Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that is not a good look on a party that calls itself progressive. As I was saying, these are the objective and subjective criteria for a nation to be born. The people of Quebec form a nation. Unfortunately, this recognition here is only symbolic. Indeed, the rest of Canada has always refused to enshrine that in the Constitution, to give it a legal effect. That is why Bill 101 was ne…
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Madam Speaker, the NDP members obviously do not want me to read that quote, and yet it is universalist. As I was saying, “Multiculturalism is much more like living side by side and harbouring frustrations with one another, with results that fall far short of the ideal presented by politicians.” The truth is that multiculturalism rejects the idea of a common culture, encouraging the coexistence of …
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Madam Speaker, that is a very good question. Every year, around the same time, we have to deal with the foreign worker issue. Nothing moves any faster, yet these are housekeeping issues. More concerning here is that the Century Initiative has in no way calculated the impact that these immigration thresholds would have on the reality of Quebec's linguistic demographics and the vitality of the Frenc…
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Madam Speaker, perhaps the money had to be spent on health care, given this year's paltry health transfer.
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Madam Spear, up to now, I did not really understand why my colleague talked about xenophobia in his speech. I do not believe that my speech could be deemed xenophobic. The fact remains that what we want is to be able to welcome people in a satisfactory manner, with dignity, so they can fully participate in building the Quebec nation and ensuring its survival. We must recognize that Quebec has an a…
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Madam Speaker, despite Bill 101, despite 40 years of enforcing Bill 101, and despite the fact that French is the language of work, the fact remains that English attracts five times more learners in Quebec than French. That is the reality.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, since there is no question and comment period at this time under the rules of debate in the House, some of my colleagues push the envelope and sometimes say outrageous things. Having said that, I would first like to recall the purpose of the bill: This enactment amends the Old Age Security Act to increase the amount of the full pension to which all pensioners aged 65 or older are enti…
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Mr. Speaker, the more I hear the Liberals talk, the more discouraged I become. They always confuse words and concepts, but these things matter. The member from Nova Scotia was speaking earlier about the anglophone minority in Quebec. In the same sentence, he was talking about the anglophone minority in Quebec and the court challenges program. Even the UN has said that there is no anglophone minori…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, their names are Isabelle, Mélanie, Arianne. They are joined by Bruno, Pierre, Claude and thousands of names with the same reassuring faces. It is the face of the Quebec body of nursing, the face of women and men who are there for us when we are scared, when we suffer, when we are worried about our loved ones. In emergency rooms, in operating rooms, in clinics, in obstetrics and at the…
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Madam Speaker, I do not want to preach to anyone, but when I look at question period over the past two weeks, when I hear my colleague say that he agrees with expelling diplomats, and considering that we have reached the point where we are talking about CSIS leaking information, I think the Chinese must be laughing at us. It seems to me that this whole mess could have been avoided if the governmen…
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Madam Speaker, today we are examining Bill C-47, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023. I wanted to read the full title because I am going to use it to back up what I am saying. This is a huge bill, a mammoth bill. It is 430 pages long and seeks to amend 59 statutes and the Income Tax Regulations. However, since we have people who can read quic…
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Madam Speaker, with respect to dental care, the program got off to a very poor start. The government rushed to get it up and running. Quebec asked for the right to opt out with full compensation so that it could actually use that money to improve its own program. The Canada Revenue Agency showed that the project was off to a bad start, because there was no way to confirm whether the $650 given to …
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Madam Speaker, I think that my colleague and I see history differently. The Quebec government was hoping for $6 billion in recurring funding every year to rebuild its network. It got barely $1 billion. Then the Minister of Health had the nerve to claw back $42 million. Given that, the correct answer is not complicated. The Quebec government had no choice. It had to either accept the $1 billion, on…
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Madam Speaker, I do not know whether the government is investing based on events, but the passage of Bill C-47 will not be an event. To clarify, I would say this. The government boasts about having invested a lot of money during the pandemic. However, had it taken the necessary precautions, it probably could have spent a lot less money. We likely would have been able to save the lives of more peop…
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Mr. Speaker, the Official Languages Act has been around for a while. The government wanted to modernize it and, when they did, it was because it had failed. The act did not ensure the survival of French throughout Canada, from coast to coast to coast, or ensure that francophone minorities are treated in the same way as the anglophone community in Quebec. Can my colleague tell me how he reconciles …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there are needs throughout Quebec's health care system. The system is in crisis. The Liberals did not prioritize those needs in their budget. The Liberals prioritized the needs of the Liberals. They have not listened to Quebec's demands. Their main concern is to make sure they stay in power by maintaining their alliance with the NDP. Their priority is insuring a majority, not insuring…
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Mr. Speaker, there are plenty of health care needs in Quebec. Rather than responding to those needs in the budget, the Liberals are creating a new dental care program on top of the one we already have in Quebec. That is close to $3 billion that Quebec could put into areas where it would be more useful or use to improve the existing program. That is why the Quebec National Assembly just unanimously…
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Madam Speaker, clause 13 of Bill C-26 essentially allows the government to take new measures to protect critical cyber systems by order in council. That gives it a lot of flexibility. There is more flexibility there than in the legislative process. Does my colleague think that the bill should be amended in committee so that we can be certain the government will be accountable to Parliament?
