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It is not derogatory.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House today. I will start by congratulating you on once again securing the very important position of Assistant Deputy Speaker. You certainly have shown that you are very capable of controlling this extremely chaotic room from time to time and I congratulate you on that. This being my first opportunity to rise in the House since the election, I want to…
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I hear the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan heckling me. It has been said many times that I was the only person in this House from the Liberal bench for a number of months. I may have been the only person physically here, but I certainly was not the only person participating. The Conservatives are laughing as though there is some kind of difference between participating virtually and phy…
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Madam Speaker, thank you for that. Of course, we have the most recent event, the creation of the freedom caucus, or whatever it is called across the way, of those who are fighting for the liberties of Parliamentarians or Canadians or whatever it is that really serves no purpose, other than to instill distrust, cross the line into conspiracy theory and promote policies that are not proven or based …
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Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, I was not talking to his presence in the House right now. I was speaking to the fact that he has made it well known that he cannot come to Ottawa and participate in Parliament.
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Mr. Speaker, I actually checked the voting record and saw that he did not vote, so I assumed that he was not here. I apologize if that did not get across to the member, but that is how I know for a fact that he was not here, because the voting record does not reflect it. In any event, the point is that if there are members out there who cannot participate because perhaps they have come into close …
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Now the members opposite are applauding that, and that is good, so why is it that they are against this virtual Parliament and having an opportunity to see this continue? That is the whole point. The whole point is to provide an avenue to enable people to continue to do their job. I am really happy to see that there are at least some Conservative colleagues who would agree that members on this sid…
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Despite the fact that the Bloc is heckling me on this, members know that it is because of the incredible staff that we have here who set up that system to allow us to be able to work virtually. I mean, come on, at least we can applaud for the staff. Maybe not, and that is fine, but I appreciate the Liberal members for doing that. In conclusion, for me this is very easy: This is about whether or no…
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to apologize to my colleague from Kings—Hants again for the extremely ironic statement coming from somebody who was known to be out of the country while participating in Parliament and is now accusing a member—
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Mr. Speaker, members would think that no Liberal MP wanted to be here in the last Parliament, during the pandemic. That was not the case. People wanted to be here. People were asking all the time, “Can we come back to Ottawa?” It was about making the right decisions that were in the best interests of public health and safety at the time. As we have now learned, we can start to expand that and we c…
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I guess the members opposite were not listening to the debate, because the House leader said that yesterday. This is about providing options for people based on safety and their own personal circumstances.
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Mr. Speaker, I am shocked. I sit through question period and listen to what comes from that side of the House and then I get accused of being derogatory for literally telling folks what happened. Maybe it is my tone, I do not know. I did not know tone was a thing in Parliament that would offend members so grievously. I apologize if that is the case. To the member's question, there is no difference…
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Mr. Speaker, again, it is the same rhetoric that we heard from the member for Calgary Nose Hill, a suggestion that members are not working if they are participating virtually. We heard the member for Kings—Hants talk about the work he was doing during that time. To suggest that there is somehow a lack of work or that people are not working only makes me wonder if maybe that is the way the Conserva…
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Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely perplexed by the last comments of the member. We would think he had not been here. The Prime Minister was here answering questions for about four months without anybody behind him. Why would the member suggest that the Prime Minister will not come here, when he knows, to their own claim, that the Prime Minister was the only one who was physically present in the House? …
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Mr. Speaker, the conditions may have made it possible, but it does not mean that it is the right or the recommended thing to do. The conditions may have made it possible for us to get together and to be in the same room like this, but it does not mean that it is the safest way to do it. As a matter of fact, the recommendations would be that we not do so, and that is why this is happening. Why do w…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to applaud the member. I brought this point up before when he was in the House. He has actually asked me this question before and, yes, congratulations to him, but it is unfortunate that his leadership could not have gotten behind the same idea. When we got behind wearing masks, it was a decision that all Liberal members were going to wear masks, full stop. It is just like when…
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Madam Speaker, I found the interventions by the member, from both the other day and today, to be quite interesting. He even reflected in his comments that Canadians are finding “a new way of going to work”. That is exactly what this is about. This is about giving flexibility to members to ensure they can continue to participate in the event they are not able to come here because, one, they perhaps…
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On the contrary. She was here.
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Madam Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I think you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, during the debate, pursuant to Standing Order 52, no quorum calls, dilatory motions or requests for unanimous consent shall be received by the Chair.
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Madam Speaker, the opposition House leader's comments were very kind and I enjoyed our time together as well. He kept talking about the fact that everything is back to normal. He talked about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and everything being back to normal, but indeed everything is not back to normal. The member for Beauce cannot be here as a result of testing positive. As a matter of fact, the memb…
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Madam Speaker, I regret my first time to rise in the House is on a point of order. I do not believe it is appropriate or in order to talk about the presence of a member in the House, whether it is in the past or currently. He is a very experienced member and would know that. He has continuously been referring to the fact members were not physically in the House. As we know by the rules that were s…
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