Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, far be it from me to offer any free legal advice to anyone in the House, particularly a colleague. However, given what she has experienced by way of the message of vitriol on her answering machine, I want to remind my colleague that this is what the Criminal Code of Canada is for. What she describes is intimidation. What she describes is uttering threats. There is no limitation period…
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Madam Speaker, the finance minister, the Attorney General and the Minister of Public Safety have all been unable to provide a clear and articulate answer to this pressing question. What is the donation threshold by which a financial institution will freeze an account under the Emergencies Act?
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Madam Speaker, given my former career as a Crown attorney for the last 18 years, I want to draw on your reference to Mr. King and his comments directed toward the Prime Minister, which in my view constitute a threat to do grievous bodily harm. Do you not think this would provide the police with ample authority, under the Criminal Code, to lay criminal charges in relation to uttering death threats …
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I appreciate that you are in the Chair, but your predecessor ruled on four occasions, on points of order, that the Liberal members of Parliament, including ministers, who continually talked over my colleagues who were speaking on this very—
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Mr. Speaker, with more than 1.3 million unemployed Canadians, 200,000 jobs were lost in January alone. At the same time, our businesses are struggling to fill almost one million jobs. Canada's economic recovery is in jeopardy. Canada has the fifth-worst job recovery in the G7. Hard-working people of Brantford—Brant are asking this: When will the Prime Minister stop putting his ideological agenda a…
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Madam Speaker, countries around the world with lower vaccination rates than those in Canada are easing their COVID-19 restrictions. The trend continues in North America, where several American states are about to lessen their restrictions. Of course, we now know that several provinces are doing the same. The World Health Organization recently stated that some countries can carefully consider relax…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the cost of living crisis affects all Canadians. Everyone has experienced it when filling up their gas tanks, paying utilities or buying food. A recent Angus Reid Institute poll reported that nearly 60% of Canadians are having a difficult time feeding their families. As I indicated earlier, there is an extra $1,000 more in groceries in 2022 alone, as food prices surge. This is anoth…
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Madam Speaker, recently I asked the Deputy Prime Minister when the Liberal government would reverse its CPP tax hike. Instead of assuring people that the government is doing something about this, she said that we were all mistaken and that Canada's economy is robustly recovering from the COVID recession. The government is tone deaf. The reality is Canadians are paying an extra $1,000 in grocery ex…
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Mr. Speaker, Immigration Canada faces an unprecedented backlog under the Liberal government. Nearly two million applications are in the queue. My office receives dozens of calls every week. During a time of catastrophic labour shortages, thousands of foreign workers and Canadian employers are waiting years to get their applications processed. When will the Liberal government fix this Liberal-made …
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Madam Speaker, last December I asked the Minister of Finance if she had heard from Canadians about all the difficulties that people are facing these days. I highlighted how dire and tragic the situation really was as parents were having to choose between putting food on their tables and buying clothing for their kids and as Canadians were finding it increasingly hard to keep up with the rising pri…
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Madam Speaker, following up on my latter point before I ran out of time, Indigenous Services Canada has reviewed and supported the design brief for the new school on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. They have confirmed that they consider this phase of the process complete. In fact, the then Minister of Indigenous Services attended my riding, toured the particular location and agreed tha…
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Mr. Speaker, with inflation reaching a 30-year high, the government continues to hurt Canadians with its poor economic policies. Nearly 60% of people are finding it difficult to feed their families. If that is not bad enough, the government raised its CPP tax on Canadians, an extra $700 coming out of families' paycheques. This may mean nothing to this Prime Minister, but it matters to everybody el…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to rise in the House today to acknowledge the efforts of an incredibly dedicated and passionate woman who has been at the helm of a very special organization in my riding, known as the Crossing All Bridges Learning Centre, or CAB for short. For the past seven years, Paula Thomlison has been the executive director and the driving force behind the centre, which supports de…
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Madam Speaker, following up on my friend's latter comments, does he think that those convicted of sexual assault, criminal harassment, trafficking of minors or abduction of minors deserve to be punished by way of a denunciatory sentence, which could include jail?
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. friend a couple of questions. First, does the Bloc Québécois stand for the proposition that all mandatory minimums under the Criminal Code and CDSA ought to be eliminated? If her response is yes, I would ask her this. Because she feels that judges are best equipped to render appropriate sentences, does she feel all judges across this great country all think…
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Madam Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to speak today on Bill C-5, a seriously flawed and dangerous piece of proposed legislation. My commentary and opinion on this are shaped by my experience as a lawyer for almost 30 years, the last 18 years as a Crown attorney for the Province of Ontario. A week ago today, members in the House stood in solidarity to honour and remember the victims of the Mon…
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Madam Speaker, with respect to the offences of possession of a controlled substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, where in section 4 of that act does it speak to any mandatory minimum penalties? You spoke about automatic jail sentences. I would like clarification—
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Madam Speaker, I would like the hon. member to inform me where in section 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act it speaks to mandatory minimum penalties.
