Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I have a quick question for my colleague, and I also want to congratulate him on taking the initiative to create this day. Fish harvesters, especially those from the Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands, have been feeling extremely frustrated, primarily over the management of quotas and fishing licences. Does my colleague think that a day like this one will raise the government's awareness …
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Madam Speaker, we live in a society where the justice system is based on rehabilitation. We also have a justice system and society that believes, as Voltaire did, that “It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one”. However, we are dealing with heartbreaking cases of miscarriages of justice. One example is the case we have been talking about, that of Mr. Milgaard. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House: (a) recognize Paul Arcand's exceptional career at the helm of the morning show "Puisqu'il faut se lever"; (b) recognize his rigorous work and his contribution to quality information accessible to all; and (c) thank him for his many year…
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Mr. Speaker, it is strange to think that on Monday, we are going to have to get up and go about our day as though nothing has changed. Our mornings will never be the same again. After 30 years of morning shows and 20 years at the helm of the most-listened-to program in Quebec and all of Canada, Paul Arcand is leaving Puisqu'il faut se lever, the now legendary show on 98.5. However, there is no nee…
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Mr. Speaker, the Sauvons l'ACIC coalition informed us in an open letter that the NFB has decided to modernize its independent filmmaker assistance program. “Modernize” should mean “improve”. Unfortunately, this is far from an improvement. Previously, to have access to NFB editing rooms, there were two conditions: to be a filmmaker and to have a project funded by a public institution. The NFB is se…
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Mr. Speaker, Pierre Perrault, Norman McLaren, Léa Pool, Micheline Lanctôt, Denys Arcand, Pierre Falardeau and Denis Villeneuve are all Quebec filmmakers who were able to benefit from the NFB, a testing ground for daring independent cinema. It is a safe bet that none of them would measure up to the NFB's content policies nowadays. More importantly, none of them would agree to submit to them. We kno…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada's independent filmmaker assistance program was working just fine. No one was complaining, but it was not quite restrictive enough for the NFB. This seems to be a running theme with Crown corporations. Letting artists be artists is no longer an option, I guess. The government has to tell them who to be, what to think, how to express themselves and on what topics. They need to ad…
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Mr. Speaker, it is my turn to commend my colleague for her speech and for her work on this issue. I know that she really puts her heart into it. This is something that really concerns her. Like me, she was really looking forward to finally seeing some legislation put forward on this issue. In her speech, my colleague mentioned an aspect of this bill that is of personal concern to me. I am talking …
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Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby also cares about regulating what happens on the web. We had the opportunity to work together at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on various topics that have to do with this issue. We have been waiting for Bill C‑63 for a long time. I think that there is consensus on part 1. As the Bloc Québécois has been saying all day, …
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize to my colleague. I hate to interrupt her in the middle of a speech like this, but we can hear a telephone or device vibrating near a microphone and it must be very irritating for the interpreters. Could you ask members to be mindful of that and to keep their devices away from the microphones, please?
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Mr. Speaker, at the end of this parliamentary term, I am pleased to see that more and more school groups are coming to watch the business of the House. I think this is a strategy used by teachers to show that they are not as boring as they seem and that students should pay attention in class. Quite often, what happens here is a lot more interesting than sitting in class. That said, I listened clos…
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Madam Speaker, radio is a one-of-a-kind medium that really becomes part of people's everyday lives, sometimes literally. This is definitely true in the case of Yves Desautels, a Radio-Canada traffic reporter who just retired after a 47-year career. From Regina, where he began his career, to Montreal, where he eventually got behind the wheel of his famous “hedgehog”, Mr. Desautels, Yves, quietly be…
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Madam Speaker, I want to pick up on a few words that my colleague from London—Fanshawe said. She said that we need to improve politics, be better, and rise above the kind of petty politicking that we see all too often. There are a lot of good things in this bill. A more accessible electoral process is a good thing. The idea of extending advance polling station operations by a few days is a good th…
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Madam Speaker, I would also like to congratulate the member for Chatham-Kent—Leamington on his speech. My colleague just spoke about municipal elections, which are extremely important in Quebec, and about the need to motivate the public to get involved at every level in each election. However, the sensitive issue of pensions cannot be overlooked. I know that my colleague touched on it earlier. Per…
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Madam Speaker, there are three reasons why the Bloc Québécois cannot vote for this bill. None of them are positive. The first is that we should not be making accommodations on religious grounds. When it comes to something as important as the democratic process in a G7 country, for us, that simply has no merit. The second is that we think it is irresponsible to postpone this for a week when we are …
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Madam Speaker, I was just talking about decorum in the House. These rather ridiculous interjections do nothing to lend credibility to our work. As I was saying, with the carbon exchange in Quebec, gasoline costs 9.9¢ more per litre, while in the other provinces, gas costs an estimated 14.3¢ more per litre because of the federal carbon tax. Obviously, when we see that, it seems much more advantageo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask my colleague, whom I respect and whose sincere commitment to the cause I recognize, a very simple question. On one hand, we have the Conservatives, who are moving very populist motions that are very easy to swallow for those who do not ask questions beyond the headlines. On the other hand, we have a government that continues to blithely finance the oil companies and …
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Madam Speaker, the motion moved by the Conservative leader is yet another very populist gimmick. It is easy for the Conservatives to tell people they are going to demand a summer tax break so people can go on vacation. I do not think it is as simple as that for Quebec and Canadian families, but the idea, as far-fetched as it may seem, would still come at a cost. Can my colleague tell me how much i…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his speech and for his efforts to deliver a speech that makes sense, relatively speaking, while ignoring all the attempts to distract him. I wanted to point that out. There could be a little more decorum in this chamber. In Quebec, for every litre of gas, the carbon tax is estimated to add—
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Madam Speaker, in a few words, I would like my colleague to explain why the interference commissioner should be independent.
