Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, since the start of this debate and since the start of the session, it is as though I have been listening to some pie‑in‑the‑sky promoters of a start‑up focused on nation building and on building the one and only Canadian economy. I would like to know specifically when and how the initiatives to help businesses and workers will be implemented and how the budget will be balanced in thre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have a comment, which my colleague can share his thoughts on afterward. Does my colleague not find it contradictory, or at the very least curious, that our banker Prime Minister called in King Charles to distinguish himself from the U.S. but that the first thing he did was sign a Trump-style order, implying that he did not need the House for it to be implemented? At the same time, t…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise today to mark the sudden passing of Darllie Pierre‑Louis, a municipal councillor for the City of Mascouche. An entire community is mourning the loss of this kind-hearted woman who went through life with a smile on her face and an infectious joie de vivre. Darllie was committed to humanitarian causes and got involved in their work to help improve pe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition has been telling us that Bill C‑5 is responsible for the toxic drug crisis, and it sounds like he is serious. He has been telling us that Bill C‑5, which sought to decriminalize simple possession and not penalize addicts or take them to court, would trigger an extraordinary crisis. He has been telling us that Bill C‑5 will let drug lords …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this morning, at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Health, a mother who lost her daughter to this toxic drug crisis told us the following: I have shared my story for years on behalf of my daughter...yet the deaths caused by the toxic drug supply continue. As a country we have regressed significantly, especially in the way harm reduction has been vilified. As a country, we hav…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his excellent speech, which was very relevant to this afternoon's debate. He clearly demonstrated that the Indian Act is a systemic impediment to the emancipation of indigenous peoples and indigenous nations. As I recall, the Liberals promised to change the despicable, offensive law known as the Indian Act nine years ago. They promised to scrap it and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I apologize. As I was saying, we will see people change sides. We can always give them the benefit of the doubt, but they may have the same attitude. When we ask for documents, they are completely redacted. What is the government afraid of? When one seeks a mandate to sit in a chamber like this one, and when one party manages to get enough representatives elected that it can form gove…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have rarely heard so many ridiculous speeches in the House. Quite frankly, this minister's constituents deserve better. I was wondering why there were problems between the federal government and Quebec regarding meals on wheels, when there were never any issues before this minister came along. I can see that he is making the situation a lot worse with his partisanship. I am talkin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Trois-Rivières. Not to brag but to let members know where I was coming from, I already had the opportunity to say, during another question of privilege last week, that I taught ethics for 30 years. I have some political experience from two legislatures. I fail to understand the situation that we find ourselves in today. Parliamentary commi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to take issue with this government's respect for standing committees. One example is the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, which prepared a report on a study of the harms associated with breast implants, with unanimous recommendations. The House was told that breast implant illness had to be recognized. This government has done nothing with this excep…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, aside from that one, I remember the problem with Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the problem with the Winnipeg lab. Again, we had to work hard to try to get accountability and transparency. There was also the ArriveCAN and WE Charity scandals. That is why I say that it looks a lot like a government on its last legs.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we may agree on the substance, but I do not think that it is all that different. I think that this kind of broken promise and the lack of transparency related to conflicts of interest both fuel cynicism. I am a little surprised by my colleague's question because it is as though the Conservative Party was waiting for this reform when they were against it, if memory serves, and I think …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, never have I heard such a distressing speech about arbitrariness and relativism. They seem to be trivializing what seniors, the various FADOQ groups and the Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées have been asking for. He is a member from Quebec, but he does not hear these people. When people have worked hard all their lives, sometimes …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have rarely heard a minister make a speech so full of political posturing and crass partisanship. That is not at all representative of what a minister who is dignified should be when dealing with seniors who are suffering. Was the $34 billion for Trans Mountain evidence-based? Was the $83 billion in tax credits to oil companies evidence-based? Was the $2 billion in administrative …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, like Gollum and his “precious”, the leader of the Conservative Party is so obsessed with the throne that even though he gets 125 questions a week, I have never heard him ask a single question about protecting supply management. I have never heard him ask a single question about advance requests for medical assistance in dying. He opposes that. I have never heard him ask a single que…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we said in several occasions that we have no more confidence in the Liberals than in the Conservatives, and for good reason. Let me first mention a few contradictions. The government calls itself the champion of the free choice