Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to recognize the 40th anniversary of Les Relevailles de Montréal centre in La Pointe‑de‑l'Île. Since 1985, this centre has supported 15,000 families as they transition to parenthood and through their journey of parenting a child from birth to age 2. The centre provides training, support services, in-home respite care and prenatal and postnatal activities in Montreal Ea…
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Mr. Speaker, this budget is a complete sham. Thanks to some very creative accounting, it hides a $78-billion deficit by claiming that $45 billion in spending is actually an investment, when that is not the case at all. Normally, an investment is backed by assets. For example, a person who invests in a house keeps the house. However, in the budget, tax credits for oil companies are presented as inv…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks of the Liberal strategy to buy votes. For example, during the last election campaign, the government handed out $3.7 billion in election goodies in the form of a carbon tax rebate for a period when the carbon tax was not even collected. We in Quebec certainly find this shocking, since $814 million of our tax dollars went to fund these elec…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the various strategies for trying to buy votes. In the last election, the Liberals provided compensation for the carbon tax for a period in which Canadians did not have to pay that tax at all. The Liberals did not provide compensation in Quebec and British Columbia, saying that those provinces did not pay any carbon tax. However, the…
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Mr. Speaker, I was told earlier that I am not a Conservative. That said, I can confirm one thing for my colleague. Some people say that the Conservatives are not as interested in centralization as the Liberals are. We saw an example of centralization in housing. We asked for the funds to be transferred to the Quebec government, with no strings attached, but the federal government is centralizing t…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised climate competitiveness. Well, what we got was climate capitulation. Furthermore, we have just learned that the Liberals are going to announce funding for a new dirty oil pipeline. This is the second pipeline they are going to invest in. All of this will, of course, be financed in part by Quebeckers. As for news media, CBC/Radio-Canada is getting $150 milli…
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Mr. Speaker, the provinces were asking for $100 billion for infrastructure. They got $9 billion in new money. That is not very much. It is like a sprinkle of little goodies. The entire thing is just a bad deal for Quebec and the provinces.
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Mr. Speaker, the request amounts to 0.5% of Canada's GDP. That is not excessive at all. However, I do agree with my colleague to a certain extent. The Liberals often say that this is a generational budget. Of course, they are going to leave behind a generational debt and deficit. Above all, they will be leaving behind measures that promote climate change and that will be very difficult for future …
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Mr. Speaker, I see that the member for Mirabel understands the situation. There is nothing in the budget on official languages. We see that francophones outside Quebec are struggling. We hear them say that they have rundown schools that are former anglophone schools. They are truly being treated like second-class citizens and the government is sitting on its hands and doing nothing. In Quebec, how…
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Madam Speaker, what my colleague just said in response to my question was completely false. There was no measure to protect French in Quebec. I studied the action plan for official languages 2023-2028, and even Quebec's minister of the French language looked it over and was surprised to see no measures. I also studied the 2023-24 public accounts, and nowhere was there any new measure for French in…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts. The Bloc Québécois wanted the budget to include an increase in old age security for seniors aged 65 to 74. Everyone knows that the OAS was increased for those over 75, but seniors aged 65 to 74 also need support, since many of them have ended up living in poverty. No adjustments are planned to close this gap. The government has created t…
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Madam Speaker, we completely agree that the attempts to pass off spending as investment in the budget is all smoke and mirrors. Can my colleague give us other examples of spending that is billed as investment?
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Madam Speaker, I am guessing that my colleague has a number of seniors in his riding, as I do. Does he think that the government should increase pensions for those aged 65 to 74, as it did a few years ago for people aged 75 and over?
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Madam Speaker, my colleague referred to French-language content and what is in the budget, but there is almost nothing for official languages in the budget. I think there is a measure for National Acadian Day, which is a good thing. However, I am not the only one who has criticized this shortcoming in the budget. Since 2020, the Liberals have been saying that the federal government has a responsib…
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Mr. Speaker, during the 44th Parliament, the Bloc Québécois introduced Bill C‑392 to provide a framework for the use of the Jordan decision, which results in cases being thrown out and criminals being released on the grounds that the proceedings are taking too long. We would like to make it impossible to use the Jordan decision for sexual offences, murder, kidnapping, crimes involving firearms, or…
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Mr. Speaker, the bill eliminates the ladder principle when there is a reverse onus at the bail stage. The Bloc Québécois is questioning this measure because the Supreme Court has never ruled that remand is prohibited. I would like to hear my colleague's opinion on that.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives want to step up the fight against crime. Would my colleague agree that we should crack down on criminal organizations by creating an organized crime registry?