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am hearing voices from both sides of the House. I would like to take this opportunity to say that my Liberal colleagues' conversations on the other side are quite loud. It might be worth reminding them to keep their voices down when a colleague is making a speech. There is also something else that is causing a disruption. For some time now, there seems …
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is in favour of sending Bill C‑70 to committee. I heard the minister talk in his speech about the broad consultations with Canadians on this issue and his intention to work in a very inclusive manner with the opposition parties in the House. My colleague from Trois-Rivières introduced a similar bill to protect Quebec and Canada from foreign interference. There are t…
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Mr. Speaker, Drummond has been on cloud nine since our Voltigeurs won the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's President Cup in four games against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. They played to a crowd of frenzied fans at the Marcel-Dionne arena, which was filled to capacity. It was a masterful performance. Top performers included Riley Mercer, a tough goaltender who frustrated opponents with his incredib…
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Mr. Speaker, it would be really nice if we could get serious answers to serious questions. It is disturbing that the government refuses to require the court challenges program to comply with this federal law, its own statute. Once again, the Liberals are entangled in their own contradictions about the French language. They still have a hard time recognizing that there is only one official language…
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Mr. Speaker, in committee yesterday, as the members were studying an overhaul of the court challenges program, a Bloc Québécois amendment was rejected, which is appalling. It was a very simple amendment that called for just one thing: That the court challenges program respect the Official Languages Act, that it respect the law recognizing that French is under threat, that it recognize the existenc…
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Mr. Speaker, I will keep an open mind and hope to be surprised. It is a far cry from the attitude and approach we saw from Meta during our most recent legislative efforts. In October 2021, the Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, responded to a complaint by a Montreal lawyer asking for translations of Supreme Court rulings handed down prior to 1970. The recommendation was brought …
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Mr. Speaker, I will move on to another subject that I think is extremely important: Bill C-63. Earlier this evening, my colleague, the member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, addressed this issue, among others, regarding the Bloc Québécois's suggestion to split part 1 of Bill C‑63 from the other parts so that the digital safety commission can be created as quickly as possible. My concern is …
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Mr. Speaker, will the minister reconsider the decision not to require French-English bilingualism for the commissioners of the future miscarriage of justice review commission, or will French once again be optional in Canada?
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Mr. Speaker, we agree on the urgent need to act on online safety. The problem is out there and it is urgent. It affects all groups. How does the minister think the digital platforms and digital giants, which control social media, will react to a piece of legislation that they, and probably our Conservative colleagues too, believe will further hamper freedom of expression as they see it?
