are afraid are the Conservative MPs. They know that the longer the House sits, the more their hidden agenda is exposed and the more Canadians do not want to vote for them. This afternoon, we will be dedicated to the Conservative opposition day motion. Tomorrow, we will consider Bill C-76, an act to amend the Canada National Parks Act, which supports the people of J…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that the member opposite is not focused on what the motion is asking for and on my argument about the charter-protected rights of Canadians. Nothing says that parliamentary committees cannot use this information for themselves. It is that they are requesting this information and sending it to the police, bypassing judicial oversight and bypassing the very important s…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is not true. I am not questioning the order; I am expressing my dismay with it. I would submit that the actions we are seeing from the Conservatives to trample the charter-protected rights of Canadians are just a glimpse of how they will act if they ever form government. The Conservatives talk a lot about freedoms, but today they are starting to demonstrate the freedoms that they…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, what is concerning about this order is that the documents were not requested for the use of the House. They were requested for another reason. The House requested those documents to give them to a third party, in this case the RCMP. That does not follow important procedures for protecting the rights of Canadians under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We need to ensure that…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. colleague how he squares the circle that both the RCMP and the Auditor General feel incredibly uncomfortable with what the Conservatives have put forward and what the chamber has put forward, and how he squares the circle of trampling the rights of Canadians through the motion that he and the Conservatives have put forward.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned about some of the allegations the member opposite made, and I am worried that she is spending a lot of time in Internet conspiracy theories as opposed to in reality. What the House is doing—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I can only surmise by the reaction of my colleagues opposite that it is making them a bit uncomfortable knowing that what they are doing is trampling the charter rights of Canadians. They are taking the extraordinary powers of this place for political gain to override the rights of Canadians. This is where it begins. I hope that my hon. colleagues reflect seriously upon this and decid…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, while colleagues on the opposite side laugh about interfering with police work, I will say that it is actually a very serious matter. There is a very good reason why there is a separation between the legislative branch of government and the judicial branch of government. What the Conservatives are putting forward is absolutely trying to interfere with that separation and that independ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, a terrible precedent is being set by the chamber today. I have made my points clear in my original statement, but I would like to reiterate a number of them. The RCMP and the Auditor General have both expressed their extreme discomfort with the blurring of the line of the separation of power between the legislative and judicial branches of government. Quite frankly, there is an abuse …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague can read the letter sent by the RCMP commissioner to the House of Commons. He said that it will likely be impossible for the RCMP to use them because it is in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As the Speaker mentioned in his response to this question of privilege, this is something that is very rare and unusual in the House of Commons. It is u…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there is only one party in the House that shows disdain to Canadian workers, and it is the Conservative Party of Canada. Time and time again, when our country has had to negotiate trade deals, the current government has stood for Canadians. We renegotiated NAFTA. We stood up against the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, and we will continue to stand up for Canadian workers in all secto…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I will tell the House what freedom does not look like, which is Conservative members of Parliament taking all-expenses-paid trips to talk at anti-abortion conferences and to push forward an anti-abortion vision of Canada. When the leader of the Conservative Party talks about women's rights, he neglects to share his hidden agenda that would take away their reproductive rights. When he …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the Conservative leader is playing games. That is what he is doing. He likes to stir up trouble, but he does not actually have a serious proposal for Canadians. This is all just a political game to him, and it is all about his ego. His actions today are strictly in his own self-interest. Canadians and Quebeckers have nothing to gain from what he is doing today.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think we saw on full display today that the Leader of the Opposition can only speak in half-truths. He likes to keep half of his plans hidden because he knows if he were to share his whole plan with Canadians, they would not approve. We know, for example, that many members of his caucus are opposed to women accessing their reproductive and health care rights, yet he does not speak…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague is mistaken. The member from the NDP asked him whether he would cut dental care, and he did not answer the question. What Liberals talk about is based on facts. When the Conservatives were in power, what did they do? They put a global gag order on international development agencies so they could not work on sexual health and reproductive rights. When it comes to Ca…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech and for all of the work we do together. Could he give specific examples of what he is afraid the Conservatives will do? We know that they are going to make cuts to many programs. There are a lot of things that are important, not just for Quebeckers but for Canadians, things like CBC/Radio-Canada, which the Conservatives want to get r…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows full well, Canadian seniors are an extremely important demographic for us. In fact, one of the first things we did after forming the government was boost the guaranteed income supplement for our most vulnerable seniors. That was a major change. We have seen a decline in poverty among seniors, especially women. We know there is more to be done, and we know …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we are debating a Conservative motion that is really about the price on pollution. That may interest the Bloc Québécois. We know the Conservatives do not believe that climate change is real. Could my colleague tell us why it is important to have a climate change plan and why that is important to Quebeckers and Canadians?