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Mr. Speaker, the Jordan decision stipulates that, once a certain time limit has been exceeded, criminals who have committed murder, sexual offences, or acts of terrorism may be released on the grounds that the delay in bringing their case to trial has been unreasonable. Would my colleague agree with us so that the Jordan decision cannot be invoked to justify the release of these individuals solely…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, first of all, I congratulate my colleague for introducing Bill C-221, especially in such an emotional situation. I have never experienced that, so it is hard for me to imagine, but I think victims have a right to know. The bill aims to share information about temporary absences more effectively. It is heartening to see all the parties working across party lines to support this bill …
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Mr. Speaker, judges lose a lot of independence with this bill. For instance, it imposes pretrial detention for a range of crimes that do not necessarily pose a threat to the public, such as car theft. Just because someone is accused of car theft does not necessarily mean that they are guilty or that they pose a threat to the public. The Bloc Québécois is not opposed to all reverse onus provisions,…
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Madam Speaker, I am interested to know what my colleague thinks about the magic trick that the Liberals played with the budget by categorizing one part as spending and the other as investments. One expert and economist said that if the same criteria had been applied to Justin Trudeau's budgets, they would almost always have been balanced or even surplus budgets. What does my colleague think of the…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would ask members on the other side to please take their conversations to the lobby.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague said earlier that this budget supports French. She mentioned a subsidy for National Acadian Day. I agree with that. That is good news. However, there is nothing else. At the Standing Committee on Official Languages, we have heard from various francophone associations and school boards outside Quebec who are saying that they do not have enough money or enough schools. Ther…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on an excellent speech and for all the work he has been doing. My understanding is that the final outcome will be that someone may have been a resident of Canada for five years, but over a very long period spanning many decades, and that their descendants will automatically gain Canadian citizenship without undergoing a security screening or p…
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Madam Speaker, the bill seeks to restrict the principle of restraint, or at least set guidelines for it. I would like my colleague to tell us more about the reasons for these restrictions.
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives want tougher measures to fight crime. I would like to know whether they agree that we also need to crack down on criminal organizations by, for example, creating a registry of such organizations, making it easier to seize their assets and prohibiting them from displaying their insignia and symbols.
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives want tougher measures to fight crime. I would like to know their thoughts on the following ideas for cracking down on organized crime: creating a registry of criminal organizations and making it illegal to display symbols or insignia used by criminal organizations. What does my colleague think about that?
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Mr. Speaker, basically, if we were to accept the Liberal and NDP amendments to the amendments proposed in committee, let us just say that someone could have lived in Canada for three years out of 65, and their children, who never lived in Canada, could automatically apply for Canadian citizenship by descent without a security check, language test or citizenship test. Why does my colleague think th…
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Mr. Speaker, what is concerning is that, in committee, we asked how many people might be impacted by this measure, and the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship was unable to answer the question. She did not know. One of the effects of the amendments proposed by the Liberals and the New Democrats is to remove the requirement to produce reports that indicate how many people will actuall…
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Mr. Speaker, one objective of the amendments proposed is to grant citizenship by descent. However, the amendments state that the applicant should still be required to undergo security, language and knowledge testing, like any other naturalized citizen. What have my colleague and the Liberals got against that?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, what we are increasingly seeing around the world is that models based on multiculturalism are being rejected. Multiculturalism involves interacting with people on the basis of their ethnic origin, which encourages people to remain within their ethnic group. In contrast, the Quebec model, which we call an intercultural model and which many people today refer to as cultural convergence,…
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Mr. Speaker, beyond the semantic debates about naturalization and descent, with Bill C‑3, we could have someone who obtained citizenship in Canada after living in Canada for three out of 60 years and whose children could get citizenship without ever living in Canada, without knowing the language and without passing a security assessment. What does my colleague think about all that? Why are the Lib…
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Mr. Speaker, according to the bill, border officers have a surveillance mandate, but they are not truly a part of national defence. They cannot intervene directly. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about that.