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Madam Speaker, in her speech, my colleague said that Bill C-11 paves the way for algorithm manipulation. That is worrisome. Can she tell me how, technically, it is possible to manipulate algorithms? How does she know, technically, that Bill C-11 will provide control over algorithm manipulation?
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Madam Speaker, is the member telling us that algorithms and access to algorithms are easy things to decrypt? Is that actually what she is telling us? Basically, as she sees it, the only way to avoid any interference in broadcasting and streaming is to abolish the CRTC.
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Madam Speaker, how does my colleague explain the fact that all of Quebec's creators and artists, regardless of their sphere of practice, are eagerly awaiting this bill? If anyone is sensitive to the issue of censorship, it is our creators and artists. How is it that they are looking forward to us passing Bill C-11, yet the Conservatives alone see it as censorship?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, today I rise to speak to Bill S‑209, an act respecting pandemic observance day—
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to speak on Bill S‑209, an act respecting pandemic observance day. This bill officially designates a day that has been recognized as a national day of observance since 2021. Indeed, the World Health Organization declared March 31, 2021, as a national day of observance. March 11 was designated by proclamation as a national day of observance in 2021. The Quebec gov…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know where my colleague got the idea that MAID is the first option offered to veterans. Morally speaking, it is equally unacceptable to exploit veterans for ideological reasons, which is exactly what my colleague is doing. If people are offering MAID to veterans who are known to have a reversible condition, they should be reported to the police, taken to court, and put in jai…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague said that people should not be induced to turn to medical assistance in dying in moments of weakness. I do not know where he is getting that from, but I just want to say that the expert panel's report on mental disorder makes no mention of that. When it comes to socio-economic determinants, which my colleague raised, the experts say that they need to be taken into account…
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Madam Speaker, I invite my colleague to read the expert report, which clearly states that, when treatment exists, people are not automatically eligible for medical assistance in dying just because the treatment is hard to get. That is the shortcut the Conservatives have been taking since the start of this debate. Just because a person with depression asks for MAID does not necessarily mean they wi…
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Madam Speaker, I do not know how many times I have to rise to say the same thing, but my Conservative colleagues are oversimplifying. That is okay. They are entitled to do that, what with free speech and all. However, among the experts who drafted the expert report and who addressed the issue of mental health care, none of them supports the idea of giving access to medical assistance in dying to s…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his touching testimony. I want to tell him that, in a debate like this, it is important to be able to distinguish between various realities. This report is not about mental health. A debate about mental health means talking about prevention. This debate is not about all mental disorders but rather incurable mental disorders. We must accept that there are peo…
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Madam Speaker, I commend my colleague who is a member of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying. I would just like to provide her with a bit of context. Bill C‑7, which is the fruit of a compromise with the Senate, was meant to respond to a requirement in a court ruling to allow Ms. Gladu and Mr. Truchon to have access to medical assistance in dying. No one in Quebec considered…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Thunder Bay—Rainy River is well aware of my great respect for him. However, in listening to his speech, I found it riddled with confusion. I wondered whether he read the expert panel's report on mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition. I believe that our thinking may not be quite so different. I think that his practice has shown him the need to take…
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Mr. Speaker, all the data we have shows that people who are at the end of life have received palliative care. However, there are palliative care units that refuse to take someone into that unit because they allegedly requested medical assistance in dying. I find that unacceptable. I feel that palliative care is a stepping stone to dying with dignity. As part of the process, someone may request med…
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Mr. Speaker, I will have to say it: The government was not a good student. It dragged its feet for too long. It established the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying far too late. When Bill C-7 was passed, the government committed to reviewing the act. We did more than review the act, because we looked at other facets. What the special joint committee did was review the existing a…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not want to get into petty politics. I am not saying that my colleague's question is at that level, but I do not want to get into that. What I want to say, however, is that we can see the shortcut that my Conservative colleagues sometimes take when they speak. They act like MAID is the only choice, but that is not true. A person can die a natural death without any problems. MAID …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying that before I dove into this subject, read the expert panel's report multiple times and asked endless questions, I was among the unconvinced. Second, because we cannot cut corners on this issue, the entire community of professionals in mental health care, mental wellness and mental illness needs to be informed and trained. It will require an adequate number o…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by providing some background on Bill C-39, which is not rocket science, when it comes down to it. Then I would like to talk about the philosophical foundation for dying with dignity, as well as the context and whether or not medical assistance in dying should be extended to patients whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental disorder. I would also like t…