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to reassure the member that we continue to work hard for the forestry sector in our country. What I do want him to recall is that the moment the President of the United States said he was going to rip up NAFTA, what did former prime minister Harper say? He said to sign it, do whatever we need to do, capitulate, give in and give him whatever he wants. The Conservatives l…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I do not always agree with my hon. colleague from Timmins—James Bay, but I think he hit the nail on the head just now. It is clear that the Leader of the Opposition runs on slogans. He likes to play political stunts. Today is just that. In fact, I think the member's point about this being more a vote on non-confidence in the Leader of the Opposition than it is on anything else is a …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it was at a loss; that is right, but it was the current government that made sure those GM jobs stayed in Canada. It was the current government that made sure the auto sector has the supports it needs to advance in the 21st century. We believe in fighting climate change and we believe in low-emission vehicles, and we are seeing record investment in the Canadian auto sector, not just…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I will tell the House what freedom does not look like. It does not look like Conservative members of Parliament taking all-expenses-paid trips to Florida to talk about how—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, while the Leader of the Opposition likes to call out what he calls “falsehoods”, I think it is important that we set the record straight. When he talks about health care transfers, those were the 2003 health care accords that were signed by Paul Martin, a Liberal prime minister. Therefore, it seems that the good things that he takes credit for were Liberal policies. However, since h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, today, we are here to discuss confidence in the government. It is a matter that the Leader of the Opposition has put forward. However, what he said just now was full of things that are simply not true. He stated that he is proud of Canada, but he spent the past 20 minutes talking about all the things that he does not like about Canada and about Canadians. All he does is talk about h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the hon. Leader of the Opposition likes to point out what he thinks are falsehoods, but it is important that we correct the record—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what is particularly interesting is the Leader of the Opposition's revisionist history of the time that the Conservatives were in government, but one thing that stood out to me in his remarks is that he said he was going to do the exact same thing as when the Conservatives were in government. What I recall, when the Conservatives were in government, was a country that was ashamed of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I apologize to the interpreters. I very much appreciate what they do. I will be sure to keep my hands higher up for the rest of my speech. I will pick up where I left off. It is extremely important for us. It is important for the government to ensure that Canadians know that everything we do is for them. It is a very different approach from what the Conservatives are proposing. We a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I do not think we should be politicizing pensions, but if the member opposite or his leader wants to talk about the size of their pensions, they should talk about that. At a time when they will be getting millions of dollars in government pensions, they also look to cut the pensions of everyday Canadians. We are here to support seniors no matter where they worked, not just parliamenta…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is the same thing with the Conservatives. There are Canadians who want to contribute to this country, but they do not share the Conservatives' partisan vision. What do the Conservatives do? They attack them. That is not respectful. That is not appropriate in our democracy. It is possible to disagree without attacking Canadians.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, if that member wants to talk about entitlements, he should talk to the leader of his party who has a calculated $2 million pension and who lives in government housing, while at the same time looking to cut the pensions of Canadians, raise the age of retirement from 65 to 67, and cut the Canada child benefit and other benefits that help Canadians. If that member wants to talk to entitl…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Bloc Québécois for asking a real question here in the House. It is important to make sure that questions refer to the work of government. The government is here to work for Canadians and to demonstrate what we do every day to serve Canadians. It would be nice if all members of the House could keep that in mind.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I guess the member opposite will only get half a gold star from his leader today, because all he did was announce the slogans, but he forgot to attack the other political parties. When it comes to eminent Canadians who do not share the vision of the Conservatives, they attack them. There is a diversity of views in the country and whether we agree with people or not, it does not mean w…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am also rising to respond to the question of privilege raised on September 16 by the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, respecting the motion adopted by the House on June 10. I would like to start by stating that this does not constitute a prima facie question of privilege, as the House has overstepped its authority in this instance. The motion, as adopted by the House, does not order th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely shameful what the Conservatives are doing. When there is a Canadian who does not agree with their vision for Canada, what do they do? They attack the person. Whether it is anybody who does not agree with what the Conservatives do, the only thing they know how to do is denigrate that person. We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable. We should be able to…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives keep talking about women, but they do not support policies that support women. Why are they against affordable child care? If they care about that single mother, they should be supporting affordable child care. If they care about women's economic freedom, they should be supporting child care. If they care about women's rights, they should be supporting a woman's righ…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the language from the member opposite was completely inappropriate, and quite frankly, Canadians deserve better. However, unfortunately that is what we have come to expect from the Conservative members and their leader. The reason they are focusing on the price on pollution is that they want to distract Canadians from their real agenda, where they cut pensions for seniors, cut child c…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that kind of language from the member opposite is totally inappropriate, and quite frankly, Canadians deserve better. However, it is what we have come to expect from the Conservative leader and his caucus, who would—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome my new colleague to this place. It is important, of course, to always be open and transparent with Canadians. What we hear is someone else who knows how to repeat three-word slogans as well as be able to deliver for the media. What the members opposite are doing is trying to evade what they actually plan to deliver for Canadians. I hope that the member opposite…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I first want to begin by saying that it is great to be back in this place. I really did miss most people on this side. I cannot say I missed them that much, but I did miss them a little. It is just typical from the Conservatives that when they have an eminent Canadian, someone who has given so much to the country, who does not agree with their economic vision or their vision at all in…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by wishing all members in the House happy holidays. I think everybody will be enjoying time with their families over the holidays and we look forward to seeing everyone back here in February. I think it is important to make sure that the facts are right. It was actually Conservative senators who were bullying independent senators. In fact, the Conservative lead…
Read full speech →