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to use my time to ask questions, make comments and get feedback and answers from the minister. To begin, I would like to commend the minister's attitude this evening. I do not know whether he has been sent to the committee of the whole as punishment for doing something wrong but, quite frankly, I think he is answering questions seriously and honestly. I think that should be…
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Mr. Speaker, I see the minister's younger days happened a lot more recently than mine. Given that Quebec is a nation with distinct social values and a different legal tradition, I would like to know if the minister agrees that Quebec laws cannot be evaluated and interpreted through the lens of Canadian values and the Canadian legal tradition. Does the Minister of Justice recognize that to do so wo…
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Mr. Speaker, in light of what I said earlier about the difference between the social values and legal traditions of Quebec and Canada, will the minister commit to supporting the spirit of the bill that was introduced by my colleague, the member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou? This bill responds to the aspirations of the Quebec National Assembly and also to the will of the vast majority of Qu…
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Madam Speaker, what I notice, when I hear the member's comments, is that there is a lack of understanding and a lack of a desire to fully understand the reality of Quebec, which is perhaps a society where the need for this sort of respect for jurisdictions is felt even more strongly. I understand the reality of my colleague, who lives in a multicultural environment, where people are not as bothere…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to rise and take advantage of the unwillingness of Conservative, Liberal and NDP members to ask questions following the speech by my colleague from Terrebonne. Let me correct what I just said: A Liberal member did rise earlier. I understand that this may be a somewhat sensitive topic for the parties that would like to make gains in Quebec. We know that this i…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague from Châteauguay—Lacolle. If she follows the workings of the House a bit—and I am sure she does so diligently—she knows very well that the Bloc Québécois represents the Quebec National Assembly, the elected representatives of the people of Quebec and, ideally, the consensus of the National Assembly. Above all, we respect, first and foremos…
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Mr. Speaker, today we are debating federal interference in the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces. One striking example concerns research chairs. The federal government is meddling in higher education and dictating which fields of study our universities must prioritize if they want to receive their share of funding. Worse still, with its equity, diversity and inclusion, or EDI, criteria, Ot…
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Madam Speaker, I have the honour of warming up the crowd for my colleague from Terrebonne. I am pleased to do that. I listened to a number of the speeches that were given by my colleagues before me. I would like to reread the text of the motion because, obviously, we are going to be talking about it all day. It states, and I quote: That the House: (a) condemn the federal government’s repeated intr…
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Madam Speaker, I hope I have 15 minutes to answer the question asked by my colleague from Terrebonne, because I have a lot to say on the matter. It is disturbing to see that a government given a minority mandate by the people, instead of respecting the will of the people, would sidle up to another opposition party and govern as a majority government would, with policies and legislation that, perha…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, and I especially thank him for putting something into each sentence of his speech that would provoke questions or reactions from me and other members from the Bloc Québécois. I would need 15 minutes to ask all my questions and challenge my colleague on some of his claims, but I will try to be more constructive. First, I would tell him that 82% of…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that and I am taking note of it because we are talking about more than 6,000 rulings, many of which are important references for numerous lawyers in Quebec and Canada. This mainly affects French-speaking lawyers, obviously, because the translation that was not done was into French. The documents are available only in English. If I understand correctly, the ministe…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure how thrilled people are about that, but at least they might find the minister's answers entertaining. Yesterday, Isabelle Hachey, a first-rate journalist, gave the example of two job postings at the University of Waterloo for computer science professors. One of them is open only to gender and sexual minorities and the other is open only to racialized minorities, regardle…
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Mr. Speaker, my next question may be a little long. I am going to present a scenario, which will give the minister plenty of time to answer. The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is currently studying Bill C-316, which deals with a program that we want to create a framework for and that we hope will become permanent. The Bloc Québécois defended this program during the years of the Harper gov…
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Mr. Speaker, our request is quite clear and is the result of a lengthy, extremely rigorous, sensitive and serious reflection within Quebec society. The minister does not seem to want to make an exception to the Criminal Code for Quebec. However, he did so for British Columbia. Does he consider Quebec's demands less important when it comes to such a crucial issue? Why would he not make an exception…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to stick with the topic of the justice system. There has been a lot of talk about the shortage of judges in Quebec and Canada. We hear a lot of complaints about backlogs in the justice system. There is obviously a shortage of judges, and I heard the minister say earlier that he is making every effort to fill the judicial vacancies in Quebec and Canada. However, there are other …
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Mr. Speaker, yet again we see the government seize an opportunity to block debate on an important bill. We could have analyzed the government's intention to once again interfere, through this bill, in areas of jurisdiction that belong to the provinces and Quebec. However, by blocking debate and cutting our time short with a closure motion, the government is stopping us from having these very impor…
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Madam Speaker, this year, the Centre d'action bénévole Drummond, or CAB for short, is celebrating its 45th anniversary. I was there when they celebrated this milestone during the kick-off of National Volunteer Week. The room was packed. These are generous men and women who make check-in calls, provide respite care and escort seniors or vulnerable people to appointments. They are a ray of hope for …
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Mr. Speaker, on the one hand, CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Catherine Tait assures us that programming and management will not be affected by a merger between CBC and Radio-Canada. On the other, it is understood that everything has already been merged, except programming and management. Her merger plan, she says, is meant to align the sectors and find solutions together. Finding solutions together does not…
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Mr. Speaker, we are not the only ones who are concerned about the plan to bring the CBC and Radio-Canada closer together. Yesterday, the Quebec National Assembly voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling on the public broadcaster to protect the autonomy of services in French and to work to consolidate those services. We need to ensure that the CBC and Radio-Canada remain separate, not bring …
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Mr. Speaker, no one with a crumb of intelligence in the Canadian broadcasting sector thinks that the Bloc Québécois is siding with the Conservatives on this issue. They need to change their tune. This is a no-go. CBC/Radio-Canada's CEO was unequivocal when she appeared before the committee on Tuesday. Any Conservative cuts to the CBC would cause serious harm to francophone communities and to Radio…
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order. There is a lot of talk about unparliamentary language. My colleague has every reason to be offended by your mistake.
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