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Mr. Speaker, imagine being this out of touch with Quebeckers: On Thursday, the federal government announced $52 million for Quebec's health care system, but not for treating the sick. No, that $52 million is for anglicizing our hospitals. What our hospitals need is money to care for Quebeckers, not money to anglicize Quebec. English is alive and well in Quebec, including in hospitals. When will th…
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Mr. Speaker, English is hardly at risk in Quebec. It is unacceptable to waste $52 million of our money to anglicize our hospitals, rather than providing people with actual health care. Obviously, the Government of Quebec has spoken out about this, saying, “Once again, the federal government is infringing on Quebec's jurisdictions....Instead, it should be transferring the money to Quebec with no st…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the minister on his speech. The Bloc Québécois has long called for better border control, whether to combat the export of stolen vehicles, reduce the number of asylum seekers in Quebec, or fight fentanyl and money laundering. We are pleased that Bill C‑12 is doing away with the most problematic elements of Bill C‑2 with regard to privacy violations. However, there is on…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the fact that the Customs and Immigration Union estimates that we need an additional 2,000 to 3,000 officers in order to truly ensure better border control. What are his thoughts on the fact that the Canadian Coast Guard, despite having a mandate to control and monitor the border, is not authorized to intervene and is not a part of…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois welcomes this bill. This is a step in the right direction. I only hope that it will not be a repeat of the situation with the Commissioner of Official Languages. Although numerous complaints have been filed over the past 50 years, it seems like things are moving backwards instead of forwards. In my colleague's opinion, what will make this position more effective, ev…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his rather nuanced speech. He says that he agrees with continuing the reconciliation process and implementing modern treaties, but that he views the commissioner position as bureaucracy. In that case, there are two options. The commissioner could be given more of an enforcement role and more powers so that the position is not just bureaucratic. Otherwise…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was consistent. She said she would support amending the bill to give the commissioner more power to force action. Could she give us an example of how that might be worded?
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. The interpretation is not working.
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Mr. Speaker, my Conservative colleague says that the commissioner position is a distraction. Would he be willing to amend the bill to give the position more teeth? What would he be willing to do to exert more pressure for a real implementation of modern treaties?
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois supports the principle of the bill. However, we see that nowhere does it provide for authority to compel the government to do anything. The commissioner will have no power. We worry that it will be a bit like the Commissioner of Official Languages, whose office was established 50 years ago. For 50 years now, French has been in decline and francophone assimilation ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I salute my colleague, with whom I served for a long time on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. When the Conservatives criticize and say that this is nothing but red tape, we have reason to be concerned. The Bloc Québécois supports the principle of the bill. However, we see that it does not provide for the power to enforce compliance. It kind of reminds me of the Commission…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague spoke at length about the Jonathan Vance case, but both the Conservatives and the Liberals looked the other way in that case and pretended there was nothing to see. There were already rumours about and allegations against Mr. Vance when the Conservatives appointed him as chief of staff and tasked him with taking on sexual misconduct in the military. The Canadian Armed Fo…
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Mr. Speaker, as we saw, the Conservatives turned a blind eye by appointing Mr. Vance chief of the defence staff even though rumours of sexual misconduct were already circulating. The Liberals did even worse. I will come back to my colleague's suggestion. Should we not find ways to ensure that the process is not completely controlled by those with political power?
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Mr. Speaker, we saw that the Liberal defence minister turned a blind eye to all the allegations against Mr. Vance. He pretended he had not received them. My colleague spoke about the need to take action. I think it is good to ensure that the process is no longer exclusively in the hands of the military. However, the Minister of Defence will be the one appointing the judges. Should this not be expa…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech, which was somewhat nuanced. However, considering that it was the Conservatives who appointed Mr. Vance in the first place when there were already allegations of sexual misconduct, and considering that the Liberals did everything they could to ignore those allegations, it is clear that the system needs to be overhauled. The idea behind the rec…
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, we never said that. We are all Quebeckers. I agree that diversity of opinion exists among Quebeckers. However, because a lot of Liberals were elected, they sometimes say that they represent Quebeckers. When the 1982 Constitution was introduced, only one Liberal member from Quebec voted against it. It was Mr. Duclos, who subsequently resigned. Furthermore, no Quebec gover…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers care deeply about state secularism. The first demands came from the Patriotes of 1837 and 1838. In their declaration of independence, they called for freedom of conscience and a strict separation of church and state. Secularism is one of the driving forces behind the birth and development of modern Quebec. The Quebec nation has a special history where the Catholic faith had…
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