of pregnant women when it comes to making decisions about their own bodies, specifically under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, on t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a comment. I want to congratulate my colleague on his speech. I am a proud sovereignist and I am often asked whether my work in Ottawa is interesting. I say that it is, because when the Bloc Québécois takes a position, we do so as if we are defining the parameters of our future country. We just heard an eloquent speech that set out the Bloc Québécois's position on…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, which was quite clear. He did a good job explaining that the government wanted to correct an injustice by ensuring that people who have wrongly lost their citizenship could get it back. During the debates, at least yesterday's debate, the official opposition pointed out that this bill could have negative effects, specifically that it could create a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, since February 2023, the Minister of Justice has been repeating that he is consulting the provinces, that he is reflecting carefully and that advance requests are complicated. Meanwhile, 83% of Canadians and 87% of Quebeckers support this option. While the minister dithers, Quebec has passed a law. Patients are waiting for this to be implemented, and doctors want to practise with peac…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, when I read the outline of this bill, I thought that there was no way we would dither and debate this for long, because there is still a pressing need to correct an injustice. I do not see how anyone could justify waiting to correct an injustice. That is why I was very surprised to see the Conservatives say no just now to the motion that would have allowed us to move quickly to corr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have been listening to my Conservative colleague's questions for a while now. I get the impression that he wants to use all of our time or impose time for debate to discuss all the problems that exist with the management of immigration, when this is really about one case of injustice that is simple to resolve. However, he opposes a motion that would speed things up. He is putting …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, on October 30, Quebec will move forward on behalf of patients and their families and implement its own legislation to regulate advance requests for medical assistance in dying. Six professional associations are calling on the federal government to harmonize the Criminal Code with Quebec's legislation. The Collège des médecins du Québec said, and I quote, “We deplore the fact that Otta…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what my colleague said in his speech is exactly what I was talking about. It does a lot, but it does not address the main issue. Let me give an example. A Quebec couple goes to work abroad for the Quebec government. They have a child. They come back. That child spends his whole life in Quebec and is therefore a Canadian citizen. When that child becomes an adult, he himself goes to w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I do not think that was a question for me. My colleague's comment was about what the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons said.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have said many times in the House that I am indeed a separatist, but if I am a separatist, it is because I am fundamentally a democrat, since the democratic ideal is contained in the idea of a people's sovereignty. Just because I am willing to acknowledge that I do not know everything, that does not mean I am against the idea of ensuring that the election in Alberta holds up. I too …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, this is the elephant in the room. It is nothing but an excuse, a self-serving use of religion as a pretext for purely financial gain. It is unfortunate because it fuels public cynicism toward elected officials. It paints everyone in the House with the same brush.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, let us acknowledge the fact that any legislation amending the Canada Elections Act is significant. This act is the cornerstone upon which the legitimacy of parliamentary democracy and elected officials, and by extension the government, lies. My first comment is that this important bill was introduced 48 hours before the summer break, along with a gag order. That is great for debate. T…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this is not enough to bring down a government. I would tell my colleague that I hope to get Bill C-282 passed for our farmers before triggering an election. This bill is now in the Senate and is being held up by Conservative and Liberal senators, despite the fact that it was passed almost unanimously in the House. I hope my colleague feels the same way I do.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it happens all too often that we show up in committee after having voted for a bill in principle, but we do not get a chance to introduce amendments because of the Liberal majority. The Canada Elections Act is too important to take that risk. There is no way we can trust people who had the gall to present what they did. It is crooked, and we do not trust people like that.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my speech, had the bill been drafted to include only those things, our position would probably have been different. I would add that, absent a guarantee that this crooked addition will be removed from the bill, there is no way we can support sending the bill to committee. This bill also provides that the Chief Electoral Officer may consider conflicts with another ele…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Harper government was penalized in 2015, so I think that the member has his answer. When a government goes beyond the democratic interest, the public is smart enough to penalize that government. I trust the public's intelligence. I trust voters' intelligence. Indeed, everyone must be allowed to vote. When a society allows an individual to vote, it is the ultimate ge…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, voting in federal elections is allowed every day at the office of the returning officer. Currently, without the law, there are four days of early voting prior to voting day, people can vote by mail and they can vote on campuses. Simply put, there are plenty of opportunities to vote. Officially, the government is citing the need