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Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member had actually listened to my speech, he would know that at no point in time did I indicate that we, as the Conservative caucus, have no faith in judicial discretion in levelling appropriate sentences. As a Crown attorney for the last 18 years, I was in front of judges every single day. My point was that sufficient tools already exist within the Criminal Code for judg…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague personally for the elevation of my past career. I was not a judge of the Ontario provincial court or Superior Court. Rather, I was a Crown attorney. To address the important issue the member raised, there already exists a regime that vests federal prosecutors, as it does with provincial prosecutors, in exercising their discretion appropriately to deal…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very important question. In my respectful opinion, everything in Bill C-5 concerned with removing those offences, which are currently delineated under section 742, the conditional sentence regime, all relate to serious violent offences. To the member's point, kidnapping, sexual assault, criminal harassment and abduction are all serious personal injury offences. In my speech,…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada is facing devastating problems caused by the pandemic. Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. My friend says I do not pay much attention to day care costs and things of that nature. That could not be further from the truth. What I found rather shocking was that the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development today indicated to the House that the idea of a $10-a-d…
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Mr. Speaker, Global News recently reported that prices for food products would go up 5% to 7% in 2022. This means a family of four will be spending $1,000 more a year, not on restaurant meals but solely on groceries. This is in addition to the current rate of food inflation, which reached almost 4% this past October. When I asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance about skyrocketing…
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Madam Speaker, my question for the hon. minister is twofold. The first part is on the issue of urgency. Can he identify, given that we all recognize the horrors that happened during the election regarding the protests and the intimidation, that since the election this has been an ongoing trend? I would like to know about that, because I have not heard about it. The second part is on the issue of s…
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Mr. Speaker, the cost of living has been dramatically increasing since the Liberals formed government in 2015. It is much more challenging now to keep up with the rising prices on literally everything, but especially the essential items. Jennifer, a single mother from my riding, told me that she cannot afford the basic needs for her kids. She often finds herself having to choose between buying clo…
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Mr. Speaker, the labour shortage in Brantford—Brant is devastating. Manufacturers, restaurants and many other businesses are not able to fill hundreds, if not thousands, of positions. As a result, fewer products and services are available to the constituents in my riding, and business owners are losing their income. Rather than addressing labour shortages and many other economic challenges, the Li…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time this morning with my hon. colleague from Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon. It is an absolute honour and privilege to rise and reply to the Speech from the Throne. I listened very carefully to the speech and identified two concerning issues that I heard repeatedly while knocking on thousands of doors during the past election campaign, namely the escalation of cri…
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Madam Speaker, quite frankly, my friend opposite's question was offensive, given my background prior to me being elected as a parliamentarian. I enjoyed 18 years as a representative of Her Majesty prosecuting crime in Brantford—Brant. I take crime extremely seriously. I fought every day for victims to ensure that their rights were heard.
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It is very rich that my friend is now asking me to answer a question, but in any event, that quote was not my quote. That quote came from the Toronto Sun. It is an alarming figure. We have to take steps now. This is enough with the platitudes. He should come up with concrete action to deal with this issue.
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Madam Speaker, I think there is an obligation on every Canadian to learn both official languages. As a public official, I am taking great pride in learning the language. I am taking daily French lessons, and I hope that someday in the very near future I will be able to communicate in both official languages. I applaud my friend's comments regarding the Governor General, and I think, as a general o…
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Madam Speaker, I guess the old adage about the pot calling the kettle black applies here. The member talks about a coalition between the Conservative Party and the Liberal government. Let us not forget what happened last week with the vote on virtual Parliament. Leaving that aside, if my friend actually took the time and listened to the talking points of our leader, Erin O'Toole, which everyone of…
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Madam Speaker, my point was that every single day of the election campaign, we talked about a very real, concrete plan to deal with this housing crisis. We talked about taking immediate steps to put shovels in the ground now, not years from now.
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Madam Speaker, given what we heard last week regarding the virtual sittings and the necessity of wearing masks and everything of that nature, I find it rather odd that there are members of the governing party who choose, for whatever reason, not to wear their masks.
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Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to rise in the House today to highlight a grassroots initiative on Six Nations of the Grand River, known as Diyo's Online Closet. On November 12, 2010, Jewel “Gawediyo” Monture, a beautiful and innocent young girl who endured relentless bullying, died by suicide. In an effort to honour her daughter's memory and raise awareness of the emotional and mental abuse that bully…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to rise for the first time in this House today, having been elected by the good people of Brantford—Brant. I have so many people to thank, more than I have time to mention today. First, I would like to extend a special thanks to my wife Angela, my twin daughters Jennie and Emma, and my parents Larry and Mary Brock for their love, encouragement and ongoing…
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Mr. Speaker, The Globe and Mail is reporting that the biggest price surge in two decades is set to deliver a revenue balance worth billions of dollars to the current government's coffers. While the Prime Minister's cup runneth over, skyrocketing food prices are hurting Canadian families. Food, gas and home heating are all getting more expensive. The Prime Minister's high-tax, high-spending agenda …
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