Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Vladimir Putin has chosen to walk in the footsteps of Joseph Stalin. Stalin once said that a million deaths is a statistic; a single death is a tragedy. Certainly, behind the statistic we are seeing coming out of Ukraine, there are a lot of tragedies: a mother and father being told that a child has died and a child finding out that their father will never be seen again. Ukraine, of co…
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Mr. Speaker, absolutely, the Russian people are not our enemy. The enemy is Putin. There are very many good Russian people. There are many people in Russia who are suffering, seeing their kids going off to fight a war that they themselves do not want. Certainly they are on our side. They are not on Putin's side. As for war crimes, I would take a step back further and even suggest this. What really…
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Mr. Speaker, the truth is that I personally had not considered what we are going to do with Belarus when I was in question period today. In fact, I admit that when the Bloc brought up Belarus, it caught me off guard, but I absolutely agree with the member. I cannot speak for the government, but I agree that countries have to choose sides. It is the same with China: Choose a side. Either be on the …
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Mr. Speaker, many Canadians have a connection with Ukraine. There are a lot of new immigrants from Ukraine in Canada, and first and foremost my thoughts are with them, because they have immediate family and friends in Ukraine. I can certainly imagine what it is like for them every time they hear the phone ring, wondering who is calling and about what. There are many other Canadians like me. I spen…
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Mr. Speaker, indeed hindsight is 20-20. I think most of us a month ago, two months ago, six months ago, would not have predicted that Putin would actually have gone into Ukraine. As to the situation right now and whether we should cut off Russian supplies of oil and gas to Canada, I personally support that idea. However, the devil is always in the details. What is an alternative right now? We cert…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, through you, I ask the member opposite this: Without invoking the Emergencies Act, how is the government going to deal with these things? As powerful as the rhetoric coming from the opposition is, I would submit that it is not powerful enough to pull a truck.
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Madam Speaker, the member says the Emergencies Act is not necessary and that there are other legal options that we could have used. I would like to ask what options. How, without the Emergencies Act, are you going to get tow trucks to help the police pull away trucks? How, without the Emergencies Act, are you going to legally prevent people from going downtown and joining the mob?
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Mr. Speaker, the member suggests that he supports the TRIPS waiver on patent protection for COVID-related products. This is something that I know many members of the House, from all parties, agree on. Could he perhaps speak a bit more to that issue and its importance?
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc supports this motion, and I can understand the opposition and the public wanting some kind of plan and timetable. When exactly are we going to open the borders and no longer have to do tests? When can we get on a plane without having to wear a mask? However, is the problem not uncertainty? What is going to happen with respect to variants in one month or two months? There wi…
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Madam Chair, I certainly agree that we ought to be doing more for this. I have to point out that I think our government has done quite a bit in terms of addressing the opioid problem. Just since the pandemic, there has been $4.5 billion in top-ups to the transfers to the provinces; $100 million for mental health interventions for the people most severely affected by the pandemic; $500 million towa…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-243, an act respecting the elimination of the use of forced labour and child labour in supply chains. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to introduce my PMB, an act respecting the elimination of the use of forced labour and child labour in supply chains. The seconder, and indeed the author of the bill, is my good friend, the member for Scarborough—Guildwood. Manufacturers …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Courtenay—Alberni for his words of wisdom. He seems to know a fair bit about this problem and seems quite passionate about it. I do not know if he knows anything about this, but I know part of the problem with the opioid crisis is that so many drugs are laced with fentanyl. People will be smoking what they think is crack, but it is laced with fentanyl. As a resu…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Edmonton Griesbach, like me, has a riding with a large indigenous population. I wonder how much he thinks the answer to the opioid problem is a matter of directly dealing with opioids and how much of the answer involves dealing with the underlying socio-economic inequality, which is certainly part of the problem and fuels the crisis.
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Madam Chair, I will try to reply in French. I agree, the solution to overdoses of narcotics is indeed naloxone. I think that all first responders should be able to administer naloxone. It really is the right answer to overdose problems.
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Madam Chair, I am happy to speak to this issue, an issue that I have been involved with one way or another for about 30 years or more. As a long-time emergency room doctor, many of those years in Thunder Bay but other places as well, I have seen a lot of overdoses. ICU doctors who work in Thunder Bay and also work in a lot of other places tell me that Thunder Bay is second only to Vancouver in ter…
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for Edmonton Griesbach for his reference to Portugal, where I believe they have decriminalized drug use. Certainly, from what I know, as a result of that decriminalization there has been some improvement in the problem in Portugal, so I think it is certainly an interesting case study. I cannot say I know enough about decriminalization to give any defin…
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Madam Speaker, I want to welcome the new member for Cumberland—Colchester. Indeed, we seem to be on similar paths in life, going from being doctors to being here in Parliament. I am really happy that he supports this bill. This week, we have seen some really nice change in terms of all being together on the same page, first with conversion therapy and now with this bill. I want to ask about someth…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, being the member for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, I want to sincerely congratulate the member for Bay of Quinte for his election. He must be a good guy, given he is married to someone from Thunder Bay. I am sure that when his kids started playing hockey it came natural to them. I was interested in the member's comments about businesses in his riding not being able to find employees. As …
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Madam Chair, I want to tell the member opposite that although I represent Thunder Bay, I also represent everywhere between Thunder Bay and the Manitoba border, which includes quite a few trees, so I am certainly not just from the big city. I remember that when I was in law school, I read a case with a WTO panel decision on softwood lumber tariffs imposed by the United States against Canada. That w…
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