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Mr. Speaker, as a Conservative, my colleague from St. Albert—Edmonton has never made so many references to science. I understand that he is passionate about this, but he is claiming that the report of the expert panel says things that it does not, particularly with regard to ending one's life prematurely in the case of mental illness. The only way for a person to end their life prematurely is by a…
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Mr. Speaker, in a debate as sensitive as this, we would expect every parliamentarian in the House of Commons to lend some dignity to this debate and demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility. Last week, in the middle of question period, on the topic of mental disorders being the sole underlying medical condition, the official leader of the opposition said to the Prime Minister something to the …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his effort. That said, if Bill C-39 were withdrawn, on March 17, mental disorders would not be excluded from medical assistance in dying. It is important to know what we are talking about. Also, I do not know on what authority my colleague can claim that he would have had access to medical assistance in dying, given that the expert report clearly states that…
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Madam Speaker, yes, I have a point of order. Since you mentioned it, I would urge you to ensure fairness and respect the rotation. Earlier, you twice recognized, twice in a row, an NDP member when it was our turn to speak. You also recognized the NDP when it was the Conservatives' turn to speak. I urge you to respect the rotation as soon as people stand up to indicate that they want to speak.
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the federal government promised a substantial offer to support the health care system. Instead, we got a substantial disappointment. The minister knew that Quebec and the provinces needed $28 billion more each year to fix their health care systems. He has barely offered them one sixth of that. Is the minister seriously trying to say that by offering one sixth of the money needed, he i…
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Mr. Speaker, everyone except the minister knows that the health crisis has been caused by the federal government's chronic underfunding. Quebec and the provinces have calculated that they need an additional $28 billion a year; the government is putting $4.6 billion on the table. His offer guarantees that there will continue to be problems with health care for at least 10 more years. His offer will…
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Madam Speaker, I will try to remain calm even though I heard arguments throughout the day that really betray ignorance. When a human community established within the same territory has language, culture and heritage, when it is animated by a collective conscience and a desire to go down in history, and when all members of the community are on board with a common enterprise, that is called a nation…
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Madam Speaker, I heard my colleague say that we had better things to do than to talk about the notwithstanding clause. However, I would point out to him that the notwithstanding clause ensures two things for the Quebec nation and the Quebec National Assembly: the separation of church and state, in the case of Bill 101, and the continued existence of the French language, thanks to Bill 96. On behal…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about one of the greatest minds in multiculturalism, Will Kymlicka. Regarding the Quebec nation and its desire to have access to certain tools, such as the notwithstanding clause, Kymlicka wrote: “Had Quebec not been guaranteed these substantial powers—and hence protected from the possibility of being outvoted on key issues by the larger…
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Madam Speaker, first of all, I think the minister should not start a debate on that topic. It is a diversion. It is unnecessary. He is a Quebecker. The choice belongs to him. To be a Quebecker is a political choice and it is not the same as looking like a Quebecker. I suggest to him a book by Michael Mandel, a professor of constitutional law at York University in Toronto, The Charter of Rights and…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, before I begin my speech, I would like to say that my thoughts are with the friends and families of the children and adults who were the victims of the terrible tragedy at Garderie éducative Ste‑Rose in Laval. I think we are all in shock following this terrible incident, and words fail us. I cannot imagine what the parents of the children who go to this day care are feeling. I want th…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, here in the Bloc Québécois, we work as a team. Protecting and promoting supply management matters to all of us, not just the member for Montcalm, as does the outcome of tomorrow's vote. Supply management has been a priority for me since I first came to the House in 2015, and, as the sponsor of Bill C-282, I have to say that, for my friend and colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé, protec…
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