to accommodate the festival of lights, Diwali, a holida…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague spoke about the parts of the bill that he, like us, considers very important. However, he avoided talking about postponing the elections, a proposal supposedly aimed at accommodating Canada's Indian communities for Diwali, the festival of lights. Can my colleague look me in the eye and tell me that the Liberals are not using Diwali as a pretext for allowing 22 Liberal m…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the members of the Bloc Québécois are in favour of transparency. It is important to be able to make informed decisions and have informed debates. We are also in favour of this motion because intellectual integrity means a lot to us, unlike some Conservative members from Quebec who have spent the past year fearmongering about the carbon tax and saying it applies in Quebec when it does …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there is no interpretation.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, with all due respect to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, he cannot deny that the Auditor General released a report. The findings of that report are absolutely devastating and require an in-depth review. Taxpayers expect accountability. They expect us, as elected officials, to be able to shed light on this type of scandal. Is he pre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues mentioned earlier in their analysis of the NDP motion, it is targeting a genuine problem but proposing a false solution. How would we cap the prices of essential foods? I would like my colleague to tell me how the price of bread can be capped when wheat prices are negotiated on the Chicago Stock Exchange.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, in February 2023 the joint committee recommended, by a strong majority, that individuals suffering from such diseases as Alzheimer's or dementia be allowed to make an advance request for medical assistance in dying. Although 83% of Canadians support advance requests, the health and justice ministers are unequalled in their complete lack of political courage and total failure to unders…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, saying that we need to do more harm reduction does not necessarily involve doing more to ensure a safe supply. It means that we need to make changes to safe supply. We need more measures to ensure that these drugs do not fall into the wrong hands. Safe supply does not kill. What kills are illicit drugs on the illicit counterfeit drug market. My colleague insinuated that safe supply …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what I should say to add to my earlier answer is that harm reduction existed well before today's overdose crisis. When the Conservatives say that what we are seeing now is the result of harm reduction, they are wrong. The problem is the illicit drug overdose crisis. People working on the ground told us that we needed to do something for people like the mother who came to see us, say…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, decriminalization, British Columbia's pilot project, has nothing to do with overdoses, but it did make it possible to divert these people away from jail and the justice system. We need to be careful, though. Yes, this is true, but drug consumption can qualify for diversion too, because in co-operation with community projects, we can ensure that police intervene, that they be authori…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I did not mention the Quebec plan, which has four pillars: more prevention, more treatment with opioid antagonists, more and better harm reduction, and enforcement to dismantle clandestine laboratories. We want a ban on precursors, which are the substances needed to make counterfeit and deadly drugs. These labs add fentanyl and other substances to the drugs. People cannot even toler…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague is urging us to vote in favour of the Conservative motion. The problem is that the motion muddies the waters. Legalization is not decriminalization. Only Vancouver tried decriminalization. Toronto and Montreal have not done it, nor have they decided to do it. They are trying to set up diversion measures instead. Here is the problem. My colleague may not be an expert, bu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in today's debate, we must not forget the over 42,000 people who have died. We must also not forget their families, who have suffered as they watched their loved ones get caught in a downward spiral. I want us to have a respectful debate, where we do not use people who are sick and suffering to further a political or ideological agenda. I want us to work on solutions, while respecti…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one of the pillars of the strategy is harm reduction. This includes, among other measures, supervised consumption sites and safe supply. Often what we hear from the critics of harm reduction are the negative impacts of these programs. Could my colleague tell us about the positive effects of these programs?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his thoughtful speech, which also proposed a solution to today's debate. Unfortunately, it was rejected and I am very disappointed. My colleague was talking about the fact that—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I hope that my colleague understood what I said. He talked about the fact that the war on drugs, criminalization, is a model that does not work. We can compare the model used in the United States, where overdoses increased by 100%, to the one used in Portugal. Can my colleague elaborate on that?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I was listening to the Conservative leader's response to one of my colleagues who was asking him to make the distinction between legalization, decriminalization and diversion. He said it was just semantics, that there was no real difference, that people just made up those distinctions depending on the context. What does the minister think of the Conservative leader's ignorance?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, if more members across the way attended the debate instead of lingering in the lobby, that would be better.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles knows full well that he is deliberately misleading the House by saying that the Bloc Québécois is calling for the legalization of hard drugs in Montreal. Let him prove it by tabling—